EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
DSDs share of this agreement continues to be 450 thousand dollars per year.
(interpretation ends) Last fiscal year our department was fortunate in that we were able to lead Nunavut’s delegation for the European Team Canada Trade Mission to Russia and Germany.
This mission was very good for Nunavut and all of Nunavummiut.
We learned a great deal through this first extensive mission, and have added additional staff resources in this budget in anticipation of more successful missions to be organized to present Nunavut to the world.
Tourism is another area that we agree needs to be supported.
The Standing Committee on Community Empowerment and Sustainable Development has also recommended increased investment in tourism by this government.
I have listened, and I have heard what my colleagues and the public have said about our need to promote our territory to the world.
I am very pleased to be able to present to this committee a budget that reflects a significant boost in funding for our very important tourism industry.
Mr. Chairman, an increase of 73% over last year’s budget has been included in this year’s Main Estimates.
This equates to an additional 1 million dollars towards Nunavut’s Tourism industry.
Funding to the tourism sector of Nunavut’s economy is provided through a contribution to Nunavut Tourism that equates to almost 7% of the entire DSD 2002 – 2003 Main Estimates.
In our Fisheries and Sealing Division, I am extremely pleased to say that we were able to put an additional 100 thousand dollars back into the hands of harvesters last year because of the favourable market for Nunavut sealskins.
As a result of this favourable market, we have implemented a new sealskin grading system effective April 1st of this year.
Although these changes to our Fur Pricing Program will reflect the current market trends and will provide positive benefits to Nunavummiut, it will have little direct impact on our Main Estimates for this year.
Another area of our Fisheries and Sealing division that I am pleased to announce to the committee today is the inclusion of a new contribution program to support the development and diversification of Nunavut’s emerging fishing industry.
This new program is established with a budget of 350 thousand dollars and is intended to assist with the attraction of third-party funding for this important sector of Nunavut’s economy.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to all these very specific undertakings I have mentioned to you today, the department’s budget being presented for 2002-2003 continues to plan for the many other initiatives in support of its vast mandate.  In addition to legislated requirements that the department must undertake, ongoing support to individuals and communities in 2002 – 2003 will continue through various Grant and Contribution programs.
Partnerships with other agencies and our ongoing commitment to our partners in wildlife management will continue at the same level as in previous budgets.
This budget also reflects the ongoing commitment to support the traditional economy and youth of Nunavut.
A great many of these initiatives and pressures have been funded from within our base operational budget.
As a renewed first step in reviewing the strategy and ongoing direction of the department, my officials have begun a series of internal reviews that will continue throughout the year.
A number of new positions have been created and resources have been allocated internally to address pressures and requirements.
This new fiscal year will be a time of significant change and accomplishments for our department.
(interpretation) Mr. Chairman, I could certainly carry on about all the good things that the department has already accomplished and the plans included for this fiscal year.
This has been a summary of the department’s challenges and the Sustainable Development budget for 2002-2003.
You may sit at the witness table at this time and your officials can go to the table.
Sergeant-At-Arms, can you escort the witnesses please.
Perhaps you could introduce your officials again.
To my left is my Deputy Minister Alex Campbell and to my right is Assistant Deputy Minister Rosemary Keenainak.
Chairperson (interpretation): Welcome to the Assembly.
Before we go on to general comments I would like to ask Mr. Mclean to make his opening comments.
The opening comments that were handed out, I will edit them as I read them and I’ll shorten them up a bit so the interpreters may have a hard time keeping up with me but I’ll edit the comments as I read them to shorten them up for you.
As Chairman of the Standing Committee on Community Empowerment and Sustainable Development, I am pleased to be able to provide opening comments as we begin the review of the 2002-2003 Main Estimates for the Department of Sustainable Development.
Mr. Chairman over the past month the Standing Committee has had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Sustainable Development and has carefully reviewed the department’s main estimates.
Mr. Chairman the Standing Committee is generally satisfied with the work of the department to date.
However a number of issues of concern have been noted.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee has noted that budgets have been increased for both the Nunavut Development Corporation and the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation.
However the committee wishes to see up to date business plans tabled for these corporations indicating how the additional funds will be used.
The standing committee also wishes to see their annual report being tabled in a timely fashion.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee was pleased to note that the department has followed through with the recommendations made in the committee’s report, From Potential to Payoff: Report on community consultations on the future of tourism in Nunavut; to increase funding to the Nunavut Tourism Association.
The committee is concerned however, that the department ensures that outfitters benefit from this money.
To this end the standing committee urges the department to require the association to earmark the additional funds for training initiatives and marketing.
The standing committee wishes to see a business plan for the Nunavut Tourism tabled in the fall session.
The committee is pleased with the consultation process announced for the Nunavut Wildlife Act.
Appropriate consultation is necessary to ensure that legislation reflects the needs, beliefs and knowledge of Nunavummiut.
Therefore it is important that everyone have the opportunity to voice their concerns with respect to the act.
And the committee is supportive of consultation initiatives.
The standing committee looks forward to an update of the Wildlife Act Consultation in the fall.
And once again, Mr. Minister, I commend your department because they’re consulting with everybody.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee was pleased to see an increase to the funding for the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association.
Arts and Crafts are especially important as a means of economic development in the smaller, non-decentralized communities also.
Our world renowned artisans draw tourists from around the world.
As such it is important that every effort be made to assist in the sale of arts and crafts to people travelling to Nunavut.
Mr. Chairman, during the consultations on tourism, the standing committee was told about difficulties encountered by artists when trying to coordinate the sale arts and crafts when cruise ships visit local communities.
Every cruise ship that stops in Nunavut provides an excellent opportunity for artist and crafts persons to showcase their work.
The standing committee supports efforts made to improve assistance to artists and crafts people and to coordinate and take advantage of such opportunities.
Mr. Chairman, it is no secret that the mining industry is showing an increasing interest in our territory.
There has been mention in the media that the industry is interested in helping with infrastructure development to speed the recovery of minerals.
This interest in Nunavut is a prime opportunity for employment and training.
However, Mr. Chairman, training is critical to enable people to take advantage of opportunities in the mining sector all over Canada.
The standing committee continues to urge the development of training programs in cooperation with the Department of Education to create a trained work force for the mining sector.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee is pleased that the department plans to have a wildlife officer in every community; however the standing committee urges the department to work with the Department of Education to ensure that training exists so that these officers can be hired locally.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee is greatly concerned that economic development officers are not being given the training required to fulfill their duties.
It appears as though hamlets have not been given adequate support in hiring EDOs or specifying their duties.
The standing committee strongly urges the department to develop clear job descriptions and provide training for economic development officers.
Mr. Chairman, one of the functions of the department is to help small businesses.
It does this through multiple programs including grants to small business, the Business Development Fund, the Nunavut Development Corporation, the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation and other project specific funds.
Financial assistance to business in Nunavut is key to the success of the economy.
However the committee is concerned that with so many different funding programs available, entrepreneurs may become frustrated and confused.
Mr. Chairman, grants and contributions provided by the department amounts to almost 16 million dollars.
The standing committee would like a list of recipients of grants and contributions made in 2001/2002 to be tabled during the fall session.
In addition, the standing committee would like a community by community report on departmental program spending tabled.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee also noted that the Job Corporation is a new program focussed towards youth employment.
It is important that we support the youth at every opportunity, however it is not clear how this money will be distributed, what will be required of applicants or how the success of this program will be measured.
It is important that these questions are answered to ensure that as many young people as possible benefit from this program.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my comments on the main estimates of the Department of Sustainable Development.
Thank you to the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Community Empowerment and Sustainable Development.
We are now on general comments from the members and just to make sure that following rule 77(1), the members know that they have 10 minutes to make general comments.
There will be another 10 minutes for the members to be able to ask their questions and please recognize the Chair so in turn I can recognise the members when it’s time for them to speak.
The Department of Sustainable Development has a very challenging job and it’s very good to see them going ahead with all the challenges that they have to face for the people of Nunavut.
Especially in regards to people who would like to start their own business and this department helps the people who would like to start their own business; I’m happy to see that they are doing their jobs successfully.
When you have your own business, especially for the Inuit people of Nunavut, the people are starting to want to open up their own business because they’re starting to understand the system of having their own business.
We still require further development in Nunavut.
We have article 24 in the Nunavut Land Claim which speaks to Government Contracts and it is an agreement between the Inuit and the Federal Government.
This agreement cannot be amended by any single party, and this agreement is applicable to both branches of the government and to us it is our foundation.
We have to ensure that we are abiding by the agreement as a government.
We have found out that when you have your own business in Nunavut people have encountered some problems, either through malpractice or by use of the beneficiaries to meet the requirements of Article 24.
Some people that have their own business have encountered some problems as it relates to their personal lives and in Nunavut we have had some problems due to this entrepreneurial spirit and the fact that it is at odds with our traditional approach to life.
The real business people completely understand the parameters of their business and the economic development practices they require to keep their business afloat and thusly, they know all the shortcuts.
They should stop trying to milk Nunavut for all its worth and become better corporate citizens and work with the Inuit of Nunavut to advance the territory’s economy and to try to create jobs.
If they are only trying to hoodwink northerners, then only bad feelings will be left and this will never end.
We now know of past irregularities and practices that were used to make easy money at the expense of the Inuit and we know who these people and companies are; we just have not bothered to expose them at this time.
We know and understand what your motives were for all of the malpractices of the past.
Those who practice this type of business within Nunavut practice the divide and conquer method.
They tend to try to disrupt the social bonds and initiate discord with their practices and put relatives against each other.
Here the Inuit had a dream of cooperation and collaboration and that is why they negotiated their land claim. We have to make sure those companies and those private businesses should be working better with the people of Nunavut.
So we start to feel in some way some of the companies should not be working in Nunavut anymore because the Nunavummiut have to have their own business so they can be self-reliant.
Some of the smaller communities need those businesses for them to grow and that is why we feel that Article 24 should be followed because there’s unemployment in majority of the smaller communities in Nunavut.
I think there should be distances in the smaller communities whereby they could provide some jobs for the people in communities.
There is no money in place for the private businesses to access money.
There should be a better way of helping those people that would like to access funding to start up their own businesses.
I think the government should try to assist those people that would like to start their businesses and if all the contracts and all the businesses are going to go to southern firms then the Nunavut firms will never grow.
I think there should be a way whereby the smaller communities that own their own business should be given first priority for those contracts that are going to happen in their community, because giving the southerners contracts first, and if you’re a bigger contractor and if you’re a bigger company, then the bigger companies take on the contracts.
I think as the Inuit people following Article 24 we are the ones, the Inuit firms that have 51% shareholders should be given the first opportunity for the projects, especially the large projects.
And I feel that the people that have 49% shareholders should be given the priority as well, depending on their contribution to Nunavut.
We have to help everybody out.
And we should work together to attain that.
Today my constituents have been saying to me that when it comes to having your own business, it’s very hard work, and when they try to access money they’re not able to get any money from the department.
There are always excuses for them not to receive any money and they never hear back and there’s so many barriers put up that have to be crossed.
It should not be that way.
We have said before on April 1 1999 that we’ll be a government for all people in Nunavut.
We want to represent all the people of Nunavut and there’s a lot more real Nunavummiut out there and it is not a cultural tradition to be selfish as you have to be in business, and they should be assisted to get their own business.
We’re starting to find out what it’s like to own your own business even when you are unilingual and we should be encouraged to do so.
When we finally find out that we’re able to have our own business and be unilingual we’re starting to find out about how to do our financial statements.
It should be that we should be assisted more so we can be self-reliant in our communities.
If we’re not assisted as Nunavummiut, under the Bathurst Mandate and the Baker Lake retreat, we mentioned there in those places that we would be helping the people of Nunavut.
If they don’t follow the things that we talked about in the Bathurst Mandate and the Baker Lake retreat then we have to hear from the government what the reason is for not being able to access funding.
And for those people that tried to get contracts we know who the departments are that are keeping those companies or businesses from getting contracts.
I think there are people in some of the departments that are not doing their job right.
This is not right for us.
If we want to be an open government, the people of Nunavut should be given information just like the Qallunaaq companies are getting the information from the government all the time.
I think there are a lot of secrets here in Nunavut, especially for those people that have their company or their own business and I know what’s happening with the people that get the contracts out there, with the existing companies.
You were just the right time for your ten minute allotment.
We are open for general comments.
I have some names.
I just want to bring this up.
The topic that’s been brought up many times here, it’s regarding mining.
It’s a topic that I’ve always been discussing and your department and KIA or the Kitikmeot Inuit Association should be working together.
Not just in terms of talking but actually doing the work so we can have more workers out there that can be trained in the mining sector.
Our young people should be taught these skills in mining.
When the young people are being trained in the mining sector, for instance working with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association as well, how will we train our young people in the mining field, and we can with the Nunavut Arctic College as well.
So our students will be taught in the mining field if we can strive to work with them in the Kitikmeot, that’s what I would like to see.
And I’m very pleased this past year the price of seal pelts have gone up and the people in my constituency are very pleased about this price increase.
So people from my riding are now saying that they will be more hunting more seals after hearing that the seal pelts had gone up.
I’d like to say another thing about people running businesses.
Sometimes there are many people out there who wanted to start their own business but they have problems in how to start up.
How can I start my own business; these are the topics or the questions that they have asked me.
For instance in Kugluktuk, the only solution for people who want to start up their own business is that they be given a business orientation workshop, because there would be more people who could start up their own businesses.
Sometimes it is very difficult.
Some have questions like I don’t know how to proceed to start up a business.
I don’t know how to get started and those are the questions that the people bring up, even though they want to go ahead and many times they are discouraged from starting due to the lack of information.
We all know that when we don’t know how to do something it’s very discouraging to us to move forward and if we can work with regional organizations, for instance in the Kitikmeot region, the economic development commission we can use that for instance.
If they can work together, people who want to start their own business, you’ll see a lot of people who want to start up their own business.
As well some Inuit people, they don’t know anything about the programs and services that are being offered, like you know there are some people out there who ask how these programs and services apply to them.
You see a lot of questions out there, and how can Inuit access these funds, so that they can go and start their own business.
We can try hard to let the people out there know this information to try and encourage them in starting their own business.
There are people out there who want to know if there are any funds that they can access to start their own business.
I just wanted to bring this up and thank you for letting me speak.
Very briefly I would like to ask about their opening remarks.
The two communities that I represent are not decentralized and even though that’s the case the two communities have been really working hard to become self reliant.
I’m talking about Coral Harbour and Chesterfield Inlet.
To date, in those two communities there are local businesses that have been established.
There’s commercial caribou hunting, and, especially in Coral Harbour they would like to establish a food processing plant that’s different than the one was established in Rankin Inlet.
I would like to thank the minister for visiting our community.
For Coral and Chesterfield Inlet, they have been working extremely hard to catch their fishing quota limit for summer and winter fishing, commercial fishing, but they can’t reach their limited quota because the food processing plant in Rankin Inlet doesn’t have the capacity.
We would like to thank the department for providing approximately 50 thousand dollars to the community of Coral Harbour so that they could upgrade their access road.
I hear there’s approximately 40 miles of access road that has been built in that particular community.
It’s a very easy terrain to work on.
It’s mostly gravel so they’re doing well in lengthening the access road that they currently have.
It will be beneficial for the tourism sector and also for other ventures.
There is no gravel that is easily accessible from the community of Coral Harbour.
What they’d like to see is to build a road that will help them gain access to those places that are attractive and they would like to get support from the department.
Why do I say this Mr. Chairman?
The reason why I say this is the Department of Sustainable Development is responsible for this area.
If they were to build a road, they know well that it would be beneficial in terms of growth potential.
It would benefit the well being of the community and the tourism potential.
What I am saying is that we are talking about different departments; however, the Department of Sustainable Development is in charge of all these sectors and I think it’s the Department of Sustainable Development that should be promoting increased employment at the community level and also to enhance the programs and economic development.
The community of Coral Harbour knows that if they can upgrade those access roads, it would be very beneficial to the community and they could also go to the attraction areas.
It will also enhance their tourism programs and also help to promote a healthy life style for the community residents.
One example that I can use is in Chesterfield Inlet. They are looking at building a home care facility for the handicapped and we’re very grateful that this venture is going to go ahead but that’s only one of the plans that Chesterfield Inlet has.
The minister already has a letter dated February 7, 2002, that was written by the mayor of Chesterfield Inlet, George Tanuyak.
They have not been given a response yet.
I think that Sustainable Development should take the initiative.
These two communities are aggressively working at becoming more self-reliant and if you can recall, Coral Harbour was the first one established as a hamlet and they were the first ones that were visited by cruise ships.
The terrain has all this potential.
Renewable resources are there.
We have limestone on our island and I hear that it’s the best type of limestone that you can get if we look at it at the international level.
But in order to export the limestone, it’s going to be extremely expensive.
Big game hunting for caribou is enjoyed and also there’s polar bear and walrus that can be used to promote or enhance tourism.