Jane Groenewegen

That’s fine. There are only two women; it’s hard to keep us straight.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for that response. I had mentioned in my Member’s statement that we were disappointed that the sort of affected… This is a territorial facility. I understood that probably if it was ever re-profiled, it would continue to be a territorial piece of infrastructure. We were disappointed when the MLAs for Hay River and the MLA for Deh Cho weren’t really part of that.

As these discussions proceed, and certainly with all due respect to the K’atlodeeche First Nation because it is on...

Thanks again to the Minister on that elaboration of what the other options are for residential treatment.

With the re-profiling of these monies that have gone traditionally into the treatment of addictions, what would be the process or the dialogue that would take place with respect to the actual facility of what was in Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre? Is there a possibility still that that infrastructure can be utilized in, perhaps, specialized treatment, if not residential, some kind of a facility? What’s the process? Who’s going to be involved in that dialogue and is there a possibility that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today about the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre in Hay River on the K’atlodeeche First Nation, I have some follow-up questions for Minister Beaulieu.

Treatment of addictions is a hugely important issue in our territory. We need to use our resources in the most effective way possible. With the closure of the Nats’ejee K’eh Treatment Centre, which I believe cost around $2.2 million to operate, the majority of that money was spent on goods and services and the employment of Northerners. If we are forfeiting that, I would like to have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre, which used to operate on the K’atlodeeche First Nation just across the river from Hay River.

Some of my colleagues have referred to this in the House already, and this weekend I had an opportunity to read a post on Facebook, which said, “Where are the Hay River MLAs? Why aren’t they saying something about it?” So this is my chance today to say something about it.

I thought I had already said some things about it. I have already met with the deputy minister and Mr. Andrew Langford, who came down to Hay...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Interjection

Mr. Speaker, that is very good to hear. That is a very good answer. In terms of the southern treatment residential placements that the Minister has referred to, maybe he could elaborate a little bit for us on the diversity of the location and the type of specialization that these facilities could offer clients. How accessible are these going to be? What kind of waiting times, or are these going to be readily accessible for our northern residents? Thank you.

The cultural and traditional diversity of many of our regions in the territory also came into play, because you can’t just take one set of cultural practices and traditions and apply it to everybody who is supposed to come to a territorial facility on the Hay River Reserve, so that caused some issues as well.

The facility is closed. The contract has ended. For the record, I did not appreciate not knowing about it, because there were many people who are from Hay River who worked there. I didn’t appreciate that.

However, it is now a new day. It is time to move on. It is time to work with the...

Mr. Speaker, people of Hay River will be very glad to hear that. That does seem like that is a fairly prudent direction to take, a good choice.

Another issue that has been raised in this House before, which I would also like an update on, was a request for a functional review of the existing H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital, to determine whether or not that building would be suitable to be re-profiled for some other use and to be kept as a piece of infrastructure in our community as something other than a health facility. I would like to ask the Minister if he has an update on where that request...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’m happy to report that the new Hay River health facility is well underway. There’s a nice tall structure standing there, and the contractors continue to work, and the weather has been on our side, so it’s been a good fall for construction.

The few outstanding items – well, there are many outstanding items, but there are a couple I want to ask about today as a result of the new health care facility – I’d just like an update on, if we could here in the House, because it’s something of a popular topic...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we have been hearing here this afternoon are, truly, general comments, not specific to this particular capital budget but very general. That’s a good discussion to have and I think it’s a good discussion to have in public, so that people can really kind of hear where we are coming from.

A few things I want to touch on, we talk about our infrastructure deficit here in the North and we talk about putting a few more millions of dollars, $50 million extra into the infrastructure capital budget. I don’t know how we compare to other jurisdictions, but might I be so bold...