Thank you, Mr. Chair, and in the New Year we'll be starting to look at the planning study working with the Department of Public Works and Services. Coming out of that planning study, we're hoping to have something in the Capital Planning Budget for 2018-2019.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
I have nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like my colleague, I want to talk about what's not on this list. It's my understanding that JH Sissons School on 51A is the oldest school in the NWT. I wonder if the Minister could tell me when we can expect to see a renovation at that school? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned, we do have 49 schools in various conditions and states across the Northwest Territories. In the previous government, there was a planning study within the budget; however, that money was moved to address the fixing of the roof at William McDonald, and as all Capital Planning Processes it has to go through the planning process and that’s based on priority getting it onto the budget. So it's going to have to meet the requirements that are listed that will get them on the planning study. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So right now there's no definite time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wonder if the Minister could just review for us the requirement for a midlife retrofit of the school?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and with all Capital Planning Processes, there's primary criteria for ranking capital projects, five of them. There's protection of the people, protection of assets, protection of the environments, financial investment and program needs or requirements. They're all taken into consideration when we're going through the Capital Planning Process. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's clear that Sissons School along with many others in the NWT needs significant investment from this government. What efforts is the Minister making to grow the pot of money available for our school retrofits? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just as I mentioned, all projects have to go through a capital planning process and there is a budget within the capital infrastructure budget here, and it's not only schools. We've got roads. We've got health centres, we've got hospitals. There's a lot of things that are taken into consideration. We’ve got housing that are all in the budget that we need to look at, and as I said it's all the priorities that are in the planning process. We also have some other criteria that we look at when addressing the needs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Green, anything further on page 11?
Thank you. I would just like to have one more go at my question, and my question was not about competing priorities but growing the budget for addressing this priority of retrofitting schools. Can the Minister tell us what efforts, if any, he's making to grow that pot of money? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All schools that are on the list have gone through the Capital Planning Process. The efforts to get some retrofits, some additional space on schools that have changed from let's say a kindergarten to grade nine to a junior kindergarten to grade 12 and needed to be set as a priority for spacing issues. We are under a fiscal situation here in the Northwest Territories as are all other jurisdictions across Canada, and whatever dollars that we can get out of the budget, they want to use and put them in the areas that we see that meets the needs of the capital planning process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Minister. Ms. Green, if we can focus on the capital projects on page 11.
I have no further questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see that Ecole Allain St-Cyr is listed on page 11, and is it safe to assume then that the funds that are listed on the previous page, that doesn't include any additional funding that the department has applied to Heritage Canada for. Is that the case, Mr. Chair? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly.
That's the total cost of the project for that year, and as I mentioned there is a proposal that they go to the federal government, so, yes, no, that is total cost of project. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So can the Minister tell me when that proposal is submitted to Heritage Canada? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Yes, we submitted it in September. I'll have to get the exact dates, and as mentioned we should hopefully be hearing something back in January or February. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, if the proposal was submitted in September, has a copy of that proposal been provided to APADY and CSFTNO? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The CSFTNO were working collaboratively with the departments when that proposal was submitted and in terms of the schematic designs that did meet our capital standards were put into the designs that were presented to APADY as well as to CSFTNO. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't think the Minister actually answered my question. Has a copy of the proposal that was submitted to Heritage Canada, has that been provided to APADY and CSFTNO, yes or no? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister, yes or no?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did share a letter with them. As mentioned in the questions earlier today that we can share that proposal with the interested parties. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Is that sufficient, Mr. O'Reilly, yes or no? You want the proposal?
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, as I understand it then, a copy of the proposal was not shared with APADY or CSFTNO and still hasn't today. So I'm just wondering why there seems to be some systemic problem with this department working collaboratively with CSFTNO and APADY. I don't understand why the department cannot work collaboratively with these two organizations in something as simple as putting together a proposal that would go to Heritage Canada. That would actually save us money so that we wouldn't have to put all the money into the expansion ourselves. So what is the problem with the department working collaboratively with APADY and CSFTNO? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and, as I mentioned earlier today, that we are meeting our court ordered obligations. Anything that goes above the court order has to come through a third party funding, and so, and as I mentioned, if CSFTNO wants to go bigger and better that they've got to come up with a schematic design.
As I mentioned to the Minister or the Member earlier, that our staff would be willing to work with their staff and provide some support so that they can work on developing that design, and then we can go back. But our proposal was government to government, based on the court order that we had, had to meet our obligations based on our capital standards throughout the Northwest Territories, and we met what our requirements were supposed to meet. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly, being mindful of our fiscal situation and the court order requirements.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I hear what the Minister is saying, and I'm not prepared to accept that quite yet. You know, look, I'm trying to understand why it wouldn't be better to work with these two organizations and submit a proposal that would include letters of support from the two organizations, including one that's actually taken us to court over this stuff.
So why couldn't we work collaboratively with them to get letters of support? These two organizations also have contacts in Ottawa, connections in Ottawa, that might help ensure that this money is actually approved. What is the problem in working collaboratively with these organizations? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that CSFTNO has done some good groundwork, has done some good advocating. We also have been meeting with Heritage Canada, as I said. They did get back to us to clarify some questions. We're hoping to find a solution or an answer, a more definite answer, in January or February, but you can't put dollars on the table without having the schematic design in front of you. The design that we developed, based on our standards, the GNWT standards that we make sure that are consistent across the Northwest Territories with every school of the size and the nature, we're following our requirements.
There's not a schematic design out there right now that shows the added, the expansions of Ecole Allain StCyr, so, once we have that, then we can start working on getting those letters of support and working together. We don't have that right now, and, as I mentioned, our staff would be willing to work with the staff at CSFTNO to work on getting the supports needed to develop that design and go to the federal government with.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Look, I don't want to drag this out any longer than I have to, but I have one other point that I want to pursue. As I understand it, the court order required the new gymnasium and two special needs spaces. It's the GNWT that's actually decided to work collaboratively with the francophone community to add two additional classrooms that are above and beyond the court order.
So I think I heard the Minister say that we're going to just do the basics. That's not true. What I know is that this has actually gone above and beyond what's in the court order. Going to Heritage Canada can bring in some additional money to help do all of this at one time, and we could actually save ourselves some money. So can the Minister confirm that GNWT is actually prepared now to go above and beyond the court order with the expansion of the school? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. In meeting with the CSFTNO on the expansion of the school currently, we did see the enrolment rates going up and the utilization rates increasing. These are educational requirements. We know that they're expanding and the enrolments are coming up. We're meeting our educational requirements. There's not a cultural requirement to that. That's what they're asking for. The two extra classrooms are educational requirements because we want to make sure that, when the school enrolment and the utilization rate increases, that they do have the extra two classrooms that meet their educational needs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
