Facelift for Iqaluit middle school will have to wait, says Nunavut’s education minister
“The Aqsarniit school hasn’t been deemed as an emergency”
The siding on Iqaluit’s Aqsaniit Middle School isn’t looking as spiffy as it once did. But a planned project to redo the siding has now been postponed due to other other more urgent school needs, Education Minister David Joanasie said June 3 in the Nunavut legislature. (Photo by Jane George)
A $3 million amount that had been earmarked in the budget to replace the siding on Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit Middle School has been spent on other, more urgent school projects, says Nunavut’s education minister, David Joanasie.
“We have multiple projects in that ongoing lifecycle under that budget,” Joanasie told Pat Angnakak, the MLA for Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu, during question period on Monday, June 3.
With a number of schools across the territory needing either emergency repairs or new generators, the Aqsarniit project has been deferred, he said.
A couple of years ago it looked like the shabby green siding of Aqsarniit Middle School would be replaced with new metal siding and protective windows installed to increase safety. The Iqaluit District of Education even held a poll to ask what colours people wanted for the new siding.
The school’s current siding is bright green, with touches of pink and yellow. Installed in the early 2000s, it features a wave pattern that evokes aqsarniit, the northern lights.
But now there are lots of places where the colours have faded away or come off.
“I live beside the Aqsarniit Middle School and I can tell you that the siding is getting worse and worse each year,” Angnakak said. Some of the money was spent, yet the project was never completed, she said.
“Funds were then carried over for the project to proceed during the 2018-19 fiscal year and still no siding has been replaced,” Angnakak said. “Can the minister clearly explain how much money been spent on this project to date and what was the money spent on?”
Angnakak said she’s heard that the longer the government waits to complete projects, the more expensive those projects become as the costs of labour and materials increase over time.
“Will the minister commit to completing the Aqsarniit Middle School siding project before the end of the current fiscal year? “
But Joanasie would not commit to that.
“If there are any also health or safety issues that some other schools are experiencing, we have to pay attention to those on a more immediate basis,” he said. “The middle school, the Aqsarniit school, hasn’t been deemed as an emergency.”
Come on Pat. Yes we should make all buildings look more pretty instead of ensuring healthy drinking water for communities, functioning health centres and keeping the lights on in other schools. I would assume this ranks further down the totem pole of emergencies IMO.
The lower the position on the pole, the more important
They can’t even commit to replacing the mould ridden Sakku school in Coral. Kids and staff are getting ill with rashes, impetigo and other ailments. This is just one school that needs replacing. “Maybe it will be renovated by 2020”. So, yeah the middle school siding in Iqaluit isn’t and shouldn’t be a priority.