Curley makes war on Iqaluit schools

Tagak Curley, the MLA for Rankin Inlet-North, accused Ed Picco, the minister of education, of “abdicating his responsibilities” to treat Nunavut communities equally, because of an apparently large amount of school construction in Iqaluit.

Curley said about 50 per cent of the Department of Education’s capital budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year is devoted to projects in Iqaluit, and that Iqaluit is turning into “another Yellowknife.”

Picco responded by saying that the department’s building plans and schedules for Nunavut communities are based on objective criteria: occupancy, usage, age, and the quality of the building.

He also said that only one new school has been built in Iqaluit since 2000 with GN money: the replacement Joamie School, built to replace an older building that was devastated by a fire.

He also pointed out that spending on other projects, such as an extension to the Aqsarniit middle school and an upcoming renovation of Inuksuk High School, are contained in plans that MLAs have already approved in previous committee of the whole meetings.

Curley and other MLAs, for example, voted for the Aqsarniit project in 2004.

Midway through Curley’s series of questions, Hunter Tootoo, the member of Iqaluit Centre, rose on a point of order to complain that Curley was impugning Picco’s motives, and making unsubstantiated allegations. But after a break, Tootoo’s complaint was ruled out of order.