: Mr. Chairman, I could provide some information, since I was involved in this going right back to 2000 or thereabouts. With the integrated service delivery model there is one territorial facility, which is Stanton. There is one regional hospital, which is Inuvik, and it services mainly the Mackenzie Delta area. They can do a more minor level of surgery and do C-sections and that type of surgery.
All the other health centres in the Northwest Territories are level C or less. Hay River and Fort Smith are what are considered level C facilities. We provide community care beds, where people are brought back to recover or they’re diagnosed and
are shipped to Yellowknife. Both Fort Smith and Hay River are within an hour of Yellowknife, so there is no need for nor is it affordable to have another regional hospital. The priority is Stanton, Inuvik and the level C communities, which are Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River.
Fort Smith services the catchment area around the community, which is about 2,500 or 2,700 people, depending on when the schools are in session. Hay River services between 3,000 and 4,000 people in the catchment area that they are in the centre of: some of the folks from Deninu Ku’e, some of the folks from the reserve, some folks from Kakisa, Enterprise, in that area. There is no overlap. Both those facilities are in need of repair. The big difference is, as was pointed out, that there has been a master development plan agreed to in Fort Smith. I understand Hay River has agreed to theirs, yet surprisingly Stanton hasn’t. So Stanton is under some difficulty as well.
This project has been in the works. I’ve been an MLA for 12 years. This thing has been in the works for over ten years. There is nothing new here. This is a major issue, but the integrated service delivery plan, which was agreed to by this Assembly, by the government, is what is driving all these developments.
Therefore, I hope that information helps. Thank you.