Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the need to replace the Fort Simpson Health Centre and the planning for that.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, given that the engineering report dictates that we need a replacement health centre facility, exactly what stages are the Department of Health and Social Services at with addressing this situation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned yesterday during Committee of the Whole, we’re in the process of doing a planning study on that facility. We expect that to take another couple months, and from there that will help dictate how we move forward as far as inserting this particular project in the capital planning process.
But I do agree with the Member; this is a facility that needs to be replaced, but we just need to figure out how it fits based on the planning study.
The Minister was with me in Fort Simpson in the springtime. The residents wanted to be involved in the planning study, so I just wanted to assure that the Minister has heard that, that part of the instructions of the planning study is to engage in the community, the mayor, the Village of Fort Simpson, the LKFN and the Metis local there. Engage the community and show exactly what type of facility we are building. Even as far as the floor plan, we want to see what’s in there. Thank you.
We are using a template design for the majority of the building and the functions and services that are provided, but I have committed to having our director of infrastructure go to the community, and we were actually hoping that he could get in there in the fall. It hasn’t worked out. We’ve had trouble scheduling with the community and the individuals who want to participate in those meetings. But based on conversations I did have with him yesterday, he is continuing to call the community, still trying to get in there. We’re really hoping that he can get in there before Christmas, hopefully in November, to meet with the community, share the information we have and get input from them on some of the peripheral design and things that the community would like to see in there as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Certainly the community must be engaged, because in other communities like Hay River and Providence, as they were constructing their health facility, there were some things overlooked, and something simple, more in the case of Fort Liard, was missed. Those things cannot be missed, especially that we’ve got a facility that will be there for the long term. So that’s part of the planning that community residents want to see the floor plan, and I think the Minister indicated in Committee of the Whole was a level B/C facility and we want to know exactly what that is.
As I indicated, I agree with the Member that it’s important for us to get in there and have those conversations, and obviously, input from the community and the region is critical and important. I could give an example of where that really benefited was actually in Fort Providence in the discussions with the community and the professionals in that community. It actually resulted in a holding room, a body – I hate the term – but, a body holding room, a morgue, of sorts, being included in that facility, which was something the community really wanted to see.
So, I agree that conversations are important. We’ll do that. When the staff member goes down to Fort Simpson, we’ll make sure that he brings an explanation as well as some general overviews of what a B/C facility is in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly the community is awaiting those engagements.
Just for clarity and comparison towards Fort Providence, was Fort Providence a level B/C facility as well?
The facility in Providence is a community-based facility, where the one in Fort Simpson is a slightly larger B/C facility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
