Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's it for questions for me on this item for now.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, here on the education item, there is a high school boiler replacement for Ecole Sir John Franklin, and I was -- I've been talking to the Minister, and I think most Yellowknife MLAs are quite aware of all of the challenges that Yellowknife schools are facing. So could the Minister provide a substantiation for this project to start, and we'll go from there. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this project within Sir John Franklin High School is a boiler replacement. The current system within Sir John Franklin is a hybrid system that has both a biomass boiler and a conventional boiler, and this specific project replaces the conventional boiler. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And would the Minister characterize this issue as a high-need item in terms of the matrix that we make decisions on renovations and replacements? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, items within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the education stream are certainly prioritized based on safety and accessibility. And when we live in a place with typically quite harsh winters, heat is of the essence and doesn't only keep the school warm and kids able to sit and learn, it also keeps water flowing. So definitely is an important one. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. I recognize that, and I'm glad that she used accessibility in her answer. As she recalls from yesterday, I did ask the Minister of Justice about an accessible washroom and, as the Minister's well aware, the folks behind the parent advisory committee for Sir John are seeking an accessible and gender-neutral washroom in that school. Could the Minister speak to how she is prioritizing that requested project that is an accessibility project. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I certainly do -- or am in support of this request and is one that I think is important. For this current year, our -- sorry, our capital projects had already been brought forward for this capital planning process and so we have earmarked this project for further years' consideration. And as people will note, for the projects we have brought forward within our small capital projects, they are largely based on safety and on accessibility across the board. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. I know the PAC for Sir John has reached out to her and is looking for a path forward on this project, obviously not in this particular budget but maybe for next year's budget. And so I'm wondering if I could get a commitment from the Minister to respond to the PAC to look at different funding pots that may exist for this kind of work if the money is tight for her? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Chair, I've had the opportunity to go back and forth with the parent advisory committee on this one, and we did advise that we have located a couple of pots within the federal government that we're currently trying to follow up on to see if they're ones that we can tap into outside of this traditional capital funding process, to see if we can push this project along. And we'll be sure to continue to see what we can find and report back to the parent advisory committee. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister. I hope that we do have some school boards listening so that they can also reach out. I know there are many schools in our fine capital that are looking for projects like this, including in YK1. So it's more of a comment than a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Next on my list I got is Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my first question is a follow-up to my colleague from Frame Lake's questions about capital related to Aurora College and the polytechnic transformation.
You mentioned that the facility's master plan, projects have been included in the government's 20-year capital plan but that you're mainly looking to the federal government, if I understand it correctly, to fund those projects. So how is it decided which projects identified in the facility's master plan will come to the GNWT for funding, such as the student housing unit, and which must be funded by the federal government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have -- I don't think it's a secret to anybody in this room that we have quite a huge need when it comes to infrastructure across the Northwest Territories and across every single department. A lot of our infrastructure in the territory was built around the same timeframe, and so a lot of it ends up coming due around the same timeframe. And so the demands on our dollars for infrastructure are quite large and traditionally education facilities, be it our JK to 12 education facilities, are the responsibility of the provincial or territorial government. That said, there are pots that provinces and territories can dip into for post-secondary institutions. And so in order to maximize the amount of dollars that we have to spend on our education facilities, it makes the most sense for us to do our best and due diligence to try to invest our dollars in our JK to 12 and see what other dollars we can attract to the territory from the federal government for -- is there anything you want to add to that one?
Sure --
Mr. Chair, may I pass to the deputy minister? Thank you.
(audio) has the Minister indicated, there is a large infrastructure deficit. At this time, the magnitude of investment to achieve all of the projects in the facility's master plan just isn't there so we look to the board of governors to give us direction on those areas where we can make process incrementally, and that -- the duplex in Fort Smith would be an example of that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So can the Minister or her staff clarify in that process of working things out with the Aurora College board, did you ask them to identify projects like under a certain funding limit, like within a certain funding range? Okay, we could afford to do things around this range, what have you got for us, or did you ask them to identify projects based on the level of urgency? I'm just wondering how this particular project was identified as something that we should do now and not something that we should look to the federal government to fund or put off until later. I'm interested in how the process of prioritization led to this particular project this year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for the operational details of how we collect information from education bodies and Aurora College and etcetera, I would like the opportunity to pass to the assistant deputy minister, please.
Thank you. I'll go to the ADM.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. ECE uses the same process as most other line departments as the corporate planning. With our departmental priorities, we first do a callout to all ED bodies that's JK to 12, Aurora College, and the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre, and we do that around now. So we start departmentally our annual process in the fall, and then it rotates right to the end where we are today.
As for priorities, we work with the same priorities that other departments do, the primary criteria being the protection of people and then the protection of assets. And then we have secondary criteria around urgency, impact severity, mitigation. This one in particular was around the housing needs in Hay River and the condition of the current housing units in particular -- Fort Smith, apologies. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. So it sounds like this one was identified based on the severity of the impact or the need, which is good to hear.
I want to turn to another item on this -- well, actually, items that are not on the list. But in general in terms of capital dollars that are allocated to education authorities for projects, what efforts has the Minister taken to ensure that we can align education authority buildings, assets, with ECE's own capital standards in terms of how regularly technical assessments are carried out, you know, the kinds of investments that are made into asset management, and how things are decided when they need to be repaired or replaced. So what efforts are being made to ensure that we're aligning education authority management of assets with ECE's own capital standards? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is a -- so this bleeds into Infrastructure as well. So the assets are actually owned and maintained by the Department of Infrastructure and then we work together on ensuring that they are cared for and the communication between education bodies and infrastructure and ECE is all a bit of a team approach to it. So we do have a list of schools across the territory and we do have -- and I know -- what does FCI stand for, sorry? Thank you. Facility condition index. This is the problem when you speak in acronyms all the time. Sometimes you forget what they mean.
So we have a facilities condition index, and every single school in the Northwest Territories has some rating numbers that go with them. So how we prioritize schools that are kind of next up in the list is using those numbers, but there's also other pieces that factor into that. Things happen throughout the year. We know that there is also wear and tear on schools from events that occur and climate change as well. So while we have our facility condition index, we also have other factors that will move a school up and down on the list and prioritize others, obviously with accessibility as well depending on the student body. There are different factors like that that might determine what school's up next. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And certainly this is a new area for me as well, but can the Minister confirm whether or not education authorities are actually aligned with ECE's own capital standards or they're not yet. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So our capital standards were updated in 2020. A lot of our school buildings predate 2020. And our capital standards apply to new builds in the territory that will follow that standard but it doesn't mean that all of a sudden we -- we would never be able to, for example, tear down every school in the territory and start over. So we have to start from somewhere. So the schools that have been built post 2020 would follow those capital standards. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you for that clarification; I appreciate it. That's all the questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Next on my list I got is the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, I know that we've been talking about this for quite some time, and the local leaders and Tlicho government have been talking about it too as well. So Behchoko's school planning, you know, it says planning for Behchoko school and estimated completion date or time within completion is 2025-2026. So I just wanted to ask the Minister where it's at with the planning at the moment? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So the estimated completion is for that portion that has been funded which is the planning -- the preliminary planning portion and so not the entire school build. So I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page there.
So when we recently went to Ottawa, I had the opportunity to join the Tlicho government with meeting with federal representatives and federal minister in order to sit down and discuss what it is that the Tlicho government are asking for. As the GNWT, we are certainly in support of the efforts of the Tlicho government to relocate Chief Jimmy Bruneau School to Behchoko and want to ensure that we are working closely with Tlicho government in supporting their timeframe and also supporting their desire for what they'd like to see in this new structure. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I know that, you know, we need the new school and we've said it many times. And so I am glad that, you know, it looks like the Minister is working well with the Tlicho government so -- which is, you know -- I am very -- you know, I appreciate that. So -- and which is, you know, we need -- we need a good working relationship with them to move forward on this project. And so I'll leave it at that.
But there is another one here too, because we're still planning -- in the planning stage and, you know, we still have quite a ways to go and we know what to do in the communities, and the community government knows what to do to move forward on this too by, you know, doing the subdivision in Behchoko.
So Jean Wetrade Gameti school, it's a beautiful school. You know, it's a beautiful facility in a beautiful little community, you know. So it says here school perimeter fence. So is there a timeline of when this project will be completed? Because I know there was a concern before where some of the young people, they walk to school, you know, in a -- during the school year so they were concerned about a lot of other issues too as well, you know, for the safety of the kids. So when will that project be completed? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that project is projected to be completed within the 2026-2027 school year.
