Dear Editor:

Over a year ago, the Cathers/Pasloski government cut the ribbon on the new ambulance station at the top of Two Mile Hill.  Today, the part of the building that  was to be an integrated dispatch centre for emergency call outs still sits empty and unused.  Instead calls go through the old and crumbling station in Riverdale.  Why?

Mr. Silver:   Just over a year ago, the government cut a ribbon on the ambulance station at the top of Two Mile Hill. A year later, the space intended to be an integrated dispatch centre for ambulance services, still sits empty. Calls still go through the station in Riverdale. The reason the space is empty — and the minister admitted this himself — is because the government had no agreement in place with the RCMP to move in when the construction was started and no agreement when construction had ended. When I asked about this empty space last spring, the minister said negotiations with the RCMP to be a tenant were ongoing.

Mr. Speaker, it has been six months and the space is still empty. Can the minister please explain why?

Mr. Silver:   I have a question for the minister responsible for workers’ compensation. There has been a lot of attention paid to the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as it pertains to military personnel. Another group of workers who are overrepresented with this illness are our first responders, including firefighters, paramedics and police officers. First responders who suffer from PTSD are not automatically eligible for workers’ compensation in the Yukon.

In 2012, the Government of Alberta changed its Workers’ Compensation Act to allow firefighters, police officers, sheriffs and paramedics to receive compensation for PTSD without having to prove that their condition is work-related. Alberta became the first province in Canada to provide such coverage.

Has the government or WCB considered making similar changes here?

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 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?