Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will start off by making a statement regarding Mr. Ningark's comments. First of all, John, all the power to you that your community received a new health centre, that is great and I do not think that is the issue and I am sure some of your friends that live in Arviat are also very happy for you, but I am not quite sure if you would feel as, I guess, to be as complimenting as you have been to the cabinet, if you were sitting there with three-quarters of a million dollars having been jerked out of your community. Mr. Todd mentioned about changing a few toilets around. I wish it were only that simple.
The community of Arviat is one of the fast growing communities in the Eastern Arctic, maybe in the north, averaging between 80 and 100 babies a year and the issue of a new health centre has been on the burner for a number of years, to the point where three years ago the community just a piece of land that had a large commercial building on it, the building was demolished, the lot was prepared for what they thought would be for a new health centre. Once again they were disappointed, it did not happen.
Early this spring we had Mr. Ng, the Minister of Health and Social Services, in Arviat attending the Nunavut Leader Summit. At that point he toured the health centre with, I believe, and I stand to be corrected, a staff member and also the SAO. At that point it was, I will not say committed, but inferred that there would be dollars this year for the health centre. Even though it was only geared toward a retrofit, phase one.
The community was still bent on a new centre and we have some disagreement over that, but at least there was $800,000 committed in this year's capital budget toward the retrofit of the health centre, a 35 year old health centre that is probably the oldest in the Eastern Arctic. There is no surprise that the community and myself will be quite disappointed when this money was removed and again to compound this without any consultation with myself or the community. Any consultation that did take place was after the fact.
I do not think it really matters whether we are talking about $50,000 or $800,000. It is the process that is wrong, flawed, and many people have said that over the last few days and I heard the premier statements and his comments indicate that he was satisfied with some of these changes. I did not hear him indicate that he reviewed the Arviat Health Centre, where three-quarters of a million dollars was removed. That is a significant amount of money and I have some difficulty when the premier states that they have accepted the rationale for these moves. Well it certainly is not acceptable to me, as the M.L.A. of the community.
What I should do at this point is ask the Minister, Mr. Ng, if he can explain the rationale to myself and the members of my community and also considering the history considering that there was at one point a few years ago, as in Mr. Ningark's case, a new health centre promised, so if Mr. Ng would not mind providing myself and the Members here with some historical background as to the promise of a new facility, to the promise of a retrofit, to zero. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.