Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the House I was speaking about the need for the community of Trout Lake and the growing student population about working towards getting a new stand-alone school. The plan now is to renovate the existing community hall.
I would like to ask the Minister exactly what renovations are being planned to the facility in Trout Lake. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With respect to Trout Lake school, there’s been a review undertaken, part of the review of the small community schools. The Charles Tetso School has resulted in a recommendation for renovation and also additional construction, research and support space for the students and also the staff population. That is the proposed plan right now for construction within the community of Trout Lake.
It certainly addresses the short-term need for the schooling situation in Trout Lake. However, the chief, council and residents are afraid of losing their community hall space. They use that same facility six days a week to do their mental health and wellness training when in the community.
I would like to know the long-term plan. Will the Minister move towards a stand-alone school for the community of Trout Lake? Thank you.
In June of 2013, I, along with Minister Beaulieu, Mr. Menicoche and Deh Cho Divisional Education Council and my departmental staff visited the community and the school to have a visual of the reality of what Members have referred to in this House over the years. Due to that fact, there is a planning study that is on the way in 2014-2015 to deal with the part of the long-term plan that the Member is alluding to. We’ve identified a short-term plan to initiate a renovation within the school for additional space that is required, but there is a plan in place where we had a site visit in 2014 and I am working very closely with Public Works and Services, Mr. Beaulieu, on developing project brief that would be used to acquire a schematic design for completion in October 2014. That is the overall goal. Mahsi.
Something was missed and they weren’t aware of the type and extent of the renovations and I think there’s even an addition. The chief and council weren’t informed. I’m not too sure why, but when I informed them that renovations were being done, they were saying we saw some people over there making assessments and that kind of stuff.
The Minister also spoke about a planning study. Is this part and parcel? Was there a team in there to look at the renovations and a separate team actually doing the planning study? Thank you.
Part of the long-term needs of the school and also the community is to develop a planning study. That is part of the process of capital projects that will be identified by each department. So, we need to have a planning study in place and this is a part of May 2014 when my staff visited the community. That’s part of the preliminary discussions that they need to have with the community based on their needs and analysis. So yes, that is part of the community visits that they initiated and there will be opportunities for community members to provide their input as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to hear about moving forward and towards getting a new stand-alone school into the capital projects.
I’d just like to know about the planning study, one that came up, back in Trout Lake and to involve the community and even the whole community, because the community is a close-knit community and they all like to make decisions together. Thank you.
Mahsi. We do appreciate the leadership’s input into the design of the planning studies. So, those are discussions that we are currently having.
As I stated, my understanding is that October 2014, this month, it will be completed as part of our work with Public Works and Services and my Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the project brief that’s been discussed with both departments, along with the leadership’s input. So we’ll take those into consideration as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
