Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in the Minister's opening remarks, I had some interest in his closing comments that referred to the capital program with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. My specific interest was in the area of student residences for the Aurora College campuses in the Northwest Territories.
I have been working with my community, as well as with the Minister, to try and have the residence situation dealt with in Inuvik, because within this budget, it is planned to proceed with the construction of the Aurora Campus facility in Inuvik. That being the main facility, however, not to proceed with the residence. Instead, they are putting some minor capital towards refurbishing what we call in Inuvik the Blueberry Patch, to allow for students to use those facilities.
My concern with that practice, Mr. Chairman, is the fact that we would be putting money into those facilities that would soon not be used by the college anymore because there would have to be a need to address the college situation with an actual residence. I know the community has contacted the department to look at alternative ways of addressing that.
I find it interesting that in here, there are actually dollars identified for the Aurora College residence units at Northern United Place here in Yellowknife. I hope that as we proceed through this fiscal year, the Minister and his department would be working with the groups in Inuvik to try to address the residence situation in Inuvik, hopefully in a timely fashion.
My concern, Mr. Chairman, is the Minister's response to my questions in the House about the situation they are looking at right now, which might be able to do for the next 10 years. I do not think you would find anyone in our community that would agree with that, especially with the older units that we call, again, the Blueberry Patch.
With that, Mr. Chairman, hopefully we can proceed and work cooperatively from the community and the department to address the needs of the students who would be addressing the Aurora College facility in Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.