Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be quick, about a minute here. Yesterday I spoke about the long-term care issue in Hay River. Minister Cochrane was nice enough to come and tour the site yesterday while she was in Hay River and we discussed the uses for the old hospital, the possibility of expanding the current plan. Just very quickly, and because there's been a lot of people wanting to re-use that old hospital building I want to get the numbers out there and I was wondering if Minister Cochrane has numbers as to the cost of deferred maintenance on the old building; the cost of replacing the sprinkler system if it needs it? Any of those kinds of things that would be prohibitive to an NGO or someone from taking over that building? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Even though you have a minute left, you still have time. I'll allow you to finish your four questions. So you don't have to speed up. Minister of Public Works and Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The deferred maintenance actually that is on the H.H. Williams Hospital is over actually $38 million at this point. Currently, we're spending $632,000 annually on utilities and about $400,000 on regular maintenance. It's a very expensive building to operate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I wish I would have known that before I asked all my questions at once.
---Laughter
I imagine there's been… Clearly, there's been reports done on this building, like inspection reports, and Public Works must have come to some conclusions. I was wondering: is the ultimate fate of that building to be torn down once the long-term beds are moved out of it?
Thank you for acknowledging that I went to the community yesterday to specifically look at the location, et cetera. At this point, once the old hospital is emptied out, we will do a final assessment. My assumption at this point is that it won't be valuable to renovate versus tearing it down. The other really important point is that once that hospital is taken down it will be another option that Health and Social Services can look at when they're developing their long-term care for long-term care beds.
Thank you for that answer and again, I do appreciate the Minister coming by. I'd just like to make a final comment, that if that building does have to come down, I'm glad that both Minister Abernethy has reserved that space so that they can expand and that Minister Cochrane sees the value in sort of a seniors' area or long-term care area where we can have other complimenting facilities.
Masi. I didn't really hear a question, but I'll ask the Minister of Public Works and Services to answer if she wishes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Laughter
