Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement wherein I spoke about Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte residents accessing health services in Fort Nelson, BC. I just wanted to speak with the Minister of Health and Social Services with regards to that.

He was travelling in my constituency in May. He heard from the residents about the type of care that they do get from Fort Nelson. Part of the barrier there is that they’re not being referred there. They’re going there and they have been using it for decades, but their travel costs aren’t being covered to go there...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to hear the Minister of Health’s statement on the transformation of our health system, but today I want to let the Minister know that we simply must ensure that our residents in Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte’s health needs are taken care of. They want to be served by the BC Ministry of Northern Health in Fort Nelson, BC.

The Minister travelled with me in May and heard clearly from the residents that they are treated fairly and with care when they go to Fort Nelson. In fact, our residents have been treated in Fort Nelson for decades. They’re only asking to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I can say unequivocally on behalf of the residents of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte that they’re not choosing to go there. It’s just that over time they’ve developed trust issues about service of health delivery within our own system. But aside from that, if we can develop this base, the residents have a working relationship already. I’m just asking our government, let’s formalize this, let’s work a way around it, let’s continue supporting our residents getting the proper health and close to home delivery of health care that they can.

When the Minister talks about using our health services in Fort Liard, that’s an entirely different question, because the Minister is well aware of the other concerns with regard to people not trusting or else being dismissed by our Fort Liard Health Centre, but that’s an entirely different issue altogether.

What I’m talking about is when Alberta had the Capital Health Services we had a written agreement to use their services, their facilities, with our medevac services, et cetera, and now they’re called Alberta Health. I’d just like to ask the Minister exactly what type of arrangement or...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize three of my hearts in the gallery today: my loving partner, Ms. Lucyanne Kendo; a wonderful stepdaughter, Brittany Jewel; and my very smart grandson, Kayleb Black-Villeneuve. Welcome to the gallery.

Yes, I certainly realize the cost of a brand new snow blower, but I think there may be other ones in the Department of Transportation in other communities or other regions that could be perhaps repurposed to the community of Trout Lake. So I would just ask the Minister to keep that in mind as they evaluate their equipment and the equipment needs. I did speak in the House about it before and I thought there was a solution of an older, not very old, but an older snow blower in another community that could have been purposed over to Trout Lake. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So, just in terms of integrity of the new airport, it sounds like it all settled out. Certainly residents are very happy to see the new airport terminal building was certainly in the bidding process and look forward to the construction to protect the travelling public during the upcoming winter months. Maybe the Minister can let me know when that’s slated for completion. Just with that, then I have one other thing with regard to the Trout Lake Airport. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, all the more reason for the Minister to make a commitment that he won’t move any money from our future capital. Like I said, that’s a concern of mine and we all work hard as an Assembly, Members on this side of the House with Cabinet, and a couple of weeks ago when we went through the capital budget, we’ve come here, we’ve got a fairly good plan that everybody’s agreeable with, but the impact of $32 million I just sure don’t want to see it being amended or changed because there is a successful claim there.

I’d just like to ask the Minister one more time what are his thoughts about that...

While I’ve got the microphone, I’d like to speak a little bit about future needs of Fort Simpson. Of course, due to the housing stock, there’s a need for a new eight-plex or a 10-plex type of building. I don’t know if the department has that in their forecast for future growth of Fort Simpson and their needs there.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just noticed some of these units in the smaller communities, just a general question about the concept of, in order to reduce costs, duplexes or four-plex type of schematic. Is there anything new in the works with regard to that in placing those in the smaller communities, Mr. Chair? Thank you.