Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to go back to the Minister of ECE.
As mentioned, the school in Dettah is 55 years old. The GNWT brought in portable trailers in 1979 with no gymnasium. The GNWT built an undersized gymnasium back in 1978 in Dettah as well as -- and used as a community hall, and the students in the school use that gym for recreation activities.
My question to the Minister, can the Minister confirm if ECE consulted with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and local DEA going back to 1979 to build a new school in Dettah and N'dilo? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. And I may have misunderstood the question but if the question is if I could explain the engagement process that the government undertook in the 1970s, I would be hard-pressed to do so. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned earlier that I mentioned that education is a treaty right, the GNWT are acting as the Crown so there's a need for a Crown consultation and accommodation with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to look at for a new school in Dettah. Can the Minister commit to working with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation chief and council and the Dettah and N'dilo DEA to start a process to get on the ECE capital plan process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question.
While I can't speak to the exact process that would have occurred in the 1970s, I'm very excited that the process has certainly changed today. We're currently working -- one of the capital projects that we're currently working on is the new school for Colville Lake. And that process is taking on a much different life and one that I am very excited about, and I am very excited to say that those conversations are going very well.
And so the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is working alongside the Department of Infrastructure with the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation in Colville Lake to work on what that school's going to look like and what type of a facility it's going to -- or what role that facility will fill within the community. And I think that's an incredibly huge success story and one that I think that we can continue to build on until that school is fully realized. But the community and those conversations has brought forward things like wanting to have space for a greenhouse, wanting to ensure that they have a full-sized gym and not a small community gym like used to be built, and thankfully, that is a piece that was updated in our school capital infrastructure standards by the previous Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. And I absolutely agree with that one. We shouldn't be building small schools in communities; we should be building right-sized gyms in communities because those gyms really are an epicentre of what happens in a community and often are the only facility of that kind in that community. And so I'm very excited for that project and very excited for the precedent that it sets for the whole territory as to what community school builds end up looking like down the road. And so my longwinded response to the Member -- sorry -- is that I'm absolutely excited to sit down and have these conversations with leadership across the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is when can the Minister of ECE start the process on Crown consultation and accommodation with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation; is it possible to do that this fiscal year? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, every year the Department of Education, Culture and Employment speaks with local DECs, DEAs, about what capital projects they want to put on the list and what it is that the school needs, and then the Department of Education, Culture and Employment works closely with the Department of Infrastructure to make sure that these projects are prioritized. As I said earlier today, we're not in a situation where we could do every single project across the territory in one year but certainly ensuring that at the end of the day we're working as hard as we can to invest in schools because I absolutely agree that students need a space that is conducive to learning at the end of the day and that over time our needs within communities change, and that needs to be reflected in our capital builds as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.
