Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] Today I have a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and this question will be in French. The construction project of the Allain St-Cyr School is going forward and the Minister is negotiating with the Minister of Heritage Canada to get more funding. The Minister of Education is only asking for additional funding, twinning funds to expand the size of the gymnasium from 404 square metres to 456 square metres. The Minister of Education says that the rest of the construction can wait and can be built in another phase. The francophones have been waiting for over 10 years almost for the second phase of the construction at the Allain St-Cyr School. My question, wouldn't it be wiser to ask for additional funding from Heritage Canada to meet the needs of the francophone community during the same construction project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Translation ends]
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has been consistent in ensuring that our obligations under our capital standards are being met across the Northwest Territories and that any construction over and above these standards must be met with 100 per cent third-party funding. We have 49 schools in the Northwest Territories, we've got to make sure that we're providing education to all students, all 8,300 students across the Northwest Territories.
The Member is right, we did put in a proposal to Heritage Canada. They haven't even done a callout, we're ahead of the game, we're asking them, looking at what we can get provided moving forward. But anything above and beyond what our standards are for building capital in the NWT has to be 100 per cent funded from a third party and we are following what the court order has said that we had to build. As I mentioned, we're putting two new classrooms on top of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
[Translation] Given that Heritage Canada could pay up to 50 per cent of costs for shared spaces like a gymnasium, home economics, and given that Heritage Canada can pay up to 100 per cent of community spaces, such as the pre-kindergarten, daycare and offices for organizations, why does the Minister of Education not take advantage of this opportunity and to ask for additional funding right away, so to finally meet the needs of the Francophone community? [Translation ends]
As I mentioned, we did put in a proposal going forward to Heritage Canada. They responded to our staff, we're in dialogue right now, and we're looking at ways that -- they're asking for clarity on some of the questions that were provided. What we're going forward with is a schematic design that's built on our standards for capital projects from the government side. Any further developments I think needs to come from CSFTNO, and if the CSFTNO want to look at building more onto the school, then I'd encourage them to continue working with our department to find ways so we can support them to get to that next level. But right now, we are meeting our obligations under GNWT, under our policies to meet the regulations under capital infrastructure investments.
[Translation] When will the Minister of Education make its application to the Minister of Heritage Canada for the complete construction project? [Translation ends]
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we've already submitted a proposal, it's ahead of the game. Heritage Canada hasn't asked for callout for proposals. We're hoping to hear something by January or February where those discussions have taken place. Any further opportunities that myself and my department can have in engaging and discussing these matters with the Minister of Heritage Canada to come to a solution that's happy, that'll make everyone happy, I think. We'll take those opportunities as soon as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
[Translation] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister of Education can share those application letters with the francophone community and with the other Members here before January-February. If we can see those applications, that is can everybody here and up there see those applications? [Translation ends].
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure we can share with the APADY and CFSTNO, and even though we did put in one proposal to see if we can offset some of these costs, it doesn't mean that we couldn’t put in another application when they do that call out afterwards. But what we did put in, in discussions with CFSTNO, in some of our initial meetings, we want to see what results come back to us in January-February. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh
