Mr. Chairman, as was noted in the standing committee's response to the department's business plan, we have changed our approach in how the school spaces are funded and how we provide space in schools for communities. The new policy is that for one student there is one space. The Member appears to be absolutely right: that if you take out the old St. Patrick High School, the level of utilization would approach 92 per cent. That still leaves 322 seats available, which is a fair number of seats for an influx. As I said, we can deal with an influx if that is what happens. I don't know that we would necessary build for dramatic growth without knowing that it was going to happen.
The Member asked about renovations for the old St. Patrick High School. That will be one of the considerations of the group that we are proposing to put together in terms of how capital dollars will be spent in Yellowknife in the next few years. We have a limited number of capital dollars available. We want the community to know what those dollars are and let the community and the elected officials in the community determine how those capital dollars should be spent.
Over the course of six years, it is $16 million or $17 million that we have identified in the five-year plan. The question is how that should be spent. I can't say that the money is going to go one place or another. As I noted in my opening comments, there has been a reduction in the capital plan throughout the department of $10 million this year alone. Over the course of the next three years, we are going to have $30 million less than what we had when the last five year plan was published. That means there are going to be significant impacts in all communities as to the timing of what was seen in the previous five-year plan. The previous five-year plan is no longer what we are working from. I can't make the commitment the Member seeks. What I am hoping is that the school boards and the community will get together and determine how they would like to see the limited capital dollars we have spent in a collaborative process over the next few years.