Michael McLeod

The decision will be made by the Department of Education whether to bring it forward. Mr. Speaker, the time frame will be revolving around the capital planning process and when the decisions are made there. That’s the process we have to follow.

The Member is correct that there is a significant amount of upgrading and retrofit that's required in the school. Our report — I believe we're looking at the same report — confirms that. That information has been provided to the Department of Health.

In this case, we've had a situation where some material fell off the heating pipes. We haven't confirmed if it is asbestos as of yet. However, we have taken the precaution of having air quality testing done. We've taken the material and sent it south, and we're waiting for those results. We suspect that the material may contain some asbestos, but...

The Member has pointed out an excellent point that needs to be considered by all planning departments that deal with Public Works and Services. In the case of Fort Simpson, there’s an additional cost of $80,000. That’s $80,000 more than the department that the community would need to come up with.

So, Mr. Speaker, it’s not a decision I can make in isolation. I have made the commitments to have that discussion.

Over the years we have really made the attempt to enhance our investments in our communities to deal with some of the real challenging areas. Recreation, of course, has been one area that we needed to see improvements in. We’ve increased the O&M funding to all our communities across the Territories, and in some cases that has been fairly significant. However, the investments are at the community council level — sometimes recreation doesn’t come out on the top, and other priorities overcome it in terms of investment.

We have certainly tried to expand our School of Community Government programs...

I guess I should first point out that recreation workers work for the community governments and not for our government directly. We, in turn, have, through the new deal program, really tried to enhance the government funding in the communities. We also have a community recreation contribution program which all communities can apply to. We, as a government, spend roughly $5 million in the area of sports and recreation. The N.W.T. Sport and Recreation Council spends close to the same, around $4.5 million. We have increased our money through the youth centres, the youth contribution. So there is...

Mr. Speaker, the Member’s statement regarding the challenges facing communities in hiring trained recreational workers and paying them a salary that is comparable across the board is something we’ve recognized for some time. The N.W.T. Sports and Recreation Council has recognized it. We’ve had some early discussions on it. They have been quite concerned about the level of investment that goes into the bigger events, such as our Winter Games, Canada Games, and want to have discussions about what the challenges are in the community and the possibility of redirecting finances. So my answer to the...

Mr. Speaker, energy costs are a concern to all of us. Public Works and Services has had the opportunity to test out a more economically and environmentally friendly alternative energy source at the North Slave Correctional Facility.

Providing heat for buildings using wood pellet boilers has been common practice in Europe for decades. It has provided reliable heating for hotels, office buildings and recreational facilities from Austria to Siberia. These systems save money due to the use of less expensive wood by-products, specifically crushed sawdust pellets. They also significantly reduce...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member asked me what was on the list that we provided the federal government. Mr. Speaker, we have not provided a list to the federal government. Mr. Speaker, the list that the Member is referring to has not been compiled yet. There are a couple of projects that we’d like to announce once we have our framework negotiations completed. The list that’s being requested would be developed through the interim appropriations discussions and the capital planning and more than likely be targeted towards projects already in our business plan. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes. We’ve had requests and we’ve funded programs with the Inuvialuit and we’ve also worked with the Dehcho First Nations and others, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a budget under our youth portfolio for youth core programs. The criteria, this will be dollars that could be used for youth camps. We’ve funded, through our youth programs last year through the youth contribution and the Youth Corps Program, a total of, I believe it’s 55 different initiatives, and a good portion of those were youth camp-type workshops or on-the-land programs. So there are a number of ways we can provide for the youth to be on the land or be with the elders. The Department of Health, I believe, also has some Summer Camp Program dollars that...