Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the service that will be provided will be on par with what is currently here. If there are services that are required that aren’t accessible as they are possibly in Yellowknife five minutes away, they’ll be accessible in Hay River 35 or 40 minutes away by plane. We have folks that travel, we have other territorial facilities across the North that provide service to all the people of the Northwest Territories and this program will be no different, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I indicated yesterday and made a commitment to the Member for Kam Lake that we would pull together the information that we’ve been looking at to date. I also indicated in this House that the detail of this transition is going to take 18 months or so to be complete with the part of the business plan process that is now currently underway for the coming fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll give that request the consideration it deserves, as the Member has requested. The reality is a decision was made to move TTC from Yellowknife to Hay River, and it was a good decision. The capacity is there for Hay River to deliver that program and we’ve done our best to make sure we try to spread the resources around to the best of our ability as a government, though as we hear in this House from communities outside of Yellowknife that we should be doing more, we could be doing more. We take that into consideration when we try to make these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a potential to poke holes in anything anyone does. I could tell you what the Member needs to know, is that the decision has been made to move TTC to Hay River to use the capital money that was in the budget to renovate Dene K’onia. That it is going to take about 18 months and we will be able to set up a program there that is going to meet all of the needs of the children that are going to be in that program. Hay River has the capacity with the services that exist there, the medical, the educational, the health, the social services are there or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I indicated and committed in this House yesterday, when the Member asked the question, that I will pull together a file of information, and I will make sure it goes to the chair of Social Programs and to the Member, that lays out the trail that got us to this point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand it has been out for RFP, but I am not sure when it is closed or if they have been successful. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member indicated, we operate on this side of the House in a perennial minority situation, and that point is brought home to us time and time again. It’s something I’m very, very cognitive of, and we’re all very sensitive to the need to work in a consensus style with all the MLAs, both those from Yellowknife and those from outside Yellowknife, but as a collective for the common good. We intend to do that. The business plan will lay out the detail and we’re always interested and, once again, sensitive in trying to accommodate issues raised in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on the Member’s assertions made here in this House and, as I indicated, we will take all the steps necessary to be as mindful and sensitive as possible to the issues of the staff disruption and dislocation that may occur. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in fact we did look at Somba K’e probably over a year ago now, a year-and-a-half ago, in terms of its potential. There was a technical review done, there was a program assessment done, and it was determined that because of the distance and the required changes that would be necessary in the state of the building that it wasn’t found to be appropriate for a child welfare facility. So there was work done, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an interesting challenge that the Member presents. If we are going to take that as a basis for allocation of programs in all other areas or if this is going to be a precedent, it’s one that we would have to look at very carefully because of the potential implications. At present, it’s a territorial facility. Territorial facilities, by definition, serve the whole territory and are located in one community. In this case, it would be located in Hay River. It’s a service that will be easily accessible. It’s a 35-minute flight across the lake for those...