Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, very rapidly yesterday I went through a list of our progress or our intention to move through to accommodate the 258-bed shortfall in the Northwest Territories by 2026. Just for the record, we know that there's a continuing demand that goes beyond 2026, but we're using a 10-year planning horizon at this point to help us start to address the shortages.
What we know is currently the greatest demand is in Yellowknife. Then the area where we had the second-highest level of demand, and one of the more complicated areas, is the Beaufort Delta. Then the next area is the South Slave and Dehcho. This is where the additional pressures are coming.
2026 is coming very fast; it's nine years, so we have a significant amount of work to do in a nine-year window. We want to maximize the number of beds as quickly as possible, recognizing the different degrees and complexities of build across the Northwest Territories.
We also have to factor in cost. We also have to factor in where we can get some economies of scale and some benefits from opportunities that have presented themselves.
The 72 long-term care beds in Yellowknife is an opportunity that has presented itself as a result of the construction of the new Stanton building and the ability for us to actually occupy more space than I think we thought we were originally going to be able to get in the old Stanton. Basically it's the best price point for moving forward with a large number of beds as quickly as possible, and that is the 72 beds at long-term care.
Our next priority, given the acuity, we have people living in medicine units, if you will, in hospital units in Inuvik, which is deeply troubling. When we looked at the Inuvik issue, we realized that we have to do significantly more work there. We have to do permafrost studies and other things to determine current or best locations. We need to understand where we're building. We also have to think about location. There is some desire to put it close to the old hospital, and the reality is that might not be practical.
We've put some money in this budget so we can do that work and do some permafrost study, and do some site location surveys and figure out where the best place is for that to be. We'll come back in the capital plan once we have that information because that will help us develop a costed plan.
We have to make sure that we're addressing the problem at a territorial level and not just as a Yellowknife level, so then we had to look at the next two high-pressures areas, which are Hay River as well as Fort Simpson.
In Fort Simpson we were planning to move forward with a health centre, but in light of the long-term care report and the fact that in Fort Simpson we thought the building was worse off than it was; and it's not. We have some life left in that building, so we want to make sure that when we're moving forward with Simpson we have a plan that's really going to meet the needs of the community, which means a possible combined health centre/long-term care facility much like the one we have in Norman Wells. We want to keep moving forward with that planning.
That leaves us with Hay River. Right now we know that in Hay River, given the demands there, it's about 36 beds, which was what was identified for Hay River. When you look at that, we've got an easy build environment. We think we can get affordable product in there. We think we can get 48 beds in there probably at one of the best price points in the Northwest Territories. That's going to be able to deal with a lot of demand in the South Slave.
We have come up with the order based on all those scenarios and all the information provided. We believe by going 72 in Yellowknife, 48 in Hay River, 48 in Inuvik, and 48 in Simpson with the health centre, we're going to get the best value for money and move forward.
Now, Mr. Beaulieu did ask me a question one time, which was, “Why are you not doing 36 beds in Hay River? Why are you doing 48?” The bottom line is, in our analysis, what we learned is the best model for care is 24-bed pods. We could build 36 beds in Hay River to meet Hay River's 2026 needs, but if we do that, we're going to have go away from the 24-bed-pod model, which gives us the best price point and the best value for money. Then we're going to have to look at making an expansion in there to take us to 2034. We're a little ahead on numbers in Hay River, but basically it gives us the best price point; it allows us to continue to move forward with 24-bed pods; and it moves us away from the mistake we've made in the past, which was making facilities that are too small where we're not getting best bang for buck. If there is anything else, let me know.