Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is correct. There is a growing desire to have schools as centres of the community. In many ways, they already function like that when communities use the school gyms for gathering places for feasts, when the libraries in schools are the public libraries. However, there is an acknowledgement that we can do more, and to that end, ECE has revamped its capital standards. Those are how we decide what gets put into the different communities from a technical standpoint, and those new standards include gyms for all schools, regardless of sizes. They include the option for early learning and childcare spaces in the schools.

We always work closely with communities. There are always a lot of consultations, and then the schools that we end up with are always reflective of the communities. We have taken the approach now of working even closer and listening to communities who want to create projects that are bigger than a school. Perhaps they include other aspects, other pieces of commune infrastructure, as well. While we have not gotten there yet, those are the kinds of projects we are working on right now in places like Colville Lake. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On the one hand of this spectrum, I fully support our schools becoming community centres, and there being mandatory gymnasiums for a school regardless of the size is a great step. I get concerned that, given the needs of all of our schools and all of our infrastructure, of our education bodies, that, the more we start to build better infrastructure, it becomes at the expense of other communities who need simple renovations. Can the Minister just speak to whether there are any guidelines or parameters to make sure that the long-term capital planning for our education bodies is essentially done evenly, that, if we go out and build the best school in one community, it's not coming at the expense of another? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. Right now, we build the best schools where there are the most students, which means there is not equitable access to all of the facilities in small communities that there is in larger centres, and that is what we are trying to remedy. We could just go by population base, which we have been doing, and we wind up where we have schools with no gym. Then those students, they don't have the time to practise indoor sports, which means they can't go in the tournaments to different regional centres and things like that. It would be great if those facilities existed within communities already and we did not have to put them in the schools, but the fact is: if we want equitable access, we have to change the way we are doing things. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. I will move to the Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. My colleague from Yellowknife North asked my question about whether we actually design new schools or renovations to include childcare space, but I have a couple of questions I would like to pursue. Full disclosure: I live across the street from Ecole J.H. Sissons, and I am watching it come down over the last several weeks. I am just wondering where we are with the scheduling of that. I know COVID-19 has probably delayed that project a bit, but I just would like to get a little bit more information about where we are at with the scheduling of that because there was a lot of public concern around that in Yellowknife. The school board had to make a lot of decisions about where to put the kids to try to minimize the impact on families and students and so on. I am just wondering where we are at with the scheduling for that particular project. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. I would like to hand that off to my assistant deputy minister, who is very up on where we are on the day-to-day operations of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Shannon.

Thank you, ADM Shannon. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that response. I just have to walk by it every day, so I am very curious about that. I appreciate the support of the department in getting that important work done. My other question was about the Mangilaluk School. I know some of us had an opportunity to go up to Tuktoyaktuk in August, and I know that the Member for Nunakput has done a lot of work to try to expedite that and get it moving along. I am just wondering where that project is at. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. There were some delays in that project, but I am happy to say that work is getting started. We are putting people to work on that project. I can pass it over to the ADM again for some more details.

Thank you, Minister. ADM Shannon.

Thank you, ADM Shannon. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just to be clear, the work has started now. Are people from the community getting jobs from this? I am just kind of curious. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. I do not have those statistics on me right now, but I can promise to get those back to the Member.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just curious again, also, about the schools. I know there was a lot of discussion around budgets and things for the construction of these schools or the additions. I am just curious because I believe you have maybe had to cut some of design and fill and things to reach the budgets in your negotiations. I am just curious if the Minister can provide me, it does not have to be here today, with some information on where the designs were altered in order to make the budgets that you had allocated for this. Thank you, Madam Chair.