The NDP raised concerns Wednesday that the plans tendered for the new F.H. Collins Secondary School do not meet City of Whitehorse energy requirements.

Lois Moorcroft, the official Opposition's Highways and Public Works critic, pointed to the thermal resistance or "R” value of the insulation for the school's exterior walls in the tendered design.

The tender asks for a rating of R24, but the City of Whitehorse requires an energy rating of R28, Moorcroft told the legislature.

The listed energy requirements for windows meet Alberta codes, the Copperbelt South MLA continued, but not the City of Whitehorse's.

But Kendra Black, the director of communications for the Department of Highways and Public Works, clarified today that the project will indeed meet the city's

building code stipulations and could in fact surpass them.

"Designing and constructing a building structure that will meet all building codes and achieve LEED Silver certification is a requirement of the current tender,” she said today.

Black pointed to the city's building bylaw, section 84(3) which states that "alternatives to the insulation requirements may be determined through the use of energy computer modeling resulting in an equivalent performance.”

"On a major project like this, the city doesn't look at individual components. They look at the project as a whole,” she noted.

Her comment was supported during a separate interview today with Mike Gau, the city's director of development services.

"Because buildings are a system, things work together, and you can increase the insulation factor in one area in order to reduce it in another,” he explained.

"In a building this size, it has to be modeled to meet the National Energy Code, so it goes into a computer modeling system in order to meet the energy

requirements for that code, as well as our bylaw.”

In essence, the government could meet the city's energy standards without specifically having R28 insulation.

Gau didn't want to go into detail about whether the plans for the school meet the city's standards.”

He noted the city hasn't received the building plans nor met with the architects or engineers to review the project – a process that takes weeks.

"But the standards do apply,” he said.

The project has been tendered as a design/build, Black noted. That means the design work hasn't yet been completed.

The bridging consultant modified the interior layout of the school and did some preliminary design work through a $900,000 sole-sourced contract, but the final design work will be completed by the successful bidder, she said.

During question period Wednesday, Moorcroft questioned the government on the energy standards of the new school.

"Experience has taught local contractors that the Yukon-designed and -built quadruple-pane windows are a sound investment. Will the minister of Highways and Public Works explain to the house why the tender design has only dual-pane windows while the City of Whitehorse building code requires that new buildings have a minimum triple-pane window?” she asked.

Premier Darrell Pasloski avoided Moorcroft's first question about the insulation, instead recounting a summarized timeline of the project to date.

In response to the opposition MLA's first supplementary question, Pasloski offered his confidences in the abilities of the government's "good employees to do their jobs and to ensure that we meet all requirements.”

"Here we go again. We already have two northern building standards that are not properly reflected in the tender,” Moorcroft said in the lead-up to her final supplementary.

"The government will have to redesign the redesign of their second attempt at building F.H. Collins to ensure compliance with local building codes. The government spent almost $1 million on a sole-sourced contract to bring an Alberta design up to Yukon standards. What happened?” she asked.

Highways and Public Works Minister Wade Istchenko stood to respond to Moorcroft's question.

"Building new offices, recreation centres or schools isn't easy,” he noted, before explaining the government's three objectives for the school.

"Our primary objective is to build a school for Yukoners, for Yukon's kids. That is our responsibility to Yukon families,” he said.

"Our secondary objective is to ensure that the school is built well and built on time and on budget. That is our responsibility to Yukon taxpayers.

"Our final objective is to provide a project that will create local jobs and be a good economic activity — that is our responsibility to our local contractors, toward our businesses and our suppliers.”