EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I plan to release this document later this fall, and I would encourage the input of my honourable colleagues and of the public.
In this way, we can ensure that the Nunavut Adult Learning Strategy will be reflective of the needs of Nunavummiut.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, Nunavut is evolving very quickly.
The development of a well-educated and prepared workforce is essential if Nunavummiut are to be active participants in the growing economy, and to ensure that the benefits of our new territory remain with the people who live here.
This is true for all the sectors of our economy, whether it is mining, tourism, or marine and fisheries.
Minister’s Statement 162 – 1(6): Money Flows from Approved Claims
Hon. Ed Picco: Mut’na, Mr. Speaker.
First of all I’d just like to begin by apologising, I thought Mr. Tootoo was blowing me kisses and waving at me when it was to Jaida who was sitting behind me so I apologise for that.
Mr. Speaker, I have some positive news for the people of Baker Lake but also to the people of Nunavut with regards to delivery and the Department’s financial status.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that, by using a new claim and audit methodology, the Department of Health and Social Services has submitted audited claims for the Hospital and Physicians contract for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.
Even better, these claims have now been accepted by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and the related cash will flow shortly to the Government of Nunavut.
As you know, earlier this year the Auditor General of Canada advised that the Government of Nunavut still had uncollected expenses under the Hospital and Physician Services Agreement.
This situation has been fixed, plus the audit for 2001-2002 is scheduled and ready to begin mid-July.
As a result of our fiscal management, this was a joint effort between finance and the dedicated work of individuals in the finance division and our new recruit, Mr. Victor Tootoo, who is the ADM for Finance of the Department of Health and Social Services. The Government of Nunavut will recapture cash flow from the Government of Canada in excess of $50 million by the end of this fiscal year.
That is indeed good news as you know Mr. Speaker.
This methodology that works for all parties has been defined for the future and the Government of Nunavut has the necessary information to fine tune audit and claims processes for future years.
Mr. Speaker, I want to emphasize that this would not have been possible without the dedicated work of many finance and health insurance program staff in the Department of Health and Social Services, and their colleagues in the Department of Finance, who put in many long hours to pull these claims through this difficult audit process.
Where good work has positive impact, I would say, without fear of contradiction, that these employees should be recognized and their timely efforts should be applauded.
If not we’ll move onto Members’ Statements.
Member’s Statement 528 – 1(6): Session in Baker Lake
Mr. McLean: Mut’na, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it gives me tremendous pride today on this, the first sitting day of the historic Baker Lake sitting.
Mr. Speaker, almost exactly a quarter of a century ago in June of 1980, the community of Baker Lake hosted the Legislative of Assembly of the day.
Twenty three years later, Nunavut’s assembly is back here.
Mr. Speaker, this day has been a long time coming and I want to thank my honourable colleagues for their support and enthusiasm in bringing the peoples’ House to this wonderful community.
Mr. Speaker, I want to spend some time day reflecting on the profound changes and the challenges that we have faced together over the past few decades and those that still lay ahead.
However, I would be remiss if I didn’t take first, this opportunity to pay tribute to the people of this community who have worked for so long and so hard to bring Nunavut’s dream to life.
Later today, at the appropriate time I will be recognizing each and every one of them by name.
Mr. Speaker, when the decision was made to hold our sitting here in Baker Lake, I spent some time looking back at the issues that our predecessors considered in 1980.
Mr. Speaker, I was struck by how far we have come and yet how far we have to go.
Mr. Speaker, when the Commissioner addressed the House 23 years ago, he spoke about the importance of the people of this land, feeling a strong connection with our Government.
Today, we look across the country and we can see alienation almost everywhere.
We see people feeling disconnected from their own leaders and from the very institution that they themselves have to build.
Mr. Speaker, I have always wanted to see Nunavut be different.
That is why I believe that occasions like this are truly unique and valuable.
We as politicians need to get out into the communities to see first hand what needs to be done and to hear first hand the stories, concerns, and aspirations of the people whom we are so privileged to serve.
Mr. Speaker, for the past four years I have been privileged to serve the people of Baker Lake in my own small way.
I will always be grateful to the people of this community for having placed their trust in me as their elected brace.
Mr. Speaker, Baker Lake and Nunavut as a whole have changed tremendously in the past two decades.
When we look back at the issues that our former leaders faced, we can see how much work must be done.
Mr. Speaker, when William Noah walked in the Legislative Assembly in Baker Lake in 1980 as the community’s Members of the Legislative Assembly, the world was recognizable and different.
In just under 25 years, the population of Baker Lake has grown by almost 60%.
We are a thriving community that hums with the energy of many young people among us.
We are tremendously excited and yet profoundly concerned about the future of our children.
Our performance in the area of education has a lot to do with this.
Mr. Speaker, 23 years ago, the Department of Education was trying to focus on the issue of language in schools and to develop a system of bilingual education in our classrooms. 23 years ago, Members of the Legislative Assembly were debating in Baker Lake the issues of student grants and a government discussion paper concerning on-the-job training programs.
Today, we are still trying to get the message across to the Government of Nunavut’s and I hate to say it, faceless bureaucrats about what our communities want in their children’s schools.
We are still trying to get the message across that our students need the skills to develop them complete in the 21st century.
We are still trying to develop the curriculum that truly respects and recognizes the key importance of Inuktitut in the culture of our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I think we are finally getting the message across and I want to thank every resident of Nunavut who took the time to make their voices heard when the regular Members of this Assembly asked them and not bureaucrats in Iqaluit what they want to see in the Education Act.
Mr. Speaker, when I look around Baker Lake, I can see that we have made some real strides in planning for the future.
The new Jonah Amitnaaq School will be opening very shortly.
This one will be a wonderful place in which our children will grow up and become the leaders of tomorrow.
Our new Nunavut Artic College Community Learning Centre will be up and opening very soon also.
This centre will play an important part in helping to fulfill our commitments to the lifelong learning in job skills and training.
The ground has been selected for the new territorial library building and I am glad that Baker Lake would be home to a facility that will help to impart the gift of literacy to our youth and all residents of Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, I remarked earlier about the fact that the Members of the Legislative Assembly of a generation ago were trying to move towards job training in the area of natural resources.
Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that the key to the economic development for Nunavut and the key to jobs for our Constituents is to be found in unlocking and tapping the boundless natural resources of our land.
Mr. Speaker, since April 1st, 1999, my Colleagues and I have been pushing the Government to get serious about on-the-job training in the mining sector.
We have been demanding that the Government come forward and table a mining strategy.
We have called upon the tourism strategy that puts resources into the hands of our small business people and operators.
Mr. Speaker, I am not going to rest until we see the results.
Mr. Speaker, in 1980, our Members of the Legislative Assembly were talking about division and decentralization at that time.
Nunavut was just a dream and it was not until almost 20 years later that our territory came into being.
Mr. Speaker, in four years I have never had to ask to unanimous consent to go on with a Member’s Statement, so I am asking.
We did allow some leeway here being that the session is being held in your community.
Are there any nays? There are no nays?
I’ve been deliberately ignoring because I knew you were going to cut me off.
So thank you and I’d like to thank my colleagues for giving me an extra bit of time.
Since then we have achieved a lot on the issue of decentralization in no small part, the Premier should take a lot of credit and again I want to publicly thank our Premier for his commitment to moving decentralization for, despite what I see a resistance on part of the entrenched bureaucracy.
Mr. Speaker, Baker Lake and other communities have benefited from jobs and opportunities that decentralization has brought to them.
I was interested to see, Mr. Speaker, that in 1980 the government established a new petroleum products division.
Today our government has established the new Qulliq Energy Corporation and located its headquarters in Baker Lake.
This new crown corporation will help us deal with the issues associated with energy generation and distribution in Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, the health of our communities is of critical importance.
Twenty-three years ago tuberculosis rates were higher in the north then anywhere else in Canada.
Today that’s still the case and it’s a scandal Mr. Speaker, it’s a real scandal today.
Mr. Speaker, the scourge of suicide plagues our communities.
Earlier this session, we as members of the Legislative Assembly held a frank and valuable discussion on this issue and passed a motion for the government to set up a task force on suicide prevention and community healing.
The health of our families is directly connected to the quality of their housing.
Since our election to the Legislative Assembly four years ago we have seen a number of new housing units built in Baker Lake and other communities, but it’s not nearly enough.
Housing shortages remain a crisis levels across Nunavut and I can’t stress enough the need to tackle this issue more.
Mr. Speaker, I want to close by first thanking my colleagues for their patience with me this afternoon.
I can assure them that I will extend the same courtesy to them when we sit in their communities during the upcoming years.
Mr. Speaker, I know that you will have the honour of acknowledging our young pages by name later this week and when I look back at the names of young people from this community who were pages during 1980 in Baker Lake I can see how far a number of them have come in life.
Mr. Speaker, we make decisions in this house, we must always ask ourselves what impact they will have on the next generation.
Twenty-three years from now none of us are likely to still be in office but I hope that the next time that the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut sits in Baker Lake the Members of the Legislative Assembly of that future day will look back on us and say that we have made decisions with the best interest of all people of Nunavut at heart.
On that I must concede that I have to be very humble on this issue but he did win. He did win.
So the challenge was won by our friend from Iqaluit, Ed Picco, and I’ll give him his $100 bill this afternoon when we break but he has been very humble and gracious about winning.
Are there any further Members’ statements?
Member’s Statement 529 – 1(6): Childhood Story Days and Traditional Ways
Thank you to the people of Baker Lake.
I’ll go back to my childhood days when my parents and my grandfather use to tell me some stories.
I would like to state that Mr. Speaker, my parents use to tell me stories that anything that comes from the land and not from the water were considered very important and looking back to this day, those that are not coming from the water as humans like us are very nice people.
And they also use to tell me, my grandparents, that whatever we will use in the future will be done by using the Qallunaaq traditions and that we would all have different traditions mixed together and now we have that today.
We are using the Qallunaaq way and living in houses and education in schools and offices and that all we’re striving for without much regard for our culture.
Our culture was that we had no rifles; we only used bow and arrows, harpoons in hunting traditionally without rifles.
I would like reiterate that what my grandfather and my grandmother told me is true today.
And I can also say that we have much to be proud of as Nunavummiut.
Jordin Tootoo is a good role model in the transition of our culture.
He’s in a sport that makes people happy in this world and before we had those rifles we can still survive even if we didn’t have those modern amenities.
Those of us that are hunters grew up on the land.
We had to be very stealthy in our hunting in order to catch them because we did not have rifles we used bow and arrows and that’s very commendable.
Today, seeing Jordin Tootoo who has used these skills not through hunting but through hockey and my grandfather and grandmother said what is true now today.
Let’s recognize all our youth and give them the tools they need as a government.
Member’s Statement 530 – 1(6): Fuel Stabilization Rider Increase
Mr. Speaker, I’m very happy to be here in Baker Lake this week.
As happy as Mr. McLean is when he come Iqaluit every time I know.
He loves going there.
As you and all members know I have a lot family and friends here in Baker Lake and its been great to have an opportunity over the weekend to spend some time and catch up on things this weekend, so it’s been really great.
I’d also like to thank the folks, the director and his staff at Sport Nunavut which is located here in Baker Lake for helping out with the government and being able to bring in Jordin and his family here and I know if you’re at the feast on the dance on Saturday night you see how happy the community, not only the young people, old people, everybody was to have Jordin here in the community.
I think I’d like to expend a special thanks to those individuals.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to raise some important questions about what’s been happening recently with the Nunavut Power Corporation and its proposed fuel stabilization rider.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that energy issues are complex especially here in Nunavut.
We know that our choices are difficult and our flexibility is often limited when it comes to heating and lighting our homes, our schools, and our work places.
However, it is clear that we do need to shed some light on the recent application of the Nunavut Power Corporation for approval to impose a fuel stabilization rider on the power bills that come out every month.
Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding this issue.
Before the Minister of Energy and his Cabinet Colleagues make a decision on whether to approve the fuel stabilization rider, let us hope they have all of the facts.
Mr. Speaker, we know that the Power Corporation has been seriously late to preparing its annual reports and financial statements for tabling in this Legislative Assembly.
We need to see these documents and what is in them.
We need to see how the Corporation has been performing since its creation.
Mr. Speaker, we know from the Minister of Finance’s Budget Speech that the Government is projected a $2 million dollar dividend from the Power Corporation in 2003-2004.
Can this be used to help offset cost to the consumers?
Mr. Speaker, we know that the Government of Nunavut has guaranteed tens of millions of dollars in loan guarantees for the Power Corporation to fund its capital programs.
Who is scrutinizing the Power Corporation to make sure that its own spending is responsible and reasonable?
Where is the accountability?
Mr. Speaker, we all know that the Government has talked a lot about how this new fuel purchasing delivery contract would save money.
When will we see these savings actually being passed on to the consumers?
Mr. Speaker, we know that the Minister of Energy has been quoted as arguing that…the bell is ringing and my time is up, so I would like to ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement, thank you.
Speaker: Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement, are there any nays?
It is nice to hear that little ting-ting going off in that clock in front of us to tell us how much time we have left.
I was trying to get it done.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that the Minister of Energy has been quoted as arguing that it is the Government and not the average resident to have picked up the tab for the Power Corporation’s fuel stabilization rider, but Mr. Speaker, we have seen no budget request come forward to the Legislative Assembly for these additional millions of dollars.
We have no idea if the Government will simply cut programs in other areas to pay for this; we have no idea whether Municipal Governments will able to afford this increase.
Mr. Speaker, we know that there is an obligation to inform Mayors and Members of the Legislative Assembly in the Government bills to the Utility Rate Review Council for advice on an application to impose a rate or tariff.
Where is the transparency?
Mr. Speaker, we need to make sure that we have all of the facts.
I look forward to examining this issue in great detail with the Minister during question period today and throughout the week that we are here in Baker Lake.
Member’s Statement 531 – 1(6): Education System Formula Funding
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I am sorry.
I am very glad to be here in Baker Lake.
Also, yesterday, when we went out fishing yesterday, I was not very lucky at fishing.
Whenever I go fishing I am not very lucky.
I am very glad today to be here in Baker Lake.
The people are very friendly and all the people that have come in here.
Today, I would like to raise some concerns.
While we are in Baker Lake this week, we were talking about the education system and whenever we made outside of Iqaluit, we always meet in schools.
(interpretation ends) Around the schools we can see the hard work and the creative abilities that the students and the teachers put into making it a welcome place for us.
Mr. Speaker, that is why I am so upset about what is happening in our schools when it comes to funding teaching positions, Mr. Speaker, the community of Kugluktuk has been hit very hard by news from the Department of Education that the high school might lose up to three of its high school teaching positions because of the rules set out in the Government’s outdated formula funding.
This news had made me question whether or not the government is really serious in saying that education is really a priority.
Mr. Speaker and members of this House will remember the important debate we had on the issue of suicide.
One of the issues that we identified was the need to keep our young people motivated to stay in school.
In Kugluktuk our teachers have been recognised for their hard work in developing effective programs.
These are now at risk.
Mr. Speaker, we have been hearing for over a year now that the formula funding is under review.
We have been hearing that the work is underway to ensure that all of our students have an opportunity for quality education, right through from Kindergarten to grade 12.
Mr. Speaker, the new Minister of Education is no stranger to the inside of the classroom.
I would urge her to go through the incremental process to discuss the communities concerns.
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to hear that the Minister has committed that no teachers will be laid off as the department works to review the funding formula.
However, Mr. Speaker, I also want a commitment from the Minister that when the school starts again later this year, there will be no fewer teachers in Kugluktuk.
I would like to ask my colleagues for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood. (interpretation ends) I also want a commitment from the Minister that when the schools start up again later this year that there will be no fewer teachers working in Kugluktuk than there were last year.
I want to hear that all our positions will be filled.
Mr. Speaker, our youth deserve no less.
Speaker: Members, I realise that you don’t have clocks in front of you but I will use my glass to let you know when your time is up.
And we don’t have a gavel either Mr. Premier, but I'm sure you can accommodate for us with that tomorrow.
Member’s Statement 532 – 1(6): The Need to Help Smaller Communities
I'm very pleased to rise today in Baker Lake at the start of our spring sitting.
This community has been very hospitable to us since we’ve arrived, and I would like to thank everyone for their warm welcome and I would like to thank each and every one of them.
Mr. Speaker, after we adjourned for our last spring break, I had the opportunity to travel by skidoo with my son and my husband to my constituencies in the High Arctic.
We were able to go to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay.
Since we’re sitting outside of the capital of Iqaluit this week, I think this is a good opportunity to address the concerns of the smaller communities of Nunavut.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, when I look around a decentralised community like Baker Lake, I can see that the people of the community work hard to take advantage of the opportunities that the creation of Nunavut has brought them.
However Mr. Speaker, I think that it is time for us to reflect on the creation of the territory Mr. Speaker, and what that has meant for some of the smaller communities.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, when I travelled to Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord last month, people were proud of that fact that Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was signed 10 years ago back in 1993.
(interpretation ends) People were proud of the progress we have made in such areas as the Justice system and the setting up of our Nunavut Court of Justice.
However, Mr. Speaker, we need to work harder in other areas.
We need to address the terrible shortage of Social Workers in our Communities; we need to fight harder against substance abuse and dependency.
We need to address the problems in the areas of Community Corrections.
(interpretation)Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Speaker: The member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude here statement.
I prefer the glass ting.
I can hear the glass.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I think that we can all agree that the community of Baker Lake has done well in building new infrastructure.
It is very good for this community and for the people.
Now we need to help the smaller communities with their needs.
In Arctic Bay for example, a lot of our office space, government office space is simply falling apart.
Our ability to hire teachers, nurses and social workers is threatened because of inadequate housing for them.
(FLOOR) Mr. Speaker, I don’t just want to talk negatively.
We have accomplished many things since we became MLAs.
We are all aware of them.
I would like to state that we have an opportunity to start again; we have to start helping Nunavummiut and the smaller communities.
Member’s Statement 533 – 1(6): Agreement Between the Mining Companies and the Government
I just arrived from Repulse Bay and I mentioned that I was going to Baker Lake and we talked about the skills and the accomplishments of the Inuit people and they talked about the people of Baker Lake who have accomplished quite a bit.