Thank you, Madam Chair. So in anticipation that we were going to have to provide a temporary facility, we actually made a scout change to the wellness recovery centre and reduced the budget by a small amount, enough to cover the cost of the temporary wellness centre. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just I notice there is two body holding rooms here. Can I just get a bit of an explanation of what why we're building body holding rooms. Are they required in all communities now? Is there some sort of standard that's kind of spurring us. I just would like a little bit of clarification there. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. "Body holding room" is the 2021 terminology for morgue. And health centres built prior to 2012 did not have any kind of refrigeration room for handling deceased, for the community to do the preparations or for the deceased to be have the remains stored until going out for autopsy or burial elsewhere or whatever. So this is an effort to upgrade those older health care facilities by providing them with these modular units that they can use as a morgue in their communities.
Thank you. Any further questions, comments under the health and social programs? Member for Monfwi.
This supply of medical equipment evergreen, it says here territorywide. Which communities are identified? Like, which community are getting some of these services.
That section we've already passed that section and agreed to move on.
Minister.
Yes, thank you. The biomedical evergreening is things like mammography and xray machines, ventilators, anesthesia machines, patient monitoring machines, the ones that you see in hospital rooms, lab analyzers, and those whenever you think of machinery in a health context, that's what that's the equipment we're talking about evergreening. And so I don't have a breakdown by community. The equipment exists in different communities to different extents depending on whether they have hospital, they have a health centre, or whether they have a health cabin. But if you want a specific breakdown for your region of which equipment is being evergreened, I can request the department to provide that.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi, did you have any further questions? Thank you. Committee, we'll turn back to page 34, Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, infrastructure investment, $3,641,000. Does committee agree.
Agreed.
Okay. I will go back to Health and Social Services, health and social programs. Any questions, comments? Okay, so health Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to get back to the body holding rooms, I don't think these are the first ones that we've seen the department build. I just want some idea of are we looking at additional communities that are going to have that requirement. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. As I said, the body holding rooms are required in communities that have health centres that were built prior to 2012. And you're right, there have been body holding rooms installed at other points. We've seen them in the budget before. And now we see that there's going to be one for Deline and another for Fort McPherson. And I don't know how many more places are on the list so I'll ask Mr. Heath to fill in that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Heath.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There's ten in total that we're planning on doing and, as the Minister said, all the facilities that fit within that window. Essentially, the health centres that are in relatively good shape that won't be replaced in the near future, we'll say within a tenyear timeframe, we've initiated a program to install body holding in all of them. So currently, we have them in Aklavik, Fort Liard, Tuktoyaktuk, Deline. And it is the intention that Paulatuk and then the higher Arctic ones will be covered as well. They will come in a series. It will be done over multiple years, and ten in total. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And can you give me an idea I guess of a range of cost for those, because I know that they're probably in, you know, from Liard all the way up north so, just some kind of idea. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. The projected total for the one in Deline, for example, is $600,000.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I think my colleague from Yellowknife North mentioned day shelters. So I just wonder if like, you know, we have an issue wth day shelters and night shelters, and I guess I'm concerned about the cost, that the amount of money we're spending on them in smaller communities when we have an opportunities to actually maybe sit down, take a look at it, and make something more permanent, because you know, we go year after year, you know, scrambling, looking for money. So I'd just like to get a sense of if the department is maybe going to take a look at that, a longer term look for day shelters and night shelters outside of Yellowknife. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River. I'll let the Minister entertain that.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is really more of an O and M expense at this point because we're contracting other service providers to provide the day shelters and Housing is contracting them for the night shelters.
I understand what you're saying about whether there is some point at which building a facility would make more sense. And I I'm certainly happy to have those conversations. But I would just say that within the scope of our existing budget, I would say that we have more urgent priorities, such as the long term care units, for example, where, you know, there is no plan B that is owned by somebody else that we can use. So, you know, it's not a firm no, but it's not very high up the list from my point of view. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Any further questions in relates to the capital? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No further questions, thank you.
Thank you. Members, any questions under the health and social programs? Seeing none. Health and Social Services, health and social programs, infrastructure investment, $7,434,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now turn to Health and Social Services long term and continuing care on page 38 with information items on page 39. Questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, can the Minister of the department tell us where the Stanton legacy building renovations are at and is this the last time that we'll be seeing this item in the budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you. Renovations at the Stanton Legacy project are going to be wrapping up next year. There will still be a need to staff the legacy project for the longterm care additional longterm care beds. So it's not going to disappear from the budget altogether, but I think this will be the last year of renovation costs for that project. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, can the Minister or the department commit to providing us with sort of their lessons learned, where the budget when, etc, with the Stanton Legacy building and see are we on track with that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
I'm going to take "on track" to mean on time, on budget. And to the best of my knowledge, it is on time and on budget. And in terms of the lessons learned, I think that's standard practice, but we're not at that stage yet.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If we could see that information. I did ask for a commitment for it to be shared. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
I can send the Member notification that it's on budget and on time. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That was more about asking for the lessons learned, which now stands to be a bit of a standard thing going forward.
Moving on, I just wanted to ask for an update on the Avens pavilion and kitchen and laundry. I know that it's slated to be completed in 2023 but does have a significant component of fundraising from the actual centre itself. So is it on track to be constructed as needed and if not, will the department be looking to provide additional funding if the community fundraising does not meet expectation. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. This is a project of the Avens Society itself and it's not a project of ours. Our contribution to the project is for the laundry and kitchen upgrades.
In terms of the timing of the project and their fundraising goals, I have no information on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Any further questions under longterm care and continuing care? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I you know, committee has reviewed the longterm care strategy and the work, and there's been some various needs assessments. But I guess there's 136 beds here in the capital budget. Do we have a rough estimate of what that then costs to operate in the O and M budget, or can the Minister just speak to some of the O and M costing that each of these beds puts on the budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Yes, thank you. I don't have that information with me, but I'm going to look at Mr. Elkin to see if he can give us an estimate.
