Indeed, thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

No, it’s okay.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. So once again, committee, we are on page 5-2, the departmental summary for Department of Public Works and Services, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $14.302 million. Committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that that

concludes the Department of Public Works and Services?

Thank you, committee. I also understand we also have the Department of Education, Culture and Employment before us. Mrs. Groenewegen, do you confirm that?

I just wanted to find out, Mr. Chairman, what time is it now.

Oh, we’ve got lots of time. Yes, let’s proceed with Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I’d like to thank the Minister of Public Works and Services. Thank you, Mr. McLeod, and thanks to your witnesses. Could I ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses from the House.

I would like to ask the Minister of ECE if he would like to bring in witnesses today. Minister.

Yes, Mr. Chair, I would.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. May I ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the new witnesses into the Chamber.

If I could ask Mr. Lafferty to please introduce your witness.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me Mr. Dan Daniels, deputy minister of ECE. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister. Welcome, Mr. Daniels. Committee, we have on page 8-2, the departmental summary and we’re going to defer that for Education, Culture and Employment until we’ve completed detail. So advanced education is pages 8-3 through 8-5 and we’ll look at the financial summary for this section, this division on page 8-4, Education, Culture and Employment. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I did make some comments on the opening of the capital budget. I made some comments about education. I am particularly concerned that the Education, Culture and Employment capital plan doesn’t include any projects for the city of Yellowknife. We have a number of schools within the city that were on the plan last year. When we reviewed capital last year, there was some indication that a couple of schools would be on the plan for this year and they are no longer.

When you look at the capital plan, there are really only two major capital projects in the ECE plan this year. One is Diamond Jenness School in Hay River and the other is the two schools in Inuvik. Those

are ongoing capital projects which have been going for a couple of years and they will go on for a couple more years.

But I asked some questions of the Finance Minister and the Minister for Public Works, when they were here during opening comments, about the 10-year education facility plan for Yellowknife. That plan has been in the works for awhile. It was finished, I believe, in May of this year and it was shared with some Members. So I asked the Minister, during opening comments, why the recommendations from that Yellowknife education facility plan were not reflected in the capital budget that we have before us. The answer that I got was that the YK school plan is something we think will be a very valuable document; however, the document was not completed at the time we put our capital budget together.

I would like to ask the Minister of Education why, if this facility plan was done in May and was shared with Members sometime in the spring -- I can’t quite remember when, I think it was in May or early June -- that would seem to be to me quite enough time to get at least one project or at least some indication where these projects will fit in a capital plan into this 2011-12 capital budget.

So having kind of a longwinded way around this, the question to the Minister is: Since we have a facility plan for the educational facilities in Yellowknife, and since we have an Aurora College lease which expires in 2012, why do we not have any indication of the recommendations of this facility plan in this current capital budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Minister.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This particular plan has been completed in May that deals with the Yellowknife facilities. Part of the reason why it wasn’t, as the Member alluded to, part of this capital planning project that is before us today is that we wanted to consider all options that were before us to consider as we move forward. At that time it was still in the works concerning those options. But now we have those plans in place and this will definitely be part of next year’s capital planning process.

We talk about the facilities in Yellowknife and they have been highlighted. The college that the Member talked about is also part of the package that we are going to discuss for next year’s planning process as well.

We realize the expiry date on the lease is 2012 and time is of the essence right now. So that’s earmarked for next year’s capital plan. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate that it will be into the next year’s capital plan, but that’s fiscal year 2012-

13 and if the Aurora College lease expires in 2012, that is going to be a pretty tight squeeze to get any kind of a facility ready for Aurora College in the year 2012 when that’s the capital budget year. But I will leave it at that in terms of the timing.

I am particularly concerned with two schools in Yellowknife: Mildred Hall School and J.H. Sissons School. Mildred Hall has recently had a renovation, but there was a portion of that renovation which did not get done due to a lack of funds, from what I understand. Sissons School is very due for a renovation and an addition. It’s a school that was built in the ‘70s and it’s an open classroom concept. It was on the books a year or so ago and now it is not.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. It sounds like you are onto the next division. We’re sticking with advanced education. Aurora College questions are completely appropriate here, but if we are talking about schools explicitly, that would be the next section. I’ll let you clarify what we are asking about here. Thank you. Ms. Bisaro.

My apologies, Mr. Chair. I got caught up in the moment. It’s a facility plan for all of Yellowknife, so I will keep my question until later. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I understand the complexity of this, so let’s complete this section, committee. Any other questions, committee, on advanced education? Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The capital infrastructure for colleges, under the budget there’s minor capital upgrades to various college facilities. I noticed that in Yellowknife Campus or college, a lot of students from the Sahtu have come to go to school here and also they have used their facility to upgrade or attend some of the courses here. Some of them have vehicles, and parking space is very limited around the college campus. Also, winter is coming and they use their vehicles to go back home and they need proper plug-ins or insulation at this campus. I’m not sure what the process is or if the department can look at this situation. When it gets cold, these vehicles could freeze up and it’s going to cost more for these poor students, who just barely make it on the funding that they have, to look for additional costs to get their vehicles repaired if anything happens in terms of freeze-up. Has this been looked at by this department, minor capital infrastructure for colleges, for plug-ins for parking stalls at the Yellowknife Campus here?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.