Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks. And, look, I know I'm not even probably asking the right Minister here. So I'll just leave it at that. But I've waited eight years for something to happen. It hasn't happened. And I'm really worried. And I don't think we're in basic compliance with the law as a government. So I'm going to leave it at that but I'm going to raise this in a statement, and I'll have questions for the appropriate Minister probably next week because we're just not living up to our own laws. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Department of Education, Culture and Employment, culture, heritage, and language, infrastructure investments $490,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We can go next to page 20. Junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services with information items on page 21. Department of Education, Culture and Employment, junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, infrastructure investments, $3,100,000. Does committee agree? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned in my opening comments there, you know, I'm really concerned about the lack of money that we're putting in towards the schools, and I understand that this isn't this Minister's realm to know. But, you know, $3 million is very small and it really is -- the only school that's actually getting sort of any construction, so to say, is Mangilaluk in Tuk. But we have many schools that are in needs of almost full replacements. Does the Minister have any idea if we are going to be seeing any federal funds come in to take care of our school infrastructure deficit. And one of the things that was really concerning that I have learned in my role in social development is that we fund even the school infrastructure per capita.

So there's no taking into account the fact of, you know, the remoteness of a community or the inability to build there or the lack of an all-weather road for supplies to come in or for even maintenance to be done on an existing school. So, you know, I think it's really at a state where the crumbling infrastructure, you know, the federal government needs to step up, I think, and really -- you know, what a great act of reconciliation that would be after all these years of taking children to school, why don't you go -- you know, the federal government come in and build proper schools for us in the North. So not -- I know the Minister doesn't have a crystal ball, but if she has any idea of whether or not we're going to see a significant school investment soon, I would like to know. Thanks.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, I don't need a crystal ball on this one. I can tell you the answer and that the federal government doesn't typically provide funding for schools. But what I would like is it would be more of a magic wand where they would, in fact, provide the funding for schools for the reasons that the Member has set out as well as any other reason that that would, you know -- if we can invest with children starting from early education, junior kindergarten through two, you know, there would -- I think a lot of the other problems that we see across the territory or elsewhere in Canada might well be solved. So I don't think any of us disagree, but right now the federal government does provide significant funds for things like roads and other sort of the traditional, if you will, infrastructure, and we are making use of it because those are areas where we are also at a tremendous deficit as compared to the rest of Canada. And in the meanwhile, we have to try to race to catch up with the limited funding available to us as a territorial government in order to fill all of the rest of the gaps, like schools. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Member. Member for Kam Lake -- oh.

Mangilaluk school, page 21. In regards to -- can I have an update from this Minister in regards to a finished timeline? And I have other questions with that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this project -- I certainly share some frustration with respect to the progress on this project. There seemingly has been a number of challenges over the last couple of years. And that's certainly led to a negative outlook by the community, which quite frankly saddens me more to think that the children there or the students there would think that they are not the priority of anyone in elected office. I can say at this point, while we have been assured that there be certain completions here for September, including not the least of which be a gym space, the trade space. Unfortunately, with the evacuations, this caused some site delays. You know, Yellowknife unfortunately -- or I don't know. It just is what it is. It still is a hub for supplies, a hub for contractors. And as such, there's now -- we've now been provided with a revised completion schedule. It's been amended to say that -- so as I think was already communicated, the total completion date would be in August of 2024, but in addition to that, we are expecting that the gym and other facilities that were previously expected for this school year are now we're looking at middle of this fall. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just give you a little bit of history. April, when we left the House, my mayor of Tuk called me. He was asking me to take the lead on it in regards to it. So I sourced out the land. I sourced out the trailers. I sourced everything out. Did all that work for our government. Had a commitment in this House for two trailers. I tried to get four but I only got two. And all of a sudden when it's time to purchase the trailers for the community because we're -- they're looking at adult ed -- taking away from the community. They were at the time. They were going to take away the gym -- hamlet chambers, the one church in the community and one classroom at the adult ed. I don't know where that's at right now because we don't know. So that's the first time it ever happened to me in the Legislative Assembly since I was first elected in 2007 the first time, the first go around, that any Minister that promised me something that fell through. I'm really disappointed. I brought them, both Ministers into the community, to see where we're at of getting trailers. So basically, we came in. We said we'd work towards it. Then all of a sudden, we're making good headway, then it all stops. We have problems with the contractor having not enough people working on the school. Now they're making a tunnel in from the school into the gym to where they're going to have kids going to school in a construction site. So anywhere else that we've done schools -- we did one here in Yellowknife. They had eight or ten portables brought in from the south sitting here that are going into another project in Behchoko. I know that. What's the difference between Tuk, Behchoko, and Yellowknife for that project? Tell me. Just for getting proper safety of students in my riding. To me, this is a total fail. I'm thankful for the school. I'm very thankful because the first time I ever brought this project up was in '07 because I had 38 staff using one bathroom. And now the school looks beautiful. We had a tour with the Ministers and that, it's going to be a beautiful school. But at the end of the day, though, it's the safety of the kids that are my concern. It's the safety of my leadership back home. We had meetings. Why aren't we able to get these portables into the community? Even two of them. Why? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this has been a difficult contract with the contractor that was in place. There have been some steps taken over the summer, I understand, to try to bring greater oversight to the delivery of the project. And the last update that I had also received just before the evacuations was that that had in fact brought about some changes, namely in the form of -- well, greater oversight from the project management team, a new project manager on top of that, and as such greater confidence that the promises made around a September date for the gym and the trade facility would, in fact, be achieved. Madam Chair, I was not at that time anticipating the evacuation or the magnitude of what that would do to a number of projects, including this one. And frankly, I wouldn't have necessarily expected that this one would be impacted by it. But unfortunately, it was. And that is where that project stands.

Infrastructure and ECE have -- did analyze whether or not having portables would be feasible. Both came back in the end indicating that existing portables had already places where they were destined to and that the idea of putting in these portables as was being contemplated or described as not deemed feasible by infrastructure for a number of reasons. So that's where that ended. And, again, as I said, yes, I'm also disappointed that the expectation we had for the September delivery is now not going to be met. But we are -- we'll certainly for the time we have left been watching to see that they can meet their revised timelines. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, that -- I wouldn't say in the House that -- like, it's a lie. I had this company sorted out, lined up for them. I went out. I did all the groundwork for them. It would have took six weeks for these portables to be built. And I had them ready for August 15th coming into Tuk if we followed the plan.

Tell me where the money went in regards to being told I'm allowed to have two trailers in the community, not four, on the floor of the House? It's in Hansard. I want these trailers. I want safety of the youth in my community of Mangilaluk School deserve no less than here, no less than anywhere across our territory, and it's all been done. All the homework was done by me and my office seeking the land, seeking the trailers, the company out of Lethbridge. I did all the groundwork. All they had to do was sign and they fell short on that. So tell me, are we allowed to get these four trailers now? And don't burn the clock because I only got two minutes and 30 seconds. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Madam Chair, there's nothing in this capital plan for additional portables. Thank you.

Member for Nunakput.

Why? I was promised in the House in the Legislative Assembly during a regular sitting day by the Minister of the day, which is sitting across from me, saying we're allowed to have two, two portables, not four, could do two. We had everything sorted out. Why aren't -- why is that money not in place to get them done? And it's shameful. They all -- I always say they got a Minister's directive not to be told they could put it down. Why didn't they pull that trigger when they had the chance? What is going on here is not right, and they know it. They got to look at themselves in the mirror. I got to answer to my leadership back home that's asking me what's happened. We were so close. They came to the community. And now all they did is let them hear what they want to hear on this project. I want those two trailers. Find it somewhere in regards to this money. When it's stuff like this, it's so hard to find money. When it's other things, it's not a problem. Yeah, bring it forward, we'll pass it again. Another $100 million, $120 million we're looking for. So Madam Chair, I want these guys to find the money in regards to Mangilaluk School and two portables for Tuktoyaktuk by the end of the week. Thank you.