EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
According to my Hansard, reading from the Hansard the minister indicated that the proposal has been received from the Chesterfield Development Corporation and that discussions and negotiations are still ongoing.
But the minister also indicated that his department has limited allocated dollars available.
If the budget is fixed then what are these negotiations about.
I will concur with Mr. McLean, Mr. Speaker.
The negotiations that are underway Mr. Speaker, the scope of the RFP that was submitted by the Chesterfield Development Corporation was for a larger building and a larger program than was envisioned and currently being used by the St. Theresa’s Home.
Therefore Mr. Speaker, there are more dollars involved.
Because of the allocated dollars we have within the budget framework today, I don’t have the extra dollars in the budget for what is being proposed in the new project that has been brought forward by the Chesterfield Development Corporation.
That’s why the negotiations are ongoing.
As the member knows, the budget will be brought down some time in the next several weeks in this House and at that time we will get a better indication of the dollar values that will be available.
At the same time Mr. Speaker, I need to be able to bring the costs on the proposal that they have asked me for down to meet the budget framework that I have available at the present time.
I just simply asked what were the negotiations about, the only part that he has not yet answered, Mr. Speaker.
He answered everything else that I did not ask, Mr. Speaker, the idea for the new facility in Chesterfield Inlet is a brand new initiative.
Does the minister expect these new projects to get underway with the same level of funding that was provided to the operational facility that was already in existence that is the hospital, the old one?
Speaker: Minister responsible for Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I apologize to the member if that wasn’t distinct enough.
I will try once more.
Mr. Speaker, the proponents put a proposal together for a large building, larger than 15 patients, 7 patients, 8 patients the number of patients that we had budgeted for, was available in the St. Theresa’s Home.
This means Mr. Speaker, that the project proposal was above the scope of the work that was proposed.
So that’s the negotiations that are occurring Mr. Speaker, with the Chesterfield Development Corporation.
It gets the size of the building down and the number of patients that would be handled in the facility at the present time.
I’ve said that in the House in previous questionings and I repeat that same answer today.
That’s the negotiations that are occurring.
I also thank the minister for reminding me that there is an upcoming budget session where we’ll be dealing with that issue, I hope.
Can the minister tell us whether there is any possibility of increasing or supplementing the budget for the new group home in Chesterfield Inlet so that we can definitely push for it this coming summer?
Mr. Speaker, that is the ongoing discussions that we are having right now with the Chesterfield Development Corporation.
I don’t know if this is a supplementary or not, but I did not ask him if there were still ongoing discussions or negotiations with the groups in the Kivalliq to build this place.
I simply asked whether there is any possibility of increasing or supplementing the budget for the new group home in Chesterfield so that this project can go ahead this summer.
Hon. Ed Picco: Well thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think that’s what I said to the member and to the House, that’s why the discussions were going on.
As I have said now several times, the proposal called for a larger building and for handling of more patients.
The budget that we had in place would not facilitate that larger building or that many patients.
That’s why number one, we need to be able to bring the cost of the building down, the new building that will be put up over a long term lease.
Number two, to look at how many patients would be handled within the facility and the scope of the work that they had put forward.
The proposal by the Chesterfield Development Corporation is an excellent proposal.
We need to be able to work within the budget framework that I have available now, and if extra dollars are needed that’s where I would have to come back through the government and to this Assembly for that approval.
Question 414 - 1(5): Addressing High Cost of Agency Workers
Mr. Speaker, my question today is again for the popular Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, as all members know, during the last sitting that we had I raised some concerns regarding the Department of Health’s practice of using agency nurses to address the extreme shortage of nursing services in Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, as a result of the minister’s response, I understand that this costs the government a considerable amount of money. To my understanding Mr. Speaker, it was just over two million dollars in this fiscal year up to the end of November, that it has cost the department for agency nurses.
I understand, if my memory serves me correctly Mr. Speaker, that the minister had indicated that there were thirteen or fourteen agency nurses at the time when I asked the question.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health, what steps has he taken to address the high cost of agency nurses in Nunavut.
Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have taken several steps to try and eliminate the usage of agency nurses.
The member is correct that it is very expensive.
But at the same time, you need to be able to provide coverage at the community level and you need to be able to provide that coverage with a nurse.
What we have tried to do Mr. Speaker, with the supplement that we brought in, is to hire more indeterminate staff and term staff.
Mr. Speaker, we have been quite successful with the usage of the bursary to date.
That’s probably the major initiative that we have brought forward to cut down the usage of agency nurses.
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to ask the minister if he could provide this House with a brief overview of the current status of numbers of nurses in indeterminate positions and term positions compared to the number of agency nurses working in Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, I believe we have 148 nursing positions in Nunavut in total.
Almost 70% of those positions are either term or indeterminate.
At the present time Mr. Speaker, the number of locum or casual nurses is quite low.
I don't have the actual percentage with me at this time but I can get that information and provide it to the member.
The minister again indicated and I'm pretty sure he did before, that there were 148 nursing positions in Nunavut and approximately 70% of those positions were filled with indeterminate or term positions.
Could the minister provide us with kind of a breakdown of that 70% and let us know how many of those positions are term and how many are indeterminate.
As Mr. Tootoo was asking the question I have found some of that information so if I may, Mr. Speaker. In the Baffin as an example, there are 63 indeterminate, which means fulltime nursing positions.
Of that, there are six term positions.
So, that means you have 69 positions filled out of a total of 85 positions in the Baffin region.
You have out of that number, Mr. Speaker, a total of seven casual nurses, that's nurses that you would bring in on a temporary basis and probably based, for an example, in the community itself.
We have five agency nurses and four vacancies for a total of 85.
In the Kivalliq and the Kitikmeot the numbers are similar. For example Mr. Speaker, in the Kivalliq we have 14 indeterminate and 8 term positions, which is 22.
We have a total of six agency nurses and in the Kitikmeot we have nine.
So, for the total Mr. Speaker, the agency nurses working at the present time in Nunavut, we have 20 positions Mr. Speaker, out of 148.
Now I would like to be able to get that number down to none, but being realistic Mr. Speaker, we need at the same time to be able to fill positions in communities and we have had some good success by using the bonus that we put in place a little over a year ago.
Mr. Speaker, the minister indicated there are 20 agency nurses working in Nunavut right now and the last time, I believe he had indicated there were around 14.
So if you divide that into just over 2 million dollars Mr. Speaker, that's a pretty hefty salary for a nurse and I'd just like to ask the minister, you know, what are you doing.
To me, what is that costing us per nurse, you know, would that be an accurate description of what one of these agency nurses make is the 2 million, just over 2 million dollars divided by the number of nurses, the 20 nurses that he had indicated.
Would that be an accurate reflection of the compensation and benefits that these nurses receive.
Mr. Speaker, when I first became the Minister of Health I had some similar questions as Mr. Tootoo had.
I was told that agency nurses are like hired guns.
You are short of positions, you got to bring them in.
So how you get an agency nurse is you go to a Nightingale is a popular agency, Nightingale Nursing and they might charge 48 dollars an hour for a nurse.
You then fly that nurse into a community, you pay for their expenses or so on.
It's very expensive to use agency nurses and that's why we have brought in the recruitment and retention bonus to be able to try and eliminate and bring down those costs.
At the same time, I would rather pay that money to an agency nurse to have someone in the community who's qualified than to have no one there.
At the same time Mr. Speaker, the agency nurses themselves are paid through the company through that contract to hire the agency nurses and that's why it's so expensive.
It’s no different than if you were a construction company and you need an electrician, you have to find them, you have to go down south and bring them in, you are going to pay a premium for that person if you haven't got that qualified person.
So that’s what happens with the agency nurses.
I believe Mr. Speaker, at the present time, as we speak, we are at one of the best levels we have been in three years with our nursing complement and staffing.
So we are quite pleased with that.
Having that number of indeterminate staff, and the member is correct we need to be able to bring down the number of locum or agency nurses.
Question 415 - 1(5): Arctic College Facilities - Kugluktuk
I want to get back to what I spoke about earlier in regards to education.
As the minister knows, when the students at Arctic College finish their courses it is good, but we don’t have a permanent facility.
As we know, in the future these students will be beneficial to our territory.
I want to ask the Minister of Education have you had any meetings with the Arctic College and other agencies as to when the facilities in Kugluktuk will be improved so that our students will be able to learn more as they work on their studies.
Speaker: Thank you. Minister responsible for Education.
I apologize but when I was switching over to the English translation, I wasn’t able to get his question.
So if he could re-phrase his question.
As I said earlier, the young people will not have a good place to learn, if they don’t have housing.
As I asked earlier, have you met with the Arctic College officials to discuss the need for additional classrooms for this type of training?
Just to clarify that I haven’t spoken to the Arctic College officials regarding housing.
But the Arctic College officials are working on the capital plans with the Department of Education.
But we haven’t identified any money available for this particular project.
I would encourage you to meet with the Arctic College Board to ensure that things get done because I have asked this question before in the last session and I still haven’t received a response.
When will you meet with the Arctic College officials so that this concern can be addressed for the housing needs of Arctic College students?
The Arctic College Board of Governors will be meeting in March, I hope to discuss this with them, and I will raise his concerns to the Board.
I encourage you to meet more often with the board.
He has stated the concerns of Kugluktuk will be addressed.
As well, I would encourage a visit to my constituency of Kugluktuk so that you may be able to see first hand what the concern is.
The young people need a place to learn or train.
Once you've done that you will be able to address this at the Arctic College Board level.
I could say to the member that I have been in his constituency before.
When I traveled over to Kugluktuk I was able to tour and visit the college.
The Nunavut Arctic College Board of Governors is looking at the capital estimates.
We will be able to see if we are able to put some money into this. But I will be able to communicate with the member and keep him updated, as well I look forward to his invitation.
Question 416 - 1(5): Percentage of Inuit Staff Expected in April 1999
Mr. Speaker, regarding the government positions that are being filled.
I have a question regarding vacant positions being filled, 78% of the vacant positions have been filled.
I have a question for the Minister of Human Resources. With the new government what was the percentage of Inuit that were expected to be working in the government by this time.
I am kind of embarrassed because I wasn't able to catch his question when I was switching over to Inuktitut.
Could he raise his question again?
I hope this is not a supplementary.
My question Mr. Speaker, was at the beginning of the Government of Nunavut there was already a percentage planned for exactly how many beneficiaries in Nunavut would be hired. From that figure at the beginning of the Nunavut Government, what percent were supposed to be hired by this time?
I'm not exactly sure what percentage of beneficiaries or people were to be hired by the Government of Nunavut but we would like to see 85% of beneficiaries hired.
When is the 85% target supposed to be reached?
Like I said earlier on in my Minister's Statement, I quoted the number of beneficiaries that are employed in the government, the Nunavut Government.
There are 924 positions filled by beneficiaries out of 2000, if I'm not mistaken.
That’s about 47% so we still have to reach the 85% figure.
While we are doing that, we would like to be able to make it easier for the Inuit to be employed with the Nunavut Government and to be able to recognize their ability to work with the Nunavut Government.
What we planned at the beginning was priority hiring for those beneficiaries.
So, that's what we are gearing towards.
In regards to the responses that the minister just made, because Inuit people have to be trained, perhaps if we can change the hiring policies it would make it easier for the beneficiaries to be hired by the Nunavut Government.
As I said earlier, and I'm sorry I did not clearly respond to the member, as of September 30, there was 42%.
We have to start realizing that we have to keep hiring the beneficiaries of Nunavut.
There's also employment that can be gained by the beneficiaries outside of the Nunavut Government and there is probably a higher percentage that are working out there for private industry.
What we want to do is to try to advertise to the beneficiaries and train them to make sure that they gain employment with the Nunavut Government, that's what we are trying to do.
What we have is a priority hiring policy for the beneficiaries.
As I said before Mr. Speaker, we are working with Nunavut Tunngavik to be able to implement Article 23 to hire more beneficiaries for Government of Nunavut employment.
So, that's what we are trying to do in the meantime while we are trying to reach that 85% figure.
The minister has not answered my question.
My suggestion was that perhaps the policies dealing with the public service would have to be amended first before more Inuit can be hired.
There are a lot of policies in place within this government.
I’m not going to ask him which policy he’s talking about but there are policies, legislation, and other things that we have to follow.
We have to try to make our legislation clear and that’s what we’re working towards.
In January of 2000, there was a plan put in place and this plan has the strategy for employment, employing Inuit has been done by the government as much as we can and we have a policy in regards to interviewing and the priority hiring policy as well.
Speaker: We have a request to go back to Item 5.
I’m very pleased to be able to welcome to the gallery the people from NTI.
These are the executive members on my right.
Starting from the left, James Etuluk is the First Vice-president of NTI.
Raymond Ningeochiak, Second Vice-President of NTI and at the very end is Paul Kaludjak who has recently been elected at the same time as we elected the President of NTI, Cathy Towtongie.
Speaker: James, Raymond, Cathy and Paul welcome to the gallery.
Return to Item 6: Oral Questions
Question 417 – 1(5): Passports Update for AWG Athletes
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Community Government and Transportation.
My question is, it’s going to be Arctic Winter Games time here in Iqaluit and in Greenland and a lot of people have been concerned about passports.
Perhaps the minister can give us a little bit of information about how to acquire passports.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: That’s my first question since I got this portfolio and my thanks to my two colleagues who have taken over my other portfolios.
I am sure they will do a better job than me.
In regards to the passports, Mr. Speaker…(interpretation)…perhaps Mr. Speaker if I can say it in Inuktitut.
The passports that are required to go into another county, we have an individual that works in Ottawa that deals with passports.
What we’re trying to do is to get that individual to process the passports as fast as they can so if there are any problems for any individuals that are traveling to Greenland they could phone Sport Nunavut staff to find out what the problem is.
It takes a while to do the application and to try and get the passport ready on time.
So what we have done is we have a contact person to deal strictly with the passport processing in Ottawa.
So whoever has any problems with acquiring their passport to go to Greenland can talk with our Arctic Winter Games officials and we can try to help them out.
Just yesterday I received a telephone call from one of my constituents and they have informed me that they have not heard anything about the passport.
Perhaps it has nothing to do with the Ottawa officials.
I don't think they have their passport.
So is there any way to get the passport before the Arctic Winter Games to travel to Greenland or is it too late.
Are we talking about individuals that are going to be participating in the Arctic Winter Games or for a spectator?
Maybe if I can ask for clarification on that question first.
I am talking about the Arctic Winter Games athletes that are going to Greenland.
My question is if this person didn't have a passport already, is it too late for this person to get it now because the games are starting soon.
We have all the list of students or all the athletes that are going to Nuuk.
I know my staff have been processing their documents through the Ottawa person dealing with this specific issue.
I am not sure who that person is.
So I would like to know very much who that person is so I can help them out.
I think this individual is getting very nervous since he would really like to go to Greenland and he was supposed to go.
I would be happy to provide the name to the minister.
Maybe today.
Question 418 - 1(5): Women’s Shelters & Spouse Communication
I didn't think I was going to be seen by you Mr. Speaker. This question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
I asked about safe shelters for women and I really didn't get the answer that I needed regarding the people that go to these shelters.
They cannot speak to their husbands when they go to the shelter.
Perhaps the police don't want them to or perhaps the shelter staff don’t want them to.
It seems like they are put in a position where they are not allowed to have contact with the spouse.
Are they just going to be dealing with the women or both the husband and the woman.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member’s question on a very serious issue, the issue of family violence and spousal assault.
Mr. Speaker, in some cases the RCMP may have in place a court order, as the member has indicated, barring a spouse from contacting another spouse because of physical or other types of abuse that had occurred.
Mr. Speaker, each case as I said yesterday, is different. In some cases I know where women have chosen themselves not to communicate with their husband or their spouse.
Or they may have been advised by their counsellor not to speak to the husband or the other spouse.
So each case is different Mr. Speaker.
What has happened in the past, and continues to happen right now Mr. Speaker, is that the counsellor when a woman is taken from her home, when a woman is advised by a social worker, a nurse, a practitioner in the community, to leave the community and go to a safe house, usually it is because of a very traumatic experience at home where abuse might have been involved.
So in those cases, they may by the counsellors in the shelter, may advise that person not to contact home.
But if the woman so chooses to contact her spouse, she has that option, unless there is a concern with a court order that has been put in place, which states specifically no contact between the individuals.
I was looking at it as a left hand and a right hand.
Are you going to be taking a holistic approach or just dealing with one side of it?
Mr. Speaker, at the present time when a couple are having problems in their relationship there are different opportunities for counselling available in a community.
For example, as we said earlier it could be a social worker, a family member, some people use church services and so on.
When that relationship turns violent, when there is physical or emotional abuse involved Mr. Speaker, the government with its workers in the community, like a social worker or a nurse, they make a decision that the woman should leave the community to go to a home, a safe home.
That’s why it is called a safe home, so that the person when they go there they can reflect on the situation that they were in and if they so choose, in most cases Mr. Speaker, when you look at the cycle of abuse, 80% of the women return back home to their partner.
So counselling is available at the community level and in some cases, as the member has pointed out, no contact is allowed, but that could be by court order or it could be because after the counselling services, the information provided by the counsellor or the recommendation of not allowing the person, the victim to contact the abuser.
In regards to the social workers at the community level, are the counsellors fully trained and are they trained to deal with spousal assault as well as other social issues.
Using as an example, if I didn’t know about good family life I wouldn’t be able to counsel the people who are in a crisis.
That’s why I asked if the counsellors or the social workers are trained to deal with those types of crises.
Speaker: Just a reminder to members to keep your preamble short and also ministers of your answers to questions short.
I still see members wanting to ask questions and there are only 10 and a half minutes left.
First of all this government has zero tolerance in place for family violence, spousal assault and so on.
I want to reiterate that the first point of contact of a person in a community is with a social worker or nurse, community worker and so on.
They evaluate the situation, and the member is correct, they are trained in the proper counselling in those types of skills to be able to help the client.
The last resort is when someone is taken or chooses to leave their community and go to a safe house outside that community.
So, the short answer Mr. Speaker, for the member's question is yes, they are qualified and trained in the area to be able to deal with those types of issues.