Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, first of all, it is a regrettable situation when you cannot meet all the needs of all the people that are out there in our constituencies, and this particular example is certainly a case that highlights that, that within the Department of Health and Social Services capital allocations, both Members are correct that have spoken on the issues of their health centres, both Gjoa Haven and the community of Arviat were scheduled originally to have new health facilities, their funding for new health facilities was later during the course of events down scaled to renovations and particularly in last year's business planning cycle, the Department of Health and Social Services undertook to change all the focus of their capital plans of new facilities to renovations, partly because of the fact that they thought they could address the needs through some renovations on a short-term basis, to address needs in communities and give them the luxury and the time of planning things out, subsequent to those projects being reprofiled as renovations, that capital plan went forward to this assembly for approval in May of this '96 year, Mr. Chairman.
During March of the year, Public Works and Services completed structural and technical assessments of both Gjoa Haven and the Arviat Health Centres. Both reports recommended the construction of new facilities, or they advised that putting dollars into renovations would only be a short-term solution and the overall cost effectiveness would not necessarily be there. Because of that fact, the Department of Health and Social Services capital budget that was approved, carried four renovation projects for health Centres, that being Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Arviat and Gjoa Haven.
Because of the fact that the Arviat and Gjoa Haven were both recommended for new health centres, the Department, and particularly myself as the Minister, was in a dilemma, I mean I could decide to go ahead with renovations and bandaid, short-term solution to both communities, that might have gotten them by for two or three years, but that would not have addressed the long term needs of either community.
I made a decision or a recommendation to the financial management board for approval, that was subsequently approved, to focus on trying to create and establish a new facility in one of the communities, in this case Gjoa Haven, and as a result of that, of course, there had to be money taken from other health centre renovations to accommodate that, and as you see in the outline of the capital plan changes, $482,000 came out of the Fort Providence renovation, $490,000 came out of the Fort Resolution Health Centre renovation, and $728,000 came out of the Arviat Health Centre renovation and that is a total of $1.7 million dollars was reprofiled into the Gjoa Haven project as a new health centre facility, which totalled, added onto their approved renovation amount, totalled $2.3 million dollars, which is what the capital estimate was for a new health centre for that community.
The decision was a tough one, of course, Mr. O'Brien is correct, Arviat is one of the fastest growing communities in the Northwest Territories with an average growth rate of 2.5 per cent per year; however, I looked at that and I also looked at the fact that Gjoa Haven is also, if not one of the, the highest growing populations, as well, percentage-wise. Their growth rate over the past years have been about 3 per cent. There was also the factor, Mr. Chairman, that weighted the decision towards Gjoa Haven, the fact that their facility, even though they have a smaller population, they have a 503 square metre facility, and Arviat had a 670 square metre facility, but the fact remains that the Gjoa Haven facility, it had been pointed out to us by the Health Board there, that they did not have adequate program space. In other words that they did not have enough space for the nurses to operate in their current facility. Both facilities were also built around the same time, both in states of disrepair that required upgrading, of course. As I indicated earlier, both facilities had been slated for replacements at some point in time.
However, the other thing I looked at was the fact that the Gjoa Haven facility had been renovated in 1981, and also in 1987, while the Arviat health centre had been renovated in 1977, and the last one in 1990.
So those were a couple of the factors that I took into consideration in determining the tough decision of which community to build a new health centre in, Mr. Chairman.
Another issue that was taken into consideration, and Mr. O'Brien is correct. When I was in the community of Arviat, I did have a chance to tour the facility with the SAO, and with the deputy mayor at the time. They knew that there was some renovation monies there. They were talking about the possibility of block funding it, so that they could undertake the renovations themselves. But at the same time, the community was requesting a new facility. So there was some conflicting messages to me, of what exactly was the request coming from the community.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, in committee of the whole, as you know, I also raised the point of the fact that the Department of Health and Social Services was deficient in some of their capital funds. Mr. Ningark had asked for a commitment on the Gjoa Haven health centre, which I had assured him I would try to do everything I could to ensure that that project took place, to meet their needs. A delegation from the municipality of Gjoa Haven, the mayor, deputy mayor, and two or three of the councillors also were down to outline to me their need of a new health facility, this past spring as well.
I was not getting the same type of signals from the community of Arviat, or their representative. Although I am not saying that they are not there, Mr. Chairman. Unfortunately, both communities had the need. A decision had to be made. One community would benefit, and one community would not, in the short term. I still plan on addressing the needs of Arviat in the future, Mr. Chairman, provided funding could be freed up to allow that to happen. Basically, Mr. Chairman, that is what I have to comment on.