Mr. Silver:   I have a question for the Minister of Community Services about his claim last week that 911 has been tested in all Yukon communities.

On March 24, 2014, the Government of Yukon received a letter from the CRTC regarding the work the government had undertaken and it said — and I quote: “The Yukon interim rural 911 emergency response access system service proposed in your letter does not meet basic 911 or enhanced 911 service definitions.”

In other words, the CRTC has already told the minister that the temporary solution that he is working on does not qualify as a 911 service. I have a very simple question for the minister. Why did the minister tell Yukoners that 911 has been tested in all of the communities when the CRTC had already told him the system he was testing did not even qualify as 911?

Mr. Silver:   I have a question for the Minister of Community Services. Yesterday, we heard about a new government project that was $700,000 overbudget and today I would like to return to one of the government’s overbudget projects that we’ve talked about before.

Hansard, December 11, 2013

Mr. Silver:   When will we have Yukon-wide 911 services?

Hansard December 9, 2013

Mr. Silver:   I have a follow-up question in regard to the new EMS facility at the top of Two Mile Hill. The minister told Yukoners last week that discussions with the RCMP about them using the new dispatch centre are ongoing and that has delayed any potential move of EMS dispatch personnel from the current location in Riverdale. It sounds like the government went ahead and built the building without knowing who was going to occupy the dispatch centre.

Usually you don’t custom build something for a client until you have a signed agreement in place with that client. Mr. Speaker, the upstairs dispatch centre at the new EMS is custom built for the RCMP.

Why did the government build it this way without actually having an agreement in place with the RCMP?

Hansard, December 2, 2013

Mr. Silver:   All this sitting, I have been asking questions about the government’s overspending on capital projects. We know $6 million has been squandered on F.H. Collins. The rural hospitals were both millions of dollars overbudget and the $30-million Dawson waste-water treatment plant that isn’t even running properly yet are just a few examples of that.

Let’s add to that project list the recently opened ambulance station on Two Mile Hill. That project, Mr. Speaker, was budgeted at $7.3 million and it came in at around $8.1 million. At only 10 percent over the budget, it hardly ranks at the top of the Yukon Party’s list of capital project mismanagement; however, it is $800,000 over what the government promised just 18 months ago.

Can the government explain why this project was 10-percent, or $800,000, overbudget?

Hansard November 27, 2013

Mr. Silver:   The August deadline for handing over the new waste-water treatment facility to Dawson came and went and the residents still don’t have a functioning plant. Over $30 million has been spent during testing done this summer and the plant failed three out of the four required tests. This has cost more than it should. It has taken longer than promised and still isn’t working properly. The list of concerns on this project remains very long.

Does the minister still have confidence in the facility and when does he anticipate that it will be working properly?

Hansard November 26, 2013

Mr. Silver:   So far this sitting, I’ve been asking several questions about the government wasting taxpayers’ money on capital projects. The community hospitals in Dawson and Watson Lake and F.H. Collins school are examples of this. We have seen millions of dollars mismanaged by the Yukon Party. The extent of this mismanagement is not reserved for just larger projects. There are examples of smaller ones as well.

Back in March 2012 the government announced it was going ahead with replacing the Beaver Creek fire hall. Twenty months later, residents are no closer to seeing this facility built. A tender was put out and then cancelled because all of the bids were higher than the budget the government had set aside. When will this project be retendered?

Hansard November 7, 2013

Mr. Silver:   I have a question about the Dawson City airport and the Klondike Valley fire hall. Recent renovations to the fire hall have turned it into more of a water distribution centre than a fire station.

A project to drill a well was delayed several times and missed many completion dates. The renovations caused considerable disruptions to the activities of the volunteer fire department. Training drills were cancelled, for example, and equipment had to be moved off-site because of the disturbance. Unfortunately, the impact goes beyond a temporary inconvenience. Firefighters I’ve spoken to believe the facility will now need to be expanded if it is ever to be an effectively operating fire station once again. An alternative — favoured by many — is to relocate the station to the airport, as this would allow for a faster response to incidents there.

Is expanding the existing fire hall or moving it to the airport something that this government is considering?

Mr. Silver:    Before the spring sitting began, I attended a Business After Hours meeting in Dawson, where the Premier announced a new capital construction project. He began by saying it was a project that was championed by the former MLA for the Klondike. At that point, people’s ears perked up because the building that the former MLA championed was the new recreation centre. He even held a sod-turning ceremony with the former Yukon Party Minister of Community Services, but alas, the Premier’s announcement was actually about the McDonald Lodge being replaced.

The long-standing Yukon Party commitment to build a new recreation centre in Dawson seems to have fallen off the table since the last election. This year’s budget contains no funding and nothing is mentioned in the long-term plan either.

Will the minister admit that plans for a new recreation centre in Dawson are off the table?

Mr. Silver: In 2009, the Yukon Party government announced its Yukon Solid Waste Action Plan, to modernize how our landfills operate.

An important part of the plan was the creation of a solid waste advisory committee. It was established to assist in the successful implementation of the Yukon Solid Waste Action Plan and as an ongoing opportunity for partnerships and ideas. The committee produced one annual report and has been dormant since May 2012, when the terms of all the appointees expired and the government didn’t appoint any new members.

Can the minister explain why a committee the government itself described as “ongoing” no longer exists?