In the proposed main estimates last year there were supposed to be $19.5 million for the new school in Inuvik. Now I notice it is down to
$9 million. It is a concern to residents in Inuvik that this whole program is going to be pushed back for a year. The field has been torn up. It’s poor planning. No piles are going in now until next fall. We were all expecting the bulk of this project to be started this summer — piles this winter and the actual building starting this summer.
I see the numbers have all changed. Am I to assume that by approving this appropriation for capital, I would be basically saying to the people of Inuvik that I have supported moving back the school project for another year when we were all under the impression that we were going to have the bulk of our school started this year? We are talking about a school for children, not $225,000 for inmates — and that we put through.
I’d like to ask the Minister: what I will tell the people in Inuvik who thought that the bulk of the work was going to be…? Because that’s the way I read it. Maybe I am reading it wrong, but I see in the ’09-’10 estimates that we are looking at $35 million. We’ve got $9 million for this year, whereas we had $19.5 million that we approved in last year’s main estimates for the ’08-’09 spending.
I look at it as me approving the push-back of our school project for another year. I can’t do that.