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.