Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the long-term care bed situation in Hay River. Earlier the Minister of Finance mentioned that the Woodland Manor expansion, as we call it, is going through. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. This might be more of a public works question, but I think the Minister probably can answer it. I was wondering what the status of this project is? We know it's going through, but when is construction scheduled to start? When is it expected to finish? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the plan is to build a 10-bed facility; including nine long-term care beds as well as a respite bed, for a total of 10 beds and that respite bed can be used for long-term care actually dependent on the needs, so it's actually a 10-bed facility, not a nine-bed facility. A contract has been signed with a proponent who is in the process currently of developing a schematic, a design, as well as putting together the costs of the project moving forward. We anticipate getting that shortly or, rather, Public Works and Services anticipates getting that shortly. If the project is within budget, we will be moving forward. We're hoping to have ground broken by the fall/late summer should they, like I say, contract come in on a reasonable price with completion in 2017 so that we can move from H.H. Williams into Woodland Manor.
I guess my government math was wrong; it's 10 beds, not nine beds. Regardless, even if it's 10 beds, it still isn't going to address our needs. It's going to replace what we have now. This piece of land, it can't accommodate an expansion; there's the manor there, there's the hospital there, there's the ravine there. Is there another piece of land in Hay River that's suitable? By suitable, I mean large enough to build on and economical?
Mr. Speaker, the Member's exactly right. I mean, this building doesn't address our future need; it simply keeps us at status quo in Hay River. We do know from the long-term care review that by 2026 we need 30 more beds on top of the ones we already have and will have with this new building in the community with respect to long-term care. More needs to be done; we're currently doing our review, our report, coming up with an action plan, how we can facilitate beds across the Northwest Territories by 2026.As it currently stands, there isn't significant room on the current Woodland Manor site; there's enough to fit this new 10-bed facility, but what we're looking at today, Mr. Speaker, is we have a much larger campus there that does include the H.H. Williams building. We are looking at possibly taking over that property and utilizing it for expansion for long-term care. We have a lot of due diligence we still have to do, but we see a real opportunity to expand into that site and make a real long-term care campus in that particular area. It's a good area. It's got the electricity, the plumbing already built into the site and it's already got some parking. It would take limited site prep. It's close to the independent living as well as the long-term care, so it could be an ideal site. We are going to put a reserve on that site for Health and Social Services so that we can keep options open to us moving forward, and hopefully we will be able to address our 30-bed shortage in that community by plan during the life of this government with build before 2026.
It's good to hear that there is a plan to expand, that they're looking forward at that. What I'm hearing is that the H.H. Williams site, I'm hearing it referred to as a site, not the building, so I imagine that the building is not going to be on this site when it's expanded into. There’s been some apprehension to utilize this building, and there's a lot of people in town who want to use this. There's lots of needs and we just don't have the space. People have been coming to me wondering what's going on with that building. I'm just wondering why the government is averse to using it. Are the costs just too high or are there structural issues? Are there high operational costs? Are there deferred maintenance costs that the people need to know about?
Mr. Speaker, all the answers were in the Member's question. The Member has actually hit it on the head. That building costs us about $600,000 a year just to heat and provide electricity. On top of that, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority does provide minor O and M. Public Works and Services is always monitoring the condition of that building. Should any catastrophic incidents happen in that building, a failure of the sprinkler system by way of example, as long as we're occupying, we would have to do that upgrade. The building was reviewed several times prior to the final decision to move forward with a new standalone hospital in Hay River. It was determined that based on the high level of deferred maintenance required on that building it was not economical to move forward with a repair or retrofit on that building. The same is still true. It does not meet the needs moving forward for a long-term care facility. The deferred maintenance is quite high. If you look at the building, if you walk at it from a certain angle, you'll notice that there is some real irregularities in the building itself. We are looking at getting out of that building as quickly as we can so we can stop paying those high costs for occupying this building that is certainly questionable. But we are looking at utilizing that site for a possible long-term care expansion to meet the long-term care needs of Hay River in the South Slave. We believe there's an opportunity here. We believe we can do some real positive work on that site and meet the needs of the community and the region.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister has cleared up a lot of the lingering questions we've had. I know the Minister doesn't have a long-term plan yet, they said they're working on the action plan to address the needs by 2026. I'm just wondering: when can we expect to know. And I understand there's needs all over the territory, there's 286 or 256 beds needed across the territory, and so I know Hay River is not the first in line. When can we expect to know when a solution will be presented? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we intend to have an action plan moving forward to outline how we're going to address the need over the next 10 years early in the life of this government, hopefully within this fiscal year, barring any unforeseen circumstances. In the meantime, we're also going to be taking some short-term, medium-term and long-term actions to start addressing these issues. We do know that one of the largest needs is actually here in Yellowknife. There's very little capacity, we're very stretched in Yellowknife. We also know there's significant need in the Beaufort Delta. We have people actually living in the acute care units rather than in the long-term care units, which isn't ideal. Long-term care is supposed to be your home. We do believe we're going to have a little bit of reprieve in the Beaufort Delta when the Norman Wells facility opens, but we still have challenges in Yellowknife, and that certainly doesn't exclude Hay River where we know we need 30 beds by 2026. We intend to have the plan moving forward, our action plan moving forward, early in the life of this government. I don't have a defined date. As soon as I have a defined date, I will certainly share that with the Member and all committee members.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
