Jane Groenewegen

Agreed, thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms if he would please escort the witnesses to the table.

Minister Miltenberger, for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses.

Okay, committee, I’d like to call us back to order, please. We have agreed to consider Tabled Document 9-17(4), Main Estimates, 2013-2014. We’ve also agreed to begin with general comments. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance if he would like to bring witnesses into the House.

Thank you, Mr.Chairman. I wasn’t going to make general comments, but after hearing my colleague from Yellowknife Centre, I guess I do need to talk about the budget here a little bit.

Yellowknife only got mentioned once in the budget address? Like please. This government has got to look outside of Yellowknife. I mean, Yellowknife might as well be on a different planet when you get out into the other communities. It’s not even in the same league, and how for these few jobs that are being decentralized after, for my case, 18 years of begging in this House? I know beggars can’t be choosers, but we...

Is committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to ask the Minister, does he need any further political support for this concept, for this idea. Would he like my colleague from Hay River North, would you like us to approach the Seniors’ Society, the Town of Hay River, other stakeholders from within Hay River to get support for this idea of looking at the H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital as a long-term care facility in the interim?

Thank you very much, Mr. Moses. Minister Miltenberger.

I understand what the Minister is saying, we would be skipping over a capital planning process, but the fact is we already own a building in Hay River. This government has infrastructure on the ground in Hay River. We need to replace the 10 long-term care beds that are not anticipated in the new health centre. You could leave them there, add another wing, and you could have a larger… And the demand is growing. It isn’t like the number is going to still be sitting at 10 in three years from now when the new health care facility opens. I just have a question then.

Who would be responsible for...

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not one that’s normally in favour of a lot of studies and reviews, but in this case, I would support that.