EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Is there funding available for the production of curriculum that will be used at the daycare centres?
Like I said earlier, you can access Grants and Contributions.
One example that I used was that you could make a request for literacy through the Literacy Program.
The daycare centres are the ones today who already produce specific programs.
They can access funds from the government and the Federal Government in order to produce a curriculum, for example.
And thank you very much for your response.
Going to 9-16, this question was brought up by the High Arctic representative.
It is in regards to the Northern Student Education Initiative.
I did not quite understand your response, so I would like to ask again.
In 2002-2003, there was no money set aside, and then in 2003-2004, fifteen thousand dollars was allocated for the Northern Student Education Initiative.
Is this a first time fund for this initiative?
We’re using this as a pilot project and like I stated earlier, because it’s the first year that it’s funded, we’ll just direct it at this time to the Edmonton area, since it’s a pilot project.
I believe there’s only $15 thousand dollars here that’s allocated.
Since this is a pilot project, is that why you’ve only put $15 thousand dollars in here.
And are you looking at funding this project annually if it’s successful?
Yes and I would just like to tell my colleague that he should be pleased that we’re started such an initiative and we hope that it’s successful.
If it is, then we can apply this type of initiative to other centres for example to some other Nunavut communities.
This was probably brought up earlier, but you have identified Edmonton for this initiative.
Is there no such initiative in Nunavut?
At this time, no.
If there was an initiative in Nunavut available, there would be no way for us to put in this $15 thousand dollars.
These are for eight weeks for students and the reason why we’ve set aside this $15 thousand dollars for the Edmonton area, is because there are none up here.
The reason why we starting this is because those students need support when they’re going through that orientation process before they start going to classes.
Under grants and contributions, I think there was a plan in place, I’m sorry, income support, I think there was going to be a review on income support and we were supposed to be given some information and the people out there were not really aware of the guidelines.
Has there been any information that is going to be distributed to the income support recipients?
After the review was done, I distributed the information to Nunavummiut.
What we were going to do was give it to the regional centres and we stated that we would give them to the regional centre.
I provided the House with the information and what we did was in November, we provided additional information again.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Has the information been distributed to the communities yet?
Yes they have been sent to the communities.
If they’ve all arrived into the communities, or if they have not arrived to the communities, I don’t have that information on hand but they were sent out about two weeks ago now.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): So, $22 million, 6 hundred?
They have taken out 1 thousand dollars for income support.
It is now $22 million 599.
Is it because there are a lot more people working or is this due to constraints in our spending levels?
Mr. Chairman, perhaps in relation to Mr. Nutarak question, I was expecting a question about the thousand dollars.
It was because we assisted with the work of one position in Iqaluit.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Does that have anything to with income support or is it just a transfer from within your department or your programs?
Like somebody said there is a certain amount of money allotted there that never changes, is that so?
Chairperson (interpretation): Perhaps if you could, the Members can stay in the House for a little bit longer because we’re going to be taking a break pretty soon.
Just to finish off that page and the department that we’re at.
If I understand his question correctly, Mr. Chairman, I explained that 1 thousand dollars was transferred to Iqaluit office.
The question that I had, is the money for income support levels changed?
Mr. Chairman, I’m not really sure exactly what the Member is asking if he could rephrase his question.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Mr. Chairman, the money allocated to a certain individual per month, for example if he’s single he receives this much assistance.
And whether he’s got a family or not, does he still get the same amount?
I’m not really sure exactly how much income support they receive for each family member.
That has not changed?
Yes, they have not decreased.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I wanted to ask a lot of questions but it seems that my time is not moving at all so this is my last question.
I’m just worried about the decrease taken out of that amount.
Are there a lot of elders who own their own homes who are income support recipients here in Nunavut?
If he wants to ask a lot of questions my time is available.
To the question, I will get my staff to answer that question.
Under the line object of fees and payments because it is incorporated in the career of the early childhood services branch of the department, it doesn’t just cover income support payments.
Its fees and payments are for the entire division. The $1 thousand dollars was just an internal transfer that went to cover off the new staff position that was put in the regional office here in Iqaluit.
There were no other decreases.
So any of the transfers that were done were just internal transfers.
I’m talking about the elders.
I just wondered if the elders received income support as well, such as fuel.
Is there an increase in income support recipients at this time?
The number is still about the same.
My last question, Mr. Chairman, the income support recipients, there are elders who have their own homes who are provided with fuel.
Do they get subsidies for fuel purchases?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Nothing has changed.
I just want to get on the topic of income support that I’ve brought on every year for the last three years, is that I heard an interesting statistic on the radio yesterday in regards to the average annual income for the people of Nunavut is $48 thousand dollars a year.
It’s no secret that other than the pages, most of us make twice or three times that amount.
It just shows the discrepancy between the rich and poor in Nunavut.
Unfortunately, 50 percent of the people in Nunavut rely on income support as their main income.
Last year’s figures were, I think a family of four makes $950 dollars a month, which works out to $10 thousand 800 dollars a year, plus their housing benefits and things like that.
Every year, we ask for the cost of living allowance to be built into income support.
It was said that the department had considered raising the benefits for food, shelter, clothing but this would be done through regulation.
Detail is always in regulation.
The proposed increased in benefits is based on the results of the food cost survey.
To date, we haven’t heard anything, or where the department is going with this food cost survey.
For the fourth year in a row, are we looking at giving those people who are living below the poverty line any kind of increase in their income support?
I’ll have our Director of Income Support respond to that question.
The income support rates have not changed since August of 1998.
It is true that there has been no cost of living adjustment done.
The food survey that was done was not completed, so we used the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs food cost survey that they did for the Department of Human Resources when it came time for the collective bargaining.
The department did put together a financial management board submission to increase the rates for income support but at this time the funds were not available.
Mr. McLean: Just a brief comment and I’m not directed it to the current Minister.
Shame on this government for the way that we treat the unfortunate in this territory according to the Bathurst Mandate.
That’s not directed at the current Minister, it’s directed at this government as a whole.
Like I say, people in this room make 2 to 3 times the average income of other people of Nunavut, and that we do not look after the people who we are supposed to be representing in regards of giving them a cost of living increase on Income Support.
What more can an MLA say.
I do not blame the current Minister for that.
We all should take some responsibility on what, and I am saying all of us, I mean the nineteen MLAs in Nunavut, should take the responsibility of how our people on Income Support are being treated.
That is all I ask.
Chairperson (interpretation): Any response, Minister Kilabuk?
We will be breaking for about twenty-five minutes to have coffee and tea.
Twenty-five minutes.
>>Committee recessed at 17:41 p.m. and resumed at 18:07 p.m.
Now onto 15/16.
Chairperson (interpretation): Career and early childhood services.
Total O and M, $33 million, 642 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): $33 million, 642 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): We’ll now turn the page to 9-17, curriculum and school services, total O and M, $8 million 847 thousand dollars.
General comments/questions.
Mr. Chairman, again in this section there is an increase in compensation and benefits and I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s a result of collective bargaining increases or increased PYs.
It’s a result of the collective bargaining.
So there are no increased PYs in that division.
Yes, there are no increases in PYs.
Mr. Chairman, maybe if the Minister can clarify on 9-27 of their business plan, they show 20 PYs for last year and 27 for this year.
I am just wondering how come there is no increase for PYs, because there is seven PYs there?
I was shown the wrong information by my Deputy Minister by mistake.
The increase for Compensation and Benefits, and PY staffing level is for the Curriculum Development Office and the Language of Instruction Program.
Is that correct, that there is an increase of seven PYs in that division?
Chairperson (interpretation): Can you introduce your Official, Minister Kilabuk.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): I am sorry.
He was here the other day, Mr. Ian Rose.
He is from Policy Analyst Division.
This increase is an increase of seven PYs.
Is this a result of new work that they are doing?
I know that there is an additional $2.6 six million in the budget to deal with language of instruction.
Is that where this money is going, towards those PYs, and the work that they are doing?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk: That is correct.
Mr. Chairman, out of that, how much of that money is going to actually go to the materials, and the curriculum?
How much of it is going to go to staff?
I will get the Deputy Minister to elaborate.
In many respects, all of it is going to curriculum and materials.
That is because the main costs for curriculum and materials are not the cost of printing the document; it is rather the cost of creating the document.
So the staffs that are reflected here are the staff required to create the curriculum document and to write the resource materials in Inuktitut.
It is not all new staff; in fact several of the staff are staff who actually were transferred out of School Operations for the Teaching and Learning Centres into the Curriculum and School Services Division, because we have re-aligned how we run curriculum and resources in terms of the Teaching and Learning Centres, so that the Teaching and Learning Centres work more closely with the Curriculum Division in Arviat.
I am sure that the Minister and his staff are aware, and I am aware too, that a lot of teachers who were at the Teacher’s Conference here last week, will certainly look forward to this information coming out.
It has always been ongoing, and we are working on it.
We have yet to see anything materialize.
The people who were at the conference, there was frustration in not having materials to work with.
I think that it is one of the most important things that this stuff get out there. I also think that it is important that the curriculum that is developed through whatever grade level is there, it is the same or equivalent as far as the level requirement because I believe that a student should be able to cross over from one stream to another and learn basically the same knowledge base.
It shouldn’t have a different knowledge base in the Inuktitut stream as in the English stream.
You know the skills that they need should be the same in both levels.
Also under this area here, it mentions that there is some funding of all directions, funding for District Education Authority development.
I’m just wondering if the minister and his staff can clarify what funds are there for that and exactly what in that division do they do for District Education Authority development?
There are workshops conducted for District Education Authorities; it is for training and curriculum development in that department.
On 9-18, on top it states, Teacher Education Strategy. $1 million, 879 thousand dollars, is that is geared towards the teacher education program?
Please clarify whether this is the case?
Yes, that is geared for that program but this is for more community based programs.
Okay, on the bottom, Teachers Professional Development.
Do teachers receive their professional development courses?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, according to the agreement for the teachers union, the teachers are given an additional five days of professional development and his question was where this training takes place?
For instance, there was a big conference of teachers here last week and that’s where that funding would fall under in this program for professional development and that’s defined in the federation of Nunavut teachers’ collective agreement.
And that’s where we provide ongoing support for the development of teachers.
Chairperson (interpretation): I have no one else on my list.
Mr. Chairman, just on that funding issue is another that I heard from that teachers’ conference and that was a lot of the classroom assistance or CSAs to be exact, but they had to fundraise and pay their own way to come down to this conference.
I’m just wondering if the minister or the department would look at providing them the same funding to be able to go down to conferences such as this.
The point that they were raising was that some of them have been teaching for 30 years and they just get ignored.
They are not considered teachers.
Basically they are saying, if you’re in the classroom, they’re teaching the children.
Now, it may not be English, Math, or Physics or whatever but they’re teaching the children and I think they expressed it quite strongly last week.
They deserve the same recognition and should be treated the same when it comes to funding for a workshop like this especially in light of the extreme shortage of teachers through out Nunavut and the important role that these people play in the classrooms.
Sometimes they have a whole class to themselves.
It would be different if they were inadequate number of teachers in all the classrooms or down to manageable sizes and they were just assistants but the reality is they are a lot more than that and they have been for some time.
So, I’m just wondering if the minister could indicate whether that is something they could look at addressing for a future.
From my understanding, the conference participants, including the teacher assistants who fall under the District Education Authority and who are employed by the District Education Authority according to the Federal of Nunavut teachers.
I’m very aware that the Pangnirtung assistants also had to fundraise to participate in the conference but our department also receives funding assistance for various parts of professional development.
This includes upgrading courses so that they can go to college to get their teacher’s certificates, we want to give them more opportunities to take part in training but the only problem we’ve had is that they fall within that category of assistants.
That has always been the case and the classroom assistants have always fallen under the same initiative.
Mr. Tootoo: I wish the minister would consider look at changing it.
I understand how this funding was allocated based on the collective agreement but could not the department come up with some kind of fund to provide assistance to these people to attend these conferences?
Like I asked earlier, how many CSA’s come to a conference once a year?
It can’t be a heck of a lot.
I’m sure that the department could probably find some money within its budget somewhere to be able to accommodate these educators.
Yes, we’ll take that into consideration.
The five days that are set aside for the professional development and the events last week are geared more towards community based programs but as in other years they go down to a conference depending on the region where it is held and that is certainly a consideration we can entertain.
Chairperson (interpretation): Okay, any more?
On 9-17, I want to ask the minister in respect to the curriculum and school services.
Does this provide overall direction and administration from kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum?
In Nunavut, especially the smaller communities, the Inuktitut teachers have absolutely no resources to try to teach the children about their cultural tools.
They use paper products to show the students what types of tools were made in Inuit culture.
There is absolutely no support of any kind.
I wonder what types of programs are set up for the provision of materials such as wood for tool making.
If they’re going to make qamutiks they have to look all over town for materials.
Is the department going to look at providing some materials for these cultural classes?
The District Education Authorities are responsible for that funding.
The Department of Education also has some funds set aside for materials for different programs.
That is how it has always been.
In looking at the budget for travel, transportation, materials and supplies, there is an increase shown every year.
I would like people to understand me.
There are no materials for these unique programs, especially for Inuktitut inclusion programs.
Although there is an increase every year, we all know that some of the Inuktitut programs, especially the men do not have the materials like wood for learning how to carve traditional tools.
Can the Minister attempt to meet with the DEAs to ensure that there is material available for traditional tool making.
Sometimes they have no choice but to use paper.
Here in Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut they are going to set up a curriculum for these programs, and it would be good to provide adequate material for that program.
We always hear that the Department of Education has no funds available for any initiatives but they now have funds set aside from that particular program?
How and why are students excluded from these materials?
Yes we can pass on the information, if there is a misunderstanding.
But because this line is actually what it is for.
A lot of communities do tap into this funding.
We can look into to see if we can provide any assistance, whether it be providing more information as to what they can order or buy materials.
The DEAs and the Principal are responsible for what the community needs are and according to this Members’ community can do the same thing.
If there is a lot of information out there, we will ensure that it is known to all the communities.
On the same page, it is written in English: Monitoring and Evaluating Student Achievement and Teachers Certification.
It says that they have to monitor these programs.
What I am trying to say, Mr. Chairman, that this explanation is very good.
It should be like that in all the communities just like they provided information and the funding for the DEA increases and yet they should be using that funding for the curriculum.
Mr. Chairman, this is more of a comment than a question.
Chairperson (interpretation): A comment.
Curriculum and School Services, total Operations and Maintenance, eight million, eight hundred and forty-seven thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Going onto the next page.
To 9-19.
School Operations, total Operations and Maintenance, eighty-eight million, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Since there are no further questions, we’ll move back to page 9-4.
I’m sorry, I made a mistake, I apologize.
Are there any questions on page 9-21 to 9-25?
My question is on the school operations.
My question again is on the compensation and benefits line item.
Does this cover off all the teachers in the schools?
Chairperson (interpretation): When you are going to be asking questions, please try and remain in your seats.
When you leave the chamber, we can’t make your comments or questions.
Yes, this is for all the teacher salaries and benefits.
Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could indicate if there are more teachers or the same amount of teachers this year compared to last year?
I apologize, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Member if he’s talking about the current fiscal year or is he talking about the next fiscal year 2003/2004 or the previous year.
Chairperson (interpretation): Please clarify your question Mr. Tootoo.
Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could indicate for the fiscal year 2002/2003 how many teachers were in the classroom, how many teachers we had and for the 2003/2004, how many teachers we’re going to have.
The numbers of teachers are going to remain the same, Mr. Chairman.
Perhaps they are going to remain the same or they will remain the same.
I’d just like to get that clarified.
With the funding that we have, it will remain the same.
Has the student population increased between those two years and if so, by how much?
Chairperson (interpretation): They’re increasing in my community.
They have increased by 142 students.
Is the increase of 142 students across Nunavut, is that what the Minister is indicating?
I’ll assume that’s what it is.
I’ll refer back to the business plan on page 9-27, under school operations and I’d like to make a very disappointing observation Mr. Chairman, and that is on the school operations section.
That is the part that we are on in the budget, is the only division in the Department of Education that has less PY’s than it did the year before.
I’m just saying that I thought that education is one of the priorities of this government.
Right now, 142 that we know of, is the increase of students just this year.
Over the summer I’m sure that there is going to be a lot more.
We have no new teachers to go with that and actually have a decrease in numbers in school operations and I question this government, as we say education is one of our top priorities, but this certainly is not an indication that it is.
Maybe I can ask the minister, all those, the 825 PY’s within school operations last year, and the 817 of the 2002/2003 or 2003/2004 only 817, how many of those are actual teachers?
I want this to come across clearly.
The reduction does not affect the number of the teachers and we’re not going to remove any of the teachers.
I want this understood clearly.
Even though the number of PY’s has been reduced, the numbers of teachers are not reduced.
Mr. Tootoo: Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Again I ask the minister what is the actual number for the 2002/2003 year, what is the actual number for the 2003/2004 year?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Mr. Chairman, thank you, in 2003, 594.6 for that year, we expect that the number will not change for the fiscal year 2003/2004.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 594.6 and there is 817 PY’s there as the note indicates, does this include positions funded through the District Education Authority? What kinds of positions exactly are funded through the District Education Authority included in almost 222 positions?
For his questions, they pertain to the language instructors, receptionists and janitorial positions.
Chairperson (interpretation): Do you have any further questions Mr. Tootoo?
Do the CSA’s fall under this category?
Is that what the minister considers as language positions and such?