Mr. Chair, I would say this: If Aurora College said they would like to build a new college, does someone within the Department of ECE have that authority to say no, or does someone have the authority to say yes, and who is that authority? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, if the decision came down from the Board of Governors through their chair, through their president, it will go to my department, deputy minister or ADM, assistant deputy minister, and will be brought to my attention, and in due course we have to go through the process to identify funds, capital.

We are talking about capital infrastructure here. If there is a plan in place, then by all means, my department will work very closely with the college to identify the needs. There is a process that we follow. It is a process of this Legislative Assembly as well. That’s what we follow. Mahsi.

If a message was sent from the Board of Governors to the chair, to the president to be carried to the Department of ECE, would ECE have the ability to say no if the college, through the Board of Governors, through the chair, through the president said that they wanted to build a stand-alone college? Would they have the authority to say no? Who would that particular person be to say no? Who would be saying no if the answer happened to be no? Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins, we are painting a scenario, but I will ask the Minister to reply. Minister Lafferty.

We are not filtering the process through the college to me as Minister responsible. If there is a request, I usually get a heads-up from the college, the board chair. We would have these communications. Our staff would work on a plan from there. We have constant contacts between my department, my role as the Minister responsible for the college, and the board chair.

The board chair was just reappointed, so we have a positive working relationship. We are going to continue that. Anything that’s addressed by the Board of Governors is addressed with me as well. I make the decision, so it’s not my department that makes the decision. I make the decision. I’m the one that stands up in the House. I’m the one responsible for the college. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, we still haven’t had clarity on the role of capital planning. Capital planning falls under…(inaudible)... Who does the college, whether it’s the chair, the Board of Governors or the president, whoever is sent with cap in hand to say that the college itself would like to proceed on a particular mechanism, who do they actually report to at the department? Who has the say yea or nay on a particular project? If the college

wants to proceed on a particular project, they must be held accountable at the department level to that question.

It still is not clear who they actually report to. I have heard various answers earlier that the president is a manager. I have heard various filterings of how the deputy minister, the associate deputy minister, but there is no clear line of who they bring that message to and the fact is it’s all a feeder system. Is this message filtered by someone within the department? Who has the authorization to say yes or no when the Board of Governors, through the chair, sends the message through the president to the department on a particular programming request? Who gets to say yes or no on those types of things? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I’m not sure how clear I can be. I’m the one who is responsible. I’m the one who is responsible to put initiatives into the capital planning process based on the advice I’m getting from whether it be the college or my staff and we move forward from there. The reporting mechanism from the board chair, the president on to my deputy, as you know, we have all of these different divisions, as well, within our shop. Mr. Devitt here is also responsible for a piece of that. Even though there are two or three lines from the president to my deputy, it connects through all the departmental within our shop as well. At the end of the day, I make the final decision. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins, your time is up. I don’t have anyone on the sheet. Would you like to continue the questions?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now I’m hearing there are two or three lines they’re reporting to and I’m trying to get to the bottom of this, that if the college wants to put forward a particular initiative, who do they forward it to in the department? Does that person or persons… We need a clear role because somebody would be in charge of that.

The Minister has been in charge of this department for six years. I have been asking about an Aurora College plan for years. Is someone at the department stopping this? I’m not sure what the heck he’s doing over there. I want to be clear on the record. Who is in charge of the reporting of this particular, if there was a particular request, and who slows it down? I’m sorry to waste his time, but I’m sick and tired of this goddamn question.

Mr. Hawkins, I would suggest you use proper parliamentary language in your continued ask of questions. I further ask, Mr. Hawkins, that the Minister has responded to your series of questions. You are providing a lot of hypothetical scenarios of a following or chasing of questions that don’t exist. I would ask if you can

keep those two items in mind with your question to follow. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate your guidance, but this is not hypothetical, because we need to know the process as to what the request would be. It is not hypothetical and the Minister is unable to answer this. If the college was to carry out requests, how can I get to a capital request program in question if we don’t know where the question is going to in the department? That’s part of the question that seems to continually be avoided. I am hearing he is in charge. He gets the say yes or no, then he says the deputy minister, then he says the assistant deputy minister. We need to find out where that line goes to, because when I ask a question about the planning process for the department of Aurora College, who is making these types of decisions? I illustrate an example to help us understand why I keep trying to ask this question. There is nothing happening on this. We need to know how this works.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Before we ask the Minister to respond to that question, I would ask that you withdraw your earlier comment, please. Thank you.

Sure, for the sake of moving forward, I will withdraw that.

Mr. Chair, this decision process falls under me through various venues from the board chair, the president, my deputy, associates, and those individuals are involved with the capital planning process. At the end of the day, it goes back to me as advice coming from all angles. The decision is made by me as Minister responsible for the college. The capital infrastructure, there is a process in play. That same process we follow on a constant basis every year. We do follow that and we’re talking about a 60, 80, 90 million dollar building and we have to think creatively how we can pursue that. As you know, through our budget planning process, we’re talking about capital, which is not before us, but that’s the planning stage we’re at right now, we’re working with the college, we’re working with various potential investors as well.

So again, at the end of the day, it falls under me, the decision is made by me and maybe I’ll just get my deputy to elaborate a bit. I’m not sure how different she can approach it, but she can explain the reporting mechanism to the president. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Eggenhofer.

Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was very helpful. If the college was to come forward in this particular budget cycle under capital planning, how much money would be allocated to that particular initiative if they wanted to plan for a college, an independent college in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins, that’s a capital planning question. Would you like to rephrase your question, please.

Mr. Chairman, I’m not talking about capital, I’m talking about the plan. So if the college wanted to come forward with this type of initiative that it all starts with the booklet, the study, the review, the programming and that’s the capital planning. It says right here in the third paragraph, business and capital planning for the department, and that’s what I keep referring to. I’m not sure why this seems to keep… No one is talking about a $40 million to $50 million, even $60 million infrastructure when we can’t even talk about the plan. Thank you.

Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. With any planning process for infrastructure, we have to work with the college to identify the funds that may be available to them. Then we need to work out the logistics of it. I will get my director to elaborate on the process itself. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.