Thank you, committee. We will consider the document after a brief recess.

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Committee, I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. We have agreed to consider Tabled Document 215-18(3), Capital Estimates, 2019-2020, beginning with the Department of Health and Social Services. I will ask the Minister responsible to take his seat at the witness table, and I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have two individuals with me. On my left is Perry Heath, who is the director of infrastructure planning, and on my right is Derek Elkin, assistant deputy minister, Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Minister. Committee, this department begins at page 30 of the document. We will defer the departmental total until after consideration of the activity summaries. The first is on pages 31 and 32, administrative and support services. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister please elaborate on what the body holding unit that is being scheduled for Fort Liard is all about? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. I am dealing with a bit of a stomach flu right now, so I didn't actually get that question. Can the Member please repeat it?

Thank you. The Member asked you to elaborate on the body holding space plan for Fort Liard.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, over the years, here, in the Northwest Territories, we have had many of our smaller communities where there are no body holding facilities or body holding space express a desire to have those facilities in their communities.

As we have rolled out infrastructure, new health centres, and those types of things, we have been incorporating those into the building to ensure that we have proper infection control, air handling, and all those types of things. It has become clear that there are a number of facilities that probably won't be replaced due to our 20-year plan for longer periods of time, and we wanted to make sure that we stood up and provided these smaller communities with separate stand-alone body holding spaces so that communities can keep their family members in their communities for funerals and those types of things.

They will be stand-alone modular-type units. We are testing two of them this year, one in Aklavik, one in Fort Liard. Sorry, in the next fiscal year, and if they work, if they meet our needs, we are looking at expanding to other communities that are further down on the capital plan that don't have those facilities today.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that clarification. I would like to thank the department for taking this initiative and seeing if it works. As the Minister is aware, we have talked about a number of options for having a place where we put the bodies. We were talking about arenas and garages and that, so I think this is a very positive step. I thank the department for looking into this.

My next question is: the communication system for the retrofit for the health centre there, could the Minister please elaborate a little further on this? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there has been a lot of talk about replacing the health centre in Fort Simpson and that work is still under way. We still know that we need to replace that health centre in that community, but there are some safety issues with respect to Nurse Call and their ability to have the technology around them in case there happens to be an incident.

Although we are going to replace the facility for safety issues, we do have to put those nursing call structures in place within the long-term care facility.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that information. We are not talking about the hospital itself; we are just talking about the long-term care unit? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernethy.

That is correct, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that. That will be all of my questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Next, we have Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, I noticed there are emergency access upgrades in Hay River. I assume this is at the health centre. For the ambulance to get into the health centre, it has to make a couple of hairpin turns. Will this upgrade rectify that situation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Abernethy.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Simpson.