Mr.
Chairman, sadly, the only
function we have on this side of the House in these particular cases is to delete. I would much rather put a motion forward to defer it, although that is not a function of this House.
My issue here is that we’re running out with $500,000 of more planning money. I think this should be an item in the potential budget that will be brought forward in the May-June session. Mr. Chairman, really, the issue is about how this is being fed to Members. As far as I’m concerned, there needs to be further coordination between other facilities that are being beefed up in that community at the same time.
It’s not that we have them here to read for all Members, but if one looks closely at the details, this project is linked to another one — and they’re actually linked quite closely. We have to have another facility ready for them before the renovations and have people moved out of this project at the health centre. So I don’t think it’s going to be the death of this project; it’s just asking for some delay as well as some coordination that I think needs to be made.
On the same note I’m convinced that we’re creating mini centres in almost every community that I start to question it. You know, we have Stanton Territorial Hospital, and that should be our centre of expertise for the Territory as a whole. I think each region should define itself in that way. But that being said, we have the Fort Smith Health Centre that’s going to require multi-multi-millions of dollars. Then we’re going to be turning around in short order, and the Hay River hospital is going to be looking for multi-millions of dollars. I think we have to speak to the broader picture as to how much money we’re going to spend on these projects, why are we’re spending money on these specific projects, in what community and how they’re serving the Territory as a whole.
I’m concerned that… I think good investment needs to happen in every community. I certainly believe that every community needs to have a health centre. I’m just kind of wondering, when we’re duplicating programs when money is supposed to be very tight, as has been said many times by our good Premier…. The fact is, I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t spend money in Fort Smith, and I was not alluding in any way that we shouldn’t spend money in Hay River. It’s just that I think we should be very cautious about how we build our programs. Maybe the town of Fort Smith can offer something very specific, and you know, other communities can do that as well. The issue really is coordination and buy-in into the bigger collective system.
Mr.
Chair, it’s not a “delete” in my position;
unfortunately that’s the way the motion has to read. It’s more of a “deferred” until these weave together a little nicer. At this time, other committee members may have some comments.