Thank you, Mr. Bell. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask another question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with respect to the space issues in Yellowknife schools, in particular the YK No. 1. Mr. Speaker, I was at that public meeting and so was the Minister and Member from Yellowknife Centre, and I understand the meeting was organized by the YK No. 1 leaders so the time for the Minister to give information as to why the government is proposing this action and, also, some of the answers that the parents were looking for were not able to be raised. I'd like to ask, once he meets with the board of trustees, would the Minister, if the resolution varies not satisfactory, and I don't want to presume that but in the event that it's not, would the Minister be willing to have a public gathering of parents of YK No. 1 and other stakeholders to explain and provide necessary information that the parents may be looking for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's certainly something that's come up as an issue that needs to be looked at. I'm aware that the way this whole thing has been characterized, particularly by parent advisory groups and others associated with YK No. 1, has been of one school board taking over another. I want to stress again what is driving my recommendation to YK No. 1 is the fact that they should not be mothballing a school, whether another school is leased to a group or not, it doesn't really matter, they have that much excess capacity that they could put probably an extra $300,000 into educating kids, rather than spending it on administration. It would require some reconfiguration of schools, but with the equivalent of 33 to 35 classrooms to spare in the system, they can do that without coming anywhere capacity or overcrowding. So that's what this is about. It's about whether or not we should continue, this government should continue to spend extensive public monies just to keep bricks and mortar open, or if we should ensure that there is some pressure put on the education bodies to put the money, first of all, into the classroom and into assisting kids to get a better education. That's our position.

Now if we have a construction project at the same time which would allow us to take advantage of space that isn't being used for anything else and put students in so we don't have to rent space like in an old grocery store or bring in some portables that would cost us money, since we paid for the facilities in the first place, we think we should be able to take advantage of them during that construction process. We've pointed out that there would not necessarily be any large amount of disruption, because one of the schools that is scheduled for renovation for YK No. 1 has to be shut down in order to be renovated. So it could be shut down two years earlier than planned and then when its renovation was ready to start, there wouldn't be any further disruption to YK No. 1 students. Mr. Speaker, I'd be happy to have any kind of meeting that it's going to take to get that message out and try and have some kind of rational discussion about the reasons for what we're proposing here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think I heard the answer to the specific question that I asked. My observation is that we have a duly elected board at the education district level in Yellowknife, as we do in other communities, but the GNWT plays a vital role in terms of building school facilities as well as funding the O and M for delivering those programs. In my experience where parents have been asking me, I think that adding information, or information that goes beyond and putting more context to what this issue is helping the parents. In the end, it's going to be the decision for the parents and the board and all the stakeholders, but I think that best decisions will be made when all the information is out there. So I'd like to ask the Minister again, will the Minister commit to having some kind of meeting or public forum with the YK No. 1 parents directly, if necessary, in

order that at least ensure all the information goes out there? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If absolutely necessary, then I would be prepared to go to that end, but I would prefer to try and work with YK No. 1 and that's why I have asked to meet with the board. I would hope that we can find some way to work together to have that sort of public meeting but, if we can't, then, yes, I'll look at having a public meeting with stakeholders here.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Short supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Then in the event, and I do hope also that YK No. 1 trustees can work something out with the Minister, but in the event that that does not happen, in the interests of parents and mostly for the students in YK No. 1, would the Minister give me an indication as to what is his time frame when he would be thinking that he would need to meet directly with the parents of YK No. 1? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would hope that we could move this along to resolution fairly quickly. If not within the next month, certainly no later than the end of April.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that we have the capacity at this level of government to impose the kind of solution the Member is talking about. It would likely take federal legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue has been on the table for over three years. Why hasn't the Minister of Education been doing something about this problem? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure. This isn't something that I can give the legal answer to, but I'm not sure that even a change in federal legislation would ever require or allow an imposed solution where one party owns the facility. That's sort of the problem that we've come to. There has to be a willingness among one of the partners to talk about that ownership. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very disappointed in that answer, because we have a lot of frustrated parents out there trying to find a workable solution. Mr. Speaker, at the very least, will this Minister be answering all the questions that were formally posed last week at the public meeting? At least that would head towards some type of workable solution. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand how emotionally attached people are to a school in their neighbourhood, but it isn't something that's new in North America, that schools that are underused get shut down. If you go to, for instance, the Edmonton Public School's website, you'll find that they have, right now, three schools proposed for closure on the website. As part of the presentation, they talk about how that money that is being spent on a principal, an extra janitor, extra administrative staff in the office is now going to be moved into a classroom in an adjacent school. They talk about how that's going to improve what goes into the education of the students.

They also talk about how schools have been sold, leased, have been used by the City of Edmonton, have been used for all sorts of different things. Some have been sold to church groups for use as schools. Others are being used by other non-government organizations and they are collecting leases. So this isn't something that's new. If you have a situation where everybody says we have all of this space, we aren't prepared to even consider consolidating when we don't need all of that space, then you are in a

situation where you are bound to have a bunch of money wasted.