Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe I’m going to take a page out of Mr. Menicoche’s book and stand up every day and talk about the Diamond Jenness Secondary School, like he did about the gymnasium in Nahanni Butte until he finally got a response.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve had students talk in this House many times about the Diamond Jenness Secondary School. I’m sure Members are all too familiar with the problems that face that school.
Mr. Speaker, for the record, one more time, this is a school that is more than 35 years old, and it has had no significant upgrades done to it. It is too cold in the winter. It is too hot in the summer. It has air quality issues. It had asbestos wrap on the heating pipes, which resulted in the school having to be closed down; this kept being done.
Mr. Speaker, to this day I myself have never actually laid eyes on those air quality reports that were conducted and reported on. I would like to see those air quality reports. I would like to ask if the Minister of Public Works will table those in the House.
Mr. Speaker, there has been way too much deferred maintenance on this building. There are issues with the foundation. It continues to get worse when it is not attended to. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get some action on this school. We’ve had Ministers down. We’ve gone on tours. We’ve pointed out all the problems. We’ve had the renovation or replacement of the school red flagged — whatever that means. I won’t be raising any white flags on this one. There’s going to be no surrender. I want something done about Diamond Jenness.
We’ve got money for all kinds of other things. The students and the educators in Hay River deserve better than what we try to educate our students in at Hay River. We already have other school students in Hay River taking up the classroom space in the boardroom of one of our local hotels. I mean, we have some serious issues. Like I said, we seem to have a lot of money for other things.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not trying to prescribe the solution. I’m not saying it’s the replacement of the school. Perhaps it is a major mechanical upgrade. That is a formula that has to be worked out and planned to be worked out by PWS. What we do have in hand is a functional review of this building that says this building is in serious need of attention.
Later today I am going to have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to find out what he is going to do about the conditions that exist at the Diamond Jenness Secondary School in Hay River.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
