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 system and other than half the upgrade that it rightly deserved in 2005. My question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: what would it take to get these two schools properly back into the capital planning process to make sure that these necessary updates and renovations get done in a complete and reasonable way?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. These two particular schools will be part of the educational review that’s underway currently. That report will be done in the spring of this year. Based on the outcome of that, we’re going to highlight the most critical needs, the most emergency requirements, such as other regions’ most critical needs as well. Those two schools will be part of the discussion as we move forward after the spring.
Does this educational review take into account the significant amount of deferred maintenance on these two schools that is outstanding to date?
We have to keep in mind that there have been renovations and major retrofit that has happened in Mildred Hall in 2005. So that will have to be taken into consideration as well. There are other schools that have not been upgraded due to various circumstances. So those are the discussions that we need to have going forward on capital projects for this fall. So, Mr. Speaker, the educational review will consist of the space of the schools and also the age and enrolment is a big factor as well. Mahsi.
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.
Mr. Speaker, these schools and all schools are a priority to my department. There are no immediate health or safety issues with J.H. Sissons. So those are the areas that we are looking at; the most critical needs, the emergence of it, that we’re going to highlight in the coming months. Mr. Speaker, yes, we’re going to compile all that information and we’re going to highlight the most critical needs of the schools. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the Minister making it quite clear there is no, sort of, immediate safety concern for the kids, and I wasn’t trying to portray it in that light, but the fact is, these are the types of upgrades that the school system feels is a priority. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT has a deferred maintenance policy program and I’d like to know where these two schools sit in the territorial Deferred Maintenance Program, how much is booked against them for the two schools and where does that put the balance of the deferred maintenance of these types of projects against our budget on that regard. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, part of the plan is to have a review of the Yellowknife schools and bring forward the review at the conclusion in the spring, then identify those two schools if there’s a priority to renovate those schools. One of them has been renovated already. Mr. Speaker, those are the types of important discussions we need to have for this fall capital planning. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
