EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to take this opportunity today to present the 2012-13 Capital Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services.
The Department of Health and Social Services is requesting a capital budget for 2012-13 of $10.5 million.
The majority of the required budget is for the second year construction costs of $9.0 million for the replacement of the Repulse Bay Health Centre.
The foundation piles are currently in place and structural steel installation has commenced.
The work progresses with the goal to have a portion of the building closed in by the onset of winter to allow for work to continue throughout the winter.
The expected completion date for construction is March 31, 2013.
As a department, we ensure that medical equipment, mobile equipment and furniture meet minimal standards, reducing the risk to patients and staff and keeping up with changes in program delivery and increases in demand for services.
In order to meet these standards, we are requesting $700,000 for minor projects to be used to replace failing or out-of-date medical equipment and vehicles with a history of frequent and high repair costs.
Our health infrastructure is aging, let us all be aware.
In fact, 67 percent of our health centres are 20 years old or older.
Until we are in a fiscal situation that enables us to move forward with replacing some of this infrastructure, we must ensure that the funds are allocated for upkeep, repairs, and renovations to keep our buildings in good condition.
In order to properly maintain and provide major repairs to our current facilities, we are requesting $700,000, as I stated earlier, for small capital.
These funds would be used for repairs, such as boiler replacement, garage door replacement, and security system installations or upgrades.
The department remains committed, as we’re all aware, to improving mental health services in Nunavut.
Included as part of our 2012-13 capital request is $100,000 to begin the functional program planning phase of a new territorial mental health facility.
I look forward to your support and I welcome questions from members. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do my opening comments.
(interpretation ends) Minister Curley, please introduce your witnesses.
To my right is Mr. Peter Ma, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, and to my left is our Director of Finance, Debora Voth.
I am pleased to provide opening comments on behalf of the Standing Committee on Social Wellness as the Committee of the Whole begins its consideration of the proposed 2012-13 Capital Estimates of the Department of Health and Social Services.
Members note that the department’s proposed capital budget for 2012-13 is just over $10.5 million.
Members have noted, however, that the department’s actual expenditures for past fiscal years have often differed considerably from the approved budgets for those years as a result of carryovers, budget transfers, and emergency expenditures.
(interpretation ends) Members recognize that the Government of Nunavut has made considerable investments in major infrastructure projects across the territory over the past decade. There is an ongoing concern that staffing and training issues often result in facilities not being used to their full capacity.
The standing committee supports the minister in his efforts to recruit and train personnel, especially Nunavummiut, in the necessary health service positions.
The department’s proposed capital budget for 2012-13 includes funding for two infrastructure projects and two blocks of funding for minor and small capital projects.
The health centre replacement project for Repulse Bay is ongoing from previous years. Four other health centre replacement projects have been identified for future years funding. The standing committee has noted in the past that the department’s criteria for prioritizing certain projects over others are not often clear.
Mr. Chairman, mental health is probably one of the most critical health and social issues in Nunavut at this time.
The Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy Action Plan was released on September 12, 2011 and one of the objectives stated in the plan is to “Improve capital infrastructure to provide mental health services in Nunavut.”
The standing committee was pleased to note that the department’s project to replace the Akausisarvik mental health facility in Iqaluit will begin in 2012-13.
Committee members encourage the minister and his officials to work with his colleagues and the departments of Education and Justice to ensure that the facility is designed in order to meet identified needs.
Members look forward to regular updates on plans for the facility, including whether or not it will be a new construction or the renovation of an existing one.
The standing committee would further appreciate an update on the government’s plans to open a Nunavut-based addictions treatment facility. The government’s Tamapta Action Plan committed to the opening of a “culturally-relevant substance-abuse treatment facility.”
However, it does not appear on the 2013-2017 Five-Year Capital Plan.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Health and Social Services includes two blocks of non-specific funding in its 2012-13 capital estimates. One of these blocks of funding is for small capital projects, such as repairs to buildings and emergency situations.
The other is for minor projects, including the purchase of new equipment and vehicles.
With respect to small capital projects, standing committee members recognize that a number of community health centres have serious and outstanding repair needs which occasionally interrupt the delivery of service.
The committee encourages the government to continue addressing these issues in a timely manner.
With respect to minor capital projects, the standing committee continues to look forward to updates regarding new medical equipment purchases, such as dialysis machines, MRI units, and cancer treatment equipment. Members have noted the government’s commitment to purchase a new CT scanner following the recommendation of a coroner’s inquest in the spring of 2011.
The committee recognizes that trained staff are needed in order to offer services in these areas and encourages the minister to continue working with his cabinet colleagues to promote and support the education and training of Nunavummiut in the related health professions.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my opening comments on the proposed 2012-13 Capital Estimates of the Department of Health and Social Services.
At this time, are there any general comments?
Mr. Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to welcome the minister and his officials.
I am very pleased you at the witness table.
I just want to make some comments and ask questions when the time comes.
I would like to repeat my support to this department because health issues are very expensive and people have to be sent out for treatment.
This is why preventive medicine is so important and there often are illnesses that are preventable, and I truly want to support your department on this issue.
At the appropriate time, I will be asking questions in regard to one of my constituents who lives in a smaller community. The community of Hall Beach has been requesting for a morgue for deceased people.
They make repeated requests that continue to go unanswered. What is the status on that?
Who is responsible for that? Is it CGS or HSS?
I haven’t heard any response to date and I wonder if that could be included as a small capital item. I’ll be asking questions on that at the appropriate time, Mr. Chairman.
My comments are based around the minister’s opening comments on page 2, when he was talking about the aging infrastructure in our communities.
Before I continue, I do want to thank the minister. He has been up to all of my communities and visited the health centres there, and I know they appreciate that, seeing the minister and being able to talk face to face with him.
As well, I know I had been speaking to the nurse in charge in the Grise Fiord Health Centre and was very happy. There was some wind damage a year or so ago that’s been fixed and I was told that the building is back to 100 percent. They’re very happy that that’s been taken care of, so I thank the minister for taking care of that.
I was hoping to maybe get an update with the Arctic Bay replacement health centre.
In 2008, we were under the impression in Arctic Bay that the new health centre was going to move ahead and I have asked questions previously in the House.
There’s no capital line item for it and I know the project is still underway and still one of the priorities, I think one of the three.
This summer, I had the privilege of going with Tommy Kilabuk, before he passed away this summer, to take a tour of the health centre and crawl underneath the building and see how hard it is to actually access the sewage tanks and the water tanks. When I went for my annual checkup in July, unfortunately it was… .
I wonder sometimes how the health staff actually work in the building.
It is a nice facility, but it’s definitely overcrowded. There’s no space for storing. They have very little room to put any staff members in terms of privacy for discussing confidential matters and dental work when the dentist comes in.
It’s hard accommodating him sometimes. It’s just an issue that the minister has brought up and it’s an ongoing issue across the territory.
I was hoping if the minister could maybe give me a bit of an update of what’s happening with the facility.
In other capital budgets, we have approved, I think, close to $1.2 million on the initiation, planning, and design of it.
With that, if the minister could provide me with an update.
I believe I can make a response at this time, but are we on opening comments?
I’m leaving that to you. I assumed you wanted to go into questions at the same time.
Chairman (interpretation): At this time, we are in general comments, Mr. Curley.
Yes, I was making some general comments as to what Mr. Curley had said in his opening comments on page 2 in paragraph 3, where he’s talking about aging infrastructure.
I was reflecting on the history in the past, what’s gone on with the health centre in Arctic Bay, and the state of it.
As I mentioned, when I went this summer in July for my annual checkup, I was kind of gagging at the smell of sewage that was in there and wondered how our staff actually work with those kinds of conditions.
I sort of also said that since it’s not an actual line item, it’s not a line item in the capital budget, I won’t be able to ask during the line by line, so I was hoping to get an update since he brought it up in his opening comments here on page 2 about our aging infrastructure.
I wanted some clarification around the health centre in Arctic Bay and when the good people of Arctic Bay could expect to see.
I know that even the hamlet, when I go to the hamlet council meetings and I’m talking to the mayor and hamlet councillors, in their list of priorities for the community itself, the number one priority is the replacement health centre and the second priority is the new high school.
They want to know what the progress is and I want to be able to report back.
One of the suggestions I gave to the hamlet was to continue moving forward as if the health centre is coming - they have built an access road there and there are power poles there now where the site will be - to just sort of show the Department of Health and Social Services that the community is serious about this health centre and wanting to have that facility and keep moving forward on it.
As well, I know myself and as the minister is well aware, when I send emails to our MP, Leona Aglukkaq, as the health minister, asking for increased funding through the territorial funding formulas that we have and whatnot, if she could provide funding to health centres across the territory in terms of putting that forward.
If the minister could give me an update that I could pass on to my constituents, that would be great.
Hon. Tagak Curley (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) I appreciate the reminder of the exercise. I also want to thank the member for keeping us informed with respect to Grise Fiord.
I know that the photos that you took were very greatly helpful to the department and to my colleagues at CGS.
I am grateful that the facility is back on track now.
With respect to the aging infrastructure, I think I previously have stated in the House that we are challenged with replacement issues of facilities.
I think the former deputy minister indicated in the Committee of the Whole one time that if we would try to replace them in the next 14 years, it would amount to over $400 million, with the kind of costs that are staggering and everything else.
One good thing about the constituency of the member is that Arctic Bay is slated for the next project after Repulse Bay.
Because of the limited amount of capital funds we have in the government as a whole, we are staggering all the priority lists that we have for projects that are in the plan.
So Arctic Bay being one, the architectural design contracts have been awarded to a local firm.
I think they are pretty similar in nature. The consultations continue to take place, whether or not the functional program aspects of those facilities have all been completed to date.
Therefore, if our plan goes as planned and Repulse Bay is completed by March of next year, if all goes according to the plan, then the following fiscal year, 2014-15, Arctic Bay would then begin the construction phase of the first stage of the project.
So hopefully, if nothing of an emergency nature occurs, Arctic Bay would eventually begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, in my view.
I’ll conclude it at that. (interpretation) Thank you.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Curley. (interpretation ends) Mr. Elliott, you’re done?
Mr. Oshutapik, general comments?
I thank the minister and his officials. I also wanted to welcome you.
In your opening comments, I believe you had reminded us that you will answer our questions.
At this time, I do have some comments.
It’s true that a lot of our health centres are becoming old and dilapidated. Generally, when a house becomes older, it usually costs a lot more to maintain it.
So I agree with the statement made by the officials and the need to have initial funds for making repairs on buildings that are becoming too old. I’m glad that you have set aside funding for those specific repairs.
From the time when we can assess a building, I believe a lot of us are more comfortable when that is done during hours that are more suitable to us as well as for the workers.
I just wanted to agree with your statement.
I’m very happy that you have requested this allocation. It’s also obvious that these funds will not be enough to cover the entire fiscal year.
Be that as it may, I imagine that your budget will be fairly close to the actual expenditures based on your operating history.
I know that sometimes you try to ensure the budget is larger because we don’t always know what is going to happen, especially as regular folks. We don’t know when we will get sick and how sickness will surface.
At the appropriate time, I will have specific questions. I will stop there for now.
Just recently, when the minister responded to Mr. Elliott, in looking at the plans, Taloyoak will be next after Repulse Bay.
If I understood this correctly, the health centre in Taloyoak will be next after the construction of the Repulse Bay Health Centre, but he stated that Arctic Bay would be next.
Chairman: Ms. Ugyuk, are you done?
Minister Curley, clarification, please.
Hon. Tagak Curley: I’ll have my deputy go through these.
I think Arctic Bay will still proceed prior and then the following year, it will be Taloyoak, as I understand it. The deputy will correct me if I made any discrepancies in that. I’ll let him speak to the details.
So to go through the order of the health centres, they’re both on the books right now, of course, subject to approval of those capital plans in the appropriate years. Taloyoak is actually slated right now for 2013-14 and Arctic Bay is slated for 2014-15.
Chairman: Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Ma. Ms. Ugyuk.
In the minister’s opening comments, he stated that “The department remains committed to improving mental health services in Nunavut.”
In their capital plans for 2012-13, they have requested $100,000 towards planning for a mental health facility. It states that this facility will serve all of Nunavut. If this facility is ever constructed, will all Nunavummiut suffering from mental illness go to that facility?
That’s what I want clarified.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms. Ugyuk. Can I suggest that you ask the same question when we get into the details?
We are trying to stick to general comments. I am suggesting that you will have an opportunity to ask that question later. (interpretation) Thank you, Ms. Ugyuk.
I no longer have any names on my list for general comments. We will now proceed to the page-by-page review of the departmental estimates. We shall start with page F-3.
Are there any questions on page F-3?
Mr. Ningeongan (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to get this clarified. Is F-4 part of this page?
I’m not sure if it’s part of the minor projects or if it’s part of the small capital, so I would like to raise this question. I apologize. First of all, I would like to welcome Minister Curley and his staff.
Just as an example, the security system installation is mentioned in the opening comments.
I’m wondering whether this could be included in that line item. We almost experienced an emergency in Coral Harbour. When all the nurses experienced a problem with an emergency, it became quite noticeable that when the police declared an emergency, they were short of resources.
I imagine it would be very expensive, Mr. Chairman, but I want to ask whether they have included this in their consideration.
When we speak about security system installations, I wonder if the nurses would be able to use the satellite phones at the RCMP station or even if a pager could be made available.
That’s my question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That is a good question and we like that recommendation. If there’s any kind of emergency, we have to be notified immediately.
During that particular episode, Alex, who was my deputy minister for a number of years, used to notify me.
If we couldn’t reply, we always had a secret weapon whenever we sat down together. Unfortunately Rosemary Brown left and Debora Voth has temporarily assumed her duties while we’re looking for a manager for the small capital projects.
That is why I would like to say that we will look into that later. Debora Voth will be writing notes and check to see whether we have the appropriate security system.
If it’s not acceptable, we will be assisted by Community and Government Services to determine that situation.
I’ll just respond with that for now as we would need to check into this and try to understand what is lacking in an emergency.
I thank the minister for saying that he will look into that issue.
I want the minister to note that he ought to look at the cheapest option, for example, just a pager or something to communicate with that could be utilized during an emergency. That was just what the nurses had suggested when I consulted with them.
I am grateful they will look into this situation.
I spoke about this earlier when we were dealing with minor capital.
I keep raising this question from time to time and I believe I have notified you via correspondence.
My other constituency community of Hall Beach has continually requested a morgue that could be used in the summer when temperatures rise. They don’t have a community morgue to house the deceased.
I know that some of the health centres have morgues.
I wonder who is responsible for this and this is something we want to understand. To date, we haven’t been informed as to which department is responsible for this area.
I’m wondering whether such a morgue could be included in that fund.
The hamlet, over time, has continually requested a community morgue, but nothing is occurring.
Therefore, my question is whether morgues could be included in this particular minor capital budget.
The situation worsens in the summer, although it’s not really a problem in the winter.
While we were touring Hall Beach, I was there along with my colleague and the local council brought it up.
Yes, as a government, we have to get our act together and decide which department is responsible.
My deputy minister and I were in Hall Beach at that time.
Perhaps he can elaborate further as to where the process is.
I’ll leave it up to you, Mr. Chairman.
So I’ll just expand upon the minister’s comments. Yes, we are incorporating morgues in the new designs.
Obviously that doesn’t help right now in Hall Beach. I was with the minister in our Hall Beach meeting, so I will follow up with the community.
Just to add to that, in the minister’s response to the Nunavut Association of Municipalities’ annual general meeting resolutions, he indicated that our department would work with other departments. We have agreed, as officials, that the Department of Community and Government Services would lead this through their, I believe what are called, integrated community sustainability plans.
We can certainly have some discussions around that. I have not had the opportunity to engage in discussions with my counterpart at CGS at this point in time.
The other commitment that was made by myself or through the minister, I guess, when were in Hall Beach is I would contact the mayor. I must apologize.
I have not had the opportunity to do that, so I will follow up on that.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Ma. Mr. Tapardjuk.
Mr. Tapardjuk (interpretation): That is something that the community is looking forward to, so it would be very good to get a response as early as possible.
I doubt it costs millions and millions of dollars for a morgue.
Basically, when deceased people are housed in the community freezer, it’s not very scenic to see a deceased person surrounded by food. They need a morgue of their own.
I will continue to push for this capital project, although it probably won’t be included in this project. I’m expectant that during this winter session, they will be asking for a supplementary allocation for that community morgue in Hall Beach.
I will have the conversation with the community. At this point, unless we know the particulars of what the community would like for a morgue, I guess it’s difficult to say whether or not it would be a small or minor capital. What I will say about that is that we, as a management team through Ms. Voth, sit down and discuss the various projects and we prioritize them based upon overall considerations.
You’re right that this has been a concern that I remember even before I was in government and I will definitely follow up on that.
This was a question that I brought up earlier. (interpretation ends) In your opening comments, minister, “The department remains committed to improving mental health services in Nunavut. Included as part of our 2012-13 capital request is $100,000 to begin the functional program planning phase of a new territorial mental health facility.”
My question is: if this facility opens, and I know you guys are just asking for the planning phase, will the people of Nunavut be sent to Iqaluit?
Maybe what is written wasn’t clear enough. There are two items here.
From my opening comments, we have Akausisarvik here in Iqaluit, which is currently being utilized by mental patients who come from other communities. Akausisarvik is sort of a small building and it’s located behind the hospital. It’s a mental health facility for clients who are usually not hospitalized.
They don’t stay here on a year-round basis; some of them are there for several months.
This program will keep going, but we’re currently looking at moving Akausisarvik to the former Tammaativvik facility beside the high school.
That is what this item is for and it is not an addictions program. When we’re dealing with the operations and maintenance this winter, we will bring it up again.