Thank you, Madam Chair. We have capital standards, is what it's called, and those standards lay out what is in the scope of potential new schools, and not everything that's in those standards is necessarily in a school. If there's not a need for a child care facility in a community, that wouldn't be considered as part of a new build, but the new standards do give us the opportunity to include those types of facilities in new schools, and those standards have been adopted in our public. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm just wondering why there -- so the -- where we find ourselves today is we have a huge child care deficit across the Northwest Territories, and so quite often when it comes to negotiating, you know, main estimates, we try to put some money in there for capital, and then we talk about all of the benefits of having access to child care, and one of the things that comes up quite often is that lack of infrastructure, and so I'm wondering why ECE wouldn't build that space within the school, in every new school that comes up, so that they're really preparing for down the road as well, just like Stanton did with the Stanton build. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And we are, you know, pursuing an ambitious plan to expand accessibility of early learning and child care spaces, and one of those ways we could do that is through schools. We can't commit to doing something in every single community because every community is different. And I mean, we could be putting an organization out of business by doing that, or we could be negatively impacting. So I don't want to say that we're going do something in every single community because every community needs to be looked at individually. And each project needs to be assessed on its own merits. So I can leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering if would any kind of capital investment or infrastructure investment for child care facilities that are in the works be found in here, or is it simply that there are none that would be found in here because they're through funding agreements to nongovernment organizations in the main estimates. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Was the question about capital expenditures for child care centres? And if that's the case, our child care infrastructure fund is through the main estimates. So it wouldn't be found in here. Thank you.

Thank you. Member.

Perfect. No, thank you very much. I just wanted to be able to confirm that.

And then I'm wondering if this is an opportunity -- and maybe the Minister will just shut this right down, but we'll see. What are our budgetary needs for capital infrastructure for child care facilities across the Northwest Territories right now, just to give us a good understanding of how much money the NWT would need in order to have accessible child care facilities for all kids for the Northwest Territories, and potentially maybe the Minister could also tell us, you know, about opportunities that might exist within child care for families.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. So I can address at least part of that question. We have been looking at the need for child care spaces in the territory, and as part of the development of the 2030 early learning child care strategy, and as well as part of our preparation for the negotiations with the government of Canada for the Canada-wide early learning child care funding. The short answer is, you know, tens of millions of dollars that are likely needed, but perhaps I can get my deputy minister to break that relatively complex question down. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy Minister MacDonald.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you.

Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that we have three portables for the Colville Lake school, and then we have the replacement. And I know there was some back and forth on the community with what that school was. I see the description's now kind of have been expanded to consist of service spaces in the community gymnasium. Can the Minister just kind of give us a brief update of what's going on with the Colville Lake school replacement and whether it's on track. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. Perhaps I could hand this over to Mr. Shannon who's been intimately involved with this project for, I guess since the beginning. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. An.

Member for Yellowknife North.