Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm glad to hear the Minister refer to information that we have and meeting that detail, because our decisions we make as Members of the Assembly are only as good as the information that we're given. Just on that portion, Mr. Chairman, in different responses throughout this afternoon around the facilities that were in question, the residences, we've heard about the fire marshal being involved and an order being made that would impact projects going ahead. Then later on the Minister talked about stripping and refurbishing, which to me isn't much more than sprucing up of a facility.
Again, Mr. Chairman, we as legislators need to base our decisions on good information. The information that we received a number of months ago on capital plans as a government and where facilities and projects fit into that, we've talked at great length about the corporate capital planning process and the importance that plays into how decisions are made now. We're still given the information, and I have to admit, this information is about a year-and-a-half old. But that's what we're given as Members to substantiate how projects are going ahead, and to show how government is doing its expenditures, based on good, critical information.
Just from that, Mr. Chairman, the information I'm given shows the Inuvik student residence replacement in 2005-06, and the two other facilities in Fort Smith starting in 2007-08. Even on top of that, Mr. Chairman, since the committees have wrapped up their draft reviews and made reports, we've seen information change two and three times about that. Even this afternoon when the Minister responded to questions about vacancy rates and so on, again we were given another version of those numbers, slightly changing from what was provided to committee members. So I think that's probably one of the reasons Members would be concerned about the decisions being made, and that at this time we seem to be justifying what's on the books because we have to justify them. It flies in the face of other things that happen.
I say this, Mr. Chairman, from past experience. For example, before I got into this line of work, working in the community of Inuvik and knowing that the Aurora Campus was put into a Canadian Forces service building, I remember years ago being told that the studies showed that the fire marshal could walk into that campus facility and shut it down on a day's notice. That was many years ago. Finally we're at the point where we're going to build a new facility, and we're very thankful for that. I have to make sure that I get that on record. We're thankful for the work that has been done by the department and community of educators we have in Inuvik and in the region.
But when it comes to the decision process here, I have to go home and tell people why things are changing and how they've changed, and substantiate that with the information we're given. But when information seems to change closer to the project and there is not a whole lot of substantiation, I have difficulty going back home and telling my constituents that we failed in this area and we'll hope that they're going to come forward with something. I'm encouraged that the Minister said he'll work with the Housing Corporation to try to deal with that issue. If that's the solution out there, then that's where we need to go. But again, on the information we have at hand, there are some big pieces that have not come to surface yet. The fire marshal's order; well, maybe the Minister can put that on the table. The Minister of Health and Social Services, when it came to his budget and talking about a couple of facilities, put a couple of pretty big documents on the table for Members to review. A lot of numbers and so on, and even those would draw some question as to where things were going. But the budget got approved. He put the information on the table.
Mr. Chairman, when I look at these processes and the information that we're asking as Members to help make decisions, and that information is pretty fluid. It really concerns me that we have all the information. It's natural that as a government we sit and substantiate things. We sit down with departments and committees. There are times -- and many other Members can speak to this -- that we're presented with the picture. But many times we have to dig a little bit more to get a bigger part of the picture. Because what's presented is a snapshot, and that picture doesn't give all the detail. It gives a fair bit of it but not all the detail, and there are some critical pictures. I have concerns with that, because the information I have here -- unless the department or the government overall can give me another 20-year capital plan that's hopefully a month or at least a few months from where we are now -- goes against what we've been given. Now I understand that as we get close to those project dates, that there are other studies and work done to ensure we're still on track and there will be some movement. I take that as being a necessary process.
But I've also learned that I have to ask some detailed questions to get the information, especially when it affects our facilities in the Northwest Territories. I agree, we have to protect those investments. We've been far short on capital dollars for too many years and, unfortunately, that doesn't look like it's going to change in the near future. We've managed to spend over $100 million, almost $200 million extra since we've started just on O and M. We've maybe added $20 million to the capital program, and that's going to drop off for the next government, unfortunately, unless we find bags of money in another location.
So, Mr. Chairman, just raising my concerns with the information that we've been provided and trying to make decisions, I would hope that as we go through that, as we get into detail when the capital program comes up, maybe the Minister can substantiate some of this further. Again, the information I have as a Member to base my decisions on shows there's been quite a bit of jumping and changing around here. I mean it's hard for me as a Member who tries to look at things on an even playing field, to see these kinds of changes coming up the last year of our mandate, and still going home to say we're working on something. But my constituents come back and say well, what happened over here that a program jumped a couple of years in advance compared to what was in the books? The information I have to date, I only can agree with them that that's what happened.
Mr. Chairman, I guess just in closing about the campus facility, I was a Member many years ago and I took an apprenticeship through this government and I attended AVTC as it was called then -- Aurora College -- and I stayed in the Breynat Hall as a young man and was bunked up with two other individuals in Breynat Hall because that's the way it was built. It was built for that purpose. Because we want to build things to make it a little more comfortable for individuals, we're going to great expense for comfort. I think we have to look at more than comfort. That plays a bit in the quality of education, but we have to look to the long term for what we can really handle. Is it comfort, or is it necessity to get a program out? I thought that's what libraries were created for, so students could go to a library to study, to have quiet time. But now we're saying that they need it in their little domicile, the place they would call home while they're at school.
There are many questions we can ask about that, but I guess I go back to the fact that our decisions made are only as good as the information we're provided. Hopefully through this process the Minister can come forward with more detail as to why things have changed. Otherwise, as a Member, I have difficulties supporting some of the plans they have in place. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.