Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, that is good to know. Another question that often gets asked is: the new operator, how can we be assured that they will not go for what often gets termed as the "lowest-cost solution" and in making sure that we still get the best quality of service? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in moving forward with the construction of this facility, the proponents will be responsible for a number of the functions on an ongoing basis within that hospital. That includes basically the maintenance of the building, which is sort of the HVAC systems, the building structure, elevators, sort of the structure of the building. They are also going to be taking on housekeeping, laundry and linen, security and surveillance, as well as catering. These are currently things that are provided by different contractors that are currently engaged with the existing Stanton facility.

In our agreement with the proponent, we do have standards and agreements in place articulating the quality and the expectations on their side as well as on our side. We will be maintaining and monitoring those things on a regular basis to ensure that we are getting quality laundry and linen, quality housekeeping, quality security, as well as quality catering. This has actually created an opportunity for us to work with our future partner in the delivering of things like catering to incorporate things like traditional foods and traditional menus.

It has created a lot of opportunity for us to do some things in a different way and really focus on the end results. We are excited by those opportunities, but of course, absolutely, without question, it will require constant monitoring to make sure that they are complying with the expectations of our agreements.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Sorry, Mr. Vanthuyne, your time is up, but if you would like, I could put you down on the list again. Next, we have Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 34 I see there is a mental health and addictions information system. It is a new project, and it is scheduled to be completed in 2021. I am assuming this is some sort of electronic database. Just to begin, if the Minister would not mind giving the House a description about what this information system is. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, currently when it comes to charting and whatnot around mental health issues faced by residents who are engaged in our facilities such as Stanton or our others, we are using paper forms at this point in time. We need to move away from paper.

There was a review done by an expert panel that indicated that we need to really move forward and have an electronic record system here to focus on this particular area. There are a number of options that we need to explore. We do have electronic medical records, and it is in this budget as well that we are rolling out. We are hoping to have that done shortly.

We are not 100 per cent sure whether that system will be able to incorporate this. It may. It certainly is a possibility, but we need to put something in place to make sure that we can accurately get that information into a system that is usable by practitioners in order to help provide a better degree of care to our residents who are struggling with mental health issues.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This brings up a lot of issues. There are a lot of privacy issues. I know there must be a privacy impact assessment done as per the Health Information Act.

There are also issues with medical records, electronic record systems in the territory that I have encountered. There is a variety of them. There are different access points to these. I know that we have a lot of locums in Hay River, and sometimes they just do not happen to have the password to the medical record system that they need at the time when they are seeing a patient, and so the patient repeats all this information. The Minister has stated that this might be integrated into one of the existing or a new electronic record system.

I guess my question is: how integrated will this be? How easily accessible will it be for any practitioner in the territory who needs this information to get this information when they need it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am wondering why we need a different system for mental health and addictions information. Why can it not just be compiled in the same database that we are currently using? Is this system going to be used to analyze trends? What exactly is the point of an additional system dedicated to just mental health and addictions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I have not been as clear as I had intended. EMR might be the tool, but if EMR is the tool, then we will have to make some significant modifications and customizations to allow it to collect the data appropriate or consistent with the challenges people face around mental health.

What we need to do, and I think it is the appropriate thing to do, is to do some costing, do some planning, do some studying to determine which of the models, and right now, we are aware of at least nine options that are available to us. Three of them look feasible. We are going to continue to look at those three options and see which one is going to give us the best results for our patients, including tying in and working well with patient records, which is EMR.

It could end up easily being EMR, but we need to finish that work, and we need to get that done. It was a recommendation from the expert panel that was done a number of years ago that this is something that is important. We are hearing from the staff that they want it. It is going to help improve tracking and monitoring, but more importantly, it is going to help the patients because they will not have to continue to repeat their stories.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Clearly this is in the early stages. Similar to my last question: is part of the plan to analyze trends and mental health and addiction across the territory and then use that information to plan appropriately for treatment, et cetera? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Any eHealth system that you use generates reports of things that you can analyze to help you make evidence-based decisions. Keeping in mind small jurisdictions, we may have to limit some of that information. If the numbers are small and could possibly identify, we will not use data with numbers that low.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Next we have Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to follow up on something that Mr. Elkin said. My understanding is that the hospital construction will be complete by the end of the year in 2018, and the move-in will happen six months later. I am wondering why it takes six months between the end of construction and the beginning of the move-in. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we plan cautiously when it comes to moving into these facilities. The building is going to be built. It is going to be completed by the proponent. We have to go in and test all the equipment, all the medical equipment, and make sure every line that provides or supplies oxygen or other medical gases works appropriately, make sure that every line is checked, every system is verified, and we need to make sure that we give ourselves the appropriate time to make sure that the building is meeting the technical and medical and clinical specifications and requirements. This is, I wouldn't suggest, abnormal; moving into Hay River as an example took a large number of months to make sure that everything was safe and functioning, and the same is going to be true for Norman Wells. We need time to get in and do the verification before we start moving staff and, more importantly, patients into those facilities.