Glen Abernethy

I believe the Minister of Finance has already made that commitment and we will live up to it accordingly.

There’s no question that we have challenges here in the Northwest Territories with mental health and addictions. Addictions is rampant throughout the Northwest Territories, and in direct response to the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions, we’re taking the actions that were directed by the people of the Northwest Territories, who said support on-the-land programming, get community counsellors in the communities and regions, make sure that we have a wide range of programs and options. Treatment facilities are but one, and in the Northwest Territories, treatment facilities have...

Obviously, the procurement will be led by Public Works and Services, but moving forward from a Health and Social Services perspective, whether we’re partnering with somebody like Avens or looking for other opportunities, we must ensure a cost-effective business case and we must go with the most appropriate development delivery based on value for money.

I agree with the Member; transparency is necessary and having the ability to have an open and fair process is important. I take the Member’s point around having a proviso in there that even if we do work with somebody else that it has to be open...

I hear the Member’s concerns around P3 projects and we have, before moving forward with this particular project, reviewed other P3s that were done for the construction of hospital facilities across the country and there have been some that have worked out not particularly well, but we also know that there have been some that have worked out. We’ve also reviewed the Auditor General’s reports and other reports that were conducted on some of those P3 projects and we’ve moved forward, recognizing the number of the recommendations that were put forward in those particular projects. One of the...

Thank you. At any given time here in the Northwest Territories, even when Nats’ejee K’eh was in fact opened as a territorial treatment facility, we have approximately 12 people in treatment at any given time. As I explained earlier this week, we have 12 people going out and they’re going to a wide range of programs that we haven’t had in the past. Nats’ejee K’eh offered one sole program. We have a women’s facility; we have a men’s facility; we have a facility focused on narcotics and other drugs.

What we do know is at this time those facilities in the South are costing us around $150 a day for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The extended care facility is going to be an important facility here in Yellowknife. We need to get this approved so that we can have the 18 level 5 beds that are currently in the Stanton building but will no longer be in the Stanton building. As far as construction, Public Works and Services will be the lead on the procurement of that particular facility, so I’m not really in a positon to say anything at this point on how they’ll proceed.

I will say that there has been some interest expressed in this building already. By way of example, Avens has indicated they would...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’re not looking at rebuilding the existing system in any way, shape or form. We’re actually moving forward with an all new system. I know that we have begun the internal work, have started on this particular project, the project planning. Working groups have been assembled, including professionals that will be utilizing the system. Communications and change management work has begun. I can also say that we have actually chosen a preferred vendor and we’re currently in the process of negotiating the contract. I believe the contract negotiations will be concluded in...

As the Member indicated in his opening comments and following up with his questions, Avens is a territorial facility and it has a number of people from across the Northwest Territories. As we make beds available in Norman Wells, as we make additional beds available in Behchoko, we do believe, and we have a fairly solid understanding, that some of these individuals will move. That will take off some of the temporary demand on Avens, but it doesn’t eliminate the demand. I’ve acknowledged that today.

We are working very closely with Avens. We will continue to work very closely with Avens...

We don’t want to get into the same situation we had in Hay River where there was a lot of early projections without the thorough analysis. Once again, we’re not adding new functions, but recognizing that the building is larger and that we’re designing units that are actually going to be focused on patient care and have a better layout, better flow, we anticipate that there will be increases in positions over the 30-year life of that particular facility. Over 30 years it could be anywhere from 50 to 100, but on day one I couldn’t tell you what those numbers are going to be. We need to do more...

Yes.