CAMBRIDGE BAY - After waiting an entire school year for GN departments to install equipment, Lynn MacLeod is quitting his job as the pre-trades teacher in Cambridge Bay.

He just can't go on teaching pre-trades without any tools.

Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson wrote this message to Education Minister Ed Picco, in the dust collecting on the unused shop equipment at Killinik High School. - photo courtesy of Keith Peterson

The equipment arrived in September 2006. Three months later, in December, the department of education placed a work order with community and government services.

Today, an entire shop full of top of the line trades equipment is still sitting idle.

Kiilinik high school in Cambridge Bay operates on a strange electrical system. Instead of the 220 standard, they are on 208, and extensive rewiring is needed to get the shop up to code.

"Why on Earth would you build a multi-million dollar facility and put in a 208?" said MacLeod. "I had a local contractor lined up to do it (convert to 220), but CGS put a stop to it, and nothing has happened since. They were mandated to do it and they never did."

Without their 20-inch thickness planer and eight inch jointer, the pre-trades students in Cambridge Bay have been reduced to hand tools, an education that isn't likely to land them jobs in the future.

"If all of this gets done, Cambridge Bay would have one of the finest facilities anywhere in the territory," said MacLeod. "They could work for the mines; they could work building houses. I took the kids as far as I could with hand tools."

MacLeod is done at the school, due in part to his frustration with having no equipment. He leaves for a job in Whitecourt, Alta., at the end of the school year.

Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson brought up the installation debacle with his first question in the new legislature sitting.

"I think it is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. There is a process that is supposed to be followed. Education and CGS, it appears they weren't following," said Peterson.

"We have a lot of employment opportunities, the mines are crying for workers. There are a lot of kids in town that like working with their hands. Some likely dropped out," said Peterson.

CGS is willing to take some of the blame, but not all.

"If we were involved from the beginning, it wouldn't have taken this long. We could have been faster on it," said Shawn Maley, assistant deputy minister of CGS.

When asked about Peterson's accusation that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, Maley agrees to an extent.

"He (Peterson) makes a good point. People working on programs know what they want, but the path to get there needs a more technical understanding. We need to educate our client groups," said Maley.

Maley said he expects the wiring to be complete by September.