Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a short question on an item that is not here but it has to do with the school in Yellowknife that went through some major renovations, and that is the Mildred Hall School. The work was done through a number of years between the last Assembly and I think the beginning of this one. I do recall that there were some extra expenditures that had to go through to work on some of their maintenance systems as well as other renovations. I was under the understanding that that work had been completed, but I have heard recently from the board that, in fact, there still remains a lot of work that needs to be done there. I understand that all the work in the front part has been done. It is a very, very old building. It's one of the oldest schools in the Territories. I understand that there is a lot of work that still remains to be done on the back and the windows were not replaced and such. So could I just get the Minister to tell me if anybody is looking at that to see what work remains to be done if there is anything? Thank you.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was a project in this current year's budget for Mildred Hall. That money hasn't been expended because they weren't able to get the project undertaken last

summer. Our hope is that the Legislative Assembly will approve the carryover in our first supp in our next session and we will then have the money to be able to use this summer to complete that part of the project. It isn't replacing the gym, which is one thing that the school board would like to see, but it would replace, I believe it was dealing with most of the windows that need replacing.

Thank you, Mr. Dent.

Thank you. I'll wait for that carryover under the supp for further discussion.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Members, we're on page 7-5, infrastructure acquisition plan, education and culture, tangible capital assets, total tangible capital assets, $24.253 million.

Page 7-6, infrastructure acquisition plan, education and culture, infrastructure contributions, total infrastructure contributions, $9.780 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the Ecole St. Joseph renovation, it's booked here for $22 million, Mr. Chairman, over the coming three fiscal years, $8.6 million in this fiscal year. Mr. Chairman, this project which is, of course, badly needed due to the fire at the school last year, has been advanced somewhat. It was originally booked, I understand, for about $19.5 million; it's now clocked at $22 million. Mr. Chairman, my concern here is...I'll ask the question specific to this project, but it also applies to all other capital projects. At the rate at which we've seen capital costs accelerate across the board, we seem to be looking at about 15 percent a year, which, when we get into these substantial projects is large amounts of money on our capital sheet, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask the Minister, especially in relation to this project here, it's already increased by $3 million in the course of one year. What steps are we taking to ensure that the job stays at the budgeted cost? Are we really keeping a very sharp pencil on this and sharp controls to ensure that projects don't continue to escalate at such a costly rate, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Can I remind Members, Mr. Braden has the floor right now. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not arguing that we shouldn't invest and make substantive investment in this kind of infrastructure so that we get good value, it lasts a long time, and the lifecycle costs of running it are as low as we can get them. My question though, Mr. Chairman, is when we're presented with a budgeted cost for something, the experience of recent years has been that we can anticipate that the project is going to cost about 15 percent more by the time it's done than what we were told at the beginning. This project here, which is going to run over three years, from the $19.5 million we were told about last year...We shouldn't kid ourselves. We're potentially looking at a 23, 24 or maybe $25 million project by the time it's done based on our current experience. My question, Mr. Chairman, is what controls, what measures does the Minister have to ensure that the cost stays at the amount that we approve? Yes, I certainly understand when the Minister says the Department of Education doesn't have that expertise, but the Minister of Education is responsible for the dollars that are on the page here and that is where I'm asking for his degree of supervision, his control and responsibility for delivering the project as budgeted, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Minister, I depend on the Minister of Public Works to review the project and report to me what the prices are. The simple fact is that there isn't a lot of room to manoeuvre in our standards. We set the standards and we have to work to find the money to meet those standards. I recognize that growth in building costs is a significant challenge. It's been one that's bedevilled our capital plan for years. I hope that the Member is right, that it's 15 percent that we're looking at. I know that in Edmonton a public building there has gone from the price of $50 million to $87 million in the space of nine months. That's no change in plans; that's just what has been growth in the market because of the cost of getting construction done in the overheated Alberta economy. When you're building a public building, the expectation is that it's going to last for a substantial amount of time. There aren't that many corners that can be cut in the construction process without it impacting on that. We're a bit at the mercy of the climate and we have to hope that through the competitive process that we're going to get good prices.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Members, we're on page 7-6, infrastructure acquisition plan, Education, Culture and Employment, education and culture, infrastructure, contributions, total infrastructure contributions, $9.780 million.

Total activity, $34.033 million.

Turn to page 7-8. Infrastructure acquisition plan, advanced education and careers, tangible capital assets, total tangible capital assets, $6.312 million.

Infrastructure contributions, total infrastructure contributions, $100,000. Mr. Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this page we have again more fiscal information about projects and equipment and things that we want to undertake. One of them, Mr. Chairman, was for the Deh Cho Complex Office/ Deh Cho Hall in Fort Simpson. Mr. Chairman, I seem to recall that this was a project of some attention in previous budget cycles and bills before this Assembly. Mr. Chairman, the appropriation that's being suggested here is $5.8 million for the current year, $2.3 million for the next year. We already spent a million on it so we have a total project value here of $9.120 million. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if the Minister could just give us a quick snapshot on the history of this project, because I seem to recall that we went from a renovation to a demolition and I'm not quite certain just where we are right now with the Deh Cho project.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.