Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don't have any particular expertise in building buildings in the Department of Education. We depend on the Department of Public Works to be the project manager to be those who are skilled at making sure the right decisions are made to bring a project in on budget or as close to budget as possible. What we do have is detailed standards, capital standards, that will say for a school to accommodate this many students you need to have this much circulation space, this many washrooms, this many square feet in gymnasium space, this much classroom space. So we set the standards, it's then up to Public Works to work with the architect and contractors to try and bring the project in for as low a price as possible. That's always a balance between the life of the building and the lowest cost. Clearly, you could build a building, I think we all know we could build a shed for next to nothing, but if you want something that's going to last for the 30 to 50 years that we seem to be expecting our schools to last, you're going to have to put a significant amount of money into them per square foot.
Charles Dent on Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 21st, 2007. See this statement in context.
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 20th, 2007
Page 1089
See context to find out what was said next.