Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the total amount to keep the facility open as it stands now, the parts that are being used, is $3.5 million. If we decide we are going to shut other sections of the building down, then that’s what we would be doing if we decided to just upgrade the main departments. The decision, as the facility is constructed, your heating system is going to run throughout, your existing fire suppression system would have to be maintained, those things, electrical would have to be maintained as well. So the amount requested for keeping that facility open, as has been...

Mr. Chairman, I've been a Member of this Assembly for almost three full terms and I've been part of many processes where grandstanding is part of the game plan or part of the process to draw more attention to it. The fact is, Public Works is not putting this House in this position. Public Works has done work for a client department. The client department has worked with the community and there has been no satisfactory result or a decision made at that point. The fact is, the client department in charge of the project would have to make decisions and would have to bring that project to the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this request has come in and it impacts on a number of things. One is the size of the footprint of the building is one of the areas that has increased the impact of O and M that is required. Yes, the department is requesting two more positions -- one electrician and one millwright -- as the Member stated.

As well, there is a change in contract for janitorial services as a result of the increased size of the facility. As well, because of the increased size of the facility, the power consumption has increased as well.

One of the issues that is outstanding...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, a number of factors play in the size of this supplementary appropriation document. It is a larger amount than we normally do at this time of year. Every year we have done capital carryovers from projects that were not completed in the previous fiscal year and carried over for the following year. What we see in large increases in this amount are results, as I stated in my opening comments, the funding that’s flowing to communities through the community capacity building initiative and that’s over $30 million there. As well, the large amount that we’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, for the record, again, the occupants within that facility are the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Dehcho Divisional Education Council, Aurora College and the Department of Justice. There are non-government occupants; the John Tetso Memorial Library, Open Door Society Family Resources Centre, Multimedia Society, cultural centre, day care centre and then there’s a community wellness worker and the Fort Simpson Historical Society with approximately 27 staff working in that facility. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess Public Works would be hoping that there are contractors out there saying that they can build things for cheaper than we've estimated. All our numbers so far have come in higher than what we've estimated, so if you pass on that number for me and maybe we can get some business done.

The fact is, one of the reasons we have so much delay is that our estimates have come in lower than the results of tenders or RFPs. We would hope that once a decision is made…The Department of Education, Culture has made a decision now that they're going to go to a new...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the benefit is the fact that a large number of the public housing stock can be replaced through these funds. The funding that the Housing Corporation has allocated again has been a proposal that was worked out and given to CMHC or the federal government and it was recognized that the work that’s already being done, in the sense of the new units going up, would count towards our share of that. So the new units going up as a result of the Housing Corporation’s plans right now that are in place will count as ours. So the new money would go towards further...

Thank you, Madam. Chairman. If we can have the Minister of Transportation respond to that. He, I believe, has more detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the office of the fire marshal became involved in May of 2002. There have been ongoing discussions with that office in trying to get agreement as to what needed to be done with that facility to get the fire marshal to agree with the occupancy. There were some orders for immediate corrective action and that was done initially and, at that time, the office of the fire marshal determined that the building was not in compliance with a number of applicable National Building Codes of Canada and the National Fire Code and directed that specific improvements be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s not that the work that we’re going to do expires. It’s that if we’re going to use it for longer than the years we’ve identified, other requirements are going to have to come into place. That’s what we’ve been told from the fire marshal’s office is if we’re going to use it beyond this year, here’s the amount of work that is required. That’s what we’ve based the estimate on. If we’re going to go beyond those years, here are further things that you’re going to have to repair. So that’s what we’ve been directed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.