Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Public Works does a lot of energy retrofits. We track all of the greenhouse gases that we save through energy retrofits. We track all of the money that we save by using energy retrofits and installing biomass in our buildings, then we put that money back into more energy retrofits and biomass.

With the hospital, we will be using a biomass heating system and the envelope of the building would be of a high energy standard. Thank you.

I’m very happy to hear that and the Minister referred very specifically to energy retrofits, but I’d like to ask: has there been a point at which the Department of Public Works and Services has introduced any new guidelines that ensure energy efficiency in the construction, not just the operation through biomass, for new infrastructure? Thank you.

Yes, we try to use the latest energy-efficient methods when we do new construction, as well, at this time. Thank you.

It’s no secret that we live in one of the harshest climates on the planet. It would reason well that our government, when investing millions of dollars in new infrastructure, we want to be on the leading edge, cutting edge. We would want to be the showcase of energy efficiency.

Again, I’m just curious, has the Department of Public Works and Services done anything above and beyond the standard national building codes for the various types of buildings that they build that would see our costs reduced to operate on an ongoing basis in the actual construction? I appreciate the biomass piece, but on the actual construction of buildings from here on out that would make them more energy efficient. Thank you.

Yes, the methods that are employed when we do new construction, the insulation value and the envelope of the building are designed to be as energy efficient as possible. So with the rising costs of energy right across the country, when we build anything new, we do that

with the concept of having as energy efficient as possible construction as we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand it may cost a little more at the beginning when constructing a new building to put energy-saving materials and planning in place.

Does the Department of Public Works and Services have a plan or a template for a follow-up after that building has been operating for a while to see what the return on those initial investments are in a higher energy saving? Do they have something in place to monitor that so we can hear the accounting of what those savings are? Thank you.

With new buildings, it is anticipated that the energy costs would be much lower than other buildings built previously. There is no actual savings because we don’t have a comparative data, but when we upgrade older buildings into this type of energy-efficient envelope, increasing insulation values, we then take that and use those for all of the savings of the fuel that we burn or that we don’t burn, I suppose, on these buildings and then redistribute it into all of our energy programs.

For the new buildings, like I said, we would see a lot less cost than it would be having not constructed the building with energy-efficient methods and biomass. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Education about the junior kindergarten and getting an understanding of some of the concerns I’ve heard from in the South Slave about the education and the implementation of junior kindergarten. I’m just wondering after the three phases, after first phase going into smaller communities, the second phase going into Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Smith and then, finally, into the larger centre of Yellowknife. Once those three phases are completed, how will these organizations be able to operate under the premise of having an additional pressure of having all those four-year-olds without having any additional money?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. After we complete the first, second and third year phase of introducing junior kindergarten,

those students will be registered under enrolment funding. On an annual basis, we contribute to school boards, so those students, the 40 students projected for Hay River, will fall under the enrollment funding. So we will continue for a number of years. Also, if they are upwards of or increase of 16 to 1, then there is a PTR in addition to the funding that will be identified. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The other thing I have heard from the Hay River DEA, or the district education, was that they indicated they had to use some of their surplus to fund some of these JKs. Is that true?

I stated earlier that the surplus is at the discretion of the school boards, how they want to spend it, but we’ve always encouraged them to spend it on educational programming. It is up to the school boards to spend on programming in their communities and region. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister indicated earlier in some of the questioning that they were going to do some number crunching and there was going to be an announcement on new numbers. I was just wondering if they’ve indicated that they are going to implement this program, junior kindergarten, and over the three phases, wouldn’t they have done that number crunching before? Wouldn’t they have a complete picture of where the money is going to come from to fund junior kindergarten? Why is the number crunching coming now after they’ve indicated the three phases and all the expenditures that need to be done?

I met with board chairs and the superintendents on May 13th . Based

on that, I had an in-camera discussion with the board chairs only. They gave me some ideas and suggestions about it not being mandatory, optional programming, and also having the four-day kindergarten. I was receptive to that and I said I would take that into consideration, which I did based on enrollment for school in the fall. So, Mr. Speaker, it was based on the recommendation of the school board chairs that we move forward on the changes. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has indicated some of the projections of students. I guess those are some of the assumptions. My understanding is that junior kindergarten is not mandatory; it’s voluntary. So how can they be projecting what enrollments are if they aren’t mandatory, and would the department consider it to be a requirement to be mandatory?

Again, when I met with the school board chairs on the 13th of May, we

gave them an extended week until the 23rd of May

to go back to their communities and regions and identify how many students would be registered. So they had until May 23rd to give us the actual

enrolment numbers, so it was based on the fact that we’re producing these numbers. It was corresponding with the school boards. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a follow-up to questions on my Member’s statement earlier on prescription drugs and the misuse and possibly the over-prescribing of, more specifically, pain killers, I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, what is the Minister doing to address the over-prescribing of pain killers and the misuse of prescribed drugs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.