Agreed.
Committee, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment begins on page 17. And we will defer the departmental totals and review the estimates by activity summary, beginning at page 19, with junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services with information on page 20.
Education, Culture and Employment, junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, infrastructure investment, $5,623,000. Is there any questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I recall last capital budget we passed these three portables for Colville Lake, and the intention there was that was going to act as their school while it was completed. But I see now there's been a change here where Colville Lake School has been changed from being built to a planning designation. Can I just get a bit of an update of what the current plan is or what's going on with the Colville Lake School? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the Member mentioned two projects in this capital plan. Colville Lake School planning and Colville Lake School three portables. The three portables are in the process of being constructed. They will be on the winter road in the new year, and they will be set up and ready for school in the upcoming school year. The school itself is still in the planning phase. As the Members are aware, we have adjusted how we budget for capital and so we are only budgeting for the planning phase, which is what we actually expect to spend. We're not budgeting for, you know, builds that we're not going to do. So we've been working with the band in Colville Lake. They wanted to take the lead on this project so we have provided them with funding to do the work that the department would normally do in the lead up to the development of an infrastructure project. And so they are doing that work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I recall, you know, I don't recall what is public or not, but at one point there was some back and forth with the community because they perhaps had much larger intentions of what this school would be, you know, including perhaps some communitybased infrastructure in it. Yeah, I'm just hoping if I can get a bit more of an update on how that work is going with Colville Lake and whether, you know, this is going to be the kind of superschool that it was initially planned as or whether this is going to be just a school that is in compliance with our current kind of infrastructure guidelines. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. So what we've asked is for the band to put together a proposal for a school according to the capital standards, Education, Culture and Employment's capital standards on school projects. And then, as well, a plan for anything additional that they would like so that we have sort of a base model to go off of and then we can look at additional things that usually aren't in schools and figure out if there's ways to find funding to make that happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And can the Minister just remind me where child care spaces have landed in this debate? I know we have new capital standards, and I believe there was some intention when communities wanted to put child care spaces directly in schools. Yeah, I guess more generally speaking, is that now our goal, or is that kind of dependent on the individual school? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So the new capital standards, which were approved in 2020, include provisions for child care spaces in a school facility if the spaces are warranted. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions, comments? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With the number of schools there that you know, that's within the department and some of the work that I see happening, one of the concerns I always have is barrierfree access in our designs and whether you know, whether all schools, even if they're aged, you know, if they're, you know, being retrofitted to ensure that we have barrierfree access for all children and employees. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And the way this planning for capital works is that the department gathers up all of the different wants from the different school boards as well as information about the state of all the different capital assets from the Department of Infrastructure, and then we make assessments as to what can be done with a budget. And we sometimes have enough for a new school or a retrofit as well as a few a couple small capital projects. And the things the Member's referencing accessibility, ensuring older schools are accessible those are my priority for when I look at the smaller capital projects that we can advance. And I would have to I think it's probably the department's as well. I think we might have been on the same page when I first got into this portfolio. But, yes, I do prioritize those when looking at what projects to advance. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, the other thing, you know, when I think of schools, you know, I think of, you know, a healthy learning environment; I think of, you know, healthy children and, you know, that improves learning capability, you know yeah, improves learning, I guess, for children and, you know, it allows them maybe to be role models and mentors for others what may, you know, be kind of on the border of, you know, not sure, you know, what life's all about. But, you know, so one of the things that, you know, I hear sometimes in some of the communities is that lack of, you know, whether it's gymnasiums or places where children can gather and sports and that type of thing. So when we're looking at, you know, major major projects like this, do we somehow look at ensuring that gymnasiums are included or would be included? Because it does impact health; it does impact learning. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So under the previous capital standards, gyms were included once a school hits a certain number of students. If the school did not have that base number of or that number of students, then there would be no gym, and the gym that the school would get once they hit that number of students was small and it would gradually get bigger as the population got bigger. What we've done with the new capital standards is included gyms in all schools and increased the sizes according to the enrolment. So I know there are some schools with very, very small gyms, and we won't be seeing those anymore. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no further questions.
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. While we're talking about capital standards and accessibility, tomorrow night is the grand opening of a new school in Yellowknife, Itl'o' School, and they did a beautiful job on incorporating gender neutral washrooms in the school and so I'm wondering if that is a component of capital standards going forward. Thank you
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Yes, that is covered in the new capital standards as well as when we do retrofits. So when we go in say a bathroom is in need of repair and we repair it, we also use that lens as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Excellent. Thank you very much for that, Madam Chair. I think that's very important, and I'm happy to hear that the department has incorporated that.
My next question is in regards to Mangilaluk School, which is a major project up in the Beaufort Delta, and it says that the estimated completion date is 20232024. And so is it September of 2024 that is anticipated that students will first start school in that new school? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So that's good to hear, and I know that I've heard from people in Tuktoyaktuk that are very excited for that opening as I know that my colleague from Nunakput is as well. Given that that project was originally awarded long before the pandemic and long before inflation and the rest of it, has there been significant budgetary changes to that project? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
I'd like to hand that to the assistant deputy minister, Mr. Shannon. Thank you.
Thank you. ADM Shannon.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There was some at the before groundbreaking and the awarding of the initial construction contract, there were some scope reductions that were taking place to ensure that the project was brought within budget. As the project has moved along, there have also been a couple of other revisions, kind of really derived from the pandemic and global supply chain management. So, for instance, one of them was the steel for trusses in the gym. We were unable to procure the steel in time, and it would have provided a tenmonth delay to the project. By the contractor going back and working with the design team, a new replacement was come up with, or a new design was come up using wood trusses, which reduced that delay by five months. So we've seen little things like that, some adjustments, as we move along. But the majority of the contracts, things were in place prior to seeing the extreme shocks resulting from the pandemic. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So just so that I understand so there was scope reductions and revisions to the design made in order to keep it on budget, or has there been a budgetary change to this project? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. There's been no change to the budget. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm wondering within scope reductions is there anything in addition to things like changes from steel to wood for trusses, was there actual changes or loss to the community of what they will be receiving within the envelope of that school? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. Perhaps for some detail on that, I can hand it to Mr. Shannon.
ADM Shannon.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So some of the types of things that were adjusted as part of the initial rescoping during the tendering process were things like door canopies, an outdoor fire pit, some changes to the parking lot design, some exterior railings, things like that, a stage curtain was removed, some roof lanterns, some metal cladding, things of this nature, really, so things that are cosmetic but not primary to the delivery of the education program. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And thank you to the ECE staff and Minister for that.
As far as Chief Jimmy Bruneau School and Colville Lake school, which are both in planning phases, when can we expect to see the transition from planning phase to building phase within the capital acquisition plan? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
