The Yukon government faced a flurry of questions Thursday after information was revealed that Takhini Elementary School could be facing demolition to make way for École Whitehorse Elementary School’s replacement.

Eighteen months ago, the Yukon government announced that downtown school would be replaced. The government said it was slotted to be built on government property beside the current Takhini Elementary School, on property which also hosts busy softball fields.

At that time, there was no mention of possibly demolishing Takhini Elementary.

Scott Kent of the Yukon Party was responsible for that bombshell during Thursday’s question period.

“This summer, the government released a tender for the consultant services on the replacement of École Whitehorse Elementary School,” Kent told the House.

“The specifications of that tender caught the eye of many people in the school community.

“In particular, the tender con-templates the demolition of the Takhini Elementary School. To date, the minister (Jeanie McLean) has never indicated that there were plans to demolish Takhini Elementary,” Kent pointed out.

“Can the minister confirm that Takhini Elementary may need to be demolished to accommodate the replacement of École White-horse Elementary?”

Education Minister McLean attempted to answer that question, but was more successful in talking around the issue.

“I think I want to start by saying that our government is really proud of investing in school infrastructure. École Whitehorse Elementary has been identified for replacement with a new modern facility that will meet the needs of the community for years to come,” she said.

“Of course, folks know that this is one of our oldest schools, and we have made the decision to go ahead and start planning for a 
new school.”

She continued to circle around Kent’s question.

“Moving Whitehorse Elementary School to the Takhini education land reserve does not preclude having a school downtown,” McLean said.

“We have lots of debate around that, and we are looking forward to releasing a ‘What We Heard’ on Whitehorse school infrastructure later this fall.”

Not surprisingly, Kent wasn’t prepared to let the issue go.

“My question was with respect to the potential demolition of Takhini Elementary School, and hopefully the minister gets a chance to address that in this next response,” he told the legislature.

“The RFP (request for proposals) that was released this summer, and ultimately resulted in the contract awarded that the minister mentioned back in August, also includes a request for the consultant to conduct an analysis of other potential sites if it is deemed that the Takhini lot is inadequate.

“However, to date, the minister has insisted that this is the only acceptable lot and the only location that the government would consider,” Kent noted.

McLean – for the second time – took a circuitous path to answering his question.

“I want to go back to saying that this is a really important project in terms of new infrastructure for Whitehorse,” she said

“As everyone knows, our population is growing. We have experienced growth that we haven’t seen in probably decades.

“Since 2016, I believe, we have had a 12.1-percent increase from 2016 to 2021, and we are working to catch up — that’s what we are doing, Mr. Speaker.

“We did not have any elementary schools built during the last whole mandate of the Yukon Party.”

She reiterated “we are investing in schools, and this school is one of our oldest schools. As I have indicated, we have hired a very capable prime consultant to do the assessment work and we want to be as broad as we possibly can and do our due diligence, Mr. Speaker.

“I believe that, in ensuring that we are making the best decisions that we can based on evidence, this contractor will do a very good job for Yukoners.”

Kent continued to pursue the issue.

“I will give the minister another chance to answer the specific questions that I asked, and they are related to the contract that was awarded back in August to the consultant to look at the replacement of École Whitehorse Elementary School,” he told the chamber.

“The first one is that — and the minister has never mentioned this before — they have asked the consultant to consider whether or not Takhini Elementary School needs to be demolished as part of this school redevelopment.

“The second one is that they actually asked the contractor to look at other potential sites if the Takhini site is not deemed to be appropriate.

“I know that the minister has never said anything publicly about either of those issues, so I will give her the chance on the floor of the legislature here today to tell us whether or not they are considering demolishing Takhini Elementary School and whether or not the government is considering other sites for this project,” Kent said.

McLean responded by saying “replacing École Whitehorse Elementary School is an important project for the Government 
of Yukon.

“As it stands right now, the Takhini education land reserve is one of the largest in Whitehorse and has enough room for potentially two schools.

“There are not a lot of other sites that are centrally located and would meet the needs of a new school such as this.”

After question period concluded, Kent spoke to reporters about the issue.

“You know, obviously, we raised concerns with Softball Yukon and the fields and and other concerns with going in the Takhini neighbourhood.

“But then to find out through the request for proposals that they put out for a consultant that there’s consideration being given to looking at other sites, there’s consideration to, to Takhini Elementary School having to be demolished.

“I just want to understand why that wasn’t done beforehand, rather than at the RFP process. And, and, of course, why that was not mentioned publicly,” Kent said.

NDP Leader Kate White added, “If it wasn’t for the bid, we wouldn’t have known that they were even asking (whether) you’re contemplating taking down Takhini Elementary.

“And so the question there is: what conversations have they had with the First Nation School Board? Because that is now a First Nation school.

“And so there’s lots of questions and very few answers. And I imagine that the education debate will, you know, will begin there.”