Thank you, Madam Chair. I am directing my question to the line entry of over $3 million for the Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Samuel Hearne School replacement in Inuvik.
Madam Chair, for the record, the facility itself is a great facility. I had a chance to tour that with a number of our Regular Members. I think the school and people of Inuvik should be very proud of that infrastructure. However, my job as a Member here is to look at all cost expenditures. My job here is to look at protecting the public purse. So, again, no disrespect in my questions, but they need to be asked and this is why I’m here today.
I have taken great pride in doing my own forensic audit on this project from the ground up going back
as many years as almost two Assemblies. My concern with this is that we continuously see this line entry of remediation work, teardown work, demolition work. This has popped up a number of times now in different budgets. We’ve seen it sometimes in negative supps, which means taking it from one pot of money and putting it into another pot of money. We are seeing it now in an infrastructure budget. I’ve seen it now located in the operations budget. So this project, in terms of how we do a public works and services is, in my mind, a little bit cumbersome. I’ve followed this project and I’m confused. God forbid if someone was not following this project, would, in my humble opinion, never know exactly where these monies are coming from and what exactly is the scope of this project.
My first question is: This $3.64 million that we’re seeing here for remediation work is adding to the cost of what? Where are we at right now with the terms of demolition and what is the total scope of the demolition project, if I can add that as a whole, to remove the two schools which are now vacant and probably causing some concern for vandalism or safety? That’s my first question.