Agreed.

---Agreed

Qujannamiik. Baffin, total region, $40,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Keewatin, total region, $10,000. I have Mr. Arvaluk and Mr. Dent. Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a concern with respect to the budget that I knew was a prior year cost but nothing as yet has been done on that. Either it's a lapse or they are getting quotes on it right now, but I don't believe that changing the rug and painting the walls is $220,000, so it cannot be that one. In that case, it's not been done yet.

Mr. Chairman, I had an understanding from my conversations with the community education council on the Arctic College in Coral Harbour, regarding the community learning centres, that there was a deal or an agreement -- a gentlemen's agreement -- struck between the senior officials of different departments. I believe that Mr. Kaulbach from DPW was there; Eric Colbourne, assistant deputy minister of Education; Fraser Hope, director of Keewatin divisional board; Sandy Kusugak, as vice-chairman of Keewatin; the chairman and the whole CEC board council of Coral Harbour, met in May and made an agreement that there would be -- according to the letter from the chairman of the CEC -- a stand-alone school, or Arctic College, built.

But seeing that there is renovation for the community learning centre in Coral Harbour, it's a change without any noticeable adjustment from the regional agreement that the senior officials had with the CEC and the Arctic College.

So what I'm concerned about mostly is why the agreement or some kind of arrangement with those senior officials of the CEC and Arctic College have not been honoured; why there's a change without CEC knowing that this has now been changed to the old school east wing with a renovation rather than constructing a stand-alone learning centre as originally planned. With that, Mr. Chairman, I want to make a motion. I seek support of my colleagues, in support of that regional agreement that was made between CEC and officials of the departments, different departments, in fact. Qujannamiik.

Mr. Arvaluk, are you making a motion here? Mr. Arvaluk, would you read the motion for the record?

Qujannamiik. Mr. Arvaluk, we'll need to get a copy of the motion to the Members who need translation, so we will take five minutes.

Agreed.

---Agreed

---SHORT RECESS

The committee will come back to order. Mr. Arvaluk has read the motion into the record. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason I brought this up is because we have been getting phone calls and letters. I also got a reply, by letter, from the Minister about this. I was hoping for a more positive response. Why the Minister changed his mind is not stated in the letter. It sounds like there was a unilateral decision to change the agreement that this joint meeting had agreed upon earlier.

I only understood that his consultation meeting in Coral Harbour must have been important and expensive, because not only one department went in. There was the Department of Public Works and Services, Education, the vice-president of Arctic College, director of the Keewatin Divisional Board of Education and the whole local education council met. I also understand that this was an open meeting with the community. Anyone who wanted to attend was welcomed, along with the school principal.

This was a meeting to decide how the school extension was going to be built, and planned, along with the Arctic College idea. They felt strongly that an east wing is needed for the regular school. The Minister's letter stated that there is a 71 per cent utilization ratio at the moment. But, he does not consider other requirements of the school that he was planning; that is, a study room, extended education classroom, a meeting room, cultural inclusion teaching area and office space for CEC. These are not funded through CEC. Coral Harbour is very active in this area. They need the space on a permanent basis.

My argument against this motion, Mr. Chairman, is that it is very, very sad when a community has been given positive hope, and gets hyped up and makes their plans -- they tell the community on the radio programs that they had a great meeting with senior officials and what they had come up with -- and the department turns around ten months later or so and unilaterally decides to cancel what was agreed to in the joint meeting in Coral Harbour.

I am concerned about the correspondence that has come to me from the Coral Harbour education council requesting the reinstatement of the regional agreement, to have it respected. If it is not going to be respected, then at least go back to Coral Harbour and come up with an alternate solution, rather than unilaterally coming up with the 1995-96 capital estimates without any consultation with the community at all. Qujannamiik.

Qujannamiik. To the motion. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, it is too bad that an impression was left that somehow an agreement was reached. There seems to be a fundamental difference between interpretations of that meeting. I'll ask Mr. Kaulbach, who was at that meeting, to speak in a few minutes. On the matter of the renovations to the east wing and the idea of it moving to Arctic College, the advantage of that was we would have one central location for the delivery of both adult and school-aged children educational program delivery.

As a result of that change, what we did was added five new classrooms, one science class, library and resource area, increased staff area, dental suite and internal renovations to the west section. What we also have just approved is $180,000 worth of work that was supposed to be carried out next year, to be carried out now so that we can renovate the classrooms. That is going ahead already.

I think the problem, with the letters going back and forth, is that there has either been a misunderstanding or an unwillingness to go back to what was actually said at the meeting. As far as the staff is concerned, and I have to believe Mr. Colbourne and Mr. Kaulbach, the issue is, there would need to be an appropriate community educational plan that dealt with future educational development. That was the basis of the discussion. There was an agreement that we would do the renovations and, in the future, that our 1998-99 commitment is an additional new wing for $1.48 million. That would also address the college programming. It would allow us, if it were necessary, to get rid of the east wing, depending what we saw as the need and use of that section.

That, generally, is the impression that was left in the information I have received so far. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Minister, you requested Mr. Kaulbach to speak to the motion. For the Minister, Mr. Kaulbach.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. During my attendance at that meeting, a request for a new stand-alone learning centre was made. The department listened to the various alternatives and the understanding that was left at that point was that the department would evaluate these alternatives and work with the community in coming up with a comprehensive plan to offer adult education in the community.

The option that was chosen was to put them into the east wing and increase the school allocation for the spaces they would lose. The long-term needs would be addressed through an additional program, based on final evaluation of that existing wing. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like to apologize. The rule of committee of the whole only allows Members of the Legislature to speak to the motion. To the motion. Mr. Arvaluk.

Mr. Chairman, then Mr. Kaulbach's comments will be withdrawn from Hansard?

Thank you. They're already in the record, so we will keep them in the record. To the motion. Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, I just have one question to ask the Minister regarding this. It's with regard to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, regarding their policies regarding adult education centres or community learning centres. Is it the policy of the government to have those included as part of an elementary school or a junior high school?

Thank you. Mr. Minister, to the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, wherever it's cost-effective. That's the nature of what we're trying to do now. The problem is that we don't have the resources that we used to have, and we have to be more prudent and careful about how we expend our capital money. There are ways of planning the projects so that we isolate the adult programming from the high school or the primary educational program area.

Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Gargan.

So adult learning centres are part of Arctic College programs. The direction for the department then is to include Arctic College programs as part of the mainstream education; elementary, junior or senior.

Thank you. To the motion, Mr. Minister.