EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Again, I’ll explain them. We’ve hired more staff for the Pangnirtung office, we have hours that go beyond five o’clock, we have established 1-800 numbers for people to call, and we have met with the airlines to streamline the process of processing plane tickets at the airport.
We have also created a client services coordinator position. We have produced a new Client Travel Policy, which I will be tabling in this House, and flyers and information for every region, which I’ll also be tabling in this House. So there are a number of steps that have been taken to improve services.
At the same time, we have trained our staff to provide better service to people in the Baffin and throughout the North. The staff has also been keeping track and logging complaints and mistakes by the office in Pangnirtung.
So at the same time, when a person is discharged from the hospital, the paperwork goes directly to the travel office in Pangnirtung. The client does not have to process that on their own any longer.
We do all that for them and the information is shared to the members that are travelling when their tickets are available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It’s clear from questions brought forward by my colleague yesterday those problems with medical travel arrangements still persist.
I, too, continue to hear complaints from elders and others about medical travel issues. These are not just individual case-by-case problems.
There is a systemic problem with the way this whole service is being delivered. Will the minister reconsider relocating the medical travel office from Pangnirtung back to Iqaluit?
The questions yesterday related to weather and the booking of a person travel as a result of weather. Going through the questions I got yesterday, that’s what the questions were. When the weather is out, we re-book on the next available flight.
I have also since called my office to check to see if there was an elder stuck here for three weeks, as the member had stated yesterday.
We’re not able to find that information through our office.
So it is on a case-by-case basis because most times travel plans go according to plan and when there are issues and problems, we need to follow those up to improve the system.
So if there are concerns from individuals, please let me know and I will follow up to see what happened, and at which time I can pinpoint exactly what happened to that individual’s travel.  It’s difficult to correct something when we don’t know what the problem was as it relates to scheduling travel for someone.
It could be mechanical, it could be weather; it could be a number of things. So it’s difficult to answer a question that is so broad in nature when it comes to this type of issue when there’s a number of players involved and a lot of situations that can happen.
So, again, I asked the member to provide me the name of the individuals and I will gladly follow up and provide an adequate response to the individuals on a case-by-case basis.
I wanted to assist in clarifying the motion that was defeated in this House and could only be reconsidered by the House in a new Assembly. So please, take that into account when posing those questions.
I mentioned it, I didn’t say it was defeated or carried as mentioned.
It is that the member continues to insist that it’s individual case-by-case, yet there are repeated problems with that.
She also indicated that if there’s a complaint, the follow up will take place. I’m sorry. The passenger already missed the plane.
There cannot be a follow up. It’s already done.
Members of this House have asked them a number of times for improvements to the Medical Travel Policy to be made public through some sort of information campaign.
Can the minister update this House on what specific efforts have been made to ensure that Nunavummiut are made aware of these policies for medical travel?
Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear.
In the Baffin alone, we process over 14,000 tickets. We don’t have problems with 14,000 tickets.
We have some problems that we encounter because of various reasons, and that’s why I ask who the individuals are, what plane did they miss on what day, and so on.
It’s difficult to answer a question that is so broad in nature that we cannot follow up to correct because it’s so broad in nature.
There are 14,000 tickets, 14,000 people and we do try and provide an adequate service but it’s difficult, again, to respond to questions like that that are hypothetical in nature until we get the name of the person.
So we will try and address them as they go along and we will do that.
The other question is: what have we done? We have improved the policy, which I will be tabling in this House, and that policy addresses the concerns that you have raised in this House. It will outline the concerns and I have moved forward in addressing some of your concerns in the policy which I will be releasing during this time.
It will also provide information to travelling patients, a booklet on contact numbers when they have questions related to the boarding home, or airlines, or our office, and that outlines all the options they have to address their concerns.
So there are a number of steps taken and I will be tabling that in the House for the members’ information.
I should have raised a Point of Order but I’m too polite.
All of these problems are hypothetical. In fact, one person used his own personal Visa to go home.
I cannot use peoples’ names because we’re in the House.
We’ve been trying to tell you that for a long time now.
Anyway, Mr. Speaker, following the Cabinet Retreat in Kugluktuk in September, the Cabinet directed their staff to submit a review of the Medical Client Travel Policy.
Can the minister inform this House when the Medical Client Travel Policy will be made available for members to review?
If a medical client paid for their own ticket, then we would have to reimburse that person.
Again, I would encourage the member to advise his constituent to put forth an invoice to us so we can reimburse the person who paid for his own ticket and find out why that happened.
Again, he can name the person with me privately. He doesn’t have to name the person in the House.
He can speak to me after session and I will gladly follow up, which I do on many occasions when concerns are raised by Members of this House.
The Client Travel Policy is complete and it’s just in the process of being translated and printed. As soon as that’s done, I will be releasing it in the House.
Question 300 – 2(4): Involve Inuit in Wildlife Management (Barnabas)
As he stated in his Minister’s Statement, they are developing a Caribou Management Strategy.
Mr. Speaker, the NWMB will be engaging with NTI to develop the Caribou Management Strategy.
My question is... well, just to state that in all the communities there are elders’ societies in our constituencies and they are the ones that know the wildlife most.
So will these elders’ societies be involved in the development of this strategy?
When the Wildlife Act was established, the Department of Environment was asked to establish an elders’ advisory group.
We’re now working on that and not too long from now, they’ll be establishing an elders’ advisory group and we will get their benefit from them.
Prior to the Wildlife Act being enacted, they did consultations only through the headquarters in each region.
The smaller communities were not consulted, or visited when they were dealing with the Wildlife Act.
So what is going to occur with this Caribou Management Strategy?
When we start dealing with wildlife, we involve all the HTO chairpeople and they will be involved because we work with the HTOs.
I want to state that I’m not against non-natives and Nunavummiut but what is going to happen with the non-natives because they are allowed to harvest five caribou and they can give that right to anyone.
I think there are approximately over 4,000 caribou that they can harvest.
So what is going to happen to that?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Barnabas. Minister of Environment, Mr. Netser.
In regard to the right to harvest caribou, it’s not going to change for those people who hold general hunting licenses but we are going to establish an MOU during the time when we make the Caribou Management Strategy and we’ll be able to deal with that at that time.
Question 301 – 2(4): Follow Guidelines in Regional Trials (Curley)
Prior to me asking the question to the Minister responsible for Sports North, just recently they have been planning to have soccer team regional tryouts.  There are many young people who are 14 and under who have been competing in the Keewatin and they just completed their competition last week.
There are quite a few valuable players coming from the communities like Lisa Tatty, Julie Paniuq, and Charlotte Karetak.
I would like to ask the minister, during the regional tryouts, because they are planning for a territorial competition in November, do they follow the Sports North guidelines at that time?
If the member can clarify what kind of guidelines he is talking about for Sports North. Perhaps, if he can clarify his question because I did not quite understand.
Mr. Curley, could you rephrase your question please? Mr. Curley.
My first question: do they follow the Sport North guidelines when they have regional tryouts? Because they are planning for the Arctic Winter Games; regional tryouts means that the ones that are most capable will go out to territorial tryouts; does Sports North follow the guidelines for 14 and under?
Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, and Minister responsible for Sport Nunavut, Mr. Tapardjuk.
Yes, for example, according to their age, when they go to tryouts this winter for the Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife, right now, there are tryouts and we do have a guideline, but if they’re underage, they need to have coaches when they go out for tryouts.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, very much, minister, for explaining that to me.
First of all, my second question, I believe that we politicians should not be interfering with the recreation and sports, but I believe that young people and parents should be recognized.
I’m very proud of young athletes and their parents.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the minister that they follow their guidelines and they need permission from the parents if these athletes are 14 and under.
However, the most valuable players were told that their parents were not even informed that they had been taken out from the regional trials list even before the November tryouts started.
Could the minister find out why they have been taken out?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Curley. (interpretation ends) Minister responsible for Sport Nunavut, Minister Tapardjuk.
I would like to thank the member for that question.
I have not heard about this situation but I can look into that and I will inform my colleague once I get the results.
I also forgot to thank the coach for the regional tryouts.
His team worked very hard and had been in Baker Lake, and now, they did a regional tryout in Rankin Inlet to prepare for November.
Kaitlin Kusugak did not sleep for three days because the first three volleyball players have been taken out by the Sports North.
So, Mr. Speaker, I believe that the minister has to look into it to make sure the guideline has not been contravened.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will look into that definitely.
They must have had a reason, so I will look into the reasoning why this occurred and I will inform the members.
The young people work very hard in their community and they represent their regions.
They try to represent their communities to the best of their abilities but one thing that we want to find out that the young people, 14 and under, that this guideline should not be broken.
Even though they’re 12 years old, they’re capable.
These athletes were told that they’re underage but according to the guidelines, Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell the minister that we would like to know if they had followed the guideline. The parents of the athletes would like to find out, too.
Minister responsible for Sport Nunavut, Minister Tapardjuk.
Yes, the policy for regional tryouts, I don’t have the guidelines right now, but I will look into his question and I will also inform my colleagues in the House in regard to this.
Question 302 – 2(4): Medical Travel Office Return to Iqaluit (Arreak)
Although my question is similar to the one that was asked yesterday and today, I come from Baffin Island and I believe this problem would not occur if this was set up properly, there would be fewer complaints coming from my constituency.
In my community Clyde River, during our meeting, going through the local radio stations, there are always complaints about transportation issues.
Although the minister has stated that this is being resolved, the problem still occurs in my riding.
There are so many patients sent out, yesterday she mentioned that 15,000 tickets were issued and today there were only 14,000 that were issued.
As long as this situation is not resolved, we will keep speaking to this issue.
Will the transportation office be moved to Iqaluit and perhaps, replace that responsibility with another thing?
I said earlier, again, it’s important to know who the clients are and I’ll explain why.
We have two travel offices. We have a travel office here in Iqaluit and we also deal with Ottawa.
So depending on where that person is, we don’t know if it’s Pang, we don’t know if it’s Iqaluit or Ottawa, we need to know on a case-by-case basis who these individuals are.
I can’t say the problem is Pangnirtung without knowing the individual’s name because travel is also processed out of here; travel is also processed out of Ottawa as well as Pangnirtung.
At this time I can’t give her a name.
So I would like to ask the minister: can the minister give me a name as to why they can’t go back the same way so I can make a motion to remove that person?
I would just like to remind the members that we are not supposed to ask for individuals’ names.
It’s up to the minister if she wants to respond to that question.
It’s very difficult, like I said, to respond to questions related to a travel case when we don’t know who the person is.
It’s like asking someone upstairs on the third floor and say, “There are lots of problems with organizing travel for MLAs,” and then what?
We process a lot of files in the North for travel. So there are different circumstances that every single time that we have to follow up on. If there are ways to improve it, we can.
We have done a lot to try to improve the service, which I’m going to be tabling a report in the House on the Client Travel Policy.  We appointed Andrew Tagak Sr. to take calls from clients and to also address issues related to the boarding home to travel, he’s there.
We’ve set up 1-800 numbers in Pangniqtuuq. We’ve set up two offices.
We need to follow up on a case-by-case basis what the issues are.
Question 303 – 2(4): Satellite Cultural School Selection Process (Peterson)
Mr. Speaker, the cultural school was approved for Clyde River and then the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth selected Igloolik and Baker Lake as locations for satellite cultural schools. There were no satellite schools selected for the Kitikmeot.
Delegates at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association Annual General Meeting expressed their concern about CLEY’s decision and planning in this regard.
Mr. Speaker, can the minister clearly describe to the House the process that CLEY used to select satellite school locations in Nunavut?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The way I understand his question is that it’s about the folk cultural school. I believe it was last year or two years ago at our Full Caucus Retreat in Arviat that we stated we needed a cultural school in Nunavut.
So the department sent a letter inviting communities who were interested in getting a cultural school, including the hamlet councils and elders’ societies.
We requested if they were interested, to get a list of possible satellite campuses, for example, what infrastructure do you have?
Is the Inuktitut language strong in your community? What can you offer that would be very beneficial?
So we put that out.
The communities came up with some suggestions and responses.
Firstly, Tunngavik and the Departments of Education and Culture, Language, Elders and Youth were spearheading this, and once we received those letters we had questions. I don’t know how many questions but we put them in order.
There was no interest from the Kitikmeot. There was one from Taloyoak but they didn’t have much to offer.
So for that reason, we considered Arviat, Baker Lake, Igloolik, Clyde River, and there is another community.
When the working group from CLEY, Education, and Tunngavik screened them, they met with the hamlet councils.
Those communities said they had lots to offer, so when they came back, they reported to the Cabinet that these communities were the most ideal places.
That’s why they voted Clyde River. The Cabinet decision was that we needed satellite campuses in Baker Lake and Igloolik according to their interest.
Just to remind you, try to make your responses as brief as much as possible because our Question Period is short.
That might be my fault; I asked for a clear and detailed response to my question.
That was fairly detailed.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I recall at the time when proposals went out for the cultural school that in Cambridge Bay there was a certain error, there was a short notice. The heritage centre and the hamlet didn’t get their information. They didn’t have time to respond to the deadlines.
And then of course, there was a proposal from Taloyoak.  The concern in the Kitikmeot is not necessarily with the cultural school, it’s more with the decision on the satellite schools and that came up at the KIA AGM.
The delegates there said that the Kitikmeot is very distinct and unique in Nunavut. I think that came out and came across very loud and clear. They said that the Kitikmeot Heritage Society has done a lot of work to raise awareness on Kitikmeot Inuit culture and traditions.
So my question for the Minister: can the minister explain to the House how the Culture, Language, Elders and Youth will include the Kitikmeot Inuit culture and traditional history and activities in the satellite schools that are located in the Kivalliq and Baffin regions?
We have a working group that is working on the preparation of the cultural school.
Right now, they are working on what policies they will have and how many programs there will be.
We also have someone from Kugaaruk and one from Cambridge Bay who are in the planning group.
They are involved so that when the cultural school becomes a reality, how can we include those?
They have given us very invaluable information as to what we should include in there.
I was aware that Culture, Language, Elders and Youth have this planning group that is overseeing the development of the planning for the cultural school and the satellite operations.
I’m aware that there are some members from the Kitikmeot.  My question for the minister: could the minister explain to the House how this planning group or steering committee interacts with community groups in the Kitikmeot, for example, the Kitikmeot Heritage Society and the hamlet councils, to ensure that the Kitikmeot’s interests figure prominently in their planning?
During the planning stage... how can I say this... with every progress, they keep us up to date as to what stage they’re at and there are some cases where we have to make decisions on how it will be done.
At this time we can’t say this is how it will be because it’s not completed.
In the winter time we will be able to give you an idea of how it will be.
Of course, I will keep the members informed as to the status of the planning group.
Mr. Speaker, the minister attended the Kitikmeot Inuit Association AGM to make a Culture, Language, Elders and Youth presentation and hear concerns and questions.
The delegates were very appreciative that the minister took time out from his busy schedule to come over and meet with them for a couple of hours.
Mr. Speaker, at the AGM we heard firsthand from the KIA delegates that a satellite cultural school should be located in the Kitikmeot.
He indicated earlier that maybe the Kitikmeot wasn’t interested, there’s no interest from the communities, but I would argue, Mr. Speaker, that there is interest in a satellite cultural school in the Kitikmeot.
My question for the minister: can the minister tell the House if he will instruct his officials to begin consultations with the Kitikmeot to assess the feasibility, cost and the possible location of a satellite cultural school in the Kitikmeot, and if not, why not?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the member for his questions.
What we are planning that was approved by the Cabinet, once it’s ready, as I’ve stated before, this is just the beginning but once it’s been completed, we want to continue, especially in the communities.
We will look for some ways how we can help the communities and how we can promote the language and cultures in the different regions and in other ways.
This is a concern for us and we are more than willing to help as a government but we have to complete the planning.
We will continue to try to help and include the concerns that the Kitikmeot has.
Item 6. Oral Questions. Member for Iqaluit Centre, Mr. Tootoo.
Question 304 – 2(4): Guidelines on Homeowners Energy Rebate Program (Tootoo)
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, in the Minister’s Statement today he was talking about the Home Energy Efficiency Rebate Program that they launched this fall.
He indicated in his statement, Mr. Speaker, that it was as much as a $1,000 in non-repayable assistance to approved homeowners.
I’m just wondering if the minister has information on what kind of guidelines and restrictions are in the program. Are they there for every single homeowner to apply for?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regarding the homeowners program in Nunavut, the funding will be given to those homeowners that want to do energy saving in their homes.
I was just wondering if there are any caps on, again, I know in some of the Housing Corporation programs there are income thresholds.
I’m just wondering if this is absolutely open to everybody, the homeowners in Nunavut, or if there are income thresholds, or any other restrictions on it?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Tootoo. Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, Minister Akesuk.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is directed to all the homeowners and people who have houses with that ceiling of $1,000, and it depends on their income.
It’s directed to all the homeowners.
I’m just wondering if the minister is aware of, and if he is, could he provide what those income thresholds are for this program.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t follow the criteria of their income.
We are trying to get the homeowners to save their energy.
There’s no ceiling.
I’m glad that the minister clarified that that there is no income threshold or ceiling for this program.
Again, is there any other, because just the way it is worded, it says, “assistance to approved homeowners.”
Are there any other criteria out there that would disqualify someone for applying under this program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It will be assistance for the homeowners so that they can improve their homes for energy saving.
If there are any problems in our program, then I will inform him later on.
The Question Period is now over.
We are going to go back to the Orders of the Day.
Tabled Document 136 – 2(4): Inuktitut Magazine Article -- “Inuktitut asks Sam Raddi about Inuvialuit in the Western Arctic” – March 1983 (Curley)
I would like to table this document that was an excerpt from the Inuktitut Magazine that was done many years ago on the life of Sam Raddi.
Please bring the document to the Clerk.
Be patient, they’re handing in the Tabled Document.