Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll just quickly run through a few of them. Although a number of them have already been mentioned, it is certainly worth noting.

I have expressed over the years, 10 years certainly, the need for an expanded role for Aurora College and certainly for the Department of Education to respond to the need. Aurora College has, within themselves, outgrown their existing space here in Yellowknife. I’m certainly always pleased to hear Members like Mr. Menicoche talk about how they want to work with other Members to achieve our goals, too, so I look forward to him helping this

project move forward, because it is a project that is good for everyone in the North. I appreciate that the olive branch is offered and I look forward to seeing that in action.

What I often hear people talk about, well, we worked together on this budget, and they talk about that. It usually tells me they already got what they wanted. It is when you don’t hear that you hear the opposite, that people have been struggling continually. I look forward to the day that the excuses end for why we don’t have a stand-alone Aurora College here in Yellowknife. I certainly think that we must be coming to the end of them. I mean, after 10 years they can’t keep coming up with new excuses. Mind you, they have recycled many of the old ones, which sort of dusted off does give them a polished, new look.

When I hear the Premier’s little list of why projects are done, I think we should add a sixth criteria: Are we failing our people? I certainly think we are failing our students by not allowing them a place to go. I think we are failing our educational institution. I think we are failing Northerners at large by not being prepared and investing properly in that. It is not like this has caught people off guard. This has been the same story, same arguments, same scenario for years, and yet it is always why we shouldn’t do it.

When I first started, back in 2003, Mildred Hall had begun its renovations. The former Member and, certainly, former Minister, who also represented Yellowknife Centre, was pleased to be involved in sort of getting it kicked off. I remember the launch of the semi-completed Mildred Hall renovation still called for many things to be done, and 10 years later they still need to be finished. We find that Mildred Hall, because they’ve spent some money, they continue to neglect its needs and necessities. Without the finished school look it’s never had, it is very difficult and challenging to encourage other students to come to that school. They always want to go to the new, big shiny school, and that school has never been given a fair launch. It has always, in my view, received half a renovation, and if you ask the administration, the students, the education board, they have always felt that as well.

Equally so, the J.H. Sissons School continues to be shuffled down the list. I look forward to the day when we actually hear that that is actually going to be a priority in this Assembly. The children and certainly the education system, I need not go at length, certainly would say are being not only disappointed but failed as well. It is a failing of this government that we continue to ignore these things. I don’t say that easily. I recognize that, like Mr. Menicoche’s Trout Lake community hall school – because it is not really a school; it is a community hall being taken over by students – it is not a shining example of where the education system

should be heralded as doing a good job. It seemed like a stop-gap measure to deal with a problem, which I think was heroic in its own way, but it wasn’t meant to be the permanent solution by taking over the community hall. The system itself, as I said, maybe item seven under the list of criteria, should have been are we failing. I think we are.

Continuing on the theme of letting people down, addictions. It’s funny; a few years ago, I remember when Minister Lee was the Minister of Health and Social Services. She talked about getting rid of the territorial treatment centre that is on the Detah road. I thought, this must be a fantastic day, because if we don’t need a treatment centre, we must have cured all addiction ills. We should be trumpeting this day. We should be having ribbons, bands and balloons, because why would we be giving our addictions treatment centre away if the problem is still a problem? It turns out the problem still is a problem, but as we migrate forward on this issue, we lose another addictions treatment centre out of Hay River.

I think to myself, maybe there is a clever master plan I’m missing. Maybe the Minister has this amazing plan that he’s rolling out. He is just shuffling his deck just a certain way and maybe the cards haven’t rolled out the way I thought they would, maybe most Members thought they would. Maybe the public hasn’t seen the great plan provided by the Minister of Health on how we are going to tackle addictions. We continue to wait, but there continues to be no investment in dealing with these problems.

I’m not sure how much longer we need to keep asking for a treatment centre. I think Member Dolynny and certainly Member Moses have, as of late, been on this problem. I certainly welcome the work that they raise. I have often said, and I will stand by, that I will support a true addictions centre in the Northwest Territories wherever it is established, because if it is built properly to confront the ills before us, why would I find ways not to see it built? I even suggested at one time that if the Minister wanted to do something, in my view, innovative – there’s that innovation word again; it seems to get noted every day here – that he could build it on to the wing of the new Hay River Hospital. I would have no issue with that. I thought that would be an innovative way of doing this. We could plan accordingly, plan the beds for detox and plan the beds for maybe couples’ treatment, plan the facility for males one month or whatever it takes, then females the other couple of months, it doesn’t matter to me, but a residential type of treatment.

But, you know, innovation barely gets the light of day around here. If you are getting a sense I’m disappointed, I would say just go see my previous Member’s statements and you will understand why.

The Stanton Territorial Hospital is certainly a project that we all know that is well overdue. I would just hope that when that does finally show up, we have kicked that can so far down the road, there really isn’t any road left. That road could be described probably as Highway No. 7, if you’re looking for a good analogy. I look forward to all Members getting behind that particular project. I wish it was in this capital budget where we were spending the amount of money necessary to deal with that problem.

The plan is coming forward, and I certainly look forward to the plan with full detail to the public to show them where it’s going. I think it is a good plan and I certainly welcome that.

But I do have final notes. It was mentioned by Mr. Moses; I wasn’t going to mention it, but it was about Arctic Tern. The Premier said it has been identified for surplus. I know no one seems to really want that building. It doesn’t seem to be able to be put in a position for programming. I would suggest that we should offer it up to maybe a partnership between the Gwich’in and the Inuvialuit, to allow them to take it over for free. I think the territorial government built that building in error and they knew that at the time and that hasn’t changed. So what has changed is we have nothing in there, but we still own it. I would encourage the Gwich’in and certainly the Inuvialuit, although they have partnered on many things, to maybe look at this as a partnership opportunity to tackle some of the social needs that the Territories are burdened with, with maybe a new opportunity there.

I see that the GNWT should really walk away from this building and hand it over. If somebody could put a new life into it, a new spin to it, as the Premier said, it has been identified for surplus. What better way to work with our other governments at hand or other types of representatives who are equally concerned about people that we should walk away from this boondoggle of a building and see if they could put another opportunity, maybe a life, into it, inject it with something, but I would not want to see the territorial government to invest any more money in this building than they have to date. There is a time when you kind of say enough is enough. I think this is enough of this building. As I said earlier, this will be a chance for someone else to come in, and maybe they can put a new life into it. With that, Mr. Chair, it brings me to the end of my time, but not to the end of my time. Thank you.