Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions about the Public Service Alliance of Canada union in Hay River which represents the workers of the Hay River Health Authority. Mr. Bouchard and I have a constituency meeting tonight and questions continue to surface in the community.
There are two things afoot right now. One is the move to a new hospital facility, the other is the establishment of a territorial health authority board that’s territory-wide. Those are two things that have caused people to wonder if our government has given further contemplation to the price and their willingness, or any plans to incorporate the Hay River Health Authority employees into the same union as all other Government of the Northwest Territories employees. I’m not sure whether the Minister of Finance or the Premier could answer that for me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our government’s restructuring of the board authorities, where we’re moving to one health board to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health system of the Northwest Territories, part of the planning is also to look at the Hay River Health Authority and to examine the feasibility of bringing it into the public service at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MRS. GROENEWEGEN:
So, would it be correct to characterize that this is not imminent at this time and could I also ask if there’s been any recent costings of what the price tag would be to our government to do this? Thank you.
The Minister of Health has identified this as a priority and we’ve realized that if this had been done some time ago, it would have been a lot cheaper. I think when it was first looked at it was going to cost about $7 million; I think it’s more than that now. We do have information available and we can get it and provide the latest estimates to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, I’m aware of what that price was. When we met with the union in Hay River, I don’t know, 15 years ago, they were talking about this, and Mr. Miltenberger probably remembers that meeting as well. It has grown; the price tag to this has grown substantially and I would suggest that putting it off for many more years is just going to continue to see that price tag grow.
So, thank you for that information. I will pass that along to the folks who will probably be at our constituency meeting tonight and tell them that the government is continuing to review it and we will have more information in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
