Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last Thursday our Finance Minister said, “We do not have the revenue growth necessary to make all these investments possible and we are constrained by our $800 million borrowing limit to borrow to make strategic investments.” As I further listened even closer, he points out that on the revenue side, resource revenues are expected to be $41 million lower and corporate taxes $24 million lower than estimated in the last budget. He points out that this is a perfect storm of shocks that has reduced our $100 million cushion borrowing limit to $70 million.
This is unwelcome news. Let me start off by saying this, I think we can all agree that our Stanton Territorial Hospital needs a mid-life upgrade, but we heard the state of our finances and I certainly am sure that we can all agree to some extent that we all believe strongly in our gold standard health care offered in the North and it needs to be protected. However, when we need to make strategic investments, we must examine them extremely closely, especially after hearing the Finance Minister’s state of our financial affairs.
If this government’s coffers are bare, as highlighted by our Finance Minister, where is the money going to come from, because this government has chosen the most expensive path to retrofit or renovate our Stanton Territorial Hospital.
When communities and regions are screaming for infrastructure dollars, this government is throwing them to the wind.
I have talked to many people in the construction industry and I’ve even talked to two of the three bidders on the Stanton Territorial Project, and everyone is in full agreement, renovating Stanton while the doors are open, full business and operating is the most expensive option this government could even dream of. This government must have more money to throw away than ever, because it’s not a question of the merits of the renovation, it’s about the process of how we’re going to renovate.
For years I’ve been asking about this process. Why don’t we build new? Why don’t we connect to the existing hospital? Because it would be cheaper, and the government always said, well, if the bidders want to come back that way with that option, then we’ll look at it. I’ve been recently informed that that option has been pulled from the table so only the three contractors welcome to bid on the Stanton Territorial Project provide a renovation option. This will grossly lead us down to the lane of the poorhouse. We must find a more financially suitable way to do this. It is expensive. We should have that discussion now, and we will later today in this House.