EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
And I just returned from Ottawa as well, where I think we had very successful meeting with the University of Ottawa to look at how we might be able to attract new graduates from that program.
I hope to be able to report maybe in six months from now, Mr. Chairman, that the success that we’ve had in Iqaluit will continue through to both Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay.
We are working very hard to address that need, both nurses and physicians.
I would like to remind members that we’re dealing with capital estimates.
We’ll have time to deal with general estimates early 2005.
Mr. Peterson you have any more questions?
I thought the same thing, these are all linked, the capital projects are linked to the nurses and doctors.
We don’t want to have facilities open that don’t have staff.
That’s an important part of the decision making that we have to keep in mind.
Minister, I don’t think that was a question, more of a comment.
Do you want to respond to that?
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Yes. I would like to thank my colleagues for asking those questions and we are willing to respond to questions that might be posed.
Mr. Alagalak: I’m a little lost as to where I am now but I’m going to try and ask questions.
I understand that there’s been a proposal for midwifery programs in Arviat in the last couple of years.
I’m just wondering in looking at the capital budget requirements in the Kivalliq region, I don’t see any new money to provide or buy additional equipment or new equipment to be used for that type of program.
I wonder if the minister could clarify my misunderstanding that if we are going to go ahead with this program, and I understand that there is a little more capital money required to do that.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Madame Brown.
The issue of the midwifery program is a challenging one, but I think it’s one that we will be addressing in the new year.
We have put forward, I think a very comprehensive plan to government, I guess most of you know it’s closer to home.
In that plan we are asking for some resources to initiate a number of priorities, one of them being maternal care, which is one of the top priorities in that plan.
We also need to look at training a Health Inuit workforce. both in midwifery and in other disciplines as well prior to opening any new health centre, or midwifery or birthing centre, we need to make sure, that I think as Mr. Peterson has said, that the resources are in place to accommodate the facilities that would be coming on board after that.
We will also be putting in place this year a comprehensive plan.
Mr. Alagalak: I only asked why any money needs to be allotted to buy extra equipment to do that type of program in Arviat, that’s all I asked.
The capital allotment for this year and it looks like for next year is $75 million.
So basically that minimizes the opportunity to move forward on that particular project.
My question is too that we talked about for quite some time now about telehealth.
A telehealth system is lacking in Kivalliq Region, it seems as though there is no money for telehealth equipment, or better equipment and computer equipment, in this capital estimate.
I just wonder where that is?
Yes I understand what the member is talking about and I would like to say that new equipment is being placed in the new health centres that are going to be built.
Perhaps Rosemary Brown can elaborate on that.
Ms. Rosemary Brown.
Rosemary Brown: Thank you.
I believe most health centers right now in the Kivalliq, except two have telehealth equipment and have for a few years.
With the recent grants from the Federal Government, the remaining two health centers are to acquire that equipment.
I think with local training, there will be more use of it.
They’re doing it for family visitations.
I know there’s pilots in the Kivalliq with the use of trying to get the health committees say Arviat hooked up with Sanikiluaq, so that they could also be used for training, or meetings other than staff learning, or patient use.
Again I think this applies to the other regions.
I think there’s about two communities each region that with the additional grants from the federal government, I believe by the end of the year, all communities will have the telehealth equipment to communicate.
That’s it for now and I thank the Minister and her staff.
Chair (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Alagalak.
I thank my colleague from Cambridge Bay for bringing the question up that I was going to bring up regarding the women’s shelters.
And also, I’d like to thank the Minister for stating that the women’s shelter is operating now with the money that they have now.
In your speaking notes, you have mentioned that the department will be bringing back the plan based on the needs for the elders and which will address the estimates for 24 hour care facilities for our elders in this government mandate.
On page 7, we don’t see that here.
But anyways, I wanted to ask the question that before I ask the question.
Our elders, there are a couple elders who are out of Nunavut that they should be in Nunavut if there were facilities in our region.
It’s kind of sad to see their grandchildren not seeing their grandparents being out of Nunavut.
The airfares are costly to go and visit, especially from Kugluktuk.
We only have one airline, which is First Air.
I’m just wondering, Mr. Chairman, if the Minister can provide us with some new money for the new fiscal year for an elders’ facility for the Kitikmeot.
This has been a concern of many members in this House.
I understand that as a government in the next four years that they will be built, an elder’s center and after 4 years, there will be another elders’ facility being built in one of the other communities.
I believe that we can do that but we have to work together with the members and perhaps we have to do need assessment for each community.
Perhaps Bernie Blais can talk about the funding that would be available to build elders’ facilities.
Chair (interpretation): Thank you, Minister.
Our department has been directed to come back with a plan to build elders’ centres and in October of this year, an elders’ task group has been put together.
We have already undertaken to look at the needs of each of the communities.
We know that there are no elders’ facilities at all in the Kitikmeot region.
As I said earlier with the group homes, the same thing, we have done our inventory.
So once that plan is ready, we will be bringing back a proposal hopefully with a costing to that to our minister to bring forward to Cabinet.
So we expect to have a recommendation with a plan in place on the next steps by January of 2005.
At that time, I guess it will be up to our minister and the cabinet to decide to allocate resources to achieve this goal.
Mr. Evyagotailak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am glad that the minister is committed to do some work for Nunavut.
This is very serious and very important to the Kitikmeot communities that the elders’ facilities are in need because we don’t have them in our region and they don’t want to see any more of their elders go outside of Nunavut to go to these facilities.
I thank the minister for giving me a good answer.
Was that a question or was that just a comment?
Perhaps I can answer your question, if it was a question.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Minister, but what the member is saying is that he is just appreciating what you have done. (interpretation ends) Mr. Curley.
The plan for elders’ facilities, it’s good to hear that there is a plan in place, but I would like to ask a question.
In Rankin Inlet, there was a petition and it was signed by over 200 people.
I just want to find out what is the status on that? Perhaps if she can respond to that one first.
I would like to thank the people that signed that petition because our elders are our last resource and it really hurts us when they have to leave the community where they are living.
Perhaps if I can get my Deputy Minister to respond to where that petition is at.
The department has received the petition and we will be providing a response shortly, and it will be similar to what I just suggested that we have a committee in place.
We are working to bring back a plan as directed and once that plan is in place, then location would be determined, I presume based on the review that we will have done.
We will be making, hopefully, some recommendations based on some way of prioritizing the building of elders’ care.
I would like to thank the Deputy Minister and I would also like to say that there was an elder that left the community that was shipped down south from Rankin Inlet because of no facility and no care for that individual.
It’s not fair for those elders to leave their family and to go to a strange location, down south, especially.
The government should be taking care of the elders; they should be assisting them rather than shipping them out and forgetting about them.
I just want to know if there could be some help for them.
We cannot just abandon our elders.
We have to treat them the same as everybody else as a government.
I will get my Deputy to respond to that as well.
I’m not sure how I can answer that particular question at this point in time.
The direction that I’ve given to my staff is to look at an elder’s care continuum or program that would encompass a number of opportunities to provide services in Nunavut and to bring, we have 90 people out of Nunavut right now, and our goal is if we could bring 100 percent of them back, that’s what we’re working towards.
It will require us to do our homework and look at the various support structures that we can provide.
We’d probably be looking at enhancing home care, supportive living, with some nursing support, elder’s care and a chronic care facility, which we will be starting to explore with Community and Government Services in the coming year.
So, it’s hard to provide a direct answer on that until we’ve done our homework and we do come back with a more comprehensive strategy on how we may be able to address that need.
Our goal is to repatriate all of those people that are out of territory, some of them have been for 30 years, back to Nunavut.
So that is what we’re working to.
So, I don’t have an exact answer for that other than it’s our objective to try and achieve exactly that.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): Under page H-7, I have a question.
The Minister talked about the boarding home in Rankin Inlet.
It just seems like there is no money allotted for that boarding home and they stated that it’s going to be a fixed cost.
Are you going to be negotiating right now or are you going to wait until you can get a price list?
Are you going to put out an RFP when you find out the price?
The member has asked a very good question and I don’t want to estimate the answer so I will give it to my Deputy.
Mr. Blais: The answer to that is no.
We will try and assess what the cost of building a facility of a certain size, Mr. Chairman.
From that we will then be sitting down with Health Canada to determine, hopefully, to achieve a rate that would cover the cost of running that boarding home over a certain period of time.
Whether we build it and operate it ourselves, or whether we completely outsource that, our hope and what we have seen in the majority of the boarding homes, we already have, Mr. Chairman, is that they tend to pretty well self finance themselves.
So, we expect that this one will be probably the same.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): Yes, it’s in the statement but there doesn’t seem to be any funding set aside for this and if it’s going to be, it will eventually be built in 2006.
That’s how I see it.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Minister.
I will ask my Deputy to answer to that.
There is no need to put money aside at this point in time because the revenues that we will get from Health Canada, the per diems that they will give us for each client, it is our expectation and belief that the revenues will more than pay, or pay for the costs of operating and building those facilities.
That is why you’re not seeing it here.
It is no different with Ottawa and the Edmonton model.
The per diem basically covers the cost of operation and leasing.
The way I understand it, the Kitikmeot Region is getting $700,000, and that is there because it’s from the government.
Yes, it’s true, if Mr. Blais can respond to that, I’ll appreciate it.
Yes, this is basically a building that is owned by the Government of Nunavut and is now being converted to a boarding home.
The retrofit for that is costing us $700,000.
So, we will attempt to recover that when we negotiate a per diem rate on a per patient basis with Health Canada, as well as the operating costs and once we get close to the end date of that, we will hopefully have all that completed.
Looking at this figure, the boarding home has used $536,000 that you spent last year.
What was it used for and what is going to become of it?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, for reminding me, Mr. Evyagotailak.
We will ring the bell.
Thank you, we now have a quorum.
Mr. Curley, you were asking questions.
You can proceed.
Mr. Curley: I’m going to ask you again, what happens then to the $500,000 you spent last year on boarding home in Kitikmeot?
Is that part of the one you are talking about or is that a separate one?
Ms. Rosemary Brown can answer this.
Chairman (interpretation): Rosemary Brown.
Initially when this project was started, we thought that the whole project could be paid for about $500,000.
We hired an architect and that we found that some of the building code standards had changed quite significantly from air control for when the building was used as a student hostel.
So we put some extra money in this fiscal year.
The long and the short is about $200,000 will be spent 2004-2005, on the design phase, then in the spring the design and renovations will go out for tender and it is expect that there would be need to carry money over for the total project which we expect to run over $8 or 9 hundred thousand, just because some of code issues and the elevators, which effects the structure of the building.
So, yes it’s all part of one project.
I thought there was no funding and you’re willing to spend 1.5 million to renovate the old building.
And if it was done by a private sector, I don’t think it would cost that much and there is nothing in the Keewatin.
You seem to be spending a lot of money in one region so I don’t understand why it is like that.
Will it be exactly as $700,000, Rosemary Brown stated that it will go over 9 hundred thousand, is that how I understood?
And thank you, Mr. Curley, for your question.
I’ll let Rosemary Brown answer that.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Rosemary Brown.
The difference is in Kitikmeot there was an empty Government building that was no longer used by the Department of Education.
By making it more handicapped accessible, adding the elevator, doing a bit of an expansion, the building which is less than 10 years old, is a good investment for the Government.
In Rankin Inlet, there is no government building or any building that would be suitable in size to be renovated like that.
So, what we’re looking to do is for the Request for Proposal for, if this is the way the Government chooses to do it, for to private sectors who want to go out and build a new building and with the successful negotiation of a rate with the Government of Canada, there will be an equally good building in Rankin Inlet except it will not be owned by the Government.
But either way, the per diems will be paid by the federal government.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Miss Brown.
I don’t have anybody else on the list.
We’re under H-7.
Total, Kivalliq Region, $110,000. Do you agree?
Chairman: Same page, sorry, Kitikmeot. $1,087,000.
Chairman: Go back to H-4.
Of expenditures.
Total Capital Expenditures $25,392,000.
Chairman: Concluded.
I would like to thank the Minister and her officials at this time.
Do you have any closing remarks, Miss Minister?
I’d like to thank my officials, Rosemary Brown and Deputy Minister, Bernie Blais and all the members who asked questions because they were very interesting.
A lot of the time we only get more information if we ask questions and yesterday, I would like to apologize for yesterday.
I would like to thank Bernie Blais, and Rosemary Brown and you, Minister Brown, thank you.
That concludes your department.
(Interpretation ends) What is the wish of the committee?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Maybe we can proceed with Community and Government Services.
I would like to ask Minister Kilabuk, Minister of Community and Government Services to say his opening remarks.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to present the capital estimates for the Department of Community and Government Services.
I would like to start by saying just a little about the department and the overall infrastructure issues we are facing.
Mr. Chairman, we provide a number of services to other government departments such as information technology, management of leases, property maintenance, contracting, and purchasing.
Community and Government Services is a one-stop shop for many community government concerns our community support services and municipal transfer payments and developing community capacity through training programs.
Communities are assisted with programs and service deliveries through managing and evaluation services.
Community and Government Services are also responsible for consumer services, planning and lands, protection services, and petroleum products supply.
Our focus today is on our capital planning and technical services.
Those include planning, design, and management services for government projects carried out on behalf of communities and client departments.
We ask those communities in identifying their long-term capital requirements, developed the supporting infrastructure plan, and specifying technical standards for infrastructure.
Mr. Chairman, Nunavut communities have unique needs and infrastructure challenges involving everything from water and sewage systems, from community health and recreation facilities to transportation infrastructure.
The challenges are driven by the fact that our population increased by over 70 percent in only 20 years, one of the fastest growing populations in the country.
We have health and social challenges that are due in part to infrastructure deficiencies and which are warned to worsen if not addressed.
The lack of infrastructure puts pressure on existing facilities which are further stressed by our northern environment and isolated communities.
The harsh climate and overuse of infrastructure leads to higher maintenance costs, reduces the length of it’s life cycle and negatively affects quality of life.
Adequate and appropriation infrastructure can also minimize stress to the environment. (interpretation ends): We know all these things, but as a government with limited financial means we are pushed to the limit to address the serious infrastructure needs of communities.
Mr. Chairman, these are all points stressed in a letter I recently wrote to the Hon. John Godfrey, Federal Minister of State for Infrastructure and Communities.
I provided him with a copy of our infrastructure vision paper and stated that Nunavut cannot address these needs of our own.
A joint long term strategy with Canada is required.
On November 12, 2004, I joined my colleagues from the other 12 jurisdictions in a meeting with Minister Godfrey.
The subject of that meeting was the new deal for cities announced by the federal government.
I use this opportunity to again stress the unique infrastructure needs in Nunavut.
Mr. Chairman, in these efforts I have been working in cooperation with the Nunavut Association of Municipalities and that organization has also written Minister Godfrey again stress the unique infrastructure needs in Nunavut.
Mr. Chairman, in these efforts I have been working in cooperation with the Nunavut Association of Municipalities and that organization has also written Minister Godfrey to describe the situation in Nunavut and we have both invited him to come to Nunavut to meet with us and see first hand the situation.
We hope that happens soon, Mr. Chairman.
I should also state that we have received some assistance from Canada.
We have a substantial jointly funded with them to invest in water and sewage needs over five years.
In addition, Mr. Chairman, we are currently negotiating for more federal funding under the Municipal/Rural Infrastructure Fund.
This can be used to address some smaller water and waste issues plus some other high priority needs such as access roads and community centres.
We are hopeful that the federal new deal for cities will see substantially more funding flow to Nunavut for infrastructure in communities. (interpretation): Mr. Chairman, with that as a background, let me focus for a moment on the priorities in the Capital Estimates now before the committee.
By far, the bulk of the department’s capital allocation is invested into projects of direct benefits to the municipalities.
Examples include water, sewage and solid waste facilities. mobile equipment and as funding allows a limited number of community complexes such as the Pond Inlet Community Hall and Arena.
Future work on the Igloolik Community Hall and future work on Resolute Bay Arena.
Some significant water and waste projects land in the next five years include work on the Cape Dorset sewage system, upgrades to Rankin Inlet Utilidor Sewage Treatment Plant and future significant upgrades to the Taloyoak water supply system.
And for the Petroleum Products Division, there are several high priority projects.
Fuel storage facilities exist in all the communities but many are aging and new regulations are placing pressures on the Division to be compliant.
As communities expand, the demand for petroleum products continues to increase and we must build bigger facilities.
Most of the Petroleum Product Division projects relate to upgrades to existing tank farm facilities with the one exception being an annual program for spill response equipment.
In the Capital Plan you will not find any new government building projects given the priority for funding in communities.
The only government projects that are currently planned are ongoing minor works such as repairs, swipe card access installations and similar small projects that come aboard from year-to-year.
Mr. Chairman, I trust these opening comments give the committee an appreciation of the demands upon my department for capital funding and associated challenges.
I also hope Chairman that you will agree with me that the allocation of our existing resources is equitable, reasonable, and responsible.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Kilabuk (interpretation ends): Do you have witnesses that you would like to bring to the table?
Chairman: Does the Committee agree to bring in the witnesses?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Sergeant-at-Arms if you could escort the officials.
For the record, minister, if you can introduce your officials.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman., to my left Tom Rich, Deputy Minister for the Department of Community and Government Services and also to my right the Capital Planner, Doug Sitland.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Does the Chair of the Committee on Infrastructure Housing and Economic Development have opening comments?
As the Chairman of the Standing Committee I would like to welcome the minister and his officials Tom Rich and his capital planner.
I would also like to thank the standing committee for Infrastructure Housing and Economic Development.  Mr. Chairman, as the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Housing and Economic Development, I am pleased to be able to provide opening comments as we begin the review of the 2005-06 capital estimates for the Department of Community and Government Services.
Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Community and Government Services in September to review the draft 2005-06 capital estimates.