R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the federal government does not fund schools. Bridges are one thing, schools are another. There's a division of power in Canada under the Constitution, and the federal government does not want to get into funding schools, which is generally provincial/territorial area. And so the Tlicho government informed us that they would like to take the lead on approaching the federal government to find funding. I never told them to go find it themselves.

And in terms of what would happen if there was a failure at the school, we don't wait until schools are, you know, about to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not aware that that would be an official designation. But I think that given the number of jobs in Fort Smith that are education related, the amount of money that the GNWT flows to the community in terms of education, probably more per capita than anywhere else in the territory, I think in that sense, yes, Fort Smith is the education capital. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you so right now it's 20232024 is the estimated completion but I would not I wouldn't place bets on that. I think it's a very fluid situation and, like I said, it's new to everyone, us as well as, and in this case the Tlicho government. So we are taking the time we need to do it right so I don't have a solid answer. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And of course I don't speak for the college. This House passed changes to amendments to the Aurora College Act which has significantly changed my role in relation to the college.

So the college has adopted the term "administrative centre" to acknowledge that the staff who support corporate administrative functions of the college are in Fort Smith. So that is why they're using that term. It's a term that's commonly used in postsecondary environments. Thank you.

Thank you. Perhaps for some detail on that, I can hand it to Mr. Shannon.

I'd like to hand that to the assistant deputy minister, Mr. Shannon. Thank you.

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. 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...

Thank you I think the Member was referencing the residential school residence in Fort Smith, not a day school. So we are engaging with the federal government to try and find some funds to make these projects a reality. I'm heading to Ottawa in a few weeks to have discussions with a number of Ministers. So I don't have a date yet because we don't have the money yet. Development of these facilities is highly dependent upon federal funding. Thank you

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.