Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the comments and the remarks. As mentioned earlier today, I've been to about 20 of the 33 communities in the Northwest Territories since being in the position of Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. A lot of those communities have gone into the learning centres, and I've done tours of the schools and there is a need out there. We only can stretch our dollars so far, that any federal support that we can get is going to be greatly appreciated and I know that the communities will want to see some extra dollars there as well. So I appreciate the support...

That's the total cost of the project for that year, and as I mentioned there is a proposal that they go to the federal government, so, yes, no, that is total cost of project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and we can't look at a meeting on that subject and that proposal; however, the proposal that’s going in is what meets our criteria for our standards in building schools for the population and the enrolment rates of that school. I mean, if the Member wants to talk about putting in a glamorous proposal, working together, we still don’t have that schematic design, and we need that design if we want to work to get more funding from Heritage Canada. That's the next step before we can start seeing how we can look at getting access in the federal funding.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we've already submitted a proposal, it's ahead of the game. Heritage Canada hasn't asked for callout for proposals. We're hoping to hear something by January or February where those discussions have taken place. Any further opportunities that myself and my department can have in engaging and discussing these matters with the Minister of Heritage Canada to come to a solution that's happy, that'll make everyone happy, I think. We'll take those opportunities as soon as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I think that funding was only available around that time. I think moving forward plus, like I say, we're in a financial situation to try to leverage more dollars. We have to have those conversations with the federal government. But right at this time, we don't have those dollars to leverage those projects. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just as I mentioned, all projects have to go through a capital planning process and there is a budget within the capital infrastructure budget here, and it's not only schools. We've got roads. We've got health centres, we've got hospitals. There's a lot of things that are taken into consideration. We’ve got housing that are all in the budget that we need to look at, and as I said it's all the priorities that are in the planning process. We also have some other criteria that we look at when addressing the needs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and just in addition to my last comments that when we go in in November we'll be trying to get that information and some of the concerns that community might have in terms of when the construction happens, but the project will provide additional instructional, as well as research and support space for the students and staff population, and also includes an additional classroom and a language and culture classroom that'll add approximately 1,300 square feet of additional space. If the Member wants me to get him the list of what it's going to include in it. But that'll be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has been consistent in ensuring that our obligations under our capital standards are being met across the Northwest Territories and that any construction over and above these standards must be met with 100 per cent third-party funding. We have 49 schools in the Northwest Territories, we've got to make sure that we're providing education to all students, all 8,300 students across the Northwest Territories.

The Member is right, we did put in a proposal to Heritage Canada. They haven't even done a callout, we're ahead of the game, we're asking...

Thank you. In terms of the Detah School, it has just been identified so we're going to work at getting into that needs assessment in the capital planning process. So it has just been identified and, as we get further updates, we'll let the Member know.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned, we do have 49 schools in various conditions and states across the Northwest Territories. In the previous government, there was a planning study within the budget; however, that money was moved to address the fixing of the roof at William McDonald, and as all Capital Planning Processes it has to go through the planning process and that’s based on priority getting it onto the budget. So it's going to have to meet the requirements that are listed that will get them on the planning study. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So right now there's no definite time. Thank you.