Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. I see that an RFP for architectural and engineering services has just gone out for the long-term care facility in Hay River; however, there is still a building standing in the lot where that building is supposed to go. We need to move the employees working in that building out to another building, and so I'd like an update on how that's going. Can the Minister update the House on whether or not an RFP has been issued or awarded for office space to move the current employees from H.H. Williams out into another space? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An RFP has not been issued at this time yet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Could the Minister update the House as to when he expects it to be issued and, if he's willing, even when he expects it to be awarded?
An RFP will be posted on March 19th, next week, on this, and it will remain open until May 17th. Within this RFP, there will be a request for 750 square metres of combined office and clinical space within the town of Hay River, and local landlords who are proposing to bid on this can use a new facility or an existing facility.
I know there are developers who have expressed interest in pursuing this opportunity, so does the Minister know if we can expect a new build, or can we expect renovations?
In January we actually put out a request for expressions of interest on this to see what was out there to test the commercial space market in Hay River, and there were a number of people who submitted, who provided capacity to be able to do this in both new space and existing space. So it will be interesting to see what we come back with this RFP.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I expect, if it's new space, it's going to be a little later that the move is going to happen, and if it's just a renovation, it might be sooner. Does the Minister know, in either scenario, when we can expect the employees to be moved out of H.H. Williams into the new office space? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I said, we expect to be able to award this RFP in May of this year, and we expect the proponent to have this new build or existing build with the renovations completed by the fall of 2019. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
