Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions about the proposed location for the new hospital in Hay River. I’m not sure if I should ask my questions to the Minister of Public Works or the Minister of Health and Social Services, but let’s go with the Minister of Public Works.
Mr. Speaker, we have, for many years, had a desire and a need for a new hospital in Hay River. This is something that, Mr. Speaker, yourself and myself over the years have worked on. We have had a little slippage. We haven’t stayed right on the front of the line for this capital project. It’s a very big project. It’s an expensive project. Now we’re down to starting to allocate the money for this. We’re very happy about this, but we’re not sure where it’s going to be located. I guess my concern, Mr. Speaker, is that the unresolved issue of the location of the hospital does not result in any slippage, in terms of the schedule for the planning and construction of the new hospital.
So I’ll ask the Minister of Public Works, does he know today where the new hospital in Hay River will be built? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The hospital, as the Member has indicated, has been on the drawing board for a number of years. A lot of work and effort has been done by the community and by ourselves, as Public Works and the people at the Health department. A number of sites were looked at over the last while. There were a total of 29 sites that were proposed as potential properties that could be used to locate the new hospital. All these sites were looked at and reviewed and it was narrowed down to two sites: one at the current ENR facilities, or where the offices of ENR are currently located, and the other one was a new area called the Sundog site. A review was done. It was looked at and a team from… A number of people were put together to review. Some preliminary work was done, soil sampling and a cost analysis was done, and it was decided that the Sundog site was the preferred site for a number of reasons, and that was presented to the community of Hay River. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, from the information that the Minister of Public Works has been able to get from his officials and people who are looking into these proposed sites, can the Minister tell us today in the House that he is very confident that the Sundog Industrial Subdivision, as it’s called, will have proper drainage concluded by then and that the choice of this site will not result in any delay in the start of construction of this? Because when you look at that site today, Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t look very ready for construction. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Member and myself did look at a couple of options that were proposed. The Sundog site has some concern over drainage. We have done some real preliminary soil sampling and analysis. Some further work has to be done and that will determine whether it’s suitable. But we are fairly confident that this is going to be the site that will be able to accommodate the new facility. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the MLAs for Hay River were involved in a process with the then-CEO of the hospital, Mr. Al Woods, and the public administrator of the hospital, of also receiving a lot of information about prospective sites for the new hospital. At that time I believe it was determined that the ENR/ITI site was the most suitable site. However, I appreciate that Public Works has done their homework and that there may be a better alternative.
Mr. Speaker, how does the proposed site of the Sundog industrial area, how does that take into account the issue of it being on the west side of the railway tracks in Hay River? People may think we don’t get a lot of trains in Hay River, but we do get fairly regular train service in Hay River. How was that taken into account in the choice of that site? Thank you.
We certainly can share the report that has been compiled with the Member. It takes into account all of the issues that are being raised, including some of the work that was done on cost analysis, a cost/benefit analysis. The site on the river where ENR is currently located would cost roughly $4 million more to house the new hospital as we would not be able to co-locate, as the findings have told us, and we would have to move all the facilities off there and relocate and start anew with those facilities. But I’d be glad to provide that information in terms of what was taken into consideration with this new report. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said at the outset, my main concern is there be no slippage in the timing and the schedule for the construction of the new hospital. I think that the site or the location is probably of a secondary nature to the timing, as far as I’m concerned. But, Mr. Speaker, at the same time, the proposed site that is the choice of the government, I guess, or the town -- I’m not sure who was mostly pushing that -- is an industrial area.
I’d like to ask: have the people of Hay River been consulted in any fashion in this, in terms of the public? A hospital is usually a place that’s quiet. You don’t think of it being right beside railway tracks and you don’t generally think of it as being in an industrial park. I understand the footprint may be large enough that you’d be far enough away from your neighbours that it won’t matter, but, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know if the people of Hay River had any input into this. Also the fact that Woodland Manor, which is a seniors care facility, will be slated at some time to be retired and that that facility will also co-locate with the new hospital, if all those things are being taken into consideration, as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the municipality of Hay River was consulted. There were people from the hospital and people from the municipality that were involved. We do have a letter from the municipality that was signed off by the mayor, indicating that their preference for location would be the Sundog site. Our report looked at it on practicality terms, cost and other features that needed to be included in terms of what we needed to be part of this hospital and including further expansion. This was what the findings were. This is what was reported to us. Again, I will share that with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
