EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We’ll have to start working on it right away and even possibly this week, they will be able to have a meeting with the Hamlet Council.
It could also be a teleconference meeting and we’ll probably start working with the hamlet in the month of July.
Question 163 – 1(6): Encouraging Students to Consider Civil Service Careers
Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister responsible for Human Resources.
Mr. Speaker, I want to refer to this document, "Building Nunavut Through Decentralization – Evaluation Report,” which I’m sort of happy with some of it and not so happy with some of it.
My first question today is, the Department of Education’s Employment Development specialists need to establish closer linkages between schools, Nunavut Arctic College and employers, especially the Government of Nunavut.
This should result in the development of career awareness programs for the youth.
That’s a really good recommendation Mr. Speaker.
So my question to the minister is, we all know we have 27 thousand, 28 thousand people in Nunavut.
Fifty percent of the population is either in school or going to be in school soon which is 14 thousand people.
There are 27 hundred civil servant jobs in Nunavut.
We’re roughly 700 short.
So the magnitude of finding employment for these young people in the future is great.
I want all members in this House to realize that.
That if we have to create 10-14 thousand jobs in this territory, it’s going to be very, very difficult to do.
So we must maximize the jobs that we have now and ensure that they’re filled by these youth.
My question to the minister responsible is, in his plans to do this, or, if he does do it, will he go into the schools and tell the students or have his staff go into the schools during the graduation ceremonies and career development officers are in most communities, talk to the young people of Nunavut about considering a career in the civil service?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation) In regards to the questions pertaining to careers and other job opportunities, you mentioned it all but I’m very glad to be responsible for both Human Resources and Education.
In regards to his question, I will be able to answer it based on these departments.
It’s very true that we have to try to keep the students informed about job opportunities that they might take on after they graduate.
We also have to make sure that we have programs available for the students that are job related.
I’m very glad and I’ve had discussions regarding the matter with my staff.
I can use an example of where we have gone to the schools starting from grade 10-12.
I’m very glad that there are now programs available within their curriculum where the students can get credits for job related experiences that are available in the schools.
Yes, these are some of the challenges that we are facing.
We have not stopped this process, it is ongoing and we will not be giving up on it.
I agree with the member and his comments about the report and we will work diligently on getting that information to the students.
Before we move on, I’d like to recognise a large group in the gallery that is joining us from James Town, New York, from a community college there visiting Iqaluit and Nunavut, to learn about Nunavut.
Question 164 – 1(6): Analysis of Moving Nanisivik Houses to Arctic Bay
As I said earlier, we’ve got one person here visiting as a tourist; it’s nice to see more at this time of year. I think it’s the best time of year to be here, in the spring.
Earlier one of my colleagues asked him about the staff housing in Arctic Bay.
And the minister had indicated that they’re looking at a report, the possibility of moving some houses from Nanisivik down to Arctic Bay.
I know in the past I worked with the Housing Corporation and I know that there were ten houses that were moved from Nanisivik to Arctic Bay to be sold as homeownership and public housing units.
I am wondering if the minister has the final numbers from that and will they look at whether it is worthwhile to move the houses from Nanisivik to Arctic Bay or is it better off looking at constructing new houses.
Will he look for that information and do that analysis?
Mr. Speaker, that is the exact information that I have now from the report and I haven’t had a chance to review it yet to determine whether or not it is worthwhile to move or to construct new units.
Mr. Speaker, one of the factors that the minister takes a look at, and I understand it is not only in Arctic Bay but in many communities, the prices and the need for these units.
Will one of the things taken into consideration be the expediency with which units can be made available as staff units?
Report 001 – 1(6): Bill 10 - An Act to Amend the Land Titles Act
I wish to report that Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Land Titles Act, has been reviewed by the Standing Committee Ajauqtiit, and that the bill is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 68(5) and have Bill 10 moved to Committee of the Whole for today.
There is a request to waive Rule 68(5) so the Standing Committee report on Bill 10 can be referred to Committee of the Whole for consideration.
The Standing Committee report on Bill 10 is referred to the Committee of the Whole.
Tabled Document 023 – 1(6): Motion to Replace Bad Gasoline
I wish to table a document relating to a signed resolution to have the immediate replacement of the bad gasoline take effect in the community of Repulse Bay.
Tabling Of Documents.
Tabled Document 024 – 1(6): Package Supporting Bill 1, Education Act
Hon. Peter Kilabuk: Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following package for the members’ information in support of Bill 1.
It contains the following documents:
A review of steps in the Education Act consultation process;
A copy of the Education Act updates;
A copy of the Education Act overview;
Clarifications on issues raised in the House regarding Bill 1, the Education Act.
If not, we’ll move on to Item 14.
Motion 005 – 1(6): Strengthening Support for Our Students
Mr. Arvaluk: Qujannamiik, Uqaqti.
WHEREAS the four principles of the Bathurst Mandate are Healthy Communities, Simplicity and Unity, Self-Reliance and Continuing Learning;
AND WHEREAS a strong and supportive education system plays a fundamental part in preparing Nunavummiut to meet the challenges ahead and achieving the vision of the Bathurst Mandate;
AND WHEREAS the government has acknowledged on many occasions that Nunavut continues to face crippling shortages of Inuktitut-speaking certified professionals in the nursing and teaching professions;
AND WHEREAS supporting and encouraging Nunavummiut to take on the roles and responsibilities of such professions is of great importance to this House;
AND WHEREAS the Government’s praiseworthy commitment to the success of the students in the Akitsiraq Law School Program demonstrates that it recognizes the need to ensure that students receive sufficient support;
AND WHERAS it has been acknowledged on many occasions that students in Nunavut very often face the burden of balancing full-time studies while feeding, housing and clothing their families;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Honourable Member for Quttiktuq, that the Government of Nunavut provide increased and adequate financial support to Nunavummiut who are enrolled in programs to become nursing and teaching professionals, and that this support be linked to future years of service in Nunavut communities.
AND FURTHER, I MOVE that each and every student be provided with sufficient resources with which to meet the cost of living; that each and every student be adequately housed; and that the special needs of single parents be met;
AND FURTHER, I MOVE that this House encourages the Government to bring forward supplementary appropriations during the fall of 2002 Pangnirtung Sitting of the Legislative Assembly to achieve the goals of this motion.
I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to the motion that I have just brought before this House.
Mr. Speaker, from time to time an issue arises in this House where we as members feel the need to speak with one voice and with one objective.
Since April 1999, members have risen in this House on many occasions to express their concerns over the lack of qualified northern professionals in our communities.
Yes, we are aware that the nursing shortage is a reality across Canada.
In Nunavut it is no different.
The lack of nurses puts additional pressures not only on those professionals who are here but also on the community members that need their services.
Teachers face classes of 25 and sometimes 30 students and very often do not have trained personnel to assist them in providing the education that is desperately needed by our youth.
Teachers from the south face difficulties when they come north to teach and they encounter cultural differences to which they cannot always adapt.
Mr. Speaker, all too often, these professionals become overworked, burned out and disillusioned.
All too often, the fact that the north is not their homeland is a factor in their decision to leave.
Most of us have recognized that one critical key to retaining professionals such as health workers and teachers in Nunavut communities is to train Nunavummiut themselves to fill these positions.
The Department of Health and Social Services currently provides for the Nursing Program and other health and social service career-oriented programs through Nunavut Arctic College.
The Nunavut Teacher Education Program is also run through Nunavut Arctic College.
As we heard during our Committee of the Whole budget debate, the funding that we approved for the Department of Education and Health and Social Services covers the costs of delivering these programs.
The students themselves survive on the barest minimum that is available through Student Financial Assistance, loans and otherwise.
I was pleased to hear during the budget debate that this year the Minister of Health and Social Services was able to provide a small bursary to our Nursing students and that he is continuing to seek out sponsorship opportunities.
But despite his best efforts, this is not enough to enable our students, our future professionals, to have a measure of security while they work towards some very demanding academic goals.
Again, during our budget debate we will be asked to approve funds that will provide substantial financial support to the Akitsiraq Law School Program, another important initiative that will play a crucial role in Nunavut’s future.
Mr. Speaker, I feel strongly that Nunavut students going into the health profession and Nunavut students going into the teaching profession should be on a par with Nunavut students going into the legal profession.
I know that I am not alone in my vision of a future Nunavut where Nunavummiut fill the roles of nurses, teachers and lawyers.
But, Mr. Speaker, it is up to us as members of this House, to join together in making this happen.
I ask all members to join with me in support of this motion.
Before we proceed, I just want to remind the members that they have up to 20 minutes to respond to the motion.
Every member has the right to respond and the mover of the motion has the right to last reply.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker and good morning.
Mr. Speaker, as the seconder of the motion before the House, I’m very pleased to have the opportunity to speak in support of it.
Mr. Speaker, I have spoken in this House on many occasions on the issues addressed in the motion.
I am glad that we have an opportunity today to make clear where we as Members of the Legislative Assembly stand on the issue of support for our students.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine that any member would disagree with the need to improve the numbers of Inuktitut-speaking nurses and teachers in our communities.
Along with such other care-givers as social workers and addictions counsellors, nurses and teachers play a vital part in building healthy communities.
(interpretation ends) It has always seemed obvious to me that the challenges faced by students in programs like NTEP are considerable.
We cannot expect a high rate of success when our students constantly face the struggle of caring for their families and trying to make ends meet while attempting to pass rigorous courses and exams.
Mr. Speaker, many people including myself were delighted when the Akitsiraq Law school program was announced.
We need Inuit lawyers who will stand up for the people and act as a voice for the voiceless.
During the budget session we have seen very clearly that the government is committed to make this program a success.
Over 677 thousand dollars is being provided by the Department of Justice and Human Resources alone to the program.
I believe that this money is well invested.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, we need a similar commitment to our future nurses and teachers.
We need to show Nunavummiut that these are professions that we truly value and that we really need in the communities in Nunavut.
(interpretation ends) And in return for generous assistance, we need our future professionals to make a commitment to serving in our communities where the needs are great and the challenges formidable.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to second this motion and I ask all members to join with me in support of it.
Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to have the opportunity today to speak in support of this motion.
Health issues are amongst the most common issues raised in this House.
Education issues are no less common.
We have all raised them at one time or another.
We cannot underestimate the important roles that our health care professionals and our teacher professionals play in the lives of all Nunavummiut.
Mr. Speaker, now is that time to invest in our future.
Now is the time to support those individuals who are working towards their qualifications and degrees in each field.
Many of my colleagues have said it already, the key to the successful future of Nunavut is for Nunavummiut to learn the skills to look after each other and Education is one of the most important steps towards self-reliance.
Mr. Speaker, we have heard from many sources that the health issue in Nunavut is close to critical.
We have heard criticisms of the results of our education system.
The situation often seems overwhelming.
We can change that situation.
We can change it by filling our dire staff shortages with trained and qualified Nunavummiut.
Unfortunately the lack of funding, inadequate housing and demands of a family, put great strains on our potential professionals.
Those individuals working towards these careers need a reasonable level of support.
There should be no obstacles in their success.
We can invest in our future by investing in their education.
Mr. Speaker, I’m in support of providing dedicated resources to those Nunavummiut who are working towards future careers in our communities.
I’m in support of the motion.
Mr. Speaker, I’m very pleased to hear this motion come forward.
As all members know and have stated, these are issues that were raised by I’m sure everyone in this House over the last three years.
I think that Mr. McLean put a great outlook on this, as an investment.
I think that a sound investment and the strategic investment like this will yield us savings in the long run.
The one thing that he missed out in his comments was the housing but there’s also the fact of the turnover rate.
Mr. Speaker, if we have Nunavummiut taking those jobs in Nunavut and they’re professionals, we won’t have the turnover rate that we’ve experienced that’s costing roughly close to 3 million dollars in the last year.
So I think if we can train and educate dedicated professionals from our communities, here in Nunavut, that it will be a big cost savings, not only financially but also in the delivery of those programs and services that we will have in the future.
I’m fully in support of this motion.
All those opposed? The motion is carried.
I believe we’re back to motions, for my clarification.
I missed that, could we go back to 16, for motions.
Speaker: Mr. McLean, proceed.
Motion 006 – 1(6): Gjoa Haven Gasoline Study
You’re in good spirits today and I’m very gracious of that.
Whereas the Gjoa Haven gasoline study in 1999, was previously tabled on Thursday, May 9th 2002, and;
I move, seconded by the Member for Nanulik that Tabled Document 016 - 1(6) be moved into Committee of the Whole, for consideration in conjunction with the Minister’s Statement 020 - 1(6).
The motion is carried and the document is referred to the committee. Item 17.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters; Bill 2, Bill 3, Bill 4, Bill 5, Bill 6 and Bill 11, Minister’s statement’s 020-1 (6).
Also Bill 10 and Tabled Document 016 - 1(6).
According to the authority vested in me by Motion 002-1 (6), the Committee of the Whole will stay in session until it reports itself out with Mr. Iqaqrialu in the Chair.
The House will adjourn until 1 o’clock.
>>House recessed at 11.33 a.m. and resumed at 1.03 p.m.
Chairperson (Mr. Puqiqnak) (interpretation): Good afternoon colleagues.
On Friday the Minister of Justice made his opening remarks.
I would like to call the Committee of the Whole to order.
I came in this morning at 4 a.m. with some other members, so hopefully we will be able to make it through the day.
I would like to invite the minister to the witness table and he can invite his witnesses to join him.
Sergeant-At-Arms, please escort the witnesses to the table.
Welcome. Mr. Minister, please introduce your witnesses, so that we may be able to address them by name.
Bill 6 – Appropriation Act 2002-2003 – Consideration in Committee
I have on my right, a person you are familiar with, my Deputy Minister, Nora Sanders and to my left is Assistant Deputy Minster, Simon Awa.
I also have Pierre Chartrand in the gallery, who is with the Finance division in our department.
We have the following items to deal with today; Bill 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and Minister’s Statement 020 - 1(6) and Bill 10.
Mr. Chairman, this afternoon we’d like to start off with Bill 6 and to continue with the Department of Justice.
Once we’ve completed that we’ll move on to Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Land Titles Act.
Once we’ve completed Bill 10, we’d like to move on to the Department of Sustainable Development.
Does the committee agree that we deal with Bill 6?
Before we continue, I’d like to inform the members, as Chairperson during the Committee of the Whole, we’ll be following the usual procedure.
Each member will be allowed 10 minutes for general comments. Please keep within your 10 minute time frame.
After general comments are done each member will have 10 minutes to raise questions.
Once the members have raised their questions, the members will have a second chance at raising questions.
The floor is now open to general comments.
I just want to make a short comment in regards to Corrections and as to the plans that are in the future for Corrections in this department.
I just want to get a feel as to how the Department of Justice will be planning on additional correctional facilities because we only have one correctional facility as you know in Nunavut which is in Iqaluit.
The people who are incarcerated in the correctional centre, as you know experience overcrowding and in some cases, some inmates have to be sent out to other facilities outside of Nunavut because there is no other space available.
As far as the plans, if they are underway, would there be further additions to the facilities or would we be looking at an additional correctional facility for Nunavut?
If that’s the case it would help a great deal for those who are incarcerated to stay in Nunavut.
For example, for those people from the Kitikmeot that are incarcerated, it is a long distance from home and this leads to many difficulties and it becomes overwhelming because that person is lonely and the distance is too far for the relatives to come and visit.
We have to keep this in mind for those people.
As far as corrections are concerned it would also be better.
This is not a new idea because there have been questions in the past about the social problems of the youth.
For those that get into trouble they have a hard time trying to balance their lives due to all the conflicting issues they are facing.
We need to find an approach where we try to find a balance for the person who is having problems and try to help them find solutions.
We need to encourage the young people that get into trouble and help them balance their lives in terms of leading a good lifestyle.
I have often thought perhaps we can try to find that solution through going out on the land to outpost correctional camps, because this could help the young person learn more about traditional values and survival skills.
Using Kugluktuk for example, at times a lot of young people are sent to the correctional facilities and once they return home they still seem to have a lot of problems and this is a concern of the elders who wonder why they still get into trouble after they have returned home.
We feel that there isn’t a lot of healing programming and we would like to see a lot more correctional camps since this would help the young people learn traditional skills and values.
That’s just a short comment and I may make further comments later.
I have Ms. Williams on my list.
Mr. Chairman, I have a brief general comment for the Minister of Justice.
The other day in the minister’s opening comments, he spoke about Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit on more than one occasion and how they are trying to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into his department and how this would help the department in dealing with social issues in the communities. He seems to be saying that we will have to be lifestyle counsellors.
He also spoke about a position that deals with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit so that policies can be developed.
In the department there are a lot of materials that have to be translated but prior to Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit being a foundation in government policies we need not just Inuit-speaking staff in the departments, but a focus on Inuit values.
And, a lot of times, the policies that are set up in each department that need to be followed in the department, when they’re not translated, as an Inuk, it doesn’t help improve the staff member’s qualifications and the mere fact that there is an Inuk within the department does not mean that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is being utilized.
As a member, we need to encourage the departments to look at how we could improve human resources and as to the employment goals we have stated, we have noticed that this department is trying hard to hire Inuit staff.
Our term will be up very soon and we have a lot of work ahead of us to make changes.
We should not have the expectation that all of these things will change in three years.
We recognize that there are some improvements that need to be made because the Department of Justice affects a lot people who are incarcerated and the people that are left behind at home in the communities.
It affects the social aspects and other issues of all the people in our communities.
Like Mr. Havioyak was saying, when an individual is taken out of the community, with the distance from their home communities, it’s hard to keep in touch and it affects everybody in the community.
We know that the department is trying to address some of these concerns, but I would like to have expectations about the future resolution of this matter as it affects a very large portion of our people.
Just last week, I received some calls from another constituency with concerns regarding this department and the court circuit and there are a lot of issues within this realm, especially within the context of funding these programs.
We need to have good communication with parents and young offenders and if anybody has any concerns regarding the programs in this department, it seems that they are open to communication, but these matters would be easily resolved if more interpreters were made available.
When I talk about interpreters, I’m not talking about the interpreters in the actual court room proceedings, we also need staff interpreters in the office so that if an individual is being interviewed, the interpreters are available not only when there is a break in the proceedings.