Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I anticipate that the contractor will fulfill their obligations under the contract by way of providing the required security any time now. Once we have that, we will be in a position to proceed.
I can understand, and I appreciate my colleague Mr. Yakeleya when he talks about the $400,000 that the community of Tulita put into their school. Tulita is not alone. There are other examples across the territory. Here in Yellowknife, for example, is the Weledeh/St. Patrick’s gym. I was a city councillor when the City of Yellowknife put $1 million into that project to enhance a community asset. Is the Town of Inuvik putting any money into the new school, or have they had that discussion? I think when we’re talking fairness here, if there are enhancements at that school and there are things the community wants in there, we’ve got a precedent that’s been set across the territory for capital projects where communities, if need be, have to step up to the plate. I’m wondering: have any of those types of discussions taken place with the Town of Inuvik?
The Town of Inuvik did express an interest in moving the town library into the school. As we made our way through the process, they understood that if they wanted to do that, they would have to contribute to the project. But they decided not to follow through with that desire to put the library in the school. That’s really the only discussion we had with the Town of Inuvik about contributing to the school. It was to address the issue of the library.
Again, I think those are discussions that should happen. If there are enhancements there that the town wants specific to that new school or schools, they should be coming to the plate with some dollars to get that done.
The other thing I wanted to mention here, in terms of capital acquisition, is the three new pieces of equipment for Fort Smith and for Aurora College. I’m just wondering: why is it that we’re buying new pieces of equipment for the college? Wouldn’t we at least look at second-hand equipment, Mr. Chairman? Why does it have to be new?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Miltenberger.
Mr. Chairman, they already have fairly antiquated equipment. There’s a need and benefit to having the students learning on equipment that probably industry is going to use. Industry keeps their equipment much more updated and modern than the college can afford. But if the Member wishes more detail, I’d ask the Minister of Education if he could provide more detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Certainly, the Minister is correct about those. Of the equipment that we have currently, some are over 20 years old, and some are breaking down on us. Also, it’s not compatible for training those individuals and going out to a mine site, because they have high tech, more modern equipment. We have an older version. That was the purpose of replacing that equipment. We need to continue with delivering the training program at the campus. If we don’t invest in this equipment, it will be impossible to have the course delivered. Mahsi.
I thank both Ministers for that. You know, when we’re talking about training folks for jobs in the mining industry here in the Northwest Territories, I wonder if any thought was given to approaching industry to try to get them to help with the capital purchase of this equipment so our people could get trained. Did any discussion take place with industry to help offset some of these costs for these three new pieces of equipment?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll defer that program question to Minister Lafferty.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is something that I need to look into in my department. I don’t have the information in front of me if there has been consultation with the industry. In the past they have initiated various training programs as partnerships. They have simulators as well. I can certainly look into that further and get back to the Member on this specific topic. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, I’m not an expert in heavy equipment by any stretch of imagination. It’s not like when you look at trucks and vehicles that you drive on the street. Every model year those can change quite a bit as time progresses, but with loaders and graders and dump trucks, I think the mechanical aspects of those vehicles don’t change very much. Again, I stand to be corrected, but if we’ve got a dump truck or grader or loader that’s three or four years old and we paid 30 per cent of the cost that shows up here and it serves the exact same purpose as a new one would, why wouldn’t we look at doing that?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I restrict my reply to the fact that three to four years is fine in the case of the some of the college equipment. Speaking from personal experience, you’re talking probably from decade to decade with some of the old equipment that they have to drive. Once again, I’d have to refer that question to the Minister of Education as to whether they looked at appropriating not quite new equipment as an alternative to brand new. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Yes, we are dealing with 20 year old equipment or 20 plus, and I do believe there’s been some discussion on the purchasing of new and also used — just the recent ones — but that information I need to get from my department. I don’t have it right before me at this time. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I think the department should be looking at, you know, whether it’s two, three or four year old equipment, if it’s almost identical to what the new equipment would be at a fraction of the price, I think they should be doing that just as a matter of business. You know, you should be looking at trying to get the most for the dollars that you do have.
The other question that I have — and I ask this every year; I’ve been here for five years, and I ask the same question every year — is: where exactly is the dedicated Aurora College campus in Yellowknife? Where does that fit into the plan, Mr. Minister?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Miltenberger.
Mr. Chairman, I’ll refer that question to the Minister of Education, Minister Lafferty.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Lafferty.
Mr. Chair, Aurora College does get direct funding from ECE, so they go through our department. Mahsi.
I’ve got one second left to come back and ask the Minister. He didn’t answer the question. I’m not sure if he heard the question, but where exactly is a dedicated stand-alone college campus for Yellowknife, the capital city of the Northwest Territories? Where is that in the government’s plans today? Thank you.
It’s not on the list for the immediate future, so as we look at all these other documents and we look at requirements and priorities and needs, I would suggest that as we go to the next cycle, that would be the time for that discussion.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. The next on my list is Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to ask a few questions of the Minister. I want to ask the Minister: in terms of renovation or replacements or small repairs to the schools in the Sahtu, where does that fall? Does that fall under small capital projects such as the Colville Lake foundation or the Norman Wells school or Délînê? Is there funding there? I don’t see it in the book.
Thank you Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I’ll refer that question to Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you. Mr. Chair. Some of the items that the Member is referring to are in the ’09–10 deferred maintenance plan, which will be out for consideration. Just for the Member’s information, we were in Colville Lake this summer working on the foundation of the school addition.
Mr. Chairman, the community of Colville Lake certainly appreciates the portable school that they have and the work that the department is doing. Because it’s fall time now, they want to look at some of the preventative heat loss in terms of having the department supply some skirting around it. Time is of the essence, and they were asking when they can see a certain time frame as to when this project could be implemented in Colville Lake.
Mr. Chairman, that level of detail for a project that was worked on this summer I don’t have before us, but I could get what information I can to the member.
Mr. Chair, the question I have here is with the Chief T’Selehye School in Fort Good Hope. To be very brief, the community was offered to negotiate this school with the government. Under our land claim agreement there’s a chapter that somewhat supports contracts with the government. I know the different interpretations, different needs. I just want to know: would the government have made an offer to people in Fort Good Hope to look at it and negotiate a contract rather than a two tier RFP construction of the school?
Thank you Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman. We did not offer the community an opportunity to negotiate. We generally don’t go out soliciting opportunities for negotiated contracts. Neither did the community or anybody else request a negotiated contract for that school. The contract was awarded through a comparative RFP process.
I have to reconfirm those facts with my community. I’ll see what their interpretation is or how they got the sense of how this work was progressing in Fort Good Hope, because I certainly have a different opinion hearing from my community in Fort Good Hope. I have to go through that process, and I have to follow through later on in terms of the response I got from the deputy minister.
Mr. Chairman, I want to look at when we have construction like that in our communities. As I said before, sometimes these constructions…. We certainly appreciate it, because it’s needed in the communities. The communities really look forward to having projects done, especially my community. It’s isolated; there are no highways. The only projects going into a lot of communities up north are a little different from the communities on the highway. So when we have this type of project, I want to see if there is any cost in terms of listing the values of the contracts that go to the communities. It’s a shared responsibility of the community and the contractors. I know contractors sometimes complain about our community members. Our members also complain about our contractors. Is there a list that evaluates this amount of money which is put into the community? Is that something that will be done or is being done already by the infrastructure department?
As part of the contract proposal the contractors commit to using so much local and northern resources. We would be happy, as we progress through the project, to provide those if required.
I certainly look forward to an explanation from Mr. Aumond.
The second last question is high school career and technology studies at $400,000. We talked about communities that want to have some opportunity to be even on par with the other communities in terms of high school career and technology studies. Can I get a list of what this means and where it’s going? Some communities like Colville Lake simply don’t have that — or Tsiigehtchic or Ulukhaktok or even some of the smaller communities down in the valley that want to get into some high schools, and they’re at a disadvantage right now as I speak today. There are haves and have-nots in our communities with education. So I want to see where we can bring this up to par with other communities.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll refer that program question to Minister Lafferty.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi. Mr. Chair. The Member asked for detailed information, so I can certainly instruct my department to provide that information to the Member.
Thank you. I look forward to that information. I hope I can get it before we leave the House on October 24.
Mr. Chair, I appreciate the responses. My question now is going to focus on education in terms of the capital infrastructure for the community museums.
The communities at times have seen not much of a contribution, even though they appreciate and are looking at ways they can get involved. So I would also ask the Minister responsible for the museums if I can get some detailed information on what they are allocating to the community in terms of community museums.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll refer that specific question to Minister Lafferty.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Lafferty.
