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Petition
Presented November 25, 2008
Long-term Care Facility for the Conception Bay North
Area
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Port de Grave.
MR. BUTLER: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to present a
petition today with regards to a long-term care facility
for the Conception Bay North area. I will probably use
the full three minutes today to read the prayer of the
petition, but I can assure you between now and 2011,
when the next election comes, there will be lots of
petitions coming and I will not have to read the prayer
of the petition:
WHEREAS
a 2001 study determined that Conception Bay North and
Corner Brook were the number one priorities for
long-term care facilities for the entire Province and a
second study by an external consultant in 2007
recommended a three-story long-term care facility for
the Conception Bay North with capacity for 180 beds,
three dementia bungalows with ten beds each, for a total
of 210 beds; and
WHEREAS
the Corner Brook facility is being built and government
announced in October 2008 that two new long-term care
facilities would be built here in St. John’s; and
WHEREAS
the present structures clearly need to be replaced with
a modern facility, but in 2008, Conception Bay North’s
long-term care facility has slipped to at least sixth
place behind Corner Brook, Clarenville, Happy
Valley-Goose Bay, Lewisporte and St. John’s; and
WHEREAS
government has recognized there is a tremendous
requirement for additional facilities for our seniors
and that there is a need to make a strategic investment
into a long-term care facility for Conception Bay North,
yet has failed to commit funds to this priority area;
WHEREUPON
the undersigned, your petitioners, call upon all members
of the House of Assembly to urge the government to
reassess their decision to drop Conception Bay North on
the priority list and commit to all residents of the
area that the assessments completed in 2001, as well as
in 2007, be implemented and a new long-term care
facility be built in the Conception Bay North area;
As is duty bound your
petitioners ever pray.
MR. SPEAKER:
Order please!
I ask members for their
co-operation. The Chair is having great difficulty
hearing the Member for Port de Grave. I ask members if
they would be kind enough to take their private
conversations to the outside.
The hon. the Member for
Port de Grave.
MR. BUTLER: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I had a job to hear
myself.
Anyway, Mr. Speaker, I
want to make it very clear to all hon. members on both
sides of the House, I am not standing here and arguing
that the facilities that have been built in the other
community should not go ahead. They deserve a long-term
care facility, and I commend government for doing that,
but I do know, Mr. Speaker, this has been on the table
since 2001, and last year the Minister of Health and
Community Services recommended to government – his
department recommended - that $1 million would be in
last year’s Budget, 2008-2009, for this long-term care
facility.
All I am asking
government is this: If you can come up with the money,
the $1 million, to do two long-term care facilities in
St. John’s, why not do one in Conception Bay North and
one in St. John’s? We are not against the two in St.
John’s; but, after being number one priority with
Corner Brook, here we are now right at the bottom of the
barrel.
I am calling upon the
Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, the
Member for Carbonear-Harbour Grace, the Member for
Harbour Main-Whitbourne, the Member for Bellevue, and
the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde, three ministers in
this government, I plead with you, on behalf of the
people of that particular area, that they would see what
they can do this year, at least that this study would be
done and carried out for a long-term care facility in
the Conception Bay North area.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
