Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Public Works and Services. Will the Minister confirm when a planning study will be undertaken for replacement of the school in Aklavik?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, that school will be scheduled for replacement or a major upgrade about 20 years after the last mid-life retrofit, and that would be in 2019. If we work backwards, I’m assuming that construction will begin in 2019. Then the planning study, if we’re following the cycle, should start in 2017.
Last week the Minister did confirm that we were going to go ahead with construction for a new school here. My question pertains to the community consultation.
Will the Minister assure me that his department will consult with the community members to ensure a new school building accommodates their needs?
We have a capital planning process and the capital planning process takes the department’s requests for new infrastructure through five different filters and then once the projects are categorized they will go through five more filters. At that point it is determined that we are going to move forward, that this was the project that was highest on the points, and then we move to a planning process. After the planning process is complete, actually the following year, we go to design detail. It is during the design detail that there is community consultation that will occur. There’s a schematic design and then when there’s a detailed design, then there will be a community consultation process. But there are discussions with the communities through the organizations that are responsible for the infrastructure from the very beginning of the process.
There are a number of problems with this school here, whether it’s the foundation, electrical, plumbing, a number of issues. This building was built in 1969. That’s well over the 40 year mark. It’s time for a replacement. We had confirmation last week. Will the Minister live up to his confirmation that there will be a new building?
Thank you. We know that Moose Kerr building is actually in pretty good physical shape. We are going to run it through the capital process. There’s no doubt we have been maintaining the building and it is in good shape, so we’re pleased about that. Even though the schedules have time periods as to when the buildings should be replaced, sometimes the buildings are in very good condition and then, in that case, for the sake of the money, we could effectively do a major renovation. But as I indicated, there is a plan to replace that building in 2019. The process leading up to that, I’m indicating that the process will start in 2016 and then a planning study in 2017. From there it just flows to when the building is commissioned, which would be, I guess, between 2019 and 2020.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final closing, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The policy kind of conflicts here. First it says whether the building is over 40 years old you will get a new building. Then it says 20 years after major retrofit, which will still be way over 40 years.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, will the Minister ensure that Moose Kerr School is put on the right flag list? Thank you.
The Department of Education is going to put this into the capital planning process. What we essentially do is compare project to project using various filters, protection of people, protection of assets, protection of environment, financial investment, and the need for programs and so on. After that we do the scale of the impact, the severity of the impact, the urgency and also the mitigation factors. So those are filters that we use for all capital planning. In that way we’re able to compare one capital project against another and it makes sure that the process is an objective process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
