The technical review of the Diamond Jenness Secondary School and the work that was planned there, where we actually saw numbers in a capital plan…. It’s pretty hard for me to believe or accept, as one of the MLAs for Hay River, that this whole thing had to be pushed back two years because of an educational review that was going to take two weeks.

I mean, the Minister of Education just said that the educational review was going to start being conducted by a consultant sometime in October and it’s going to be concluded by the end of October. So I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time buying into this idea that the Diamond Jenness Secondary School was pushed back only because of an educational review.

The money that was indicated, the red flagging of this project because of the critical and priority nature of the work that needed to be done…. This is just a little excerpt under “capital plan project substantiation: the building is over 35 years old. It’s been renovated, but the entire scope of the work was not completed due to budget constraints. A technical status evaluation of the building completed in 2003 and then updated in 2006 determined that mechanical and electrical systems require significant capital upgrading as well as upgrade of the walls and windows is a high priority. Other major renovations have also been outlined which will extend the life of this asset.”

To go from having this earmarked and red flagged as a high priority capital retrofit project to pushing it back two years because there was an education plan that had to be undertaken, and it was going to take two weeks, is just a little bit hard to believe.

In follow-up to some of the questions Ms. Bisaro asked, Mr. Miltenberger responded that if there was capital available, we could get…. This substantiation report doesn’t talk to the budget constraint. Without budget constraint, and perhaps the fact that this educational review document will be produced by the end of October, I’m going to ask again if there is any of this work related to the roof, the envelope, the foundation, the air-handling. Is there anything that could be started in the summer of ’09?

Given all the background information that’s already been compiled, does everything have to hinge upon this educational review? I mean, I’m in support of the educational review if there are things that need to be changed. But when the Minister of Public Works says that people in the community wanted to look at different things for the school…. I’m curious: did they have any official correspondence to that effect? Was this just in a casual conversation, in a tour of the school? It didn’t come from my office. From where did it come that this project should be put on hold for two years because somebody thought that the program should be so altered? I’d like to know what triggered that.