Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. In the 20-year capital needs infrastructure plans, I see that that the ?ehtseo Ayha School is not scheduled for new construction until 2020, 2021, or 2018; I’m not too sure. They have two different dates on here. I want to ask the Minister, in regard to this project, if he would be willing to work with the people in Deline and if he could look at moving this project to a closer date other than seven or eight years from now, in regard to the new school.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This project, along with others, will certainly be a part of the capital planning project. There are upgrades that will be happening within the ?ehtseo Ayha School in Deline. Those are just some of the upgrades that we are working towards. Then the long-term plans will be part of the capital project for the particular school along with other schools.
I will continue to commit to working with the DEA and DECs to make that happen, and also the leadership of Deline.
The parents of Deline are sending their children out of that community. There are other communities in the Northwest Territories where they’re seeing that their children are getting better education in the larger centres such as Yellowknife, Inuvik and Hay River or Smith. The facility in Deline, the school is not adequate to give them the same type of equivalent education as the larger centres. If we can look at that issue here and help the people in Deline look at a proper facility with proper resources, proper students, then the parents would keep their children in the school.
I want to ask the Minister, the time length of the construction to have this new school, would he be looking at working with the community of Deline to see if there are ways that we could bump up the capital process of this infrastructure so that it could be built within a five-year period?
Those are exactly the types of discussions we are currently having. We’ve heard from the Deline leadership, also the DEA, and also the DECs for their regional perspective on expediting certain capital infrastructure from the communities on to our capital plans. As part of the educational renewal process that’s before us, we’ve involved the community members, and we’ve listened to the small community capital initiatives. Those are in the forefront of our discussion as we move forward.
One of the pillars on the educational renewal is to focus on the small communities, whether it be the funding, the capital projects and so forth. This is an ongoing discussion we will be having, and we want to expedite those capital projects that are in play for a number of years so we can move forward.
We have about 850-some-odd days left of this Assembly, roughly two years, and we have two cycles of our infrastructure, two cycles of O and M. That is giving us a short window of opportunity to work with the people, work with the people in Deline and this department, this government. Can the Minister commit within a two-year time frame to sit down with the leadership in Deline and say this is the type of design, what type of design are you thinking about if you were to take this project and go through the capital plan process so that within two years we know that they could look forward to a new school?
Mr. Speaker, I can definitely commit to meeting with the leadership. There has been discussion and also conducting a regular system of all facilities in the Northwest Territories. Deline will be part of that process along with my colleagues from Public Works and Services. We work diligently together on those educational infrastructure facilities and will continue to work with DEAs and DECs because they are the primary contacts. They give us excellent feedback on which capital we should be focusing on. We will be meeting with them and also the leadership that is here with us. We will continue to push that forward. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the Minister’s commitment is to sit down with the Deline leadership to look at the ?ehtseo Ayha School and the new school for that community. In the Minister’s meetings, can he also sit with the leadership and talk about what kind of support this government can give for parents who are sending their kids to Yellowknife, Smith, Inuvik, Hay River for a higher education and to see where the government can possibly help these parents who are now paying for their own kids to get an education by sending them outside of their community?
Mr. Speaker, most definitely those are discussions that we need to have with the Deline leadership, the DEAs and DECs as well. Just offering some of the initiatives that have been undertaken by Beaufort-Delta, as an example, e-learning is a prime example that we will continue to invest. There have been discussions on fibre optics. Those are just some of the discussions that we will continue to have. Education renewal is another one that they have been part of and will continue to push this forward. It is a big piece of work for the Northwest Territories and the Legislative Assembly. We want to make those changes that reflect on the small communities. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
