Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the Stanton Territorial Project that’s coming before us. It’s not an issue of the merits of the renovations, I think those are well-articulated out there how important this facility, this hospital is to the Northerners and we need to make sure it’s kept up to speed and certainly up to date and able to provide the needed services. The issue really comes down to this, and it’s about the money, how we renovate.
So I’m going to ask the Minister of Public Works these questions, which first off is: Why is the path of Public Works particularly focused in on building up Stanton Hospital while it’s in full operation, rather than building either new or building a separate addition to it and attaching it later on? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been determined that the Stanton Hospital still has a lot of building left in it. It was built with the concept that at one point there would be a full mid-life retrofit, and we can’t shut the hospital down.
There have been many incidents where they have done mid-life retrofits to hospitals and they continue the operation of the hospital. It would be difficult for us to relocate the hospital while we’re doing a mid-life retrofit to it. Thank you.
For a couple years I’ve been asking about providing an opportunity to build a new hospital or at least a new fully independent wing attached to the hospital, because it makes better sense to make new than to renovate a hospital while it’s in full operation.
The Department of Public Works has always said, well, if that’s the choice of the bidders, then that’s the one we’ll examine, of course, and the best value for Northerners is the way we’ll go. It’s been my understanding that that has been taken off the table, and the three bidders, I was speaking to one a couple days ago and they said that option was taken off the table.
So, why is that the case that the government wants to renovate a hospital that’s up and running, rather than building a new wing and attaching it to it, which would make the most sense to build new, rather than renovate? Thank you.
The budget that we were looking at for the hospital at the point when we had gone out to RFP, looked like in order to bring that in on the budget that we were looking at would be to renovate, renew the hospital while the hospital is in operation. If one of the proprietors is able to come in at a cost that was equal or lower for a new site, new building and everything, then the government would take a look at that as well. It’s not off the table. Thank you.
In speaking to two of the three invited contractors as well as speaking to a number of people in the construction industry here locally, they have all estimated that renovating the hospital while it is in full operation could run anywhere in the range of 20 to 30 percent more than what the project should cost.
These are estimates now, granted I know that, but why is this government so fixated on renovating a hospital that it costs us so much more than just building a new additional wing to it? The fact is that is the truth of the reality, we are going to spend a lot more than necessary. Why is the government fixated on this?
Finally, Mr. Speaker, have they ever been given advice, their own advice, that it would be cheaper to build an addition on it than it would be to renovate it while it is in operation?
Part of the reconstruction of the hospital is to add a wing or a section onto the hospital while we are doing the hospital. So the hospital will actually expand in size by an additional 30 to 40 percent. That does include a wing to the existing hospital, if that is what is most efficient. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Industry has told me that it could run anywhere between 20 and 30 percent more because we are going to renovate and build while it is in full operation. I want to understand, does the Department of Public Works realize and accept that additional costs of this project, which we all know is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, is the department proceeding with that full knowledge and appreciation that additional costs are unnecessarily being borne by the taxpayer when we can’t even afford it? I am not going back to the Finance Minister’s statements, but he has illustrated quite clearly that the cupboard is financially bare. Thank you.
If the proprietors were able to come in with a new hospital, new construction, 30 percent bigger than what we have in place, 30 to 40 percent bigger than the current hospital, with a more reasonable cost than renovating and expanding the hospital, of course we would go with a new hospital, but at this point we were thinking that this would be the most efficient way to go. Once the proprietors are able to look at the project and cost the project out, we would have a better idea of which direction to go. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
