Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services getting back to my Member’s statement where I talked about planning for the future of health care in the Northwest Territories. How is the Minister planning to move the Foundation for Change along and introduce it to the public here in the Northwest Territories as the answer for what ails our health care system here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, since the Foundation for Change action plan was unveiled in 2009, it was made clear that it is a three-year action plan. It is one of the important foundation documents that we are using to change our system and to make our system work together as a system and work better. Mr. Speaker, since that, we have had regional dialogues in every region of the Northwest Territories. We have had them on the website. I have made numerous statements in the Assembly. Mr. Speaker, we have been doing a lot of work to disseminate the information within the system and out. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Foundation for Change was unveiled in 2009, as the Minister stated. I know the Standing Committee on Social Programs has been updated a couple of times on the Foundation for Change. When will the next update be coming on the Foundation for Change? When might the committee and Members of this government... Is this government actually going to act on any of the findings of the recommendations from the Foundation for Change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, at the request of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we submitted about a 50-page draft document, a work plan status update about a week or 10 days ago. I am sure the Member could get a copy of that if he would like. I could provide him with that. That is also being posted on our website. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier of the need for capital dollars and especially in the area of health care. I am wondering what planning is going into trying to look to the future needs capital requirements for our health care system, particularly Stanton Hospital which I mentioned is probably going to need a major capital retrofit in the very near future, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Member knows that we have a capital planning process. We just approved our capital budget last fall. In that was money for planning for Stanton Territorial Health Authority. In our meeting this morning in the committee, the Member was advised that the work that we are going to be doing -- and the CEO and the public administrator of the authority have advised the committee as well -- for Stanton has to be in line with the work that we are doing in our regional health centres. What we are going to be delivering in Hay River, Fort Smith, Norman Wells and Inuvik will have much to say about the next phase of capital planning for the Stanton Hospital. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did have, at the beginning of this government, a small amount of capital money, not that $28 million is a small amount of money, but that was earmarked for Stanton Territorial Hospital for a master development plan. That money, under the Minister’s watch, vanished into thin air. Mr. Speaker, again, we don’t just pull $250 million together. We have to come up with a plan to address the capital needs at that hospital. That planning has to start now, Mr. Speaker. What planning is going into today to try to find money for tomorrow that we are going to need to get that capital retrofit done at that hospital? That planning has to start now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the planning has started and the Member knows that. He has to update his thinking on the basis of information he gets. The $28 million or whatever million that was in Stanton, that was from the old capital planning process which this Assembly has rejected. In the old ways of doing that, X dollars would be put into a budget and then people design afterwards, but we changed that system in 2007-08, Mr. Speaker. Now we have to do a planning study and you have to go through a peer review. You have to have level B estimate before it will get on the books. There is in the budget for planning for Stanton Territorial Hospital. The work is progressing. The Member is entirely accurate and not taking into consideration the new information he received this morning to say that somehow the money disappeared and he doesn’t know anything about it, because I submit to you, he approved the capital budget for the last three years and he knows exactly what happened.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
