Thank you, Deputy Minister DeLancey. Committee, we’re on page 32, Health and Social Services, community programs, infrastructure investments, $7.006. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. I’ll ask you to turn to page 34, Health and Social Services, infrastructure investments, $77.389 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a question on the electronic medical records. I know the Minister has been mentioning how advanced we are in this area. He also did mention there were a couple, I think with regard to Stanton, issues, but I’d like to get it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So if I could get some information on what the issues are that are remaining in the implementation of electronic medical records in Yellowknife and where we are with the whole project territory-wide. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We continue to roll out EMR and we have it in Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith. Right now we’re working on Stanton. As I indicated yesterday, there have been a couple delays on our rollout at Stanton, but we continue to move forward and we intend to continue to move forward with the other communities – Deh Cho, Tlicho, Sahtu, Beaufort-Delta – over the next couple of fiscal years. For specifics on some of the delays we’re experiencing on Stanton, I’m going to go to the deputy minister to provide that detail.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. DeLancey.

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Mr. Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions on the Stanton Territorial Hospital Renewal Project. First of all, I appreciate that the Minister will not privatize medical services. Of course, committee insisted that during the development of the P3 policy that if we ever contemplated hospital renovations as a P3, we would certainly not be open to privatization of medical services. Of course, as I understand it, the P3 project has something to do in its title with maintenance. I think it’s construction, operation and maintenance or something like that, not operations. That’s the medical side I hope. Anyway, what is the schedule for the… We’ve got a $40 million expenditure, I believe the Minister mentioned for this fiscal year under consideration, what’s the program for renovating this hospital? How many years will it take? Can he share with us some general details on departments within the hospital, for example, that will be impacted and how that’s going to be managed?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll say it again, there’s no intention and we will not be privatizing the delivery of medical and health services in the Northwest Territories, just so we’re incredibly clear.

This is a multi-year project. The RFP went out earlier this fiscal year. We have narrowed it down to three proponents. Discussions are happening with those proponents and we hope to have a proponent and move forward with a contract with that proponent. That, I believe, is expected to be June, if everything moves forward according to plan. Then there will be more of a design phase. That will be

the first part of the year. Then it will be basically a four- to five-year process before we are finished everything.

We have learned some lessons on trying to renovate existing facilities while at the same time providing services. We definitely had some challenges when we tried to renovate and provide services in Fort Smith and that has helped inform the process. So this, in process – and the budget that has been allocated – includes the whole plan and design around the provision of services during construction, which means we’ve taken into account our needs operationally as well as how we move forward and where we move things so that we minimize impact on the delivery of services as small or as minimal as possible. But for better detail on that, it would be better to go to Mr. Heath for the specific details.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Heath.

Thank you, Mr. Heath. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I would be interested in a few more details generally on what the $40 million will be used for this year and do you know what area of the hospital we’d be starting with in terms of helping people get ready as Mr. Heath mentioned.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Heath.

Thank you, Mr. Heath. Mr. Bromley.

That’s all I have, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Committee, we are on page 34, health and social service programs, infrastructure investments, $77,389. I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to say to the Minister, certainly the health centre’s flooring replacement in Fort Good Hope is much appreciated and needed. I know I did do some visits. This was actually a couple of years ago, so I’m glad it has been looked at. It has been dealt with and I appreciate it.

At the same time, when I visit the health centre facilities in Tulita, I am hoping that we would look at more urgent need because of the progress that I’ve tabled to the Minister, not to have our hardworking nurses cohabit with mice in the communities within the centres there. That’s very dangerous, very dangerous. I know the Minister is supportive of our northern nurses in our small communities. You do the best for them because they work long hours. I hope that somewhere within the small capital project this priority can be looked at in Tulita as soon as possible with the living conditions.

I understand what the Minister said about the new Tulita health centre that has been on the books. Certainly people have been asking for that and they appreciate what the Minister is saying right now. However, we need to wrap this up because the urgency now is that the health residence with the furniture, with the flooring, with just the old age of the building and hoping that we could take out some mouse traps in that facility. That’s not good for us. The same with the shed that they have storing their medical health supplies there. We have to do better. I wanted to put that in your mind so that these nurses that we get are not going to have to continue to live in those types of conditions day in and day out as we sit here. Tonight they are going to go back to the same facility.

I guess they are looking for their leadership, now that you know it’s out there, what you’re going to do about it. There are some options and I’m glad you’re open to the options. Certainly within the government there are no guarantees, but I wholeheartedly ask you to look at it seriously for the nurses. There are some units that could be looked at in Tulita and having you work with your colleagues to look at this capital infrastructure budget here. Is it somewhere we can do some work so that we can make it liveable in Tulita?

The other stuff is long term. I understand that, but priority right now is the residence and the shed. So I appreciate that, even with the work that you’ve already committed to Fort Good Hope. I wanted to raise that, Mr. Chair, at the Assembly here, and the Minister again is being reminded for the last couple of days when I talked with him. I just wanted to raise that with the department, and senior officials are here and Members are here. The conditions need to be really improved in Tulita. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to Fort Good Hope, I appreciate the Member’s support. What we’re doing there is removing all the carpet in the health centre and replacement with impervious non-contaminable infection control appropriate flooring. It’s about health and safety of the patients and the staff and meeting our infection control standards. That’s what is going on there.

As I have said several times, we recognize the challenges of the Tulita facility. We know that facility is quite degraded and ready for replacement. It’s at the top of our list. It’s the first one that we feel needs to be done moving forward. It is a B facility, so we have a standard design. In the standard design, depending on the community, those units can include anywhere from two to four living units that are available for staff at market rent rates. That will address the problem long term.

But the Member is right; there are some short-term challenges in the community. The Member has raised them with me on several occasions. I have been talking with the department and we’re working with the Sahtu Health and Social Services in an attempt to identify some short-term solutions on that facility.