Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The hospital, as the Member has indicated, has been on the drawing board for a number of years. A lot of work and effort has been done by the community and by ourselves, as Public Works and the people at the Health department. A number of sites were looked at over the last while. There were a total of 29 sites that were proposed as potential properties that could be used to locate the new hospital. All these sites were looked at and reviewed and it was narrowed down to two sites: one at the current ENR facilities, or where the offices of ENR are currently located, and the other one was a new area called the Sundog site. A review was done. It was looked at and a team from… A number of people were put together to review. Some preliminary work was done, soil sampling and a cost analysis was done, and it was decided that the Sundog site was the preferred site for a number of reasons, and that was presented to the community of Hay River. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, from the information that the Minister of Public Works has been able to get from his officials and people who are looking into these proposed sites, can the Minister tell us today in the House that he is very confident that the Sundog Industrial Subdivision, as it’s called, will have proper drainage concluded by then and that the choice of this site will not result in any delay in the start of construction of this? Because when you look at that site today, Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t look very ready for construction. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member and myself did look at a couple of options that were proposed. The Sundog site has some concern over drainage. We have done some real preliminary soil sampling and analysis. Some further work has to be done and that will determine whether it’s suitable. But we are fairly confident that this is going to be the site that will be able to accommodate the new facility. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the MLAs for Hay River were involved in a process with the then-CEO of the hospital, Mr. Al Woods, and the public administrator of the hospital, of also receiving a lot of information about prospective sites for the new hospital. At that time I believe it was determined that the ENR/ITI site was the most suitable site. However, I appreciate that Public Works has done their homework and that there may be a better alternative.

Mr. Speaker, how does the proposed site of the Sundog industrial area, how does that take into account the issue of it being on the west side of the railway tracks in Hay River? People may think we don’t get a lot of trains in Hay River, but we do get fairly regular train service in Hay River. How was that taken into account in the choice of that site? Thank you.

We certainly can share the report that has been compiled with the Member. It takes into account all of the issues that are being raised, including some of the work that was done on cost analysis, a cost/benefit analysis. The site on the river where ENR is currently located would cost roughly $4 million more to house the new hospital as we would not be able to co-locate, as the findings have told us, and we would have to move all the facilities off there and relocate and start anew with those facilities. But I’d be glad to provide that information in terms of what was taken into consideration with this new report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said at the outset, my main concern is there be no slippage in the timing and the schedule for the construction of the new hospital. I think that the site or the location is

probably of a secondary nature to the timing, as far as I’m concerned. But, Mr. Speaker, at the same time, the proposed site that is the choice of the government, I guess, or the town -- I’m not sure who was mostly pushing that -- is an industrial area.

I’d like to ask: have the people of Hay River been consulted in any fashion in this, in terms of the public? A hospital is usually a place that’s quiet. You don’t think of it being right beside railway tracks and you don’t generally think of it as being in an industrial park. I understand the footprint may be large enough that you’d be far enough away from your neighbours that it won’t matter, but, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know if the people of Hay River had any input into this. Also the fact that Woodland Manor, which is a seniors care facility, will be slated at some time to be retired and that that facility will also co-locate with the new hospital, if all those things are being taken into consideration, as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the municipality of Hay River was consulted. There were people from the hospital and people from the municipality that were involved. We do have a letter from the municipality that was signed off by the mayor, indicating that their preference for location would be the Sundog site. Our report looked at it on practicality terms, cost and other features that needed to be included in terms of what we needed to be part of this hospital and including further expansion. This was what the findings were. This is what was reported to us. Again, I will share that with the Member.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission. Jurisdictions have enacted workers’ compensation legislation to ensure every worker is protected when they suffer injury in the workplace, yet I can’t help feeling my constituent would have been wiser to have a car accident with instant free access to legal advice, medical examinations and other services through his insurance company. Why does it take months for WSCC to move files when all that is needed is the prompt advice of its medical and legal advisors? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this particular case there were

decisions that were made. The constituent had had appeals on the decision. They went through the review process and recommendations have been made. I am not sure if they have been communicated to the constituent yet. Until I know for certain that they are, I have no comment on it any further. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, that was a general question rather than specific to this advice. I am not aware that my constituent has been advised as per the Minister’s question there. I want to preface my next question, Mr. Speaker, by saying that on the many occasions with this file I have had to contact the Minister I have received some assistance. It is just my point is I shouldn’t be having to go to the Minister so many times for help. The WSCC used to have its own legal services providing advice to claimants but has backed off this support to provide only a worker’s advisor. When its processes are so highly legalistic, why were claimants denied and why are they being denied the level playing field of legal services? Why did the Minister’s office have to tell the commission legal service funds are available, something the commission itself didn’t know and ask? These are typical sorts of things that I think should be done beforehand. Why is there not good communication on this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there is a worker’s advisor that works closely with the workers and gets some information on their case. They do try and get some legal opinions for the injured workers. Communication has improved. WSCC has gone a long way in trying to improve the services that they offer to clients. We have 86 percent of our injured workers that are paid within the first 20 days but there is still the other 14 percent that we need to be concerned about. We are taking steps to address that and improve how we offer services to clients. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks for the Minister’s remarks there. We have a system where one agency polices the workplace, administers claims and makes the decisions, in this case, without knowing or admitting the discretion it has to vary recommendations of its advisors. What will this Minister do to actively, regularly and independently monitor the activities and judgements of the WSCC to put the injured on a more level playing field? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I did communicate and I get regular reports from the worker’s advisor on the number of claims that that office is dealing with, and any outstanding claims we also get information on those. If we find that there is something there that I need to ask about, then I will contact the Governance Council or the president and make some inquiries and attempt to get some answers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to those reports. Many of the delays my constituent experiences in this case, sometimes lasting several months in duration, have been because the medical advisor simply was not available. Surely this can be resolved by having an alternate advisor for when the medical advisor is unavailable. Will the Minister recognize the dire straits of injured workers waiting for decisions and commit to putting in place a mechanism to deal with absent medical advisors to keep the process moving forward? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, that is a very good concern. It is something I will commit to the Member that I will speak to the commission about trying to address and maybe have an alternate medical person that we can get medical advice from when a person is not there. That way, we won’t have a delay in processing some of the claims. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I wanted to ask some questions about how the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs deals with communities in the Northwest Territories that find themselves in difficult situations. I want to ask the Minister, if a community is located in a settled land claim area where they have a community government act such as the Tlicho Community Government Act, does the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs treat that community any differently than they would a community outside a settled land claim area? Thank you.