Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my comments on the Colville Lake School visualize the building with six classes and two rooms and the [Translation unavailable] the doorway.
My first question to the Minister of ECE is has the Department of ECE been working with the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation in Colville Lake on the design of a new school in the community? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member from the Sahtu for bringing up this project. The Standing Committee on Social Development in the last term had the opportunity to sit down with the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation in order to learn about this project and hear from them, and so it's very nice to be able to be on this side and continue on with this project. So absolutely, yes, the department has been working with Behdzi Ahda' First Nation for the design of the new school in Colville Lake. And right now, ECE is working with a baseline that was determined by the school standards that were set back in 2020 sorry, the capital standards and criteria. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that update. My next question there, Mr. Speaker, is what progress have been put in place to move this project forward? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in terms of the progress of this project, so education, culture and employment has a contribution agreement with the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation, and this contribution agreement agreed to fund the completion and submission of a schematic design and a class C construction estimate for the new school. And this also includes a geotechnical investigation of the proposed site for the project. The First Nation contracted an engineering and architectural consultant directly themselves to complete the work. And unfortunately, while the contribution agreement has expired, the schematic design and cost estimate has not yet been submitted to the department or received and so that's where the progress is or stands right now from the part of the department. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm glad for that response here, there is a contribution agreement in place. Agreements are really healthy for the results of the intent.
And my next question is what work has been done on the project; what financial commitments or preinvestments have been done to the project to date? Mahsi.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in addition to the contribution agreement that funded the design work, the geotechnical work has been completed and this included drilling five bore holes in the site that was selected by the community. In this process, there was a collection of soil samples that was done, and this was done in order to determine the type of foundation that would be required. This also included ground temperature monitoring installing ground temperature monitoring installation or instrumentation, sorry. Say that five times. Testing was also done on the soil samples, and there is a site evaluation report that came with that. In addition, Mr. Speaker, there is a draft concept design for the new school, and this draft concept design was produced by the consultant team and was based on input from the local DEA and school staff as well.
And I think it's worth mentioning here, Mr. Speaker, that there was also community engagement that was done through open house sessions in April of 2023. And there was representation from both the consultant team and ECE that was in the community for that, and the community was involved as well as school representatives and, of course, Behdzi Ahda' First Nation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear there's progress made, including the agreement. I assume that the agreement would be extended nevertheless my last question to the Minister is the Department of ECE working with the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation on alternative financing and/or mortgage ownership options for the new school? Mahsi.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say that the previous Minister of Education, Culture and Employment was very open to looking at new ways to see this project go forward and really wanted to work with the community to see it to its fruition. The community initially presented several alternative options for this project, including a public/private partnership, build/lease, third party funding contributions, and also potentially negotiated contracts. At the time, the department indicated that they needed more information in order to consider moving away from kind of the conventional approach so that there was a clear understanding of what that would look like, Mr. Speaker. And an agreement was reached in the end in order for the department to fund the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation for the development of that schematic design that I spoke about, including a cost estimate, and this would provide that clarity that the government was looking for.
And I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, that I'm really happy that the Member has brought this up. It is definitely a project that I would like to see move forward, and I really look forward to working with the Member on seeing this project move forward and seeing a new school in Coville. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
