Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Next I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now that we have established that, in fact, it is Mr. Beaulieu’s jurisdiction, that the hospital actually belongs to him, now I will ask Mr. Beaulieu if the Minister would agree to write a letter to his seat mate, the Minister of Public Works and Services, asking Public Works and Services to do a review of the existing H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital facility to look at any potential costs of renovations in view of a staffing model and program that would allow it to continue to operate as a long-term care bed facility?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I will take that as a comment. Next on my list is Mr. Blake.

So if the Department of Health and Social Services wanted to consider this facility as an option – I say an option because I don’t want to pre-empt other options but I just know how capital dollars work around here, I know how tight they can be. If the Department of Health and Social Services made a request, Public Works and Services would begin to look at the structure, the utility of this building as a long-term care facility, and prepare a report as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to the issue that was raised by my colleague and myself from Hay River, I would like to ask my questions to the Minister of Public Works and Services. Knowing that Hay River is going to be in need of long-term care beds, I would like to ask the Minister if the existing hospital could be considered as one of the options for a long-term care facility for Hay River. It is strategically located on a beautiful green space. The rooms in acute care and extended care are very large. There are ample developed home-like common areas. There’s a very expensive and...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.

Agreed, thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms if he would please escort the witnesses to the table.

Minister Miltenberger, for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses.

Okay, committee, I’d like to call us back to order, please. We have agreed to consider Tabled Document 9-17(4), Main Estimates, 2013-2014. We’ve also agreed to begin with general comments. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance if he would like to bring witnesses into the House.

Thank you, Mr.Chairman. I wasn’t going to make general comments, but after hearing my colleague from Yellowknife Centre, I guess I do need to talk about the budget here a little bit.

Yellowknife only got mentioned once in the budget address? Like please. This government has got to look outside of Yellowknife. I mean, Yellowknife might as well be on a different planet when you get out into the other communities. It’s not even in the same league, and how for these few jobs that are being decentralized after, for my case, 18 years of begging in this House? I know beggars can’t be choosers, but we...