EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So, we will review it, Mr. Speaker and make sure that in every opportunity, that the accounts receivable have been dealt with fairly and honestly for the satisfaction not only of the Power Corporation getting it’s money, Mr. Speaker, but at the end of the day, where the client or the customer who should be the very best in coming forward with the proper understanding of how the bills are done.
Question 678 – 1(6): Oil and Gas Exploration
I would like to ask the Minister if he’s talking with the Federal Government of Canada on repatriating the natural resources and oil and gas to the Government of Nunavut.
We are having discussion with the Federal Government in regards to natural resources and Mr. Nault who is the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
We are also talking about how we can further develop the natural resources that are available out there.
In his statement, he stated that in 1999 there was $35 million dollars and it today it is approximately $90 million dollars now but nothing has been started yet.
In Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake, in the Amittuq area and in the Kitikmeot area, they have found diamonds.
Even though they’re not exploring today, I’m sure that there is going to be many other mineral explorers coming up here.
There is also the Nanisivik Mines and Little Cornwallis that have operated up here in Nunavut but since the beginning of their operation, millions and millions and million of dollars have gone out of our territory.
The Federal Government of Canada and the Government of Nunavut do not have an agreement in place for repatriation of our natural resources.
Instead of just doing studies, how can we try to repatriate our resources so that the money starts flowing to us and not the Government of Canada?
I think you’re talking about devolution.
The Premier at every opportunity meets with the Federal Government to negotiate on how we can get more revenue through the industry Minister.
We as a government have been working on this issue on an ongoing basis and this is also included in the discussion paper that I touched upon earlier.
Question 679 – 1(6): Starting Up an Outpost Camp
Mr. Speaker, on more than one occasion, we’ve had discussions with the people in our ridings and this was one issue that was brought up by my riding in regards to the outpost camps and how they can start up an outpost camp.
You can probably go through the local Hunter's and Trapper's Organization to get the required paper work done and once that is completed would the potential outpost camper have to go to your department first or does the local Hunters and Trappers Organizations have the authority to approve their application?
I will try to respond to your question.
If I don’t give you the answer that you’re looking for, then please feel free to ask further questions.
We have set aside some money that is used specifically for setting up an outpost camp.
For example, if Mr. Havioyak wanted to set up an outpost camp, he would have to construct a house in the desired location and the Federal Government and the Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated are the owners or the crown administrators land and so they would have to consult with them.
We as Government of Nunavut do not have any lands but there are crown lands administered by the Federal Government and the private lands are operated by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.
I think it would be better if you asked those questions to those two entities that I’ve just mentioned.
If I wanted to establish an outpost camp and I didn’t know how to speak or write in English, I would need help to do the paper work.
Since the Government of Nunavut are not land owners, it would be up to the potential client to get in touch with the Federal Government or Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.
Who is the contact person at the community level?
Who would be the entity that they would approach?
Would it be the local Hunters and Trappers Organization or who would I approach?
The Wildlife Officers can help the potential client on how to proceed if they’re looking at establishing an outpost camp.
The local Hunters and Trappers Organization would probably be able to help you because they’ve done that in the past.
Those are some of the entities that you can approach at the community level.
There was an individual who wanted to establish an outpost camp and he approached the local Hunters and Trappers Organization and they didn’t have the authority to approve his application.
So the question is where would this individual go?
Who else can they approach?
Who has the authority to approve these applications?
If an individual doesn’t know where to go, then we have a communication problem here.
In terms of the local Hunters and Trappers Organization, I am at a loss in being able to provide an answer.
It would be good to get some more information on what lands they want to acquire.
We can talk to the local Hunters and Trappers Organization to see where they can get further support but I’m not sure exactly how to respond to your question.
But the Hunters and Trappers Organization are the ones that you can talk to in order to come to a conclusion.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Just a minute.
In your statement, you said that there are government employees who can help at the community level.
How do they go about getting the information on the kinds of funding that is available to set up an outpost camp?
As I stated earlier, the local Hunters and Trappers Organizations have the staff and you can probably approach Renewable Resources employees to get further information and what is made available to clients.
Question 680 – 1(6): Update on Nanisivik Mine Cleanup
It is in regards to the Nanisivik mine and the status of the cleanup of the site.
Could the Minister provide my constituents and myself with an update on the cleanup of the Nanisivik Mines?
In regards to Nanisivik mines, it is being cleaned up by the Strathcona Company.
I would like to inform the Member for High Arctic that I was down in Ottawa to meet with the Minister of DIAND and I had a discussion with him in regards to the cleanup and what additional funds we can obtain for the community.
I will follow-up on it, but the cleanup is being done by the Strathcona Company.
The Government is more or less a watchdog of the cleanup project and to ensure a proper cleanup is done, we will decide on what we are going to be doing.
The Government departments and the Federal Government are working together to see what the camp will be used for after a full cleanup.
I welcome his response, but my question is, I was not talking about the Federal Government, I was talking about what the Nunavut Government is going to be doing about the cleanup of the site.
The employees of Department of Sustainable Development go to Nanisivik to deal with pre-cleanup projects and they have had consultation with the public up there.
I would like an update on what the Nunavut Government is doing in regards to the cleanup.
We can talk to the Federal Government on our own; I am talking about the Government of Nunavut.
To rephrase it, we, Nunavut Government are more or less the overseers.
The Strathcona Company had money to initiate the cleanup of the site and had signed an agreement with the Federal Government and if you can understand me, the Nunavut Government will do all they can to assist in the cleanup.
Monies for the cleanup are available through the company or the mine and also the signatories of that agreement.
Nunavut Government has more or less agreed to be the overseers and we are also looking into what we can do after the cleanup.
Like I said, we are asking for training dollars from the Federal Government to help with cleanup.
The Department of Sustainable Development employees go up there and talk to the people, and they take notes of comments that are made, for example, what kind of training is required, and what has to be done while the cleanup process is going on.
They are looking at kitchen workers, they are looking at heavy equipment operators, and they are looking at all aspects of training that are required in order to cleanup the projects.
Can the Minister tell us today what the training components of this project are?
Are there any dollars set aside for the training programs?
Where is it at today?
The government is not the only ones involved in this project.
Nunavut Tunngavik is involved; the Federal Government is involved on how we can further develop this project.
The cleanup of the mine, I believe is slated to start in May.
That is the case today.
I would like to ask another question to the Minister in regards to the Nunavut Water Board where they had a hearing and the Nunavut Government representatives were also up there.
The people up there wanted to see Inuit of Arctic Bay to be involved and to be employed because they were the major workforce during the operation of the Nanisivik Mine.
One of their requests was to employ people of Arctic Bay.
To date, that is exactly what we are trying to do.
The majority of the workers will be coming from Arctic Bay.
I am sure, and the Member knows, that they are the ones who know what the landscapes should look like after the completion of the cleanup.
They know what requires cleaning up.
This is going to be our first priority, to hire the maximum percentage of the Inuit.
Question 681 – 1(6): Kitikmeot Patients a Priority of the Lena Pederson Home
First of all, I want to make a little statement, I know that it is not anything new, but we have to reiterate what has been said about the Lena Pedersen Boarding Home in Yellowknife.
It is old and dilapidated, and it is very small.
It gets very crowded, not only with people from the Kitikmeot but from elsewhere; it gets very crowded, sometimes from the Baffin, the Keewatin, or maybe from the Inuvik area.
Many people use that boarding home.
I just want to make sure, do the people of Kitikmeot get first priority, or are they not a priority when they go to the Lena Peterson Boarding Home.
Mr. Speaker, I thought I had heard every possible question on the Lena Peterson Boarding Home except for that one and this is a new spin by the Member.
Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the patients that are facilitated through the boarding home are done on an as needed basis and based on the contingencies that are there.
So, for example, Mr. Speaker, our patients are rated equally to any other patients that are referred there.
Indeed Mr. Speaker, the majority of the patients that actually stay at the Lena Peterson Boarding Home are our patients.
When I say our patients, I mean patients from Nunavut.
Recently I had met with people from Kugluktuk who weren’t happy with the boarding home.
When the Kitikmeot communities have no room in the Lena Peterson Boarding Home, they have tried to go down to the other boarding home down at Old Town or else be placed in a hotel.
Residents from Kugluktuk, they are sent either somewhere else or in a hotel to have their appointments and they are not happy when they’re put somewhere else.
I would like to see the Kitikmeot prioritized to stay in that boarding home rather than somewhere else.
I would like to see the people of Kitikmeot given priority for that boarding home rather than being sent somewhere else rather than the Old Town Boarding Home or the hotel.
I would like to say first of all, that for many of the people in the House here have never thought about the boarding homes in the regard that we have heard in the last four years.
I think it’s important to point out that this government has been proactive and I think it’s also important to point out that for example, Mr. Speaker, we never had a boarding home in Iqaluit.
As Members know, right up until 1998, we were still accessing homes in Iqaluit before we actually got a place for our patients, since 1960, 37 years, and that’s not acceptable.
So, we have moved forward very quickly I believe Mr. Speaker, in the last four years of opening up boarding homes in Iqaluit, new homes in Ottawa, new homes in Winnipeg, new homes in Edmonton.
Mr. Speaker, we’re in the process of renovating and having a new home brought on in Cambridge Bay for the Kitikmeot residents and I agree with the Member, that the Lena Pederson Boarding Home has not, I would say in the last year and half, been up to snuff as it were, for patients and so on.
However, Mr. Speaker, the boarding home is there for the usage of our patients, but it is also there through the NIHB for other patients who are covered under the NIHB like the home in Edmonton.
So, Mr. Speaker, what we can do is review, with the managers as well as the referrals, to ensure that there is space available for our patients.
However, Mr. Speaker, sometimes the boarding homes are full.
A good example again, in Yellowknife, at the Lena Pederson Boarding Home, when the home is full, we have to allocate and billet out the patient.
For example, as the Member said, rightly so, to hotels.
Mr. Speaker, the same thing happens here.
We have to put patients in the Frobisher Inn or indeed go to billeting in private homes.
Mr. Speaker, we’re trying to alleviate that issue.
With the boarding home coming on in Cambridge Bay, we believe the number of clients having to travel through Yellowknife will decrease, and that is why Mr. Speaker, we’ve talked about looking at an analysis of what we actually need on the ground in Yellowknife.
What we need today certainly won’t be what we need in the coming months.
So, if the Member knows of specific cases where people have been referred out to date and so on, if he could provide that information to me then I can review that with the Member, in writing, to let him know exactly what has occurred and see if we can try to eliminate that type of situation from occurring again.
However, Mr. Speaker, I have to say because of the number of patients who are coming through, it would be very difficult to be able to budget for all of the patients.
I did not hear any answers for my question here, but maybe I will ask the Minister.
Do you have a policy in place that may be through contract, I do not know I am just trying to find out if there is such a policy where say the people of Kitikmeot uses the facility there?
Mr. Speaker, I do not have a copy of that Policy with me.
What I am trying to say to the Member is that for example, like the Edmonton Boarding Home.
Mr. Speaker, it is more than just our clientele who uses that facility.
The same thing with the Lena Pederson Home, Mr. Speaker, if there are five or six beds available, a patient is referred from the Stanton Hospital if they have no place to stay and they would want to refer them to the boarding home. It would be very difficult for an elder, whether she would be from the Nunavut Region or maybe one of the other western communities because, Mr. Speaker, before Division, that facility was used for both territories as it did with the Edmonton facility.
So, that has continued, Mr. Speaker.
That is why we have talked about a dedicated facility for Nunavummiut and that is why, Mr. Speaker, although you may not like the answer that is why we need to be able to do the proactive analysis to see what is needed in the communities.
Now the short answer, Mr. Speaker, the Member wanted me to bring forward to say yes, we can guarantee the space, but Mr. Speaker, I am not in the position to do that.
Question 682 – 1(6): NPC Housing and Capital Projects
Rather there are only 16-minutes left and I am worried about asking the Minister of the Power Corporation a question.
We might not have enough for the answer.
I know Mr. McLean would like to ask him a question as well.
Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation, as I am sure you recall earlier on in this Session, I questioned him in Committee of the Whole on there is staff housing and also, your capital projects.
So, I would like to ask the Minister, I know in a correspondence he made, he indicated that there are roughly 52 owned properties that they have and I would like to ask the Minister if he could provide a list of any capital upgrades that have been done to those properties since 1999.
Mr. Speaker, Minister Akesuk was timing me on the last response.
There were only 5-minutes and 19-seconds.
So, Mr. Speaker, very quickly, yes, we can provide that to the Member.
I guess it’s in the question.
Hon. Ed. Picco: Mr. Speaker, I just signed off a letter for the Member on the status of his question last week on the houses.
So, I would hope that I would have that in the next few days.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister also provide a list of all of the capital projects that have gone through the Power Corporation, considering the fact in Baker Lake I believe it indicated that they were restricting non-essential capital projects.
So, if he could provide that as well.
Hon. Ed. Picco: Yes, Mr. Speaker.
Will that be at the same time as the other information that he had indicated he is going to provide me?
Question 683 – 1(6): 2003 Deficit of Power Corporation
Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister responsible to the Nunavut Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, the rumour mill runs rampant in Nunavut, and far too often, it is about the Nunavut Power Corporation.
Can the Minister answer me today if in fact the Power Corporation as of March of 2003 has an accumulated deficit of $40 million dollars?
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I can respond to the Member.
Mr. Speaker, I would hope tomorrow that I would be able to table the Annual Report of the Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, the rumours are rampant, and Ron and I have heard the same rumours.
The accumulated deficit of the Power Corporation is not $40 million dollars.
I do not want to waste too many of my supps.
Could the Minister, if he said that he is going to table the Report tomorrow and we should hear about tomorrow, and know about it.
Can he give me a ballpark figure of what we are looking at, and how much of it is O and M and how much of it is Capital?
Mr. Speaker, in June, in this House before, we had talked, we believed, and I believed, and the department believed that we could be anywhere between $12 and $15 million dollars deficit for the second year of operation.
Mr. Speaker, after June, after the Sitting in Baker Lake, we have put in a lot of costs contingencies.
We have changed, as the Members here know, many of the senior members, senior staff people at the Power Corporation; we have put in a revised Capital Budget.
We cut it from $12 to $4 million dollars.
Mr. Speaker, all of those things are done to address the fiscal situation of the Power Corporation, and Mr. Speaker, we will be able to bring the budget in the Tabled Documents tomorrow, on the financial status of the Corporation.
We will identify indeed that we were a lot less than the forecasted $15 million dollars loss up to March 31st, 2003.
I guess that I can get more detailed answers from the Minister when it is tabled.
On that question, on this next question, I am sure that the Minister has a long-term debt recovery program with the Power Corporation.
Does he anticipate a large power increase for Nunavummiut?
Hon. Ed Picco: Mr. Speaker, I think that it is important to point out when we did not put in the rate increase, or the fuel rider in place in June, when we announced that we were freezing rates, and so on, we did it on the understanding, as the Members here know, Mr. Speaker, that 88% indirectly, or directly, of any increase in power rates would be borne by the Government.
That is officio, or ex-officio government.
If I had increased the rates, then this Government would have ended transferring to the Power Corporation about $15 million dollars, that is 88% of any of those increases.
Mr. Speaker, what we have planned to do, as the Member know, we are working on the general rate application, a GRA, to bring forward to the Power Corporation and its Board.
That is being worked on right now, as we announced in June.
There are a lot of complications, Mr. Speaker, because right now, for example, the rates were set in 1998.
The power subsidy, right now is based on a Yellowknife rate.
So, Mr. Speaker, the short answer is that we would hope to be in the position, probably in February or March, to bring forward a GRA, and then it would be a full open public disclosure, because it would go to the URCC where we would have public hearings and so on.
So that is the timeline.
It seems that the Minister is starting to get his house in order on the Power Corporation, and I commend him for that, and he seems to be getting his numbers down pat, and I commend for not having a $40 million dollars accumulated deficit.
My last question is, once they form the Qulliq Energy Corporation, and there’s a lot of hoopla and we all support the Qulliq Energy Corporation and self-sustainability etc. etc. and all the fancy press releases, but my final question is we’re going to have whatever the deficit is going to be; we’ll find out tomorrow.
Can the Minister give me a time line on when the final jobs are going to be moved from Iqaluit to Baker Lake?
Speaker: Minister Responsible for Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, the jobs were announced by the Premier; those are being facilitated.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the Premier announced at that time that he would try to be expeditious in the transfers of those positions.
Right now, Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to announce as part of the restructuring and the decentralization, we have put three certified accountants in the Baker Lake office as part of the transfer of the new positions to Baker Lake and those are in place.
We would hope to have the others completed over the next four to six months.
Question 684 – 1(6): Inuit Hired as Counsellors
I have asked this question previously.
There are social workers or counsellors in the communities and they don’t usually use Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
(FLOOR) The elders in the communities that possess counselling abilities, do they help out?
Mr. Speaker, at one time we only had in communities, social workers and the social workers did the parole work, they did the probation work, they did social work and they did all income support.
Mr. Speaker, today, we have social workers but we also have mental health workers, community wellness program workers.
Mr. Speaker, we have actually hired 5 youth and Outreach Workers to work in our communities on the social issues.
Mr. Speaker, under the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, we were the first department to appoint a Senior Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Coordinator, a specialist to work in the department.
So, I can tell the Member that that work is continuing and Mr. Speaker, we have people working with those counsellors.
In most cases, our community wellness workers, our mental health workers are all Inuit from the community and therefore and thus Mr. Speaker, they use Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in their daily work.
The Minister stated that there are five individuals who have been hired.
Which communities are those Inuit hired in?
Mr. Speaker, I’m just looking through my book on the communities where we have place the child and youth workers.
Mr. Speaker, if the Member would give me a second, I will find that answer for him and the number of positions.
When he gets the answer for my question, will the Members of the House be given the response to my question when he finds the number of communities and the number of people who are Inuit hires?
Speaker: Just a reminder to the Ministers, they have an option to answer the question, to not answer the question or take it as notice.
So, I would like you to keep that in mind, Ministers.
We have 3-minutes and 18-seconds left in the clock and I believe we still have another Member yet to ask a question.
So, Minister Picco will you take the question taken as notice?
No, Mr. Speaker, the Member asked if I received the information, I would make it available to the House and the answer is yes.
Inuit that help out with the social workers and the counsellors, are they being paid for the services that they provide?
Yes, Mr. Speaker, they are employees of the Department or, Mr. Speaker, they are funded through our Community Wellness and Brighter Futures Program and they are remunerated pay for their services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We will start the second time around and we have Mr. Nutarak on the list.
Question 685 – 1 (6): Polar Bear Study