Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to go back to the school in Hay River, Diamond Jenness school, which has had its major work postponed by two years. I understand there is some deferred maintenance work to be aimed at this school in the interim. I am also aware that there was a considerable amount of work done to assess the situation with the school starting at least in 2003 with reports in 2006 and later. Originally the substantial amount of work was to be scheduled for 2009–2010. That was what we’d sort of agreed on last year. I’m wondering what work is being planned for making sure that...

Thanks.

I am just looking at some numbers, which I’m not going to cite, that were provided, I believe, by the Ministers involved here and that indicate substantive work is not really scheduled to start until ’11–12. Perhaps I could say: can we expect that given the conditions that I’ve stated, the degree of work scheduled for ’11–12 could actually be done in 2010–2011?

Something seems inconsistent here, given that we had planned quite a number of millions of dollars for this ’09–10 as short a time as less than a year ago. I’m detecting some inconsistencies there. I don’t have any specific further questions. I appreciate those comments.

Thank you for those comments. Given that major work was scheduled for this coming fiscal year, as short a time ago was this year or less than a year ago, I assume that considerable planning has been done for that work. Given that, should money be available for ’09–10, I’m assuming that a substantive amount of money could be productively spent in ’09–10 on that school. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ve appreciated the considerable debate we’ve had on this project. I’ve been collecting points and am still equivocal on this, and I’ll be listening closely for the rest of the debate. I am convinced that there’s value in doing this building the way it’s proposed. The $39 million in premium that we’d save is substantial, and I’m very, very cognizant of the need for infrastructure dollars. This is almost $2 million a year. There’s so much that we could do with that money.

There’s also the vacancy issue and market study business. Again, I’m not convinced that 7 per cent or...

That is good to hear. Perhaps it would be the Minister of Public Works and Services…. I don’t know, but could I hear some better definition of “accelerated rate” than just leaving it completely open?

I certainly agree with the Minister on this. For clarity, perhaps I could say a hypothetical situation, where we have a Minister of Finance who is also a direct beneficiary, potentially, who could benefit from a project being awarded or negotiated with a company….

Interjection.

Okay; thank you. I understand it wasn’t a full contract, but the tender documents would have included that contract, then.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, October 20, 2008, I will move the following motion.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the Government of the Northwest Territories establish a milk subsidy program for all children aged one to 12 in any community where milk costs are 10 per cent or more higher than those in Yellowknife, and further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories include the cost of the milk subsidy program in the 2000–2010 budget and implement the program in early 2009.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.