Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to take this opportunity to speak about something that is pretty eminent to the residents of Fort Simpson. The governments plan to shut down the Pointe Hall, or the Deh Cho Hall, in Fort Simpson in 2006. Apparently, they are basing their studies on some phantom report that no one has ever seen. I don't know if they have seen it themselves, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps the Minister can speak about that, because constituents of mine -- the Village of Fort Simpson -- has sort of been asking for this report and apparently it has been in the system for some time now, and no one has ever actually seen it, Mr. Chair, so we would like to see what the department is basing their decision on. As well, I do have to note that since I heightened the awareness of this issue to the department, they did have a meeting, I believe it was last Monday, and they are interested in further consultation with the community. But above all, Mr. Chairman, I think the community does want to save the building. It is not falling apart on us, everybody can see that the foundation is good, but apparently some of the issues were bringing it up to code.
Often when it comes to that stage, someone always says it is cheaper to replace than to retrofit, but I am not too sure at what stage or what the government experts have seen. People think that it's a perfectly serviceable building that we can save if we make some effort, but we have to know...We are asking the department to have a second look at it and say, here is this building based on what you know or based on a new assessment, because I am not too sure if anything has changed from the last two to four years when that first assessment was done.
People want to know what it is going to need to retrofit that building and to keep it going. It's not really government people impacted. Even though it is not our prime responsibility, we still take care of the NGOs out there. We have this huge facility that is not costing us any extra to house our day care that is there, not costing anything extra to house Aurora College that has benefited from that as well. Those are good things -- and a library -- Mr. Chairman, those are good things. It is quite honourable of the government to keep these things going.
If we shut down this building -- it is 30,000 square feet -- do you know how many millions that requires to replace all that square footage? If you think the communities are screaming for $40 million, just think of what they will scream if we get a building for Fort Simpson out of Yellowknife. The need for the infrastructure is very high in the Nahendeh riding, so that is our simple request; have a look at this building, it is structurally sound, help us save it, give us a cost estimate as to how much it will cost to fix it up.
One of our biggest goals -- everybody knows this, too -- is that when you look at the whole of the Deh Cho, you've got Simpson, it's like smack dab in the route of the pipeline. Everybody says, okay, well we are going to have to create capacity and it's all about training. So we need a regional training facility and this building really fits the bill, Mr. Chairman.
That is the way people see this building; as redoing it and I know that, as well, there is the private market putting pressure on the government to use them as well. If we can somehow redesignate this building or reallocate it and use it as a training facility, I think that would go a long way. It has a kitchenette in there that can be salvaged for cooking courses, and it has all kinds of computer training facilities, and pre-trade stuff, and it would go a long way in servicing our region.
Even in the riding, people talk about traveling all the way to Smith; they will do it if they have the initiative. If it is going to happen in Fort Simpson, the community people from Jean Marie and Trout Lake will be happy to go to Simpson for a year or two, to do what training they are interested in or what training is available there. Just with that concern in mind, Mr. Chairman, I will give the Minister an opportunity to respond to that particular item.