Brian Lemax, regional superintendent for the Department of Public Works, said negotiations with Dowland Contracting Ltd. concluded near the end of December.

"So there is a price set by the contractor, but only the Cabinet can authorize the awarding of a negotiated contract," he said.

Lemax would not disclose any details of the price agreed upon by the two parties, but said the offer will go before Cabinet later this month.

The department had originally budgeted $7.8 million for construction of the new educational facility. Lemax said the offer going before Cabinet "may have increased."

In early December Dowland's took over negotiations from GSA Construction when it failed to come to an agreement with Public Works.

At that time A.J. Mackenzie, manager of GSA, said the department wouldn't budge past the price of $7.8 million. GSA's estimate came in at just over $9 million.

Gwich'in Development Corporation CEO Tom Connors then requested the change in negotiators.

Meanwhile, Aurora College's manager of public and corporate affairs, Tim Gauthier, said student housing arrangements have been made for when the new campus opens in the summer of 2004.

The current residence, at the Father Ruyant building, will close when the new campus opens.

Initially, Gauthier said there were plans to build a new student residence, but those plans will now be delayed.

"That's still the intent. However, it being tight fiscal times, it was an either/or prospect and we chose to go with expanded classroom space instead of a new student residence."

The college then turned to Inuvik-based Nihjaa Properties, which rents out 18 housing units in town.

Under the company's arrangement with the college, Gauthier said Nihjaa agreed to renovate the units to bring them up to code and then rent out eight of them to be used as student residences.

"So those housing units will be opened up and they can be used for either family or single student housing.

"So students will be comfortably accommodated and taken care of," he said.

A new student residence is still on the capital planning books, said Gauthier, but the project is being pushed ahead.