The actual and projected costs over the 30-year life of the Stanton hospital renewal project have ballooned by 62-per-cent to more than $1.2 billion.
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada found taxpayers did “not get good value” for their money with the project that saw a new $315 million facility built across the parking lot from the ‘60s-era old hospital, now known as the Łıwegǫ̀atì building, with its primary care and extended care floors.
“This report on the Stanton Territorial Hospital Renewal Project raises many serious questions about the Government of the Northwest Territories P3 partnership that require further review by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts,” stated a GNWT release.
That report was dropped on the NWT Assembly today, which coincidentally had a mostly health-care themed Oral Questions period.
Problems with accessing medical escorts, aging communications technology and concerns over a newly created sustainability unit, were some of the topics touched on by Regular MLAs.
(Image courtesy of Auditor General of Canada)
In terms of primary care, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins noted how difficult it is to just book an appointment with the current phone system.
Hawkins asked Health and Social Services Minister Lesa Semmler why the online system used during the pandemic to book vaccine shots can’t be used now to book Primary Care appointments.
Semmler said there were exceptions made during the public health emergency that allowed for “certain things that wouldn’t meet the standards of our privacy.”
Asked Hawkins: “Northerners are tired of calling phone numbers that no one answers, and then when it does take a message, no one phones them back, and they have to drive there to get appointments.
“Can you imagine how difficult it is for someone in the communities? Is the Minister willing to bring a timely initiative once we get an answer on this perplexing question, why we can’t do things when we really should be able to?”
Replied Semmler: “What they’re working on right now is a workaround, and as soon as I have more details … I will advise the member.”
Premier RJ Simpson also introduced a Healthcare Sustainability Unit, which he says is needed to develop a more sustainable health and social services system, one based solely on the NWT’s core needs.
“We are no longer able to keep expanding our health and social services to meet our growing needs. Instead, we need to transform the way we provide health care and social services in a fiscally sustainable manner.”
That prompted Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan to ask if that means non-core services, “seen as perhaps unnecessary or too fancy?”
The Premier said the “primary mandate” of the Health-care System Sustainability Unit is not to be cutting services, but to set out what the NWT’s core health care services should be and find ways to get there.
“The focus of this Unit is to provide a deeper understanding of which health and social services programs and services should be ‘core’ to the NWT, analyze how these programs and services can be delivered more efficiently, and determine how these programs and services should be funded within our limited fiscal framework,” he stated.
“The goal is to achieve all this while still working to provide our residents the highest quality of care.”
The health of interactions between RCMP and homeless women was brought up by Great Slave MLA Kate Reid, who pointed to a troubling recent report from the Yellowknife Woman’s Society entitled Over-policed & Under-protected.
Indigenous women said police didn’t believe their complaints and often felt dehumanized by RCMP, who sometimes used racial slurs or rough treatment.
Justice Minister RJ Simpson said the implementation of body-worn cameras by G-Division officers should help alleviate some concerns.
“What we are doing is making investments in body-worn cameras, and those are beginning to roll out this month, starting, I believe, here in Yellowknife, and rolling out across the NWT over the next over the coming year,” he said.
“And so hopefully that will provide some comfort to individuals as well who want to ensure that the RCMP are held accountable.
“And of course, that’s what we all want.”
Extended care facilities on the second-floor of the Łıwegǫ̀atì building on the Stanton Campus of Care. (Image courtesy of NTHSSA)
