As a government, we have taken a very strategic approach to decentralization. We have taken a very measured and conservative approach as opposed to we’re not moving whole departments holus-bolus from Yellowknife to a small, isolated community. We are taking a very strategic, measured approach so that at the end of the day when we have completed decentralization, decentralization will continue into the near future, at least the next two or three years, that we’ll see that decentralization has been very successful in the Northwest Territories.

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

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our officials have had a meeting with the Canadian Coast Guard and encouraged them to meet with the CMAC and the AMAB, they are two organizations, I guess, known as the Canadian Marine Advisory Council and the Arctic Marine Advisory Board, to see if there can be some dredging done on the Hay River and along the route up the Mackenzie. Thank you.

Can the Minister elaborate on these meetings and how many meetings have happened and when do we expect results to say that this is what we expect to happen over the next little while, over the next two years, 10 years, whatever the expectations are? We’d like to know at least an action plan going forward about the Hay River dredging.

This was our officials in a telephone conference call talking to the Canadian Coast Guard, asking them to meet with the Arctic and Canadian Marine Advisory boards since they had responsibility for that. It’s not something where our officials are meeting directly with individuals that would be responsible for dredging, but rather encouraging one of the key users of the river to meet with these organizations to try to get some money put into the budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Talking about money, I indicated in my Member’s statement that we have built a major highway and we’ve put money into it. We know that’s a federal responsibility, but we know that in order to get some of this stuff going we need to have the leverage.

So, has the Minister talked about us looking at putting some money in to leverage the federal government to get this dredging done?

No, we haven’t offered up any money to our share of any dredging. What we do know is that the federal government is not dredging the harbour in Hay River. They haven’t had a dredging program since the early ‘90s, late ‘80s. Since then we’ve had a little bit of money at one point. I think in 2012 there was $60,000 allocated to remove some of the silt from a key area. But aside from that, essentially the dredging

program has been non-operational for the years. It would take some money, for sure, to get the dredging operational again. The dredging equipment that was being used previously at the Hay River Harbour was sold to the municipality. We’ve never been able to get that equipment operational again for the work that was needed on that harbour in Hay River. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These are answers I’ve heard before. I want to know what the Minister, just recently in Ottawa, did to have a conversation with the federal government to get dredging done.

What meetings did he hold in Ottawa to get this dredging issue dealt with?

Thank you. The responsible Minister is the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans that would have completed the dredging if there was dredging to be done. I didn’t meet with Fisheries and Oceans. I met with the Minister of Infrastructure, Minister of Transportation, Minister responsible for Northern Development. In one discussion I had with the Minister of Transportation I mentioned that dredging in Hay River is needed as part of the transportation out of there, but it’s not her responsibility. We need to engage the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans. If they were to look at dredging, it would be coming from that department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the day I spoke about the need to replace the school in Trout Lake. I know that the Department of Education is currently assessing the facility and I also spoke about the Premier and Minister of Transportation going to Trout Lake, but the Minister himself has been to Trout Lake and indeed seen the school for himself. I know that they’re doing an assessment as we speak.

So I would like to ask the Minister if there’s a current report completed for the assessment of the school in Trout Lake. Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since we visited the community with Member Menicoche, also the district education council, we’ve toured the school facility and we know the condition of it. So we’ve been talking about how we can proceed with the planning study. The planning study is underway, 2014-15 year, and

it will provide us with a needs analysis, operational plan and also recommend the scope of work.

At the same time, an education plan began in May 2014 and the report is now complete as of June 2014. That provides us more data on the particular analysis and operation plan as well. Mahsi.

Thank you very much. The Minister spoke about the completion of the planning study. Just for clarification, does he mean that will be completed by the end of March of this year? Thank you.

Mahsi. That is part of the plan. If we can get it done sooner than that, that will be our priority as well as the department, working with Member Menicoche, how we can expedite this process as well. Mahsi.

Thank you very much. I certainly look forward to the results of that study and sharing it with the community. I know that the community of Trout Lake and I have always advocated for a replacement stand-alone school.

I’d like to ask the Minister what his department can do to move forward with a new replacement school. Thank you.

That is in the works. I’ve touched on the planning study and also the educational plan. That will give us the data analysis that we need to move forward as part of the capital planning process. There is a capital planning process that every department is entitled to go through that, so we’re doing what we can to push the Trout Lake school as part of the capital planning process. This will give us more ammunition to move that forward as part of the process. Mahsi.

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

Thank you very much. There were some repairs needed for that building that the school is currently in.

Are there any plans to ship any repair material up the winter road currently? Thank you.

Mahsi. Within the capital plan, ‘15-16, obviously there’s $423,000 that’s earmarked as part of the proposal for Charles Tetcho School as part of the renovation to existing building space to provide adequate instructional space. I’ve been working with the Member on this. So we’re moving forward on that.

Yes, we’re fully aware that the community wants a stand-alone school. So that is the overall long-term plan and I need to work with the community as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.