Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my questions that were posed by Mr. Hawkins from Yellowknife Centre with respect to that welcome news that we read in the media recently that there is an alternate airport to the Municipal Airport being contemplated as a landing point for medevacs out of the North, that being the Garrison. Now, I can’t say that I heard every single answer that Mr. Beaulieu provided, but might I suggest that the cooperation and the agreement… The contract between our government and the Alberta Health Services for medical service for our NWT residents in Alberta is an extremely integral piece of the infrastructure of the services that we provide to Northerners. I’d like to ask the Minister if he is going to take a proactive role in the discussions to identify a more suitable landing location for medevacs from the North than the Edmonton International Airport and pursue this idea of the Garrison Airport and be involved in that.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the discussion previously that involved the Municipal Airport and International Airport, the GNWT provided input to the Health Quality Council last winter. From the Territories we had our deputy minister, the Stanton Senior Management Team, we had the Joint Senior Management Council representative, we had a medical director, we had the emergency physician and personnel representative. We also had representatives from the medical travel people involved with this. So we have been involved in that discussion. This is a relatively new thing and we’re aware of some of the information but we haven’t engaged at this time.
From anything that I heard, and I don’t pretend to be a professional or extremely knowledgeable in this area, however, from anything I heard, the time between getting people from the International Airport to the hospitals that are in city centre, basically, was a concern. The time factor, if weather was an issue, the ground transportation, these were all concerns. If there is an alternate landing site for medevacs coming out of the North, will the Minister ensure that he puts his voice forward in promoting something that may well be in the interests of Northerners travelling?
Yes, as I indicated earlier, we feel that this airport at Garrison deserves, warrants full consideration and I will ensure that the Department of Health does fully consider this as a viable option for landing.
I’m sure that the Alberta Health Services is very interested in having a say in this as well. Certainly, we do spend millions of dollars on a contract with them and they give us excellent service and have over the years. This Municipal Airport closure is something that could prove to be problematic. I would like to ask the Minister if his department would not be bystanders in this discussion but will really put some resources into examining the viability of this Garrison alternative and take the first step and a proactive step to determine if that is a better solution than Edmonton International Airport.
Yes, we will contact the appropriate people. My understanding is the Department of National Defence are the owners of the strip and we’ll be in touch with them to see if this is a viable option for medevac flights.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we continue I’d like to welcome back Ms. Regina Pfeiffer, former analyst with the Legislative Assembly research branch and current executive director of the Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories. Welcome back, Regina. It’s always good to see you. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
