Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister responsible for Youth, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we have a lot of programs that are designed specifically for our youth. Unfortunately, the capital part of it is not a part of the support that we give to our youth. We have a number of programs, and I think the Member pointed them out before, Youth Ambassadors and all the programs we have. If there is a desire by the youth in the community to have a piece of infrastructure, I would advise them to go speak to their local government, who have the authority to distribute the funds in the community.

I have to say that in many of the communities I have visited, they have taken advantage of responsibility of the infrastructure dollars; I was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of money that they put towards youth facilities in their particular community. Again, I would advise the youth to go speak to their community government.

I was kind of expecting an answer like that. Recently, the K’atlodeeche First Nation took steps, their own steps to establish an ice rink for their youth on the reserve, but they need help.

How are this Minister and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs that are responsible for youth going to help the reserve establish the rink before at least the winter sets in?

I have been explaining for a number of years now, since I got the MACA portfolio, that since the New Deal, a lot of the responsibility has gone to the communities as far as infrastructure goes. We debated the Municipal and Community Affairs infrastructure budget yesterday, $28 million. Unfortunately, none of that money is in MACA’s coffers. All the money is distributed to communities because the communities have the ability to determine what some of their priorities are. Not only do they have the ability, they also now have the financing to do it. If it’s a community rink in any one of the communities, then looking at some of the capital plans, as far as some of the community goes, I’ve seen a few of them have identified in their capital plans outdoor skating rinks. The opportunity is there for the community to do that. As the Minister responsible for Youth, a lot of our youth dollars, our programming dollars, we try to get our youth out to as many events as possible. A lot of our money is program dollars, it’s not infrastructure dollars.

I think I had a moment of epiphany here, because what the Minister is telling me is that

those responsibilities have been downloaded to those communities and they have the ultimate say. This is like devolution.

What obligations does the department and the Minister have in terms of meeting the needs of youth that are calling into these simple needs of establishing a BMX track or skating rink? What kind of obligations would the department continue to maintain? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe we’ve downloaded the responsibility on to the communities. I think communities have embraced the new responsibility they have. In many of my meetings with the communities and meetings with the NWT Association of Communities, they have pointed out the fact that they do like the New Deal, it was called at the time, where a lot of the responsibilities were devolved on to the communities. They weren’t downloaded. I just wanted to make that point again.

It’s a tough question to answer, because when we’re talking about the infrastructure, I’ve been saying it here for the last five years, that the communities have the authority and the ability to make infrastructure decisions because they have all the money. Again, the money that we have and when we debate the O and M budget, you will notice there is a lot of money in there specifically for youth, the youth programming, and there are all different areas of youth programming that we have. As far as contributing through the youth programs to a BMX track, I don’t even know if that’s possible. I have to find out. Again, I will point out the fact that the communities have the responsibility, one that they have embraced, to determine what some of their priorities are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

I have a simple question that youth have posed to me. Through myself, and asking the Minister on their behalf, for Zachary and Alvin in Fort Providence, who are asking for a BMX track and also an area to play their paintball, would the Minister and the department help them? Is it a yes or no? They’re listening right now.

Mr. Speaker, I said that I will check and see if… I doubt that there is any infrastructure money in our youth programming dollars that we allocate through this Legislative Assembly. If it’s one that Members on the other side, when we do the debate during the O and M budget, if it’s something that they feel strongly about, then it’s their prerogative to raise it.

Again – I keep harping on this and I will continue to keep harping on this – the communities have the responsibility to determine what some of their priorities are. When you see one community respond to the youth of that community and build a

youth centre because the youth in the community have asked for it, then they have taken that responsibility. When you have another community in the High Arctic that listen to the voice of the youth that wanted a youth centre to drop in, they determined that was one of their priorities.

I would encourage the youth in Fort Providence to speak to their local leadership that do have the responsibility for allocating some of these dollars, present their case to them and then the community itself will make that determination. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I was asking last week about the plans surrounding the new health care facility in Hay River and plans for the existing hospital, I was informed by the Minister of Health and Social Services that, in fact, it is the Minister responsible for Public Works and Services who will be taking the lead on determining the potential useful value of the existing hospital. I would hope that we could do some kind of a technical review of that building sooner than later so that we aren’t scrambling at the last minute to decide what’s going to happen with that building. We are a couple of years out, I realize that, but I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services, has anything so far transpired within his department that would look at the viability of the continued use in some capacity of the Hay River hospital. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Prior to actually moving ahead with the construction of the new hospital, there was a technical evaluation and investment analysis done on the old hospital which clearly demonstrated that the renovation and upgrading of the old hospital would have been far more costly than building the new hospital. There are a number of issues there: age, condition, and costs associated with renovating that building and bringing it up to a standard acceptable for the GNWT.

Having said that, we did move forward with the construction of the new hospital. When the building is empty and the new hospital opens, that building will likely be declared surplus by the Department of Health and Social Services. Once that is done, then it becomes the responsibility of Public Works and Services, who would go through the normal

disposal process on that property. At that time, we will absolutely be looking at the building to see if there is any way we can repurpose that building without investing a huge amount of money, given, as I have said previously, the age, condition and operating costs of that. We will look in house to see if there are any operations or use in the government. If not, and there’s deemed to be no useful purpose for that building, we will look outside. If not, if it proves that the building is in rougher shape than we anticipate by looking at it from the outside, we would move forward with demolition. We will certainly absolutely look at other options for that building before we take that step. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if he would concur that there are different standards of types of buildings within the inventory of the GNWT and that probably hospitals are one of the more costly and more technical types of buildings. They’re more costly to build. If we were looking at a repurposing or re-profiling of this building and it were not for a hospital, for something else, does the Minister concur that the standards that might be applied to that evaluation would be considerably decreased? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there is no question, we’ve already done the technical analysis of the building and it is completely inappropriate to use that building as a hospital in its current status. It is certainly cheaper to build a new one than to try to bring that building up to the status of a hospital.

At the same time, yes, office buildings are a different standard than a health centre, but we still have an obligation for public infrastructure to make sure that our buildings meet code. We tend to build above the standard building code for Canada. We would have to bring that building up to a certain code, which may not be the same as the hospital but it would certainly be consistent with other infrastructure that we are putting in, before we can consider using it for certain purposes. It really depends on the purpose.

As I have mentioned to the Member, we are going to look at this building. I will share the information that we have with my committee, the Regular Member committees, and we will certainly have discussion moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, with the new health care facility in Hay River, I believe there are at least eight activities currently being carried on in the H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital which there has been no provision made for in the new health care facility. I could try to list them off, but maintenance, for example, has a large area within the hospital as it currently exists. I do not believe

that maintenance has the kind of infrastructure at the new location that they had at the old location.

Has the Minister or would the Minister consider looking at those activities that have not been built into the new health care facility potentially being accommodated within the existing building with some minor renovations? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this exact issue came up when I was travelling through Hay River earlier this summer. Residents of Hay River asked roughly the same question. At that point, I did go back to the Department of Health and Social Services and the Minister. We talked about the individual programs that are currently offered or may be offered. I was assured at the time that all the functions that exist within the hospital with the exception of the 10 long-term care beds were accounted for in some capacity in Hay River, whether it’s in the new building or somewhere else in the community I do not recall, but it is my understanding that all the functions are taken care of. In this capital plan we are discussing right now, there are accommodations for those 10 long-term care beds. It is my understanding that everything is covered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would just like assurance that before this facility would leave the hands and the submission of the GNWT under the Department of Public Works and Services that there would be ample time to entertain proposals for other sorts of things. I have suggested in the past perhaps even like NGOs that deal with certain types of social issues and things like that. I just don’t want to see us run out of time and go, oh no, here comes the wrecking ball, let’s tear the building down. I still think it has value. I’m a little biased.

Will the Minister assure me and assure the House that there will be ample time to consider all options for that building before the wrecking ball rolls in? Thank you.

The short answer is yes. The steps required for the disposal of the Hay River hospital include a number of different steps. The Department of Health and Social Services, as I’ve indicated previously, must first identify that they don’t have any use for it. If they have some uses for it, then we will work with them to find a way to make that building meet those needs. If the old hospital is actually deemed surplus to the needs of the Department of Health and Social Services, the disposal of the facility would follow our normal provisions, which I’m sure the Member is familiar with, and that’s under our policy 32.05 in the Improved Real Property Policy.

Once we get the notice of surplus, Public Works and Services will obviously follow the guidelines, and if the GNWT departments have no further interest in the property – and that’s any other department, not just Health and Social Services – the surplus property will be offered to sale to certain property interests that may be NGOs in the community or others. Our priority on that list is priority one. The Northwest Territories public corporations obviously have an opportunity, that’s the NGOs, community governments will have an opportunity, non-profit organizations and, finally, if nobody else is interested, it will go out to the general public. The surplus of the property may be sold for the highest successful bid without priority interest groups, and all surplus GNWT real property requires a real estate appraisal so we can set fair market value. The provision within an estimated value of $50,000 can be done by us. If it’s more than that, it’s going to go through an independent provider like Coldwell Banker or some other organizations. But bottom line is we will work with committee. We will share our information with committee and we will make sure this property is disposed of in the best and most appropriate way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The time for oral question period has expired. Item 9, written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Item 11, replies to opening address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Item 14, tabling of documents. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents, titled 2012-2013 59th Annual Report of the Northwest

Territories Liquor Commission, and 2012-2013 59th Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Liquor Licensing Board and Liquor Enforcement. Thank you.