Tom Beaulieu

Long-term care is not really an appropriate place to be housed in a hospital. The hospital, I guess, is not really an appropriate place to house long-term care, is what I’m trying to say. So what we’re looking at is we do want to take the 10 long-term care beds in the current hospital and move them as part of the overall long-term care units that are being provided in Hay River now.

Right now we are going to be doing a midlife retrofit of the Woodland Manor long-term care facility and that’s going to happen between 2015 and 2020. This hospital is scheduled to start construction this fall and...

It’s a three-year plan, so we’re going to have to do something very quickly. Within this coming budget that’s approved, we’ve got some money put in there. The Standing Committee on Social Programs has asked us to add more money into prevention and treatment, so we’re looking at that. So we don’t have a long, long period to contemplate this. We’re going to start actioning the plan as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, we are prepared to look at those buildings. When we travelled into the communities, that was something that the community suggested, that perhaps without an in-depth analysis of any sort, the community suggested that maybe this building would be good for a youth treatment facility.

We are prepared to look at that, but first we want to do wellness plans. That is working with the communities, going to the communities, getting some information from the communities so that the communities will tell us what they think will work in the area of treatment of youth and adults, of course. Yes, I...

Right now the department, working with health and social services, is spending about $8 million targeted at treatment, mental health and addictions. But as people know in the House, a lot of that is for adult treatment; $2 million to Nats’ejee K’eh for adult treatment and $6 million to community counselling programs. That’s targeted to everyone, including youth. This is what we have. But the community wellness plans that we’re hoping to develop, that we will develop and that will complement our action plan, hopefully will identify ways that the community will see or advise us how they see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a considerable amount of work that has to take place in order to use a piece of infrastructure specifically for a youth treatment facility. Like I indicated, almost 100 percent of the youth that attend treatment are forced into treatment. There’s not a whole lot of youth from the Northwest Territories that are going into treatment at this time. There’s not a whole lot of youth identifying themselves to have alcohol or drug addiction issues at this time. So until we have a program developed that addresses youth treatment, it is very difficult to commit to using...

The modern health centre in Hay River is scheduled to be completed 100 percent by 2015. We’re going to put into the capital plan, prior to that, the work that is going to be going into Woodland to expand Woodland to accommodate that. So in between I can see where the Member would indicate that there would be some gap. We will be discussing this further with the Members and also with the authority, the local health and social services authority, to close that gap so that people are not out in the cold and those people are accommodated right through the process so that there will always be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What is being built in Hay River is a modern health centre, and the term “hospital” often refers to what is being provided. Tertiary care is being provided in there. In the health centre we will be providing other types of services. We’re going to have acute care beds in the health centre and emergency beds. Essentially all of the services that are being provided by H.H. Williams will be provided in the health centre. Some of the things that may move offsite could be social services, public health and administration, finance and so on. Aside from that, all of the...

The department is responding to the Members in the House and responding to the people of the Territories. We are going to be tabling a Mental Health and Addictions Plan this session, and within that plan it talks about the various ways that we’re going to attempt to treat individuals suffering from mental health and addictions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was responding to a piece of infrastructure that possibly could be used for the treatment of youth. What we have discovered is that a youth treatment facility is youth going into a treatment facility may not necessarily work the best. Most youth that enter treatment are forced into a treatment facility. That is why most of the youth that go to a residential treatment facility end up going to the South. But I was suggesting that maybe there is something that can be developed that is community and culturally specific so that the youth can attend treatment closer to home...

I welcome feedback from the NWT seniors. I have met with them in the past in this capacity and intend to meet with them next month in this capacity again. At that time my thought is that I think the seniors would meet with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to discuss this issue. I’m also prepared to discuss that issue as the Minister who represents the seniors. Thank you.