Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are about capital projects in the Northwest Territories.
I believe that when we are considering the priority placed on capital projects, the highest priority is the protection of people. To that end, I have been trying to get tabled in this House, or given to me or given to the education authority in Hay River, the air quality reports that were done at Diamond Jenness after it was discovered that asbestos was in there.
I have been told that perhaps I am asking for the wrong report. Maybe it’s not air quality I should be looking for; it should be the report on the content of asbestos in the air. Now PWS got the reports back. The air was sent out; it came back with reports. Why can I not get a copy of them?
We are talking about spending some $20 million on an office building in Inuvik to consolidate government employees. I would like to know if where they are located poses any risk to their health. In Diamond Jenness we have windows that don’t open, inadequate heat in the winter and inadequate cooling in the summer. We have an air quality issue there.
I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services again: are there any reports that would indicate the presence of asbestos in the air in the high school in Hay River?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, after the Member’s comments yesterday in the House, we did a follow-up. We are and we will be providing the reports to the Member if not tomorrow, then early next week. The reports indicate that there is no asbestos in the air. The air quality reports all report that the air is safe.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that. I really do look forward to getting it and actually visually inspecting those reports myself, because, you know, rumours do abound. I have heard that the reports had come back indicating even in a very small quantity, parts per million in the air — I’m not sure how it is measured — that there was asbestos in there. So I look very much forward to seeing those — not that I don’t believe the Minister, but I would like to see it with my own eyes.
Back to the issue, though, of the quality of the environment in which the students are educated in Hay River in the Diamond Jenness Secondary School. The school is old. We are told that some of the rationale for building this building in Inuvik is because the office where the government employees are is old. Well, our school is old. What is the priority here?
Mr. Speaker, in the case of the Diamond Jenness there has been a review done on the status and condition of the facility that recognized that there’s a need for a mid-life retrofit. We have identified a budget for it and have provided the recommendations to go ahead with the retrofit.
However, the school requires more than just a retrofit, which would bring it back to the same standards as when it initially was built. There is a desire from the community, from the education system to provide some upgrades in terms of programs; therefore, the functional review is being done by Department of Education. When that comes back, it will be put back in the capital list.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has referred to the replacement of the schools in Inuvik, and I do not dispute that schools in Inuvik need to be replaced. You know, the Premier said they have been on the books since he was elected 13 years ago. Well, the problems in Diamond Jenness have been around as long as I have been here as well.
I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services: what is the priority of this government — the comfort of government employees or an environment that is good for the educating of our children?
Mr. Speaker, comfort is important for our employees, for our students. Safety is the bigger issue. In the case of the school in Inuvik we had a recommendation and assessments that the school should be replaced. In the case of our employees in Inuvik we have them housed in old warehouse buildings that were loaned by the federal government and converted to offices. There is an issue there, and also the Perry Building has been declared unsafe, unsuitable for use.
In the case of Diamond Jenness it needs to be retrofitted and it needs to be upgraded, and it also needs to be enhanced with a program review and new programs. We need to take all those steps, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you. For the benefit of those people in Hay River who are maybe following and are interested, what did the visit of the Minister and designating the Diamond Jenness renovation as a red flag project mean? And from where we thought it was going to show up in the capital plans, where is it now? Why the difference in the timing?
Mr. Speaker, at the time of the community visit and the visit with the school and talking with the people there, including the principal and the MLAs, we had indicated that the school had been reviewed for a condition rating and that it was earmarked by Public Works as needing a mid-life retrofit. The price tag around that was, I think, $21 million. What needed to be done was a functional review, a program review by the Department of Education.
Since the time those discussions took place, the Department of Education has embarked upon doing that, and I think those discussions are underway with the education people in the town of Hay River.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
