Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I mentioned that I recently went to Deline and went to visit the school. I want to speak to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Does the Minister know, given the assessment of the Deline school, that the school literally is falling apart? Does the Minister know that?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The information that I do have from Public Works and Services, working very closely with my department, is that there’s been a building assessment done in 2008, and the building ranking obviously came back as good condition at this point. But as the same time, my department visited the community’s school in November 2013 and met with the officials, met with the community members and identified one of the areas, the floor that the Member is referring to. It has been identified, the floor movement. My department is working closely with Public Works to resolve that issue as we speak. Mahsi.
The Minister is correct. I have copies of my Member’s statement and my exchange with the Minister of Education, also the Minister at that time, the Minister of Public Works, talking about the work that’s been done on the Deline school.
I want to ask the Minister, it’s like having a plate or a bowl of Jell-O and putting straws in it and putting a building on there. The building is shaky. It’s moving and it’s falling apart. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t keep Deline’s school together again.
---Laughter
So you need to build another school. The Deline community is asking this government if they’re looking at if they were to work together, they could look at the concept of working with the community, working with the government to say, if we are to build it, can you lease it off them? We had that type of discussion. I believe at the time when I asked the Minister of Public Works, that type of discussion can be had.
I want to ask the Minister of Education, is he willing to come to Deline to the school and say, “Yes, let’s see if we can do something?” Given the life of this government, given the financial situation we are going to be in, is this the type of thinking that could be had with the community of Deline?
Any opportunity for the department to visit the community, obviously, I’m receptive to it, having my department and myself visiting and also meeting with the officials and the community members on how we can deal with this matter. As I stated, there are at least six different items that are being worked on as we speak since November 2013. It may not be completed fully, but those are areas that we continue to work on, because we have to keep in mind the safety of all our students.
When the Member is talking about opportunities to meet, by all means, those are areas that I’m willing to consider, as well, meeting with the MLA and also his leadership.
When I questioned the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment when I spoke about the same and similar responses back from the Minister, which we appreciate, I’d like the Minister today to really think and seriously take the opportunity to come in to Deline, look at the school, look at the conditions that we’re subjecting our children going to school in these types of conditions. It’s amazing that school is still together with the condition that it’s in. If you look at the foyer and the school gym, the foyer and the school gym are falling apart. I think the only thing that’s holding them together is that strip of tile on the floor there. It’s just a gap in there. If you took that strip off, you would see a gap in the gym floor. It’s like this. It’s amazing. It’s a crying shame in this day here that we’re subjecting our children to this type of education facility.
I want to ask the Minister if he would be willing to come soon to Deline to look at the school and have a sit-down with the leadership to look at some partnerships where the community can take a larger role in building a new school. Deline needs a new school.
What the Member is referring to, obviously, is the floor movement between the gymnasium and the corridor, and my department is fully aware of that. The Member and I are considering visiting Deline, if it all works, on June 12th for the grad. We’re still working on the logistics for that. If it works, then that will be ample opportunity to sit down with the Member and also the leadership to go visit the school, as well, because that is part of the plan as we speak.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
