Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the last ten years, as a Member, one of the things that I have campaigned for -- and it is based on the campaign that people elect you -- was the establishment of a student residence or a hostel in Fort Providence. One of the things that I kept hearing from the Executive is that you have to get support from the communities. The support you get is interpreted the way the
government wants to interpret it. Although the support was based on getting in as a Member, the Executive Council doesn't think that is a factor in determining where capital projects should go. So, one of the avenues I have taken is to request the support of local education authorities in that area. I have gotten very little response. They didn't give me any support at all. Naturally, I looked at the reasons. More aboriginal issues is a reason why they refuse to support my request.
My whole purpose of getting a hostel is so we can somehow support the agricultural aspirations of the community, Mr. Chairman. During the last Assembly, I made a motion in the House which was supported by this Assembly. That didn't help. The government didn't act on it. One of the reasons for that is that now, the process is to have the divisional boards address the capital allocations of the regions. Again, I have a situation in which some programs deal with Fort Smith and some other programs deal with Fort Simpson. But, for the purposes of my opening remarks, I will refer to the Deh Cho divisional board as the board I deal with, with regard to the aspirations of my community.
Mr. Chairman, on April 18, I made a presentation to the Deh Cho divisional board. This was a 30-page presentation justifying why Fort Providence should have a hostel. At that time, there were two hostels being built in Fort Simpson and one of them wasn't being used at that time. I requested the Deh Cho divisional board give me that hostel and just barge it to Fort Providence, because it was under used. However, after two hours of meeting with the board on April 18, I was given a letter sometime in July explaining that the board couldn't support me at this time. Every month, I get a 20-page report from the divisional boards -- very vague reports, nothing concrete. It doesn't tell us about motions or discussions or anything like that. So, I've looked at the reports. It says in three or four sentences that Mr. Gargan made a presentation. I have written back to the divisional board of education to request transcripts of the discussion after my presentation. Because I felt that it would make the board very uncomfortable if I stayed there while they discussed my wish, I left after I made my presentation. They didn't provide me with any minutes of the meetings that took place or of the motions, or anything that suggests why they didn't support me. To this day, I have not received anything on why my request was not supported. Of course, I also made a Member's statement on it on many occasions.
I have a file. This is one file that is getting thicker and thicker by the year, without going anywhere, Mr. Chairman. My one problem is, when does a Member stop being a Member, and when do the divisional boards become the supreme authorities in allocation of capital projects? I cannot distinguish this myself.
I do not belong to the Standing Committee on Finance, so I hope the committee will listen to many of the issues I am expressing and hear where I am coming from.
Another way of addressing the issue would be to decide whether or not we should have divisional boards as witnesses, when discussions are made on education and why these things are happening here and there. I haven't been successful in getting anything to explain why they refused my request. I am left in the air with nothing to do but address it here, because it is my last resort to address a situation like this.
Mr. Chairman, the other thing is that -- I don't know when -- in the divisional board's report, I saw my own honourable Member for Nahendeh make his presentation for his case. I see, by the capital allocation, that Jean Marie River is getting some money for a new one-room classroom. Fort Simpson is getting a new elementary school. Trout Lake is getting a new school. Renovations are given for the Thomas Simpson School. I don't know how much consultation Mr. Antoine did with the divisional boards, but during the last two meetings that happened in Fort Simpson, I was the only one who made a presentation for my community.
The other thing that I want to express concern about is that there is talk about the divisional board planning to shut down the school in Kakisa. The people in Kakisa are concerned about that. I don't know how they justify that, but the people in Kakisa are left in limbo. They don't know where they stand with regard to the school in Kakisa yet. We have a new one-room school in Jean Marie River. The population in Trout River is not much different. Once again, where are the priorities of the divisional boards? In my opinion, their priority is this: to ensure that we have regional high schools, that everything goes toward that; and, as much as possible, limit the allocations to the communities that would make it difficult for those regions to establish themselves. That is the only rationale I can come up with.
Even though my school was built in 1960, and even though I know there are school buildings built in 1973 that are being replaced, I haven't made a point of that. Because, I feel that the issue of responsibility has to be addressed here and now. I hope that it also clarifies my position on what I should be doing, in order to achieve what my community needs, and whether or not I am wasting my time travelling to these divisional board meetings, and making my case without any apparent results.
I don't wish the Minister to respond. But, I wish that Members would hear me out, see where I'm coming from and the concerns I have. I would hope that perhaps next year there might be plans for a hostel in Fort Providence. I want this government to take the first initiative to identify future allocation of money for a hostel in Fort Providence. I also want the community of Fort Providence to be the first to make their case to refuse it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.