Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you as well as most of the Members here know, there’s an exciting project going on in Hay River right now: the building of the new health centre there. This exciting new facility will be up and running next fall. They indicate they’re on budget and on schedule, and the community is abuzz with some of the activity of that construction. There are many people in the community and some specialized workers coming into town.
Obviously, some of these big projects cause other issues and bring concerns. Some of our local businesses would like more activity and more opportunity to bid on some of these projects. These big projects, sometimes with big dollars, sometimes have demands from other people.
The other issue that has come forward, and as Members know, when this facility was scheduled to be built, it didn’t have 10 long-term beds. After last year’s capital budget, along with the support of all the Members here, we got those long-term beds placed and they will be on the capital budget here coming forward.
This new facility has also brought up other issues. One of the rumours is that Public Works and Services would like to take over the maintenance of the facility, where we already have a maintenance crew at our current facility that we’re basically pleased with. They are, obviously, part of our community. They have families that we need to keep in our community and keep them employed.
The other question that has been brought up is: What happens to the old hospital? We’ve been asking the departments of Health and Public Works to get together, find out what the plan is going forward with the old facility. Is there a possibility? Mr. Yakeleya has mentioned a diabetes centre. What are the opportunities that we can use this old facility?
The final issue that I wanted to talk to you about today is the current facility doesn’t have enough office space in it. We basically have questions of what’s going to happen to the office space for social services and health services in the community of Hay River.
I will have questions for the Department of Public Works and Services to see what is going to happen in the future about the office space for the new health centre.