Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to start off by saying I do support it, and I can see the business case. I’m a former businessman. I understand saving money and the fact that if we build a building, we could potentially save up to $2 million a year, and I think it’s about $39 million over the course of it.
However, it’s a huge building, and I question the size of it. At over 40,000 square feet that’s an immense building. If you put that into a community the size of Inuvik, what does that do to the local market? I think it’s incumbent upon the government to do that type of study, a market study, before we rush into building what I would deem an excessive sized building. Over 40,000 square feet: that is a big building. I’m not sure how big Wal-Mart is, but I think Wal-Mart is somewhere around 55,000 square feet, the entire building that Wal-Mart is in. It’s a big building. We’re talking in excess of 40,000 square feet.
The planning on this and the urgency is something I also question. I’m not sure how exactly this ended up in the capital plan just like that when there are, as other Members have said, competing priorities out there for capital dollars. You can point firstly to schools. We’ve talked about Diamond Jenness in Hay River, Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk, Sissons School here in Yellowknife. There are a number of schools that urgently need some funding. When a capital project such as an office building jumps to the top of the list, then Members are going to have some questions about that.
Like I said, I support an office building in Inuvik if it makes economic sense, if it’s going to save the government money. With this motion that’s here today, I think all it basically is trying to achieve is asking the government to prove to us that it’s a worthwhile capital project. I don’t think it’s asking anything more. I don’t think it’s a slight on Inuvik. I don’t think it’s any of that. I think all we’re looking for is this market disruption analysis to be done and some technical information that we’re asking for, evaluations on the government owned buildings in Inuvik. That’s all we’re asking for. At that moment in time — I’ll say it right now — I’ll be able to say: yes, I think this is a building that I can put my stamp of approval on, and I think it’s something the government should go ahead with. But, again, given the fact that it just fell out of the sky and it’s a huge building, I think we have to do our due diligence on it. That’s why I’m going to support the committee motion.
Again, I’m not closing the door to supporting this building, because I think that if the numbers are correct at $39 million, it’s something we should be taking a good hard look at, but let’s do our homework before we get there.