Nunavut鈥檚 Aging With Dignity: Elders and Seniors Strategy progress report tabled in the legislative assembly in March leaves few details about how many of the strategy's goals and objectives will be achieved, according to Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes.

鈥淲hen I look at some of the things that are in here, I'm looking at a number of different gaps,鈥� Hickes said.

The draft strategy was tabled in March 2024 and outlines five main goals, 15 objectives and 89 actions meant to raise the quality of life for Elders and seniors in the territory.

Citing the long-term action item to enhance existing continuing care facilities in Nunavut as an example 鈥� the lead being the Department of Health (Community and Government Services) 鈥� Hickes said it's unclear how the partnership with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) will actually work.

鈥淲henever government is receiving third-party funding, there's obviously agreements in place, and ownership questions to be laid out.

鈥淪o if NTI is contributing $15 million to these facilities, does that change the ownership model? How does it change the accounted value of the property? There's very little information on that,鈥� Hickes said.

Missing pieces

Another example of not providing detailed information, he contended, is the long-term action to continue investments in health infrastructure, including virtual care, health information, facilities and services, and health human resources.

鈥淵et when you look in the status, all it talks about is virtual care. So there's so many gaps in information. It's like, what about the rest of this stuff?鈥� he said.

Another issue for Hickes is the availability of the results from the home care review completed in March.

鈥淚 would think that the government would share that review as soon as it was completed, to help supplement the response to this. And again, I know that it's only been about a month, but when so many of your statuses are dependent upon a specific report or review, as soon as it's available, it should be shared,鈥� he said.

Rising costs

When asked if the government was committed to completing the extensive list of action items, regardless of cost and the challenging issue of construction, Hickes said that was the 鈥渉undreds of million-dollar question.鈥�

鈥淥ne example of that is even with the [long-term care] facility in Rankin Inlet that is substantially complete, and the keys have been handed over to the government, it's still not open. It was scheduled to open over a year ago.

鈥淚n fact, we just learned recently in the legislature here, the Department of Health had to come for a supplementary appropriation for over $13 million for funds that they've already given to the contractor to operate the facility 鈥� and it's not even open because they didn't set a realistic time frame at the beginning... so there's the lack of planning and the lack of strategy.鈥�

Adding to the issue of planning, Hickes said five vans for Elders were purchased last summer for five different communities, yet they remain parked and 鈥渃ollecting dust.鈥�

鈥淎nd strangely, they picked three of the communities that already have taxi services or handy van access, which I found very strange, but they said it was to expedite the process, yet there was no usage policy associated with that.

鈥淪o literally, all five of those vans that came into the five communities last summer are still sitting there unused because there's no policy on usage. So it's just, it's a lack of planning and knee-jerk reactions to things that came up through the strategy,鈥� he said

Hickes said a priority list must be established with a 鈥渃oncerted focus鈥� to ensure the action items are completed.

Safety first

The safety of Elders is paramount, according to the Iqaluit MLA, and it should be the first priority to be addressed due to Elder abuse and housing issues that occur when Elders take in extended family members.

鈥淲hen I look through this report, it doesn't give me a sense of progress. The status updates are very vague. They're very general. There's not a lot of detail in the majority of them.鈥�

During the next sitting of the legislative assembly, Hickes said he will follow up on some of his major concerns.

鈥淚've been very vocal on what an action plan to a strategy should look like, and this isn't it.鈥�