Mr. Chairman, we are just looking to confirm that number at this point. Mr. Chairman, with the current budget and what was approved in our capital budget, we believe $8 million is the total amount.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Beaulieu.

Sorry, Mr. Chairman, I didn’t hear the response. That’s my only question.

The Minister confirmed that the amount is $8 million. Minister McLeod, did you want to confirm that again?

Mr. Chairman, yes, we’ll confirm that $8 million is the amount that’s in the budget for deferred maintenance. We have $3 million in O and M and $5 million in capital.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to the general office space for the government, I know that we require more space, but do we have a forecast going forward on what the operational costs of those facilities are in regard to operating these office buildings in light of not having to pay lease costs versus operational costs?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, we have forecasted what it would cost to operate a building. Yes, we do cost-benefit analysis also. Thank you.

If it’s anything like the Laing Building that we own, as a government, I think the more experience of the amount of money that’s been put into the renovations and mid-term retrofits and everything else, you’re talking in the millions of dollars in regard to the cost of a facility that we operate. So as part of this general office space that we are requiring to own outright, do we have an idea of what the lifecycle costs of those facilities are in operational costs and mid-term retrofits?

The short answer is yes. We’ve taken those costs into consideration when we did the evaluation between the lease and

our own ownership, government-owned buildings. Thank you.

Is it possible to get copies of those reports? Thank you.

I’d just like to ask the Minister how do you get an operational cost of a facility that hasn’t been operating? So we’ve got office buildings in Inuvik, you’re talking about building one in Yellowknife. So technically you can’t have the operational costs unless you functionally operate the facility to know what your actual costs are. So do you know what the actual costs to operate those facilities are, based on occupancy and usage of heat and power?

The Member knows full well that we can’t provide actual costs until we’re operating a facility. Our costs are all forecasted, as we do with any kind of planning and for budgeting purposes. Thank you.

So does that mean we have about a 20 percent either way in operational costs since it’s projected costs, not the operational costs? Unless you actually operate, you won’t know what the costs really are, but do you estimate one way or the other, 20 percent higher or 20 percent lower or is it higher than that?

Mr. Chairman, we utilize existing facilities to give our best estimates for operational costs, usually buildings comparable in size or design. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Next on my list, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The demolition of the Chief Wilbert Wright School, now that everything is supposed to be where it’s supposed to be, the materials sent out, the area that they use for disposing of the extra is okay. Has that land now been transferred back to the hamlet through the municipal department? I know the hamlet of Tulita was hoping that this land now would be reverted back to them for the use of a recreational ball field.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, yes, everything is where everything is supposed to be on this project and the land has now been reverted back to Municipal and Community Affairs and I believe they’re having discussions with the municipality. Thank you.

I raised the point and I noticed that the demolition went very well for the department. They had some good discussions.

Actually, a lot of people showed up, surprisingly to the contractor, just maybe because he thought there was going to be maybe a dozen people showing up to work. Actually it was just over 50 people that showed up and wanted to work. So it went very well. So I’d like to congratulate the department for being flexible and open to a good possibility. I believe that the same type of discussions now are happening in Fort Good Hope with the old Chief T’Selehye School and I hope things go well with them there. Is it possible for the department to provide me with a brief report as to these two demolition projects in my region, for my own curiosity, and use them for reference in case I get calls from constituents as to the work projects? Thank you.

Both demolition projects that we had on the schedule for last year went very well. It was well received by the communities, it generated a lot of employment and it also allowed for recycling to happen with a number of the products that came from the school. In terms of what the status of the Fort Good Hope School is, we are right now at the stage where we’re doing an assessment of the facility. We’re doing some environmental testing to see what types of hazardous materials are in the facility and we plan to move forward with the same goals in mind of doing the demolition on this facility and then trying to maximize employment and recycling. Hopefully things will go as well as they did in the other two communities. Thank you.

Would the Minister comment as to the request of the reports? I’m not too sure what details of the reports he can provide. If that’s something that he could comment on.