Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll respond to some. On the Tsiigehtchic Health Centre, we’ll take note of the Member’s concern suggesting that it be replaced as opposed to repaired.
The issue of housing and building more units, of course, is one that we’re going to struggle with as we put more money in, but a lot of that is going to be eaten up by the cutbacks of CMHC. That’s on the list. We hear that from every community.
I’m going to ask, Mr. Chairman, if Mr. Guy can talk to the Moose Kerr School, and I’ll ask Mr. Neudorf if he could touch on the transportation issues tied to the Tsiigehtchic Airport, the Willow River Road and the new ferry to replace the Louis Cardinal.
Thank you, Minister. We’ll go to Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In addition to the foundation repairs we’ve made to the Moose Kerr School, we’ve also done a significant amount of other work to that facility through our Deferred Maintenance Program. We’ve completed the upgrading to the roof, the gym floor has been replaced, a general electrical upgrade, ceiling replacement in the gym. We’ve also completed upgrades to the heating and ventilation systems, plumbing repairs, flooring replacements, drywall repairs, playground equipment. Those are all since 2008, and we’ve invested approximately $2.18 million in maintenance on that facility to keep it in a serviceable condition until such time as it can be brought forward for replacement in the capital plan.
Based on the current facility condition and the program requirements, ECE, I believe, has identified it in their capital needs for consideration for renovation or major upgrading in 2018-19, so it is, I believe, a high priority for the department.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Next we’ll go to Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the Tsiigehtchic Airport, that request has been brought to the department’s attention over the past number of years. Our response is it’s an affordability issue about infrastructure and they’re just over an hour from a major airport in Inuvik.
The Aklavik Willow River Bridge, the Community Access Program has provided contributions to the community over the past several years to purchase the bridge. I think the total price is about $2 million to install it. So that will become a bit of a challenge for the community as they’re looking to move forward under the Community Access Program because that program, of course, is only $1 million a year and it serves all communities in the NWT.
The replacement of the Louis Cardinal Ferry, we continue to retrofit that ferry as needs require and inspections are done on a regular basis and it continues to meet the demands that are placed on it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Blake, do you have some follow-up questions?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just on the Willow River Bridge, I don’t see the point where the department provided this bridge. Installing it was $2 million and all we get on a yearly basis is $200,000. I know the department did provide a bit more than that this past year, which was great, but it’s time for the department to step up here and provide the $2 million to actually put this in place. You know, we’re throwing around $200 million or $300 million here on one highway. A little infrastructure that means a lot to the community would really go a long way here. This is better than 1 percent of what they’re spending here.
The other thing is with the airport. I know Fort McPherson is an hour and a half away and yet they have an airport. The reasoning why we can’t have an airport in Tsiigehtchic doesn’t make sense. We’re an hour away, yes, but in an emergency situation, which we have many times, it’s up to the community to organize bringing people in, in an emergency. I mean, it’s not up to the health centre. They’ve got a lot of play in this. It’s the people. They take their own responsibility to ensure the safety of the residents and I really don’t appreciate that answer I received.
But, once again, at Moose Kerr School, I hope we do end up replacing that when the time comes, such as we did with the Stanton Territorial Hospital. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The fiscal reality is what is driving us all and it’s evidenced quite clearly in the capital plan and we have a much longer list of infrastructure projects than we have money. The issue of prioritizing or having to make choices is always before us. So I appreciate the Member’s frustration on some of these requests.
The Willow River, I’m not sure what the opportunities are. I haven’t talked fully to the Minister of Transportation if there are ways, but we’re now faced with political choices and we’ve capital planned and flexed the process and everything has been through. Any new add-ons are going to have to be the subject for the 18th Assembly and in keeping with it, as well, the typical choices that we’re going to have to make about our funding, but we’ll definitely have the list of needs that have been identified by the Member for his communities. The Moose Kerr School is going to be on the list for, at the very least, a major reno. So we’ll hope, as the Member does, that all the reviews will come up in favour of a replacement. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, we’re on Capital Estimates, 2016-2017. Next I have Mr. Dolynny, followed by Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I welcome the department here today. I just want to first talk about the economic landscape. As you heard earlier today from the Minister of Finance on the fiscal update, I think it’s important that we view this capital expenditure budget, but I think we need to be wary of some of those high-level issues that we heard and I think many of us know as well.
We know that this current government, the 17th Assembly, struggled in balancing expansion of growth and keeping it in mind with revenue growth. That’s been mentioned many times. This is even more pronounced now when we see our GNWT revenues flat for the next five years, as has been forecast, and yet we’re still seeing capital spending at the 2 percent level. Another way of looking at it is we have a two to one relationship there. This proportion of relationship will only mean that our short-term debt financing will go to appease our capital appetite in the next couple of years if we continue down this pathway.
As we’ve heard the Minister earlier today, we cannot continue to go down this deficit spending path as we end the 17th and go into the 18th. We need to make sure of specific investments for our economic future, we know that’s a given, but continuing to increase our borrowing limits for both short term and long term is not a solution to ensure such a future.
As we’ve heard, we’ve got to live within our means and live within our fiscal capacity, and we’ve got to make sure expenditure growth is controlled. Mr. Chair, I say, without prejudice to the current Minister of Finance, we have to get this House in order, because from my perspective, we’re heading down a path where I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to maintain all existing assets as they are and meeting all the legislative requirements that are before us. So I speak caution as we move forward.
As for the current capital plan before committee and for the sake of not repeating some of the same comments of my colleagues of yesterday and today, I can tell you that there have been some issues with the Public Works and Services department so-called red flag list. As you heard yesterday, committee talked about a lot of confusion in this area, and I have to echo those comments. We’re seeing planning studies being done and completed in one year and then showing up as being proposed in the next. A point in question, the Fort Simpson Health Centre was one and the Tulita Health Centre are examples of this confusion. So, the question is, why? Is there any way you can clean it up?
I have a suggestion for the department. If you want faith and committee’s ability to trust this red flag list information, you have to make sure this data is accurate moving forward. We can’t flip-flop from year to year. Second, if we want to proceed, and in the interests of consensus government, the list should be a public, living, breathing document. A lot of the stuff is happening behind the scenes and I think the public would be enriched knowing some of this information that should be at their fingertips. So I challenge the government to set that standard high as we begin the 18th Assembly shortly.
Changing gears, tapping into the Building Canada funding is important. Committee does fully support your efforts. However, as we’ve heard time and time again, committee has tried to influence and provide some feedback on the project priorities. As we’ve heard in communication back and forth, sharing your completed list with committee is not asking for our input. So I’m asking, as we move forward, can committee have at least some degree of input as you make your list finalized as you are applying for these much needed funding dollars? Again, a suggestion for improvement for the 18th Assembly.
As committee did appreciate the briefing yesterday regarding the newly proposed P3 Stanton Hospital, it’s unfortunate that we can’t share this with the public. So I challenge the department, I challenge the Minister to try to get this out as soon as we can and provide all those options that we talked about.
One of the things that struck me, and a question that has not been quite rectified, is the issue of funding. Why do we not look at other options for funding for this rather than a P3? I like to use the example, Mr. Chair, the building we’re in right now, the Legislative Assembly. This was done under what was referred to as a public bond. This was an opportunity that money could be raised by Northerners, invested by Northerners and where money stays in the North. I’m really suspect why we didn’t try to use that type of tool to move forward. There was never really a discussion point and never really finalized. Again, I’m hoping that we’re not too far down this garden path that we can actually maybe look at that before we embark on this very expensive P3 initiative.
I know that the department has done a lot of…(inaudible)…money analysis, but everyone knows that this P3 hospital project will not be cheap in the long run. Jobs will more than likely go to lots of Southerners and our local businesses will be left on the sidelines, literally with table scraps. This has held true. We know that there have been issues even in Hay River recently with the same proponents who are looking at building a hospital in Yellowknife.
There are issues in Hay River with many businesses being left high and dry and I’m not sure if there are litigation issues in the works, but I can tell you that it does concern me. Knowing that that is the microcosm of what is to come for Yellowknife, I do think we need to have that high level discussion. So again, what guarantee do we have to protect local small business operators that are being shut out of this project? I think that’s a question many businesses have and I know they’ve asked me.
On the subject of this new hospital, I know, again not getting into details, it’s not as public as it should be, but what has been mentioned a little bit here is the re-profiling of the old hospital now. What has not been discussed and talked about is the fact that if this building, this hospital, now gets re-profiled to whatever it is. Whether it’s retail, commercial space, or even space the government may use in some type of form or arrangement, right now, and my numbers are a little old here, Mr. Chair, but not less than a year ago when the new office building that we constructed came on line there was well over 150,000 square feet of commercial real estate vacant in Yellowknife and that basically represented about 14 percent of vacancy. Again, I don’t have the statistics of how much vacant space the re-profiled hospital might offer to the environment around Yellowknife, but my quick calculation, just trying to figure out, it could be up to another 10 percent of commercial vacancy added to an already 14 percent market, thereby lifting the overall commercial vacancy rate to over 20-something percent to be fair.
In the world of investment, this puts an imbalance in any economy and creates a lot of dissention amongst landlords, large landlords and smaller landlords, and what really happens is that larger landlords are usually able to make do during these tough economic times. It’s the smaller landlords that don’t. These are the landlords that are going to struggle if we’re putting this much more vacancy on the market. So I caution, and again, I’d like to hear the high-level discussion, if that has been researched as to do we have concerns that by doing that we’re going to be creating even more imbalance in an already very tight, very tough marketplace which is commercial real estate. So, again, a bit of a loaded question, but one which gravely affects many of the larger and smaller landlords in the city of Yellowknife.
At committee, as we’ve heard, parks upgrades, I think the chair mentioned that earlier. I, too, want to commend the department for the multitude of park upgrades we’re seeing throughout the Northwest Territories. However, with one caveat, that these beautiful parks it seems that, with climate change I guess, if we want to use it in that loose term, we have the ability to use our parks for longer periods of time. One of these parks closed in the middle of September when really many people camp well into September, even in early October, so I challenge the department as they’re doing their operational plans with their contractors that we need to look at lengthening the opening and the earlier opening of our parks so that the public can actually enjoy a lot of the infrastructure that we’ve provided.
Finally, Mr. Chair, there’s been some concern for years that the government’s plan for long-term care beds will not fill what we call the impeding demand, given the dramatic aging of our NWT population. Now, we’ve heard how difficult it is to predict and we’ve heard that there have been many commitments and many planning studies involved, but we haven’t really seen a lot of specific investments. Now, the budget does have some good news, and I would welcome the department’s overall view on how they’re dealing with this impeding issue of aging in place. Also, with the aging of the NWT population, how are we going to be able to find long-term care beds?
I’ll stop there for now, Mr. Chair. I know there are a few questions in there and I definitely have more questions as we get into departments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to the red flag lists, what has happened, the amount of money in the capital plan is varied and we went, most recently, from one hundred and twenty-five back down to seventy-five, which meant that things on the list had to be re-prioritized. You can only do a certain number with $75 million, which is a very small amount of money when you have an overall budget of $1.8 billion and we do have input throughout this process with Regular Members and one of the things where we could point to is the ratio over the money for the Build Canada Plan was switched to put a few more dollars into the communities instead of transportation. Transportation initially got most of the money, they still got most of the money but I think it’s now 85 percent. It could be argued that it should be more, but there was a move of another 5 percent to make sure that we tried to put some more money into the communities.
The issue of the local business, it is a priority as was pointed out by Mr. Kalgutkar. There is a clause in the contract that we could hold the proponent accountable for that’s going to allow us to keep track of that. There are checks and balances. There’s going to be oversight required, and as we indicated, if you have names of business that are experiencing difficulty, if you could give them to us we would follow up with the businesses and the proponent to see what can be done.
The issue of re-profiling the current Stanton. There are a number of options as we discussed yesterday. What use may be available, some of it may have an impact on the market as that work is fleshed out that particular market impact variable will be dealt with.
I appreciate once again the comments and commendation to the parks folks. I’ll let Mr. Dolynny pursue the issue of the parks opening with the Minister of ITI.
As well, the issue of the long-term care beds aging in place, are there going to be enough. We have a very big proposal on the table in Yellowknife plus we have to as well figure out the home of the extended care piece that is being moved out of Stanton. So I anticipate, as the Member said, when health comes up he would be asking those specific questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on my list I have Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know my colleagues have said a lot in a whole bunch of different areas within the departments. One with the cost of living in the Northwest Territories is continuing to get higher. As we see a slow economy, it’s really affecting a lot of our communities, more in particular the Sahtu, up in our region, the Beaufort-Delta. I guess, you know, the one benefit is when we do create a lot of these infrastructure projects, especially the bigger ticket items, that it is creating jobs, it is creating a skilled workforce in the communities and throughout the Northwest Territories, so there is a benefit there and I know that there is a concern that this government is the main employer for the Northwest Territories and it does reflect in our budgets moving forward. But as the Minister stated earlier today in his statement, this is something that we can’t continue to sustain, we’ve got to find other ways to create that kind of revenue and get our people working. So I won’t really get into the cost of living but, you know, there are some opportunities for home and business owners to look at getting some infrastructure incentives to lower their cost of living.
I’m glad to see in this budget the continuation of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link and seeing all the benefits from that and it’ll be great when that comes to more of a reality when it’s all finished and it’s up and running.
The same with the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. I know there have been a lot of concerns and discussions here in the House recently. I think we’re certainly going to see the benefits of that construction going on and I know there are some difficulties with the weather and unforeseen little delays in the project, but one thing that I think the government did a good job on is creating that oversight and getting the project manager on board perhaps a little bit sooner than later would have been a little bit more beneficial to the whole project in itself in getting things done and some of the oversights in the environmental side of things. But that’s one project, like I said earlier, that when we invest in some of these infrastructure projects it does benefit the territory and benefit people, especially up in the Beaufort-Delta and for future projects and other resource development.
Continuing on, I know there were two other kinds of projects in the community of Inuvik. One is that airport road from the airport into the community. I think this is the worst that I’ve ever seen it in all the years that I’ve driven it and have been driving it more lately than I usually do getting out to the airport. We had an accident on that road this past summer. It was an unfortunate accident, and before it gets any worse I think we need to create a bigger investment. I know they were talking about chipsealing it, and I know that when you chipseal it you have to continue to do the work over and over rather than putting that one big-time investment in to try to get it done in a proper way so we wouldn’t have to continue to do the maintenance on it but, once again, with the permafrost and all those other issues. But I know that road has been in the worst condition that I’ve ever seen it in. I do know the airport facility is also on the books and that we’ve also got funding going into the runway, so I’m looking forward to seeing that study and how this government can support both the runway and the facility.
I guess another area of concern was just in terms of education. One good benefit was the note on the planning studies for the Yellowknife schools. I know that’s been a big concern for Members here in Yellowknife. I was glad to see that the dollars were being contributed to that. But other areas, we just came out with the feasibility study for early childhood development and the benefits of investing early on in life and what it will do for the government in so many different areas and possibly looking at seeing how we can create daycares in the communities. It doesn’t mean that every community needs to have one, but if we can look at creating something moving forward, because that feasibility study did prove a lot and show a lot in terms of our early childhood development.
You heard some concerns here about the Stanton Territorial Hospital. A big investment. A big project. I wasn’t in the government when the Inuvik school got built but there were some concerns from the community, and you heard it from Members here in terms of contracting and local employment, and I want to make sure that those things are not overlooked when we’re creating such a big project, especially with a slow economy. I think that our northern contractors, our northern residents need to benefit from a huge project like this.
A lot of the other stuff that I had on the list here Members have said already and I won’t reiterate some of their comments. We’ll get into detail, but I just wanted to make a few general comments on the budget.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. We’ll turn it over to Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue of cost of living and the role of the territorial government and the importance of our capital program, I agree with the Member’s comments about that, about the value and the role they play.
I appreciate his comments on the fibre link as well as the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. We will move that project to completion. We will sort through things that need sorting and we will continue on with that. Airport road is in bundle two of the Build Canada Fund. The runway study, there is work being done, I believe, in conjunction with the federal government to look at lengthening it for use that interests the federal government.
Investing in daycare is one of those issues that’s tied up in available funds that aren’t already subscribed to and our limitations.
We’ve had a lot of discussions about Stanton and the issue of its impact and the need for local opportunity. Not wanting to repeat all my comments in regard to Mr. Dolynny’s same question, we are very live to that issue and we intend to see the maximum benefit that can be under this project in terms of local opportunity.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Does committee agree that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
Does the committee agree to proceed into detail?
Agreed.
Before we do so, I’d like to thank our guests here today, Mr. Neudorf, Mr. Guy, Mr. Kalgutkar and, of course, Minister Miltenberger. If I can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort our witnesses out of the Chamber.
Committee, as agreed earlier, we are going to turn our attention now to the capital estimates, Department of Education, Culture and Employment. With that, we’ll turn it over to the Minister to see if he has any witnesses he’d like to bring into the House. Minister Lafferty.
Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. If I can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses into the House.
Minister Lafferty, if you’d be kind enough to introduce your witnesses to the House, please.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me, to my left, David Stewart. He is the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Also, to my right, Olin Lovely. He is the assistant deputy minister, corporate services, with the Education department.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Lovely and Mr. Stewart. Welcome back to the House.
Committee, if I can turn your attention to your capital infrastructure workbooks, we are going to be doing Education as indicated. We’re going to be on page 13. With that, we’ll defer that after consideration of the activity detail. I’d ask your indulgence to turn to page 14, education and culture, infrastructure investments, $6.627 million. Does committee agree? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to clarify, so when you mention one page we’re also including the descriptions that are on the following page? Yes.
I don’t have a question particularly about these projects. I do want to state again that I’m very pleased to see that we have planning study money for two schools in Yellowknife. Particularly, in my mind, J.H. Sissons is very much overdue. Mildred Hall is a continuation of a renovation from quite some years ago. But if we could get Sissons on the renovation list in terms of capital planning sooner rather than later, I think it’s something that is definitely needed. I’m glad to see that there is planning money there and I hope it will come to fruition as a capital plan in the capital plan in the next budget year.
I just want to comment, as I did in my opening remarks, about the amount of education infrastructure in general, and there just is not much in this budget. We have some 45 or 49 schools; I can’t quite remember. But you look at this page and there are really only three schools that are getting any kind of an infrastructure boost, so to speak. We’ve got a mid-life retrofit in one school, we have an addition in another, and we have some interior upgrades in a third one. Everything else is bits and pieces. We’ve got planning studies, we’ve got the sewer line at Sir John which is being fixed, and Lord knows it’s been talked about by YK No. 1 for probably 10 years now, so I’m very glad to see that in there as well.
But there’s minimal large infrastructure projects for education in general, and out of our 40-some schools to have only three on this list and one of which is interior upgrades tells me that we’re not doing enough to maintain our schools and we’re not doing enough to make sure that our schools are kept up to the standard that they need to be.
I just make that as a general comment, and I would hope that in the next couple of capital budgets that there’s going to be an awful lot more money put into school additions, renovations, new schools where necessary. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. More of a comment, but I will allow the Minister opportunity to reply. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Yes, on a going-forward basis, the planning study has been in the works for some time. Members have raised that issue in the House. It’s here before us and it’s going forward.
A capital plan for 2015-2016, obviously there are other pressing issues, as well, in the Northwest Territories. I have to remind the House that we spent well over $150 million over the past five years. So we’ve had our turn and there are other significant projects on the go. I agree with the Member that as we move forward, we should be putting more emphasis on our schools, whether it be renovating and so forth. I fully agree with her that that will be our focus as we embark on future prospects. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro, are you concluded?
I’m good. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Continuing on with detail again, we are on pages 14 and 15, which are the project listings on Education, Culture and Employment. I have Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. With the Charles Tetcho School addition, I am pleased we are addressing the concerns of the larger student population in Trout Lake. I know that the community agreed to the school addition with reservations because that is their community hall and they are losing it. It needs to be said, Mr. Chair, that I am pleased that we are addressing the student population and the growth of the community of Trout Lake; however, we are losing the community hall. Maybe with the Minister’s support, he can raise with his Cabinet colleagues that moving forward in future capital plans we are going to have to be looking at a community hall to meet the needs of Trout Lake because they do use this facility six days a week and the whole community is involved. In small communities people gather around and this is one of the focal facilities that brings the community together.
The question I have is capital upgrades to support lockdown procedures for safe schools. I would just like to know what the plans are there for improving our lockdown procedures. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. With respect to the Trout Lake school, the last time we visited, I went there with my staff and also Mr. Menicoche and the school representatives. I wanted to see with my own eyes what’s been referred to as a community gathering. The school is also attached to the community hall. We took that into perspective as well. The community obviously wanted us to address the school because the student population is increasing. Obviously, it was the wish of the community to move forward on that addition. Mr. Menicoche obviously stated concerns, as well, about the community hall and how we can address that. Those are discussions we’ve had with other departments, as well, MACA and PWS. It is a concern that’s been brought to our attention as well. We will continue to work towards how we can rectify that situation.
With regards to safe schools and lockdown procedures, obviously we have been working very closely with the divisional education councils and the schools regarding the existing public address systems – it’s called PAs – and the lockdown procedures. Many of our PA systems are deficient and require upgrades and replacement. Those are areas that we will continue to focus on to provide even more support to the schools to put those into perspective, upgrade them as well.
Unless I missed out on key topics, Mr. Chair, those are some key areas the Member was referring to. Mahsi.
Certainly, even though we’re living in the North and we have small and remote communities, I always see in the news schools being locked down or severe incidents happening, so I am pleased we are moving forward with this. Perhaps the Minister could say how he’s handling the smaller communities. Thank you.
Obviously, there is a process in place. We’ve been at this for some time now. We are working with divisional education councils and obviously working very closely with the Department of Public Works and Services to confirm this is the highest priority projects for my department to move forward on. Safety is always a big concern and priority for my department and also the GNWT. That’s why this is before us. Safe schools has been a very important process we have been working with. Again, I just want to re-emphasize we are working with all school boards to make it a priority for the other 49 schools as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Again, we are on pages 14 and 15 of the Education, Culture and Employment section of the capital estimates. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I welcome the Minister and his staff. I appreciate this opportunity. I think I support many of the comments I heard from my colleague Ms. Bisaro. I’m happy to see some of the work going on in our schools in the smaller communities, Lutselk’e certainly and some of the others that have been mentioned already. I am very glad to see the sewer line finally being fixed at Sir John Franklin. That’s something that’s been there for years and I know has been an issue.
Again, I appreciate the Minister putting forward some planning money for a couple of Yellowknife schools that are long overdue.
I just want to make sure the Minister heard my comments earlier about the need to actually provide a new school in Detah, replace the Kaw Tay Whee structure which is a couple of portable units established there about 30 years ago. Since then they’ve gone from a few classes up to 10 classes and it’s a four-room school. So Kaw Tay Whee is not able to have any longer the language and culture program they used to have because there is simply not the space to do that. So, again, four rooms, 10 classes.
In association with that, the Detah school, Kaw Tay Whee, does not have a sprinkler system and I would like to ask the Minister, is that not a standard for our schools? Should our schools not have sprinkler systems to ensure the safety of our children? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. There were several issues brought to our attention by the school principal. My department has been working with the principal to resolve those issues, whether it be a site investigation. PWS has obviously been working with them as well. They have contracted the PSAV architect as late as this month, September. So that work is ongoing.
The sprinkler system obviously is part of the discussion, I believe. It’s also, from the principal’s perspective, brought to my department’s attention and PWS is aware of that as well. My department is doing what we can to work with the school and also the school board, the principal, to resolve those outstanding issues that are brought to our attention, Mr. Chair. Mahsi.
I know Minister was out earlier today, I believe, or perhaps that’s coming up that he’s doing a presentation at the school. So I’m hoping he will have an opportunity to look directly at the school himself. I know he’s familiar with it.
I guess I would ask when we might expect to see some of those things happen that are under discussion and if the Minister will commit to getting a new school on the capital plan for Detah. Partly the situation is that without having a proper facility there, parents are having to bus their children into Yellowknife. As an example, I met, at a constituency meeting a couple of days ago, with a family with teenage daughters who get bussed in, but the bus leaves at such a time and school starts at such a time that these kids are left sort of footloose and fancy-free in Yellowknife for an hour, and that’s plenty of time to get into trouble. I think I certainly would have if I had that opportunity at that age.
This is a separate community; it’s recognized as a separate community and we need to recognize that in providing appropriate facilities. The same thing goes for housing, which is another topic. But we don’t want people moving away from their families because we don’t have proper facilities there. So, there are a couple of questions there. Maybe I’ll just mention the hope, or seek a commitment to also get Aurora College Yellowknife Campus on the capital plan. I know perhaps the Minister has toured that building, as committees have, and it is one crowded facility. We can’t expect them to be doing good work in those sorts of quarters for very long. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Obviously, in the meantime, those concerns and issues that have been brought to our attention, we’ll continue to work on with the principal and the school board. With the new school that the Member is referring to, obviously that’s an area that I need to work with PWS. My department is willing to meet with the school board to talk about the next step and how that’s going to look. We’re reaching out to the community. We want to sit down with them and develop a plan. Obviously, there’s a process in place that we need to follow in order to come to this table. So, we’re more than open to discuss that with the school board. As I’ve indicated, we’re reaching out to them as well.
The Aurora College is an area that has been brought up on numerous occasions in the House. Just recently our Finance Minister highlighted that the Stanton facility we’ll be vacating to a new establishment, so that’s an opportunity that we want to explore further how that’s going to look. We’re going to have an existing tremendous amount of infrastructure space. That’s a discussion that we want to have. We’ve been approached by Aboriginal governments, as well, the business arm. They wanted to build a facility for us and lease it back over a long period of time, 30 to 40 years. So we’re awaiting for those types of discussions to happen. These are the exploratory options that we’re currently discussing with the parties involved. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for the Minister’s comments and commitments there. I appreciate that. I agree; there are some exciting opportunities coming up with the Stanton building and so on.
I guess maybe just to confirm, I believe I heard the Minister say he was committing to meet with the Detah District Education Authority about the possibility of a new school and the process that will be required to achieve that. So if I can just get confirmation that he will be setting up that meeting, and if it’s possible to do that during the life of this Assembly by October 23rd, that would be great. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I did commit that we want to meet with the DEA for Detah to start the discussion. So we’re more than open to have that type of discussion. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Continuing on with questions on this activity, I have Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple comments in this section here. I’m glad to see that we’re putting some funding into some of the smaller communities and the schools that they have. But I know in some of the past work that I’ve done when I’ve gone and done work in the schools – presentations, workshops, those kinds of things – there’s always areas of concern, renovations that needed to be made. In some cases there were schools that had mouse problems and rodent problems. I just want to make a comment that I think there should be an overhaul in the overview of all our schools, especially in the small communities, that that is a safe working environment for our teachers but also a safe place to get an education for our students. I think that’s a project that needs to be done by the department. As I said, mainly in the small schools is where I saw it, so I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.
This government has also taken a really good stance in terms of adult education, and this area deals with community learning centres. I’m not sure what our inventory… I think we have 23 community learning centres; I’m not too sure. But if that’s the case, there are some communities that don’t have a learning centre, and whether or not that will be put into the books because we do have a lot of adults out there who do need that upgrading. Even in some of our learning centres that are in communities now, they also need some upgrading. I know the Aurora College is looking into programs similar to what the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority has in terms of e-learning and putting that infrastructure in place. So students who don’t want to go to Yellowknife or Fort Smith or Inuvik can get some type of education through an e-learning program through their community learning centre. I think that needs to be addressed moving forward.
As mentioned earlier with the early child care centres, if you look into the feasibility study that was tabled earlier this summer, one cost of child care centres was mentioned that a capital expense of eight to 15 million dollars would be required. However, they could be housed in surplus space in elementary schools. So I think that if we are looking at building any type of new schools, that’s something that we take into consideration, or any existing schools now, that we identify surplus space to look at developing some of these child care centres. The economic benefits that come from universal daycare that was said in this study, there are some really great benefits and I think that needs to be addressed. It would be great if it could be addressed before this government finishes this term.
The one other big thing that I just wanted to bring to your attention was the renovations, once again, at East Three Elementary with the dental facility. I’m not sure if there’s an update on that and if there was any kind of funding dollars to get that room up to code, up to standard so that the dentist can start practicing there.
I haven’t had an update on that in a while. So, if we could get an update and whether that’s going to be something we’re going to be addressing in the future. As the Minister knows, questions in the House with the dental care, issues that we have throughout the North, that’s probably one of the contributing factors as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. We’ll turn it over to Minister Lafferty.
