Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to return to my line of questioning to the new campus facility here in Yellowknife. I would like to ask the Minister of Education if he will direct his department to put the new campus into the capital planning process so we can start to get underway on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we just finished our capital planning budget, there are a lot of priorities that are out there and needs right from our smallest community to here in Yellowknife. We have 23 learning centres in some of our communities throughout the North. We have three campuses that we feel that the space can be used a little bit better. At this time, I won't direct my department to put it in the next capital budget. We are going to wait for that strategic plan to come before all Members of this Assembly and look at what space and needs are needed here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, apart from the strategic plan that will come out of Aurora College, that facility needs serious work and is inadequate for many of the needs that the other two campuses in Fort Smith and Inuvik enjoy. I spoke to science and research development opportunities. This is simply not there. I am not asking the Minister to pay for it. I am asking the Minister to begin the planning process for it, not to commit to spending on it, but to commit to starting to do the work on it. Sometimes it can take five, 10 years to move these projects along. If we start work on it now, we can be better positioned to take advantage of it later. Will the Minister commit to directing the department to put it in the capital planning process?
The department has already done work in terms of how much a new campus would cost. If we are looking to do a new planning study, that has to go through the capital budget as well. Money needs to go in to develop the schematic design. Moving forward, as I mentioned, we are not going to know what kind of space is needed until we see what that strategic plan looks like. We are waiting for that to be completed before we make any decisions that are going to cost this government and the taxpayers millions of dollars.
Can the Minister indicate how much this new campus will cost?
Under the work that has been done by the department in terms of looking at Yellowknife campuses, somewhere in the amount of over $60 million. It will change as we move forward because costs for building supplies usually go up, somewhere around those figures. Like I said, it has to go through the process. It is in the 20-year needs assessment, as well as looking at the strategic plan, waiting for that, to see what space and needs are required.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is nice to know that we do have a ballpark figure for this. I appreciate that there are many needs across the territory. At the same time, if we are going to invest in post-secondary education, we need the right facilities to do it. A new campus facility could be a strategic investment to support local economies in our capital. It can create jobs. It can create new opportunities and allow students to stay within the North to achieve their educational aspirations. Again, can the Minister start working on a feasibility for this and reaching out to partners in the federal government and in the private sector and private citizens to look for endowment, to find money for this project, which would be of crucial importance to supporting our people here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's exactly what we're doing. When we look at any kind of strategic investments in our infrastructure we've got to put it up against what other needs are in the communities. We have some small communities. For instance, in the last government we had one of our smallest communities that just had a running toilet/washroom. I don't know if the Members remember that. So when we're looking for a new campus, we've got to look at our needs assessment right from our smallest communities and put it up against what's already existing in some of our big communities and regional centres here in Yellowknife.
