Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is time we get the renovation on the Diamond Jenness Secondary School done. This school is long past its mid-life crises. We need to make this project happen so that the children of Hay River, the students — and a couple of them are right here in the Chamber today — our young people, can have a healthy and safe learning environment and our teachers can have a healthy and safe workplace.
Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I talked about how the capital plan has been pushed back. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment why the renovations for Diamond Jenness Secondary School were deferred, delayed, postponed.
Thank you, Ms. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. At this particular school, the Diamond Jenness, there’s been some work on the technical status evaluation report that was worked on in 2003, 2006 and 2008. There’s also an educational plan that is underway.
We do have our consultants going through the community tomorrow to meet with the DEA to go over the materials that need to be discussed on the educational plan. That report will be available to the community DEA and to the Member as well. Those are the works that have been undertaken with the capital projects we will be discussing here. We need to have a plan in place before we proceed with a major project.
We’ve had many years to study this problem and get a plan in place. The fact is that this government has a large capital budget going forward. A document was tabled yesterday in this House showing what the priorities of that capital budget are. I want to know why Hay River is not being treated as a priority.
I can remember at the candidate forum in Hay River reassuring the people that this was in the capital budget. How can we go back and face our community now? They ask why. Why is Hay River not getting the attention it needs?
To the subject of the volume or size of our capital budget, I have a couple of questions about some of the other educational facilities in here. Has a contract been awarded yet for the Samuel Hearne/Sir Alexander Mackenzie School project in Inuvik? Has the contract been awarded?
Yes, there is a contract that’s been awarded to work on the Inuvik school.
I’d like to know how much the contract that has been signed and awarded is for.
I can certainly share that with the Member. I don’t have it in front of me today. But it does break down on whether it will be the foundation, the actual structure of the building itself. There are many aspects of the project itself, so we need to have the breakdown of the actual cost of the capital project.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister: isn’t it true that the capital project for the Inuvik school is a negotiated contract in the neighbourhood of $140 million?
I’m not sure where that $140 million is coming from, but I can provide that information to the Member. I need to go back to my department to get the actual figures of the negotiated contract, if that’s a negotiated contract in the community of Inuvik. We need to have that information before us to know if it’s $140 million or if it’s another number.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
