EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
And I would hope to be able to involve not only the Hunters and Trappers but also the municipality and the City of Iqaluit and the councils.
Just a caution Picco that this is Members’ Statements and you should be careful as to the making Ministers’ comments during Members’ Statements in reference in your support of medical use of marijuana.
Return to Oral Question.
I’d like to recognize all good people of Baker Lake that are here today in the gallery, welcome.
I have a nephew living here but he is not here.
I would like to recognize some of my constituents here but I’m not exactly, Gilbert and the people from skyward.
I would like to recognize them, they live in Rankin as well. Qaumak is here as well, Emiline. And I also saw Susan who lives here, has lived in Rankin Inlet before.
I would like to recognize her and as well, my long time friend I went to school with Joe Niego, Mayor of Baker Lake. Thank you.
I have some people to recognize. There are two in particular.
When I was a child, Vivian Joedee, who I know very well is in the Gallery and Thomas Ilaittuq, my nephew, my cousin’s son, I would like to recognize him.
First of all, I would like to recognize, always patient here during our meetings and working hard with the job, from my community, George Metuq.
I would also like to recognize, while we are here in Baker Lake, my staff, first from my Office, Pat Best, I recognize you and Shawn Maley, I would like to recognize him as well, just stepped out.
My Colleagues Constituent.
Question 554 – 1(6): Update on the Hall Beach Breakwater
Mr. Irqittuq (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to be the first one. Mr. Speaker, according to my earlier Member’s Statement, I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation regarding the study on the breakwaters in Nunavut.
I am just wondering what the status of the upcoming study for Hall Beach is at this point.
There was a commitment to look into the breakwaters in the communities.
It is still a go and for the next two years it will be an ongoing program, but I would also like to say that the Federal Government’s Coast Guard is also involved in the study.
And regarding his question, Hall Beach, I am not sure if it is on that list, but I am sorry to say that I do not have a list of exactly what the schedule is for the visits to these communities for the study.
Mr. Speaker, It is unfortunate that he does not have the information.
I am wondering if the Minister has the authority to direct his staff to ensure that Hall Beach is one of the first ones to be looked at.
I do not have the authority, but my Colleague’s breakwater or boating area has been given a few changes, and the Study will still be ongoing for a couple of years, and so I am sure that his constituents…I am going to find out to see if Hall Beach is on the list and where.
He did not respond to my question.
I asked if the Minister has the authority to say which community can be prioritized for the travelling schedule on the Study.
Just to respond to him further.
This Study, there will also be a component as to which communities needs to get their breakwater constructed first.
Through this study it will become more apparent.
The staff from my department are open to me as to who should be given a priority.
So I will inform him as time goes.
And thank the Minister for his response.
Mr. Speaker, final supplementary already.
I would like to ask the Minister does he agree with me that this very important breakwater will be one of the first priority of this Government?
I’m sorry, but can you please have him repeat his question?
Mr. Irqittuq (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I asked him if Hall Beach can be bumped up to be one of the first communities for this study?
I think that there are two meanings for his questions.
First to be constructed, or first to be visited for the study?
What I can say to my colleagues is that Hall Beach and Igloolik are on the list of communities to be visited and I will give him more information as to when it will take place.
Question 555 – 1(6): Decision Making Authority and Responsibilities for DEA's
Yesterday I made a statement in regards to the Education Authorities.
I would like to ask the Minister of Education that the DEAs, especially in my community, there is no authority or power in the DEA in my community.
My question is during the Divisional Boards, the DEAs were involved in the decision making in regards to the schools locally.
The system has changed completely around.
So, I would like to ask regarding the community District Education Authorities, will they be given more authority and responsibility?
The District Education Authorities, yes they need empowerment and they need the authority in the community because they are elected people by the community to represent the people for education and those District Education Authorities are more knowledgeable about what is required in the community by working with the school principals.
Yes, the District Education Authorities need more authority and the staff should listen to the wishes of the District Education Authorities, they should learn to respect the District Education Authorities because the staff are not elected, they are staff members.
Yes, I understand her response very clearly.
Yes, the District Education Authority, as I have stated before that the chairman of the District Education Authority and the principal of the school, they have to work with the rest of the people and those two solely cannot operate and run the school system.
So, I was wondering if, I would like to ask the Minister if they look into this.
The staff and the senior staff, yes, the District Education Authority is below the high officials and I have also directed my staff of the Department to work with the District Education Authorities and that the District Education Authorities need authorities and power.  And the staff have to represent the District Education Authority and they are to listen and respect the decisions of District Education Authority and I have already sent that directive out to my officials because the District Education Authorities will have power and authority.
As I have said before, I am talking about the District Education Authority when we attended a meeting in Kitikmeot.
Yes, they were talking about this issue, that is why I am stating this.
I would like to see a commitment where the District Education Authorities are involved in the decision making.
As Nunavut Government, the Divisional Boards of Education and Health were dissolved and the Community District Education Authorities were to be given more authority by dissolving these Regional Boards and that is what our goal is and that is what it should be.
They should be given authority just like the Hamlet Councils and Housing Authorities.
They have the authority and the District Education Authority likewise should be treated the same as those other entities as previous Minister obviously understood this.
And yes, it will be so and as the Minister for this Department, the District Education Authorities will be respected, their decisions will be respected after the Regional Boards were dissolved, the DEAs were empowered, I am not too sure if it is a fact but it seems like the staff have more authority when the authority should have remained in the District Education Authority.
This is going to be fixed and the DEAs will be respected by the staff.
Question 556 – 1(6): Subsidy for Healthy Food
Mr. Speaker, during the Member’s Statements, I made a Members’ Statement on behalf of my constituents in Taloyoak.
For example, nutritional healthy foods for children, especially the vegetables that are sold in the stores are expensive.
In Nunavut we know that Nunavut is a very vast territory.
Even though we have a large territory, the only mode of transportation is by airlines.
We cannot drive down to southern Canada to deliver, or vice versa, we have to use airlines to order or purchase our food, because we do not have a highway system.
I would like to direct my questions to the Minister responsible for Transportation in regards to the food mail program, through the Post Office.
The Post Office and the Department of Transportation, have they have worked together to make sure that these healthy foods could be subsidized?
I would like to direct that question to the Minister responsible for Transportation.
Yes, I can deal with that.
My office has been working on the Post Office Food Mail Program for perishable foods.
We have been dealing with this and also we have working with the Federal Government to ask them to give us more support in this area.
We have been working continuously on this.
I think that it has been the past two months that the representatives of the Federal Government went to Iqaluit to consult with the impacted entities and the people.
We have never been given the chance where the Food Mail Program will be located at and I know that it has an impact on the price of food, and we have asked them to keep the prices of our groceries lower.
We have dealt with that issue to date.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Premier.
During Members’ Statement I call them rabbit food, which are vegetables, I call them ukaliq food, ukalii niqingi, and you are Mr. Okalik.
Looking at this example, in Yellowknife the price for green pepper it is $3.49 and in Taloyoak, it is $9.99.
There is a large price difference here.
During your response earlier on you said that you have worked with the Federal Government for the Food Mail Program.
In order to have healthier people we need to feed the nutritional food to the younger people.
Therefore, I would like to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, how can the food mail program subsidy be more visible at the smaller community level.
We do not even see the price go down at the local level from the food mail program.
Yes, I agree with the member, yes, healthy food is still too expensive.
As I have stated before, they should be more open, they should open a location where we can order food mail groceries from.
Whenever there is a competition the prices of anything go lower.
In Kugaarjuk we are now doing a study with the assistance of the Federal Government on how we can reduce the price of groceries in Nunavut.
We will use Kugaarjuk as a model and that study will be done for up to a year through the Department of Health and Social Services.
Yes, we have been looking and reviewing this and I too want to thank my colleague for bringing this up.
And thank you, Mr. Minister, for working on this issue, but the smaller communities that are far removed from the larger centres deserve more attention from this important program.
And I do appreciate the Federal Government for providing assistance.
We would like to see other assistance having a positive impact at the smaller communities.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, in his response he has stated that the Federal Government has been working on some assistance.
Have they made a report to Nunavummiut how the price goes down, how the assistance works, perhaps the minister can do that, provide information to the public.
Speaker: Premier Okalik
Hon. Okalik (interpretation): Yes, thank you Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, yes, we will continue to work on this and we are committed to lobbying the Federal government to improve the program, and we will have more meetings on the Kugaarjuk study.
This summer we will meet with the Federal Government to review how we can resolve this situation, and at that time there will be more opportunities to discuss this matter further and later on we can still provide submissions after the meeting.
Speaker: Thank you Premier Okalik.
Question 557 – 1(6): Fur and Antler Marketing
Mr Arvaluk (Interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My question is for the Minister of Sustainable Development.
Mr. Speaker, in my member’s statement I mentioned that, well first of all I congratulate the Minister for issuing a news release on the Commercial Caribou Harvest success in Coral Harbour.
It also says that the Coral Harbour Development Corporation is making efforts to examine value added production initiatives to include fur pelt production etc.
And that, he calls it an initiative.
These initiatives will allow them to better utilize animals that are harvested.
What is the role of the Department of Sustainable Development in efforts of the Coral Harbour Development Corporation to produce fur pelt, caribou leather production, sale of antler and cartilages to the world market.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk: Good question. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The last time I was in Rankin Inlet I met with a coordinator for Coral Harbour Development Corporation and we discussed the matter on how we can give them more assistance when we talked about this initiative.
We said that we can try and give them support for the hide and for the antlers or for the cartilages for promote the selling of the by-products of the caribou.
We have stated that we can give them more support through computers, systems and also our coordinator in Keewatin, we have given him direction to be more sensitive on how to promote the marketing of caribou like the selling of by-products such as the fur or the hide or the antlers.
We are working with the Kivalliq Development Corporation and also we will discussing this matter with the coordinator and we would like to see some form of assistance.
Our Premier had stated that we will be looking at how we can support the non-decentralized community on economic opportunities and we will try and provide more support to the non-decentralized communities and consider them for these kinds of projects.
I cannot hear him, Mr. Speaker, we cannot hear, I apologize, Mr. Speaker.
I am not used to pressing my own button.
I would like to thank my nephew for pressing my microphone on.
We would like to thank the Minister for working on this and showing interested, but we know that in Coral Harbour, they have to show their own initiative when they want to develop something for economic opportunities.
I know that we have tried the marketing of arctic char, especially in Chesterfield Inlet, but it has not been able to go through, but in regards to caribou, caribou by-product marketing plan, perhaps he can provide funding to the Hamlet Council for one position, for one PY. Will they be able to provide funds for the selling of caribou by-products internationally so that they can make plans for them?
Speaker: Minister Akesuk
Regarding with the economic situation in Coral Harbour, I am sure the people in Asia are interested in buying the antlers and the hides.
And I have spoken to the CEO of Salliq Development Corporation and he is willing to work harder to market these items, the antlers and hides to the world.
I am sorry I cannot answer you right away, but I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Marketing Plans, developing Business Plans, Economic Development Plans, and also Infrastructure Plans are complicated and time consuming.
We do not have the already available employees with our CEDOs, or Hamlets, this will have to be contracted out.
Can the Minister assure me that he will, by recognizing, provide a very small investment of $100 thousand dollars has a great big potential for economic return for the residents of Coral Harbour.
Would he commit to at least working with the Coral Harbour Development Council, or the Hamlet that he will assist in the initial funding of PYs to look into all these potentials?
And with the Development Corporation in Coral Harbour could be very successful as they have already done something like this.
If we can talk to the Salliit Development Corporation and then we can proceed and I will look into this more with the Salliit Development Corporation.
Question 558 – 1(6): Community Based Training Opportunity
I wanted to speak to Minister Thompson.
Perhaps if I can speak in English it will probably be a lot simpler. (interpretation ends) On my statement earlier I mentioned that the Department is developing a Nunavut Adult Training Strategy.
I also mentioned the Community-based training as a concern that was raised by my community to make sure that we have community-based training for people that wants to work in this sector.
I am not saying that the original training centres are not doing what they have to do to get the constituents working in the mining sector.
My question is can the Minister assure my constituents to have this community-based training program looked at and put in place?
We can certainly look at the Member’s community in terms of mining courses.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I had said earlier there are many people that are looking for jobs in my community in the mining sector.
There are many people that want to work in the mining sector when they do not have the training; they have a hard time getting into the mining sector.
Maybe if we had training programs for the mining sector, maybe through DIAVIK, Government of Nunavut, and the Department of Education, may perhaps they can get together and work together in providing training programs for the DIAVIK Mines.
That is something I have said time and time again, if they can work together, because I think once these people have been trained in the mining sector, the mining sector will be able to assist them with getting jobs in mining.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: Mr. Speaker, I just made the announcement for adult learning strategy for Nunavut, which will identify and address adult training.
One of our priorities is the mining sector and by the end of this fiscal year, we should have five courses delivered that are related to the mining sector and these include the introduction to mine welding, mineral exploration, construction and cooking.
We’re also working with Department of Sustainable Development and Arctic Colleges to make sure that these courses are delivered and I will make sure that Kitikmeot is involved in these courses as well.
I’m having problems with my mic.
It’s very pleased to hear that you are providing training programs so that these people can be given job opportunities for the mining sector.
Would you commit yourself to the Kitikmeot Region, that you will provide training programs in the mining sector?
Hon. Manitok Thompson: Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure yet where the training is going to take place but we will probably try training at various communities and make sure that all the regions are involved that are interested in that.
Question 559 – 1(6): Raven Population
This is going to be a very brief question and I’m going to summarize it.
As I mentioned earlier, is there a law that prevents the killing of ravens if their population becomes too high.
I know that there have been concerns about ravens in other communities that we have visited.
Mr. Speaker, because they are scavengers, they eat anything.
There is a federal by-law that we have to abide with and there’s a concern about this species, with the population increasing too much, especially with the (atakutaqtiit) scavengers.
I will look into the scavenger issue and I will let the member from Uqqummiut know and I will talk to him again.
Yes, I understand him very well.
I thought I was going to be very brief however, it’s not a simple matter.
Would it be possible or impossible for us to within Nunavut, because they are scavenging our caches, our foods, could the Minister to look into this if the communities can do something about the species that are overpopulating in our community.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I can look into it.
Because we have to abide with the Federal Government bylaws I will look into how we can deal with the scavengers issue.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the scavengers, whatever they have to scavenge is not very abundant.
With the ravens we have because they are very bothersome now.
I forgot one of my questions.
Have you not looked at the Federal Government laws in regards to our ravens?
Like I said earlier, I will look into this, I will look into the different kinds of species, what laws we have to abide with.
I myself and I am sure, my staff will look into it with these different laws from the Federal Government.
I will look into it myself and I will direct my staff to look into it to see how we can address this issue.
I am sure that the different kinds of species will be answered in one answer right away.
Perhaps if he gets the answers as to how or what the law says before our next Session or perhaps this summer, I am sure that you can get a response from the Federal Government as to what we can do about the scavengers.
Yes, we will work on this properly and get the proper answers from the laws.
Question 560 – 1(6): Standardized Testing – Improvements to the Education System
I say hello to my grandchild in Pond Inlet if he is watching.
On June 2, in her Ministers’ Statement, she announced standardized assessment testing for Nunavut.
As she stated, there are very different levels for different grades.
I am wondering if she can elaborate on as to what improvements need to be made in the education system.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: (interpreted) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I had stated earlier that the education level, within Nunavut, are too varied and I cannot say that the grade three levels are all standard within Nunavut because it is not true whether they be grade nine, there are different levels for each community because there is no direction in those areas.
Although they have curriculum for all of Nunavut, Mr. Speaker, for instance if they have an Inuktitut class or an English class there are some communities that have higher levels and some that have lower levels and so because of that I had given the direction to have it looked into.
The students in the classrooms, for instance in Baker Lake, in Rankin Inlet, probably have different levels regardless if they are in the same grade, so that is my understanding, if I’m correct?
She mentioned testing programs.
How can the standardized testing be used to ensure that we have similar levels across Nunavut?
What is she going to do to ensure the levels are levelled out for all grade levels in the classrooms for our students within Nunavut?
A grade three student has to have learned a certain level of education according to the curriculum and a grade six student also have to have that level according to the curriculum, perhaps what is happening is that they get passed on to grade seven even if they did not have that grade six level.
From grade three to grade six to grade nine, once we know what the different levels are and what levels we expect them to be at we will compare all the grade three levels in Nunavut and find out where improvements need to be made. Only then will we have an idea through this standardized testing that grade six have that certain level, and for grade nine as well.
If standardized testing is done at three grade levels at three, six, and nine, once the standardized testing is complete then we will know what education levels our Nunavummiut students have.
Because at this point it is safe to say that they are all too different because these grade three students and grade six students do not even have that level of grade six and they are passed on the next grade.
We will look at, we have no results of standardized testing whatsoever, so Mr. Speaker, we know that the teachers give them tests, math tests, and spelling tests, and that is different from what I am talking about.
I’m talking about standardized testing in English and what are the barriers faced, whether they’re actually at a grade six level when they’re in grade six or whether they are being passed to other grades without having the level they need to be at.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Mr. Speaker, with the minister’s comments regarding the testing and passing grades without the level.
Those students that went to Churchill, residential schools, are some of the most well known and well educated people of Nunavut.
We hear many times that the students that have grade 12 don’t have the level needed.
Is that perhaps because we don’t know the exact levels due to the lack of standardized testing?
Is that why we are short changing our students?
Is that where the problem comes from because there is no standardized testing in place?