Michael Miltenberger

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I’ll refer that question to Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we’re referring to the same document. As well, I was saying, we’re going to lay out looking back ten years at how capital was portioned out across the North, and we’ll provide that information to Members.

Of course we will work with all the stakeholders involved with the Protected Area Strategy. We have a very close working relationship with the aboriginal governments. We have funded…. For example, we assisted Fort Good Hope when we had the Sahtu water conference. We have been involved in various water conferences across the North. As a government we are investing a lot of money in the water strategy, and we are going to continue to invest the resources necessary to work with the aboriginal governments to protect this, one of our most valuable resources.

Mr. Chairman, I’ll refer that question to the Minister of Education, Minister Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The price of the school has gone up for the reason the Member has talked about in terms of escalating costs. But the community indicated they would like an addition. There is an agreement to put in $400,000, which is being honoured. The arrangement will still be honoured. There is no requirement for any additional money from the community; we are just going to absorb whatever costs are there. But there was a significant contribution in cash to help the community achieve its goals, and the government partnered up with them to do that.

Anything outside the basic programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to be able to stand and recognize Mr. Jim Schaefer, a respected elder and former chief of the Salt River First Nation and one of the architects of their treaty land entitlement agreement with the federal government. As well, Ms. Denise Yuhas is a successful businesswoman and one of the best CAs in the business.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll defer that program question to Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chairman, once again I will just make the point that we are going to bring forward a ten year chronology. It’s very difficult to look at one particular point in time and make a long term review and assessment of how capital has been done. We know that the capital planning process needs improvement, which is why the infrastructure committee is at work. We appreciate the Member’s concern and will be working collectively here, as we move into the next business cycle, to look at how we address those issues.

I appreciate the Member’s concern. If there are events that trigger a concern, like a sewer backup or those types of things, and there are questions about quality of air, clearly there are ways we can deal with that with Public Health or Environment.

In terms of these building standards we do our repairs as we bring things up to code. New construction must meet the building code. We have our northern building standards, as well, to try to make them as energy efficient as possible, as the deputy indicated here yesterday when talking about some of the quality of the energy ratings in some of our...

Thank Mr. Chairman. Just quickly in response to the Member’s suggestion, the subcommittee on infrastructure that is looking at the capital planning process is in fact considering those very things that the Member has raised. There has been work underway that is being done, which is why we are, in fact, in this Legislature at this point in time doing capital early. Standardized designs and the bundling of contracts are some other things that are very evident to us as opportunities that the Member has pointed out, not only for schools but for houses and health centres. We appreciate the concern...