Jane Groenewegen

I understand what the Minister is saying, we would be skipping over a capital planning process, but the fact is we already own a building in Hay River. This government has infrastructure on the ground in Hay River. We need to replace the 10 long-term care beds that are not anticipated in the new health centre. You could leave them there, add another wing, and you could have a larger… And the demand is growing. It isn’t like the number is going to still be sitting at 10 in three years from now when the new health care facility opens. I just have a question then.

Who would be responsible for...

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not one that’s normally in favour of a lot of studies and reviews, but in this case, I would support that.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I am going to use the Chair’s prerogative to allow Mr. Bromley a very, very short, I don’t know what it is, rebuttal/comment. Mr. Bromley.

That is not the answer I was hoping for. There is no place for these folks to go if they vacate the building. We can’t wait until after the building is vacated and then start doing an assessment of whether or not it could be used as a long-term care facility. There are no other 10 long-term care beds in Hay River and we certainly don’t want to be shipping our people out of Hay River to other communities. We know that the years pass quickly in this place and the new facility will be open, it will be upon us. If we’re going to look at this as an option, this assessment would need to start to...

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Next on the list for general comments I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to follow up on the topic raised by my colleague for Hay River North. It is a very important and very pressing issue at this time.

The good news is we’re all living longer. The bad news is this government has to find the capital to deal with providing long-term and extended stay care beds for our aging population.

This is a fact, that there are 10 long-term care beds in the existing Hay River hospital. Another fact is that the new health centre does not anticipate having any long-term care beds. So there is a timeline that’s fast coming upon us. The new...

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. So, each Member can speak initially for 10 minutes on general comments. General comments. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Does committee agree?

We will start with general comments on this document right after a short break.