WATSON LAKE - The Yukon Liberal Party has acclaimed Amanda Brown as the official candidate for the riding of Watson Lake. Brown’s candidacy was determined at the nomination meeting on Thursday, February 18.

Brown is currently a Councillor with the Liard First Nation and a health advocate. She is proud to serve her community and is a strong voice for health care equality and accessibility for all. Her experience throughout this pandemic has enhanced her understanding of what it means to support her community, both at home and on the territorial level.

Mr. Silver:   I have a question for the Minister of Highways and Public Works about another construction project this government has recently announced. This one is the new Watson Lake district office for the Department of Environment.

When the project was tendered in December 2013, the advertised price of the construction contract was $1.4 million. Can the minister confirm that this contract has been awarded at $2.1 million, 50-percent more than the advertised price?

Hansard November 25, 2013

Mr. Silver:  In February of this year, the Auditor General of Canada had some very strong criticisms for the Yukon Party and its mismanagement of capital projects. He was referring, of course, to the overbudget and behind-schedule hospitals in Watson Lake and in Dawson City. Fast-forwarding to today the Hospital Corporation is once again embarking on a major capital project — the expansion of the Whitehorse Hospital.

The corporation recently said that the new project will cost $60 million to $65 million to complete. It was only three short years ago that Yukoners were assured that the project would cost $50 million. Why has the cost of the project gone up $10 million to $15 million before a shovel has hit the ground?

Hansard November 6, 2013

Mr. Silver: Since we began this sitting I have been asking questions about the mismanagement of the F.H. Collins Secondary School project. I’d like to move today to another capital project the Yukon Party has bungled: the overbudget and behind-schedule Dawson City hospital.

Mr. Silver: The issue of new hospitals has been in the news lately and for all the wrong reasons. The government has been roundly criticized for poor planning and poor financial management of the two new hospital projects in rural Yukon. The Auditor General of Canada’s report on the mistakes the government made is quite a read.

The centrepiece of this year’s budget is a $27-million bailout of the Yukon Hospital Corporation to clean up the financial mess that has been created. Once the hospitals are finished they will need to be staffed. When the government decided to build these facilities there was no plan in place to staff either one of them.

Will the Minister of Health and Social Services confirm that nurses from Whitehorse General Hospital have been asked to work in the new hospital in Dawson because there are not enough nurses to staff the facility?