Tom Beaulieu

Okay. Following up on questions from other MLAs, I know there was indication that because of the nature of the way the office space in Inuvik is spread out around the community, although there may be a 7 per cent vacancy rate, there are small pockets all over the community. I was wondering what the opposition to actually doing a market evaluation would be.

I know that if we support a small business under some of our small business programs, even a person who owns a small business could have a lot less of an impact on something like this. That person is actually going into an area where there’s...

Okay. I’ll talk about Inuvik.

Laughter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to talk about another community for just a minute. I was wondering if the department had done a technical assessment on GNWT-owned office space in Lutselk’e.

I’m familiar with the date of the Deninu school. I believe the Deninu school was built in 1972, so I guess it’s 36 years old. I know there was some retrofit work done on the school. Could the deputy minister advise me when the Lutselk’e school was built — the current school?

They’re not there.

I know that under one actual program and one planning document, in the 20-year assessment, there is a midlife retrofit scheduled for all of the buildings that belong to the GNWT, including the Deninu School and Lutselk’e. My first question is: what’s the plan for midlife retrofit in those two schools? If it’s occurred recently and I’m not familiar with it, then I’d like to know that as well. But, first of all, the midlife retrofit schedule for the Deninu Ku’e and Lutselk’e schools.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Chair. I’m just trying to get some information on the two schools in Tu Nedhe. I didn’t have an opportunity….

Mahsi cho, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question for the department or the Minister. I see that there is a plan to do some energy upgrades to camps. I’m assuming that’s just to make some of the equipment storage areas more energy efficient. I’m wondering if there is a plan to do an energy upgrade on the camp at Big Buffalo River.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m listening to both sides of the discussion here today. I think that I’m surprised that there was no analysis done on what this could do to the market. If all of the office space currently in the communities is being utilized and this does not quit utilizing any of that office space, then I could see why this could be overlooked by government to not consider doing a market disruption analysis. However, I still feel that there is some sort of market analysis that has to be done, whether we script it as a market disruption analysis or not, some form of an analysis that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, looking at this capital plan, I’d like to thank the Department of Transportation for putting some money into Highway No. 6. I had an opportunity to discuss this budget, or the plan to put this money in, with the community of Fort Resolution. Highway No. 6 is the highway that goes from Hay River into Fort Resolution. It’s not right from Hay River but from what’s referred to as the Big Buffalo River camp into Fort Resolution, 90 kilometres of highway. For the most part, about 70 kilometres of this highway is in fairly decent shape. It’s not in good shape...

If market disruption is not an issue and the MLAs on this side of the House are indicating that there could be other priorities that we see because market disruption may be — from that type of evaluation — something that’s missing from this piece of the puzzle, would it be possible for the government to provide some comfort to the MLAs indicating that there is no market disruption? Maybe by getting the individual rental office space sector from Inuvik to indicate that this would not be an issue. I’m wondering if something like that could be easily attained.