R.J. Simpson

Yes, I do. Thank you.

Thank you, and the issues we have are that we do need the facility, and we need it available at all times. And so it's not it's not a reliable venue to do other things because you never know when you're going to need it and when you're not. And the fixed costs associated with it are there regardless. So it's not something that really can be used in other ways.

And as to the question about, you know, keeping youth out of the facility and helping them down, you know, perhaps a better path, like, that's that's what Health does; that's what ECE does; that's what Housing does that's what we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just did a quick sort of calculation here on Google Maps of what I think the new path right look like, and it looks like it's probably under or somewhere around 200 meters. So we're looking at a couple thousand dollars a meter. I find it difficult, I guess, to support something like this just given that we have a lot of competing needs in the territory, and this is a very short trail to the Legislative Assembly. And I walk that street often. I've been here six years. I've walked it in winter, I've walked it in the summer, and I know that I'm walking on a road and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There isn't a plan to retire any of the buildings. You know, I do look at these low numbers, and I look that we have some facilities where prisoners could be housed in either one, and perhaps there's opportunities to repurpose some of those facilities. We already have a budget associated with them. We have facilities themselves. But there is nothing in the works. But this is a relatively new phenomenon, these low numbers. I mean, when I took over the portfolio, they weren't this low. And when we got here, they weren't nearly this low. So this huge decline is very, very...

Thank you, Madam Chair. A number of my questions have already been answered so I'll probably keep this pretty short. So the stretch of road we're talking about, there was comments about the safety concerns. How many incidents have occurred on that road where perhaps someone was struck by a vehicle or there was some sort of collision or near misses, if we know of that, in the past, I guess, 25 years that the Assembly has been here? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that the renovations are completed. If not, they are substantially completed and there might be a few little things here and there but I can get confirmation that they're completed? Yes, they're completed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Member has asked about the biggest things that I'm undertaking -- the department's undertaking this term so I will keep my answer short even though I could definitely talk about this for quite a while. But I want to point out that this Assembly has prioritized improving student outcome to the same level as the rest of Canada. And I just want to note that that's not -- that's no small task. The Canadian education system is among the best in the world, is universally respected. So what we are tasked with doing here is ensuring that our students have the best...

Thank you. I would like to hand this over to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So students in the territory have access to formal JK to 12 up until the age of 21, and there are schools that offer high school courses to older students as well when space is available, so not during regular hours, and there's a number of these throughout the territory, these programs. Aurora College works with students who want to pursue post-secondary or bring up their training to get into post-secondary. There's the adult literacy and basic education program. It includes six levels of study ranging from basic literacy to course work at the grade 12 level. So...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will point out that we are replacing a significant amount of the fleet of the Department of Justice in this budget. We actually used the vehicles quite a bit longer than I think is suggested by the Department of Infrastructure. But that is because we are aware of the financial situation. I can go to Mr. Bankcroft for some details on why we're replacing three. Thank you.