Michael Miltenberger
Statements in Debates
Thank you. Mr. Kalgutkar.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must humbly ask the Member to repeat the question. I was otherwise occupied and didn’t catch the question. I will either answer it or I will refer it to the appropriate Minister.
In Hay River it would be the folks that work in the hospital that deal with environmental health issues. Here it would be the same. With your local health centre, if there are no environmental health officials available. The folks in the health centres, the trained staff, nurses and such would be the first point of contact.
I’ll have to commit to get back to the Member. The information that I have before me indicates that three of the sites in Fort Resolution there is work being done in terms of excavation and clean-up. The two in Lutselk’e I don’t have any information that would indicate to me what state they are in in the process. I will commit to get the Member an update on all those seven sites.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to reassure the Member and point out that we had a $527 million capital plan for last year. We delivered 74 percent of that, almost $400 million. What we’re carrying over is now a shade under $140 million. So I can speak with some considerable certainty that we will get those capital projects on the ground, considering that last year we delivered nearly $400 million worth of capital projects across the North. Delivering this remaining $140 million, roughly, will be done. The infrastructure is there. The supports are there. The mechanisms are there. The...
There are recommendations, for example, of specific sites that are going to be dedicated to medevacs being loaded and unloaded, the recommendation that they somehow synchronize all the streetlights going into Edmonton into the hospital so that when a medevac is on the way it can just be green lighted all the way down. There are those type of recommendations that are there, very specific, that have to be looked at once again by the City of Edmonton and by Alberta Health Services. Of course, we will be there to ensure and encourage them to take every effort to implement all those things that are...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are protocols that are fairly standard in terms of how you deal with these type of infestations and when they occur. We become aware of them. We work with building owners or whoever’s necessary, and pest control people, to look at the steps for proper eradication.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a shared responsibility with the federal government. We have a responsibility for those sites that are on Commissioner’s land. The majority of contaminated sites are on federal Crown land. So if the Member has specific questions about those that fall directly within our jurisdiction, we can talk about those in detail.
The broader issue of contaminated sites is one that part of the negotiations for the devolution in taking over of authorities. It’s a significant part of that discussion. As well, one of the concerns, as I’ve indicated earlier, is that we understand...
I’ll refer that question to Minister Michael McLeod.
Yes, Mr. Speaker.