Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For a number of years now, we have been working -- the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and I -- with both YCS and YK 1 to try and facilitate some kind of discussion or agreement on how we could resolve the space issues in Yellowknife. There was the facilities committee which provided me with the report. Following that, I had a facilitator come in to work with just the two boards. After that, I tried to work with the two boards. I have not been successful at negotiating any resolution to this. The situation now is that, this fall, we have a construction project that needs to get started. We need some resolution and some finality. What I have proposed is a method that I see that we can move forward during the process of construction. It is not as if this is going to satisfy YCS. It is not getting them any additional space at the end of the day. That has always been their concern. We are not offering to increase space. Our government has said that we are looking at Yellowknife as one community. Until the whole community is at 85 percent occupancy in the schools, we are not going to build another school. So we are not increasing the amount of space. What we are doing, though, is saying that there is a lot of room for realignment of space. Because of the amount of space that is out there, there should be no reason for us to pay an increased cost to rent space for YCS students during the construction, or to have to pay for the increased cost of administering students in several different locations. We think that, since the Government of the Northwest Territories paid for the facilities, during the construction project we should be able to take advantage of all of the facilities that are here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Charles Dent on Question 470-15(5): Funding For Yellowknife Schools
In the Legislative Assembly on March 9th, 2007. See this statement in context.
Further Return To Question 470-15(5): Funding For Yellowknife Schools
Question 470-15(5): Funding For Yellowknife Schools
Item 6: Oral Questions
March 8th, 2007
Page 1396
See context to find out what was said next.