Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was very helpful. If the college was to come forward in this particular budget cycle under capital planning, how much money would be allocated to that particular initiative if they wanted to plan for a college, an independent college in Yellowknife? Thank you.

I go back to my last question: Is this the first time they’ve received some type of expression of interest on this particular topic about expanding the college? Find whatever wording that makes someone feel comfortable, whether it’s independent campus or stand-alone or whatever the phrase may be, but is this the first time or, as I said, has there been other expressions of interest in the last few years since this Minister has been Minister of the department?

I’m not referring to private sectors who’ve expressed interest. I’m talking about the campus itself or the college itself. Has there been...

Mr. Chair, I appreciate your guidance, but this is not hypothetical, because we need to know the process as to what the request would be. It is not hypothetical and the Minister is unable to answer this. If the college was to carry out requests, how can I get to a capital request program in question if we don’t know where the question is going to in the department? That’s part of the question that seems to continually be avoided. I am hearing he is in charge. He gets the say yes or no, then he says the deputy minister, then he says the assistant deputy minister. We need to find out where that...

Okay, so that we’re clear on the record, the Minister has a letter of correspondence from the college expressing an interest on developing an independent campus in Yellowknife. Is that correct?

Mr. Chair, we still haven’t had clarity on the role of capital planning. Capital planning falls under…(inaudible)... Who does the college, whether it’s the chair, the Board of Governors or the president, whoever is sent with cap in hand to say that the college itself would like to proceed on a particular mechanism, who do they actually report to at the department? Who has the say yea or nay on a particular project? If the college wants to proceed on a particular project, they must be held accountable at the department level to that question.

It still is not clear who they actually report to. I...

Speaking in general to capital planning, that is, what type of correspondence has the Minister received? If you could speak to the general nature thereof as to the intent of what the request was or move forward to the initiative. The nature of the general request needs to be built into the capital planning process, so if the Minister can speak to the nature and how often this request has come forward.

Thank you. Can I also get the estimate – and I’m saying estimate, not exact, you don’t have to hire 25, 30 people to do this – of storage capacity as to what do we have, what are we using and where it’s located? I think I heard someone from the Minister’s side say that some of it’s stored at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, some of it’s stored at the government warehouse, which is just a heated warehouse, so can I get that as well?

Has there ever been a discussion to have Nunavut find their own storage facility here in Yellowknife or elsewhere in the Northwest Territories? Wherever would seem feasible, that is.

Where are all this valuable archival products? Where are they stored and what does it cost us? Thank you.

Why is the GNWT being contracted to do this? Maybe the Minister can provide some information. Why isn’t Nunavut hiring their own staff members – I’m not sure exactly how many – and renting their own appropriate storage mechanisms on their own and taking care of this? Why does the stewardship, in some manner, have anything to do with the Northwest Territories? Thank you.