Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, we have worked collaboratively with the city on a number of different initiatives. They have been partners with us throughout this whole process. They have taken on the responsibility of the Safe Ride Program. We have taken on the responsibility of the sobering centre. This is costing us right now about $1.4 million, to do the sobering centre and day shelter here in Yellowknife. Those funds are, as I have indicated, already core funding. We are not at this point planning to provide additional funds to the city for their Safe Ride Program, but we will continue to provide the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, a planning study has determined that the health and social services needs of the community of Lutselk'e can best be met by renovating and building an addition onto the existing health centre. That was a number of years ago; that was five years ago, when that was done. That was pre-me. There was another Minister in at that time.

The building is meeting many of our program needs. The building is in good shape. It does not need to be completely replaced. Unfortunately, this was in the queue many years ago, and some other projects have bumped it along the way. I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do take the Member's point about regular maintenance, and that is something that we obviously do try to keep on top of to make sure our buildings last as long as possible and that we are able to provide highquality services in those facilities. We will certainly continue to monitor all of our facilities. With respect to a vehicle, the Member did raise some questions in the House earlier this week, and it is not in this capital plan, but I did indicate we would look at it to see what, if any, opportunities exist, especially in light of the liability questions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member indicated, we have a longterm solution for the sobering centre here in Yellowknife. The building does have to go through some renovations. On September 25th the Yellowknife City Council actually approved a proposal for the use of the new building for the sobering centre and a day shelter. This proposal allows us to actually continue our planning for the number of renovations that are required on that site. The department and the city are actively working with partners right now to find interim location while renovations are completed. In order...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a couple of different ways that we are supporting this. Some of this is through O and M and the department. We are looking at family or community caregivers. We are looking at enhanced homecare. We are looking at a number of different things within the department. The department has also worked very closely with the Housing Corporation. I applaud the Housing Corporation for the work they have done to try to put in more programs, to make them a little easier and a little bit more accessible for seniors to do some mods or retrofits on their houses so that they can...

Come on. Yes, Mr. Chair. I have two people with me today. On my right is Derek Elkin, who is the assistant deputy minister of corporate services. On my left is Perry Heath, who is the director of infrastructure planning.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we had had a number of discussions with Avens on the 48 beds, but in light of the fact that we have to accommodate or come up with a plan to address 258 beds across the Northwest Territories, not just in Yellowknife, and we wanted to be able to roll those out across the Territories as a whole as opposed to putting the 200 beds in Yellowknife immediately and then having a significant deficit across the Territories, we have decided to move forward with a plan, or we're proposing to move forward with a plan, that puts the 72 long-term care beds in Yellowknife with...

Yes, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the plan for the extended care beds is that, once the new hospital is completed and the services are moved into the new building and the old hospital is vacated, we will then work with the property manager of that building, who will do the capital asset retrofits on that building to meet our specs and our needs.

Our costs on this would be structures and beds and other medical equipment, which is a capital purchase, but not necessarily the cost of doing the changes on that building. That should start, design is expected to start, in early 2018. Construction is...

Mr. Speaker, we're still a few days away from actually opening these facilities, so we have some time to do some training. When it comes to one of our more recent facilities, the facility in Norman Wells, we worked with local partners as well as Aurora College to provide some training for resident care aides. We can certainly explore that model. I think there's great training out there where we can train local people for local work, and at the end of the day that's what we would like to do: local people, local work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.