Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, Tsiigehtchic isn't on the list but, as I mentioned, we are continuing to do that survey and it is based on needs of the community. If the Member is saying that there is a need in the school, we'll reach out to them and see what kind of resources they have in the school for the junior kindergarten. Thank you.

Yes, we submitted it in September. I'll have to get the exact dates, and as mentioned we should hopefully be hearing something back in January or February. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I have committed to sharing that proposal with the parties, and as mentioned in the House earlier, but we've got to get to work too, you know. We've got that court order to build a gymnasium, to build the two classrooms, and then we looked at the two additional classrooms, because we saw the enrolment rates going up, but we can't not miss a building in a construction season. So we've got to get to work at the same time, meeting our court order, our obligations. But we will share that proposal with the francophone community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure we can share with the APADY and CFSTNO, and even though we did put in one proposal to see if we can offset some of these costs, it doesn't mean that we couldn’t put in another application when they do that call out afterwards. But what we did put in, in discussions with CFSTNO, in some of our initial meetings, we want to see what results come back to us in January-February. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Definitely any way we can increase our connection to Ottawa and build those relationships to look at how we can get extra funding to assist with our infrastructure shortages, the aging of our infrastructure in the NWT when it comes to educational institutions. I think it's something that we want to work on and I will commit to trying to have those meetings. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All schools that are on the list have gone through the Capital Planning Process. The efforts to get some retrofits, some additional space on schools that have changed from let's say a kindergarten to grade nine to a junior kindergarten to grade 12 and needed to be set as a priority for spacing issues. We are under a fiscal situation here in the Northwest Territories as are all other jurisdictions across Canada, and whatever dollars that we can get out of the budget, they want to use and put them in the areas that we see that meets the needs of the capital planning process...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The survey that I was mentioning and talking about earlier just in reference to junior kindergarten, but I think moving forward I think with learning centres and using the shared space is something that needs to be looked at moving further in terms of constructing schools or adding additions as well, especially in our small communities. We've got to be able to utilize the space the best we can.

As I mentioned, we did put in a proposal going forward to Heritage Canada. They responded to our staff, we're in dialogue right now, and we're looking at ways that -- they're asking for clarity on some of the questions that were provided. What we're going forward with is a schematic design that's built on our standards for capital projects from the government side. Any further developments I think needs to come from CSFTNO, and if the CSFTNO want to look at building more onto the school, then I'd encourage them to continue working with our department to find ways so we can support them to get...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When you look at the 20-year needs assessment, you can see there are a lot of projects going on right across the Territory. When the needs are recognized, it's also based on priority. As I mentioned, we only have so many infrastructure dollars to go around to all the departments and to go around in our department as well, whether it's a learning centre or a school. With the schools, in terms of replacing schools or adding any additions, it is based on that utilization rate of 85 per cent. So even though it is on a needs assessment, it would have to meet a priority to get...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and with all Capital Planning Processes, there's primary criteria for ranking capital projects, five of them. There's protection of the people, protection of assets, protection of the environments, financial investment and program needs or requirements. They're all taken into consideration when we're going through the Capital Planning Process. Thanks.