Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Currently, in Colville Lake there are 45 to 50 students enrolled this year. About 10 of those students have dropped out for one reason or another. They are citing that the fact that they cannot concentrate in the small building shared by all grades, considering that kindergarten and Grade 1 are housed in a separate building.
So, imagine the size of this room. You have well over 40 students all trying to reach their grade potentials. This is why Colville Lake is asking for partnership with this government so that they can build a new school, a proper school so that we do not see more than 10 students dropping out of school this year. That’s a crisis. We should be stepping up, letting the community know that we care, going to that community and stopping the students from dropping out. Unbelievable.
Is the Minister willing to work with the community in a partnership to see how we can stop students from dropping out but, more importantly, to see how they can build a new school in Colville Lake?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The community of Colville Lake, the leadership have met with my staff as well. The band requested assistance from ECE to provide a class D estimate for a larger school to be completed with a full-size legal gym. So that’s an area that we are working on with the community. There’s also a request for full O and M costs to run the expanded facility.
As I stated, there’s been follow-up from my department on August 17, 2015. The Colville Lake leadership met with my staff to talk about a P3 partnership. We’re in support, in principle, of how it’s going to look. Whenever a proposal comes in on a P3 project, I would have to present it to my Cabinet colleagues. That is part of the process that we use, and once that happens, then I’ll notify the Member that we are moving forward on this. Mahsi.
The families of the students that have dropped out of school for one reason or another are saying that the small building that is shared by all the grades, they cannot concentrate in that school. Colville Lake is looking for a solution. This should be up there and making the headlines. Ten students or more have dropped out of Colville Lake’s school, citing that the building is not adequate. These are the results of the situation in Colville Lake.
How can this Minister, since we have 20 days or so left in our government, move this to the next government citing this as an emergency crisis situation in Colville Lake and that they need to have a new school as soon as possible and start building their partnerships with Colville Lake?
First and foremost, I have to commend Colville Lake leadership exploring options on how they can build the new school. Obviously, we are very interested. There has been a process that we go through with any capital infrastructure here in the Northwest Territories. Part of that is Colville Lake. The Member has been asking questions in the House, as well, and I’m fully aware of that. There are pressing issues, as well, that we are faced with, but this is an area that we are currently exploring with the leadership of Colville on how the P3 can work.
Once a proposal is submitted, then we need to discuss that as Cabinet and how we can push that forward. We are always exploring and encourage business partners to provide some business opportunities such as this particular P3 project that we are currently discussing within my department.
One of the factors of these 10 or more students who have dropped out for one reason or another in Colville Lake could be because we don’t have a proper school to educate them. Because of this situation and working with Colville Lake, the Colville Lake Education Council and the Sahtu Board of Education have cut this year’s budget by cutting out high school teachers. There are no high school teachers in Colville Lake. This is why the community, chief and council are pushing strong that they get a proper school in Colville Lake. This has to stop, Mr. Speaker.
What is the Minister going to do within the life of this government to push this initiative into the next government?
That is information that we are either waiting for or is arriving on my desk on the Colville Lake P3 project. We have met with the Sahtu leadership. The chief of Colville was obviously part of the process, as well, on having a new school identified for Colville Lake. I’m focusing on how we can move forward. Once a proposal is submitted to my attention, then an immediate discussion needs to happen on how we can move forward on that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask this Minister, given the situation in Colville Lake where 10 or more students have dropped out citing their own reasons, within the life of this government is he seeing this as a crisis in Colville Lake? Can the Minister commit to going to Colville Lake with officials and the Sahtu Education Board to stop the students leaving the school by the time this government is finished? Can the Minister commit to going to Colville Lake to say he’s going to do something? Is that something I can look forward to from this Minister?
Obviously, my department needs to work very closely with the Sahtu Education Council as well. We have been working with them and the Colville Lake School. This is not new to us. We are fully aware of it. I will commit to getting back to the Member as soon as we have that information and we have deliberations. The next step, once that occurs, I will immediately follow up with the Member.
Again, the Sahtu leadership and the representatives have been working very closely with Colville Lake along with my department. We are going to push them forward as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.
