Robert Hawkins

Does this educational review take into account the significant amount of deferred maintenance on these two schools that is outstanding to date?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about the state of the educational facilities in my riding. Mr. Speaker, as all people in Yellowknife will know, J.H. Sissons and Mildred Hall are two gems of our education system in the riding of Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, in 1975, J.H. Sissons was constructed. That was really the last time a hammer ever found itself into that school. Mr. Speaker, it has not been renovated on the capital plan by this government since then. Yes, it has received a new boiler, which just allows more efficient heat to roll out those leaking windows, and...

Thank you for that detail. Specifically to those types of grants and contributions, is there any net difference? I just want to make sure that because they’ve changed their status, that’s one particular issue that’s obviously shown up here, but will they lose any funding or will it have eroded either now in column B moved from column A? So I just want to make sure. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe we’re now on 6-38? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I notice that additional funding for grants eligible to community governments assisting with the insurance and mobile equipment operations has decreased. Of course insurance costs decreasing is welcome news. I certainly hope that’s the answer that explains what the dip is in what looks like, I’ll just call it $150,000, maybe close to $200,000 difference there in the negative. So could the Minister provide some information as to what’s changed in that circumstance? Thank you.

I keep saying taxes; I mean the assessment process. My apologies for that. The deputy minister is answering the question correctly, because I’m saying it incorrectly. What is the cost that Municipal and Community Affairs is foregoing when it comes to the assessment of these properties for tax-based municipalities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the taxation portion I have a question for the Minister. Does Municipal and Community Affairs charge back to the communities or in some fashion for managing the taxation of individual communities? In this particular case, obviously, I’m not referring to the City of Yellowknife but other municipalities, especially in tax-based municipalities.

Just to understand this a little further, why wouldn’t it be listed under the School of Community Government, then, if it’s primarily focused under their tenureship through new water treatment plants? If I understood that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Specific to the management of drinking water in the NWT, what role does Municipal and Community Affairs partner with the City of Yellowknife specific to that, and is there a dollar amount attached to that support or is it just community money? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that answer from the Minister. Is the Minister aware that J.H. Sissons is the priority of YK No. 1 to be updated and the fact that it needs things like a fire alarm panel update? It has many combustible materials that need to be addressed and it turns into a bit of a health and safety problem. Of course, I’m not trying to alert the fire marshal, but the reality is the school has a lot of upgrades that need to be done. Mr. Speaker, are these types of things that will help make it on top of the priority list, from his point of view? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about some concerns of a couple of the schools in my riding. They are quite the gems in our educational system. They represent great culture and certainly diversity in our community and I think they do very well.

As I highlighted, the schools have not had complete updating. As I mentioned about Sissons, it’s been 35 years the school has been in our school system and the school has not been updated in a fair way; acknowledging outside of that, of course, the boiler and the paint. Mildred Hall has been 45 years in the education...