Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to preface my comments by saying that I absolutely one hundred per cent support replacing the schools in Inuvik. Now, having said that, I’m not quite sure I understand the cost, to be quite honest.

Based on last year’s capital infrastructure plan, we’ve got a new school that we’re putting into Fort Good Hope. It’s going to be $24 million, and we just finished one in Tulita that was $22 million. Last year in the capitals the budget for the Samuel Hearne and Sir Alexander Mackenzie replacements were $79 million. Based on what I was listening to last week when we were doing the general comments, it’s over $100 million. I believe someone mentioned $116 million.

It seems a little excessive to me. I mean, I know with that school we’ve gone from a design where it was like a half-moon, which is a little crazy and would have driven the cost up…. I understand now we’re talking about a combined school, which is, I think, fantastic. I think that should help us reduce costs, so why do more? I’m a little surprised by the cost. I’m not saying let’s not build it, but I’m really kind of confused by the costs, and I would like to know how we got there. I would like to know how a school that’s so expensive…. What are we building? Is this like the Taj Mahal of the Northwest Territories? What are we building? What’s wrong?

You know, some people say: whatever; why don’t we build a box? Boxes are cheap. We can build a box. We can put state of the art equipment into it, and it will be functional. It may not be the most beautiful building you’ll see, but it will be totally functional, and then there’s all that extra money we could put into programming. I mean, ultimately the programming is as important as the school, and by building something this expensive, they will never be able to match the O&M for this thing. I’m a little worried; I’m a little stunned. I’m not sure how we got to this price tag.

I was wondering if the Minister could help me understand how a school is going to cost us $116 million, $117 million — I don’t even know the price — well over $109 million to build a school.