Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've had a really quick look at the Green House and Brown House reports. Just going by what is in there, it seems that we're going to be totally renovating the whole building except for the exterior walls. The interior walls have to be replaced, they don't meet the fire recommendations for times allotted for burning. So automatically we just have the exterior walls and that's it. The roof needs to be repaired, so now we're going to have only four walls that are going to be left standing. The report says there is water entering the basement windows. That means the building is sinking. Maybe the foundation is solid, but the whole building is sinking according to the information here. Now we're going to put more money into making the building a little heavier, but adding a sprinkler system and ventilation system, new electrical equipment, we have old boiler systems that are going to have to be replaced. The only thing that is going to stick around is the fuel storage tank outside on one of the units. So what we're looking at here is a report saying if we really get down to the fine printing, if you know what construction is all about is that you need a whole new building or two new buildings. That's all there is to it. For the cost of renovation, it's better just to get a new building that can accommodate the student needs. So if your student need now is for 20 students, then that is what we should be building for.
Right now Inuvik is being set at 87 percent occupancy, then you have 90 some percent occupancy for Fort Smith. But if you take those 22 students out of that, it's no longer in the 90 percent occupancy. It's below that. So there's a greater need in Inuvik for student accommodation. We have the Blueberry Patch over there that the life expectancy of those buildings is not too long, and we're going to throw money into refurbishing those again and we're only expecting a life expectancy of less than 10 years, according to the information we have.
So like I said yesterday, we're throwing a lot of money into bad decisions. If we're going to build, let's build new. Let's put it back where it belongs on the 20-year plan. That's for students that you're afraid to lose. Why should we be afraid to lose to our partners? We have partnerships with those colleges that are out there: NAIT, SAIT and Grande Prairie College. We have partnerships with them. Why should we be afraid to lose them to them? We're all in it for the same thing: to educate and to train people, so we have partnerships with them in order to train all these people. When we're going to do renovations they're going to be out of housing anyway. So if we're going to build, just build brand new. Use the buildings where we can meet the fire regulations with minimum dollars, and put it back on the year 2007-2008 like it was originally planned for a brand-new building. In the meantime, let's put our money where the need is, and it's in Inuvik and Yellowknife. You've said it yourself, it's needed there.
Right now we're comparing where the higher need is. If you're going to look at it really closely, the need is somewhere else other than Fort Smith. You have accommodation there. You have 22 local residents living in those units, and I have a question on that. Which kind of units do they occupy? Is it the one bedroom, is it the single unit, is it the four bedroom, the five bedroom? Which units are they occupying? That information would be really great to have.
Then I don't understand; you have the Green House and it says a long-term unit geared toward mature students. Aren't all our students mature? I'm not sure how to take that. Also in the Brown House. So are there immature students in other cases? Maybe you can tell me that. I'm not sure how to take that.
So all in all, just looking at the needs, the costs of rebuilding or renovating, it all goes to building new. I can go with building new, but the need has to be there. If the need is somewhere else, then maybe that's where we have to go.
Why can't we run that heavy equipment course in Hay River? We have a highrise full of empty rooms there we can put students in. The equipment is mobile, they have wheels, it can be moved to any town until we can straighten out the needs. We have buildings that are done and unused in Hay River. Programs can be taken there. Instructors can be moved. They're all mobile. I've seen courses being done in all the other communities, even up in the Arctic where our heavy equipment staff are. So there's no need to say that we're going to lose students or we're going to fill to capacity. That's not an excuse that I can accept. We have to use a commonsense approach here to put the money where it's going to do the most good, where the need is. Yes, let's build accommodations for Fort Smith, but only when the need is there. The need is not there now. You can't tell me the need is there when we have people paying different rates for accommodation in Yellowknife when they go to school here. My students are going to Fort Smith because they have no choice. They can't go to Yellowknife. Or they have to go to Inuvik because they can't go to Yellowknife because there are no accommodations. So we have to look at where the need is and where the programs are, where the most students come from and which is the regional centre that's closest to them. We have to look at all that. We haven't even looked at that. Those haven't even come up, where the needs are and where the students come from.
Like I said yesterday, my students would rather be close to home in Yellowknife, and closer to their families when they do their training and their courses. So I'm not convinced yet that we need to renovate any buildings there for a high cost and not build new. We can build new at any time when the need is there, but right now that need is not there. You can't convince me that the need is there with the information here, and the information I know from past experience and being on the board. Most of it is common sense, and the Minister can respond if he wants.