Tom Beaulieu

We don’t have the history of when the planning originally started. We have the amount of money that was spent prior to this upcoming capital year that we are discussing. That is the detail we have. The building is scheduled to be completed in ’15-16.

I can have the department check into the status of the program specifically in Fort Liard and report that back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll have the assistant deputy minister provide a detailed response on that.

As the House knows, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social Services is working on early childhood development. Our role there is working on expanding the Healthy Family Program across the Northwest Territories, including expansion in the Deh Cho.

We don’t know the overall size of the capital project but part of the planning was a process development of the plan. We’re anticipating that the capital planning will be done over a fairly extended period of time.

As I indicated in the last couple of days, we’re not anticipating that all of the work will happen over a very short period, because the Stanton Hospital will have to remain operational throughout the construction stage. We are expecting this to be a longer period and as the areas get completed, we will move to another area and utilize the hospital as it renews. With that, I would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that information on when the vacancy… I suppose there is a vacancy in Fort Liard, but I am prepared to look at filling that vacancy as quickly as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will just have the deputy minister provide detail on next year’s planning.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services is willing and prepared to work with the Department of Justice and RCMP to see if this type of program, where the social worker rides with the RCMP, is possible.

The department is prepared to have that discussion with community leaders as soon as possible and then also discuss this with the Minister of Public Works and Services to see if we can coordinate something quicker than what we had initially intended.

Mr. Chair, perhaps the best way to respond to this is to provide the House with the next steps on the planning. I would like to ask the assistant deputy minister, Mr. Elkin, to do that.