Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In my statement yesterday, I spoke about the ongoing problems with the new Stanton Territorial Hospital building. I got a first-hand look at some of the issues while I was a patient in the emergency ward for a day in mid-December; frozen doors, alarms ringing, and a multitude of locked doors. At the same time, a constituent of mine was a patient upstairs for almost two weeks. He said that it seemed to him that a new problem would emerge every day. Problems included frozen doors, plugged toilets, alarms ringing, and freezing cold patient rooms. He was covered in blankets and saw staff walking around wearing long underwear and draped in blankets themselves. It seems no one could get or stay warm in this brand new, $350-million building. My constituent came to the conclusion that the boiler was too small for the size of the hospital and the demands of northern cold. I don't think the heat regulation issue has been resolved because I continue to hear of patients complaining they are cold.

The problems at the new hospital are not only about the building. A letter from a group calling themselves NWT Nurses said they were working nonstop in the lead-up to the move in May and afterwards, putting their own health as well as the health of their patients at risk. An official in the Department of Health said in early June that the hospital had a 13-percent vacancy rate, equal to 37 nurses. In July, the Union of Northern Workers launched a campaign called "Worried But Working" to draw the public and management's attention to the nursing shortage and the workarounds required by the problems of the building itself. The union requested a steering committee be struck to find solutions.

Mr. Speaker, it has now been eight months since the new hospital opened. The former head of the hospital said it typically takes six months for a building like this hospital to stabilize its system, but six months is up, and many of the problems reported at the beginning continue. What about the nursing shortage? Have new hires alleviated the problem of nurse burn-out? It's time for the Minister of Health and Social Services to update the public on efforts to address the start-up issues at the new hospital. Mahsi.