EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
For the passport officials, because the passport people want a specific kind of photographs, and they can either be passports because these photo ids are not going to be replacing for passports.
There may be some problems and some of the photographs, because the photos shouldn’t have any shadows and they have to be very clear.
For an ordinary camera, it’s going to be impossible.
We know for a fact, some of these cameras are fairly old and outdated but we’re still working on it.
Question 563 – 1(6): Task Force on Community Healing
(interpretation end) Mr. Speaker, on March 24, this house approved a motion to establish a Task Force on Suicide Prevention and Community Healing.
Mr. Speaker, the task force was to be established no later than May 1, 2003.
No member in this House voted against this motion.
Can the Minister update this House on what steps have been taken to establish this task force and who has been appointed to participate in it?
Mr. Speaker, a lot of work has been done on the committee and the committee motion.
As well as looking at the scope of the project itself, I was at the Nunavut Association of Municipalities meetings in April, and I was asked by the mayors, because of the turn around time, to give them enough time to give them an opportunity to appoint more people, to more consultation with communities and so on, to extend the time.
And we gave them extra time to provide input. Mr. Speaker, I also wrote all the mayors, all the presidents of Inuit organizations, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, KIA, Qikiqtani Inuit Association and so on.
I wrote the public sector unions seeking input.
We’ve done broad consultations.
We’ve had several names that have been put forward and a concern raised by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated for example was the timing.
Would I be able to run this committee in the summer when a lot of people would not be available, where they would be out on the land and so on, was that the best time to start some of the work that we wanted to do.
So, that’s where we are right now Mr. Speaker.
Part of the delay was to give communities and hamlets more time to respond.
My papers are flying around here.
My further question is that it is good to hear that the Minister had some work done on this and I think that this issue is so very important that communities should not have to wait this long and this motion was a Government motion and it needs to happen.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House exactly when, this summer, September, October, will this happen and how many people will be on this Committee?
Mr. Speaker, under the terms of references of the motion as well as the Mandate and I believe I thought the motion was actually quite credible and it was supported fully.
We believe six Members would be part of the Panel, taking into suggestions and the consultations we have done.
And I am just reading off a note here, in all cases, the concept was supported, although the communities of Arctic Bay and NTI expressed misgivings about the time of year.
They felt that, again, the timing was probably a bit off and was not realistic.
They also said that there should be some ongoing structure established to deal with suicide related issues.
So, if the Committee is going to go out into communities, you need to be able to put social services and other mental health with it because when you go into a community, you start raising things that have happened in the past and that can be stressful and we need to be able to make sure if the Committee is going to go into the community that they do that.
So, the quick answer is, Mr. Speaker, we are looking at six people to be on the Committee consisting of an Elder, the youth and so on based on the Committee motion and we would hope to have the Committee up and running in the next couple of weeks, that is the plan right now.
Again, in the Committee motion, the motion stated that all resources, financial, administrative and logistic that needs to be put in place for the Committee would be done so.
I have to look at it as the Department to see what those cost implications are logistically and administratively and financing to make sure then that the Committee has the resources to do the job and do it right.
It would be good to know why the Minister did not inform the Members of this House when the motion was from this House it was a House motion, it had been delayed and we did not know anything about it.
Can the Minister tell us why this did not happen because it was not NTI’s, it was not Arctic Bay’s, and it was this House.
Mr. Speaker, if, we took the motion very serious and the motion was shortly after the last session.
This is first time we have actually got together as a Committee, as a House to discuss this and other issues.
Mr. Speaker, I do not think that there has been any foot dragging.
If we are going to put the Committee in place and be what the House wanted and I was one of those Members that supported that motion, not only to be realistically, but to be able to do logistically, administratively, and financially, the work that should be carried out by that Committee and why should I expedite it and rush it?  Let us make sure when the Committee is in place that it makes a difference for people in Nunavut.
The issue of suicide is too serious to rush, to put together a Committee to go out and do something half heartedly or half done.
So, I would suggest to you, Mr. Speaker, by consulting with NTI and some of the good work that Caroline Anawak and other people have put into the project, who have been consulted with our regional Inuit Organizations, going to every Mayor at the NAM meeting, those things are important.
So, the people of Nunavut have an opportunity to have input.
So, that’s what has caused some of the delay.
Plus we want to make sure that you have the resources.
I can’t send a committee out to a community and all of the sudden raise all kinds of expectations, dealing with the issue of suicide and then not have support mechanisms in place for people who have raised a lot of serious concerns and issues.
So, Mr. Speaker, if the governments going to do what the House has asked it to do, lets do it right.
If that takes a little longer Mr. Speaker, so be it.
This motion was done in March, just set a task force not a committee.
I have the motion in front of me that was done in the House.
My further question is that can the Minister commit to having the task force set up by the end of June and then he would only be two months late.
Mr. Speaker, yes that would be the intent right now, to try to have the task force name and again we’ve had submissions of names from all across Nunavut and I want to go back just logistically and maybe explain some of the stuff here.
We just came out of a national task conference where we had a huge amount of work put into a national suicide program where staff and Health and Social Services were involved in it as well as we just had our own Nunavut wide suicide conference at the same time.
So, Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of work done.
This task force as the member has asked, I would have to hope to have it up and running and in place and named by the end of the month.
Speaker: Members just before we proceed.
You’ve used up 20 minutes and we’ve gone through only two members.
So, today let’s try to get everybody in with a question.
I’d asked that regular members to be precise and concise with their questions in their preamble and the minister to do the same.
Question 564 – 1(6): Community Access Road Program
Mr. Speaker, it’s been four years in a row and three ministers in a row that I’ve asked the same question in the Legislative Assembly.
And my question today is to the Minister of Community Government & Transportation.
Mr. Speaker, in the past in the NWT in the transportation department had a community access road program that was really successful in the Kivalliq region.
I'm not so sure about the Kitikmeot region or the Baffin region but it was very successful.
It was very successful in this community.
And every year I stood up and being very patient with this government and asking if they would look at implementing a community access road program and to date, nothing.
This is four years later.
So, can the new and current minister answer my question in the House today, is there going to be a community access road program this year.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation) Right now there aren’t any money available right now for our community access roads and there is hamlet, we still do need one only one.
We still don’t have any specified community for access roads funding.
My headphone is getting a lot of static here and I never got the Minister’s answer.
Can he confirm that there is a program in place this year?
Well, I also want to point out that not only does this government want to produce more access roads with some of the Government of Nunavut funds.
But we also want to make sure that we take advantage of the Federal programs that are out there that we can take advantage of to help the communities build access roads.
We are working right now as it is within the government to help the municipalities to build roads that they can and also take advantage of the federal programs.
But to say that I will have one access road program within the government this year would almost be indicating that I’m not willing to take the other dollars that are available from the federal programs.
So, I want to make sure that I do not block off any opportunities from any federal dollars either.
But I will definitely take into consideration, of wanting to simplify the access roads program with in the Government of Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, so can the Minister answer me today, if a municipality in Nunavut put a little proposal together showing what they wanted to do in regards to building a community access road with a dollar figure, would his department look at and if it was reasonable, approve it.
Approving it is another thing; however, if any municipality wanted to put forward a proposal, it would get its due consideration.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if there’s a monetary limit on what a municipality can apply for this year and what the deadline is.
I guess the deadline is more within the time of the year when the ground is accessible, if it’s either snow covered or not but I’m not aware of any limits of dollars for access roads, because where possible, again, if it’s something that cannot accommodate in the Government of Nunavut, we roll up to the federal program.
I will commit to forwarding this information to the member.
Question 565 – 1(6): Power Subsidy Program
Mr. Speaker, I haven’t yet had the pleasure of posing any questions to Minister of Finance this week and I know that he’s missed it dearly, so I would like to take this opportunity to ask him a question in his capacity as a Minister Responsible for the department that runs the power subsidy program.
Mr. Speaker, according to the department’s 2003/2004 business plan, $4.75 million dollars has been budgeted for the power subsidy program.
Over the past few years, the department has indicated that it is reviewing this program for changes.
So I would like to begin my question by asking the Minister to explain to this house what the intent of the power subsidy program is and how it’s calculated.
Mr. Speaker, the intent of the power subsidy program is to help support private home owners in their power rates.
How it works right now, the first 700 kilowatt hours of a private household are subsidized to the Yellowknife rate, the Yellowknife base rate which is what we inherited when the program came over from the Northwest Territories and we decided to keep it in place in respect of the power subsidy program as we move towards amending it.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister had indicated that they’re moving towards amending it.
Is there a process in place if any changes are to be made to the subsidy that the department has to go through?
Mr. Speaker, there is no public process per se.
It’s a government subsidy, a government program, government policy.
From our perspective, obviously, once we’ve figured out where we want it to go, we would put it through the cabinet Financial Management Board.
Of course, with some input from the appropriate standing committee regular members, possibly, given the impact to all consumers, in every constituent through out Nunavut, before we were to change anything.
What we’re looking at quite frankly right now, Mr. Speaker, is obviously having it based on a Nunavut rate and as a result of that, there would be some changes on the amounts and the structure of the whole program but by and large, the whole intent is still is to provide some affordable power rates to consumers.
Mr. Speaker, well then I guess by the Minister’s response, one could assume that there has not been any reductions or changes to the subsidy amount since the creation of Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, no not in respect to the amount of subsidy provided to home owners.
There have been changes in the amounts of subsidy that the government has paid out but that based more on volumes of individuals eligible to receive the subsidy.
Mr. Speaker, it’s good to hear that and I just wanted to get that clarified because I’ve been informed by a constituent of mine that there had a been a change to the subsidy.
The last power or fuel rider subsidy that came off last March of a little over 3.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
Once that rider was taken off, the subsidy had decreased the same amount.
So I would just like to clarify that that was not the case.
Mr. Speaker, the rate for the subsidy was set by the government and in the instance where there was a fuel rider in place that also was a factor in the determination of the subsidy amount given to home owners.
Question 566 - 1(6): Airline Transportation Study
In my statement, I mentioned the study on the government service department, the former Minister of Community Government & Transportation has put out a study.
So on that study I just want to point out, on that study, the focus was on the recommendation from the study, enclosed the results of the current Department of Health and Social Services medical travel for requests for proposals.
Can the Minister tell me about the conclusion of the study to date?