Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know we've worked with Members of this Assembly around our territorial facility here in Yellowknife at Stanton Territorial Hospital. I must say that maybe sometimes I need to get the information the Member is getting to help me do the job a little better. He seems to have a very good source.

Mr. Speaker, the area of the Stanton utilization is something we do when we work with all authorities in the area of master development plans and that is something that we will continue to do. In this situation, through the Stanton territorial facility, we've had an additional 11.5 physicians that will work throughout the territory in some of the rehabilitation areas. Because of our shortage of office space in a lot of our facilities, we've had to make some changes in there and those are just interim. We're hoping that we can go forward and put a submission into the workplace shortfall fund and look at making the necessary changes from that point on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Minister that my source, as he says, is my constituents and my constituents advise me of things that are going on at that hospital. They're staff at that hospital and I take what they say quite seriously and that's why I'm here today voicing the concerns of my constituents, Mr. Speaker. So if the Minister is looking for a source, that's it.

I also wanted to ask the Minister if the surgery ward is shut down, when exactly will it be opening again? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the surgery ward, as the Member stated earlier, for a number of years now when they look at the utilization rates, the number of surgeries that were being done, the elective surgeries being done, there's a number of times throughout the year when the volumes drop. So looking at how we utilize our staff best and our facility, that's been decided quite some time ago, but we would, during a number of times throughout the year, close the surgery ward down to elective surgeries. Everybody remains on call if there is surgery required and that continues to happen. Recently, the past five weeks, the surgery ward has been consolidated with the paediatrics ward and what I'm told is the surgery ward is back to normal operation as of the 13th of this month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the Minister's source is better than mine if the ward was reopened on the 13th. So I commend him on that.

---Laughter

I wanted to get back to a point that I raised in my Member's statement and that was the fact that from a staff perspective, if the department and the hospital are turning

patient lounges into offices and other patient rooms into offices in that hospital, it sends up alarm bells, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister if in fact the Department of Health and Social Services has taken a serious look at building a dedicated medical administration building at or near Stanton Territorial Hospital? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we've already heard, the demand for more funding for a number of sources or activities in the Northwest Territories continues, whether its highways, arts funding or medical facilities or infrastructure or office space. What we've done is, again, looked at our utilization rate and right now at the Stanton facility there's approximately a 60 percent occupancy for in-patient wards. We're finding a heavy usage on the outpatient side of it and that's why a utilization report is being done to look at how we use our facilities best and a temporary move has been to locate some of our staff into some of those empty rooms until we can sort out how we're going to make room for the extra offices we need, whether it's in this facility or another facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if you're looking at relocating employees to a hospital, that to me is very, very expensive office space, absolutely. I think the department has to come up with a game plan to try to house their employees. That should be in a dedicated medical administration building. It shouldn't be in patient rooms at Stanton and they should look at amalgamating or bringing under, if the utilization of that building is 60 percent, they should look at bringing in some other services that are currently provided in other locations here in Yellowknife under one roof, not making that hospital into an office building, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to, again, ask the Minister what the game plan is going forward. Are they going to take a look at building a dedicated medical administration building in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the situation we find ourselves in, if we were to go after a dedicated facility as a Department of Health and Social Services, we'd have to work through our capital plan, get it established, get agreement that it was a priority that it would receive the funds. There is another route that we are working with and that is the workplace shortfall capital fund and we're putting a plan together to try to see if we can access that to help us in our office shortfall right now. From time to time, whether it's in this facility or other facilities throughout the territory, we've had people and staff in places where the space is tight, but that's the best we can do in our existing climate and conditions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't understand why the Member would stand up and say that MACA is standing in the way of transferring land. I think historically this government has gone on record for transferring large parcels of land over the last while.

---Applause

This last land acquisition request that has come forward contains land that we don't have jurisdiction over and, therefore, can't disclose that. If we can't disclose of it, it doesn't make any sense to go to consultation, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Well, Mr. Speaker, the land request that came in a couple of years ago was cut in half by this department and once they came up with an agreement with the local folks, the aboriginal folks, they could have just, therefore, transferred the rest of it. But, no, they shelved it and sent it back and said apply some other day. Mr. Speaker, at the City of Yellowknife, the land cupboard is bare. They do not have lots available for affordable housing, Mr. Speaker. It is a very bare cupboard, but it's just not that long ago we gave MACA six more positions to deal with land transfers specifically. So, Mr. Speaker, I'd like the MACA Minister to illustrate today to this House what these people are doing, because I'm kind of concerned because we do not have land being transferred over to the City of Yellowknife. Is he padding his department? You know, what are they doing over there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the land request from the city, if the Member had checked, would indicate that there is privately held land in the acquisition request. I'll have to check to see if the Member's property is included in there.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, there's bodies of water that we don't have jurisdiction over. There's federal lands that we don't have jurisdiction over. We can't pretend that we're going to transfer these over; we can't take it to consultation. We have been talking to the city for I think around three months now to see if we can work our way around it. We'll either have to carve these properties out of there to take the rest to consultation or the city will have to change their request, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure where the Minister is getting his briefing notes, but I did check the land and, by the way, I got the information from your department. So you can make all the funny jokes you want; this is from your office. So, Mr. Speaker, in February 2007, the city expressed interest in reviewing options for purchasing the Con and the Rycon trailer courts. In July 2007, the city passed a motion to acquire the common areas of the trailer court and recommended MACA should offer fee-simple title to the existing leaseholders to them directly. So where is this process going forward, Mr. Speaker? What are we doing again? Stall, stall, stall while affordable housing solutions don't get done? Mr. Speaker, what is this Minister doing to solve this problem?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.