EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
They are emergency measures people and they will be “texted” or the messages will go directly to their Blackberries, to the three individuals in the City of Iqaluit at the emergency measures department.
The plan behind this, Mr. Speaker, is they will then contact the appropriate search and rescue party and let them know exactly where the distress call or “I’m okay” call is coming from and forward it that way, Mr. Speaker.
These devices are going to send messages to three predetermined Blackberry devices. Will the people who own these Blackberries be required to monitor their Blackberries 24 hours day, seven days a week?
I thank my hon. colleague for the question.
Yes, there will be somebody always assigned to at least one, or two, or all of the Blackberries at any given time. There will always be a Blackberry on to answer the distress call. Hopefully there will be none, but should they happen, yes, there will be somebody there at the other end of the Blackberry.
Question 262 – 3(2): NTEP Graduates (Ningark)
I would like to thank the Minister of Education and I will pose my question to him.
He gave me correspondence stating that there will be 49 new teachers required under the new Education Act and he replied to my oral question under section 123 of the new Education Act.
During the session, we usually ask how many employees our government has and they do report on vacant positions.
The main reasons why these vacant positions cannot be filled is because of a lack of housing.
With these new 49 teachers, can you reassure me that there are accommodations set aside for these new teachers?
Perhaps the Minister of Education can work closely with the Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
When the new positions come up, accommodations and staff housing are also considered in the budget. We have taken into account all of these aspects.
However, I can tell my colleague, Mr. Speaker, that the Department of Education is now working much harder to train local teachers so that they won’t have to bring in outside teachers.
There are 10 NTEP students in training.
The lack of staff housing is usually a problem, but we are convinced that this problem will be alleviated once we start hiring locally.
Be that as it may, the perception is that these are new positions. In implementing the new legislation, we would have many positions that would need to be filled.
When these challenges are being resolved, including the funding required for these positions, they include any infrastructure requirements during the planning phases for the capital estimates, Mr. Speaker.
These types of responses are well received and I thank the minister for his substantive response.
Since the creation of the territory and territorial government in 1999, a lot of the changes espoused by the people have taken many years to be implemented.
It has now been a decade since the creation of Canada’s newest territory and we still have many challenges yet to resolve.
I concur with the approaches taken, such as the teacher education program. I am quite thankful that we have the opportunity in Kugaaruk to get local teachers.
As a matter of fact, this June, we will realize our first graduates under that program and many of them already have their own housing. Some are in rental units, while others own their homes. I would like some advance notice in relation to upcoming graduates of the teacher training program.
Will the newly hired teachers be housed in staff housing?
Some of the teachers are hired from outside of our region and territory.
As with so many other communities in Nunavut, we are suffering from a housing shortage. When housing is not available for these positions, it becomes almost impossible to hire staff for these positions.
With respect to my colleague’s prior question pertaining to the shortage of housing units for teachers in his community of Kugaaruk, this is a problem we recognize.
Additionally, my ministerial colleague, who is responsible for Nunavut Housing Corporation, and myself have started collaborating on this challenge facing us with respect to staff housing shortage. We have made it a priority to try and ensure that we have adequate housing available.
However, with respect to the NTEP students who are partaking in this program, the underlying purpose for training local residents is to have them work as teachers in their home communities so that we can ease the demands on staff housing when we have to import teachers. Our ultimate goal is to limit the number of imported teachers and to try and meet our teaching positions from the locally trained teachers.
This continues to be an ongoing project and this program will continue as part of our implementation of the Education Act.
The requirements are that we need to have fully bilingual graduates from our schools and we will also need to have fully bilingual teachers in order to meet this challenge.
This is part of our planning process, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Ningark (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the minister for his response.
My second supplementary question is: can the minister inform me if he is aware of how many NTEP students are taking the program? That’s my question.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I would ask that the member elaborate further on the specifics of his question. Did he mean how many communities have this program or whether he is asking about the overall number of NTEP students?
If the member could clarify that as I would like to understand his question, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Ningark, the minister would like you to clarify your question.
Perhaps to add more details to this question, sometimes students are billeted or are housed among their relatives while they are taking the program. This is obviously a symptom of our housing shortage.
I was referring to upcoming graduates of the teacher education program. Once these students have graduated and have received their teaching certificates, I wanted to know how many graduates are expected out of this program.
Perhaps as a personal reminder, if I had submitted a written question, it would have been easier to get an answer.
My question to the minister is: how many of the students in this program are expected to graduate and get their teaching certification?
I know for a fact that we have 10 communities that are offering the NTEP program, but for the life of me, I cannot remember exactly how many students.
This information is not in front of me, so I will have to take his question as notice and respond once I have the pertinent information with respect to the number of students taking the NTEP program in these 10 communities.
Your question has been taken as notice. (interpretation ends) Oral Questions.
Question 263 – 3(2): Opening of New Arctic Bay Airport (Elliott)
My question is directed to the Minister of Economic Development and Transportation, the Hon. Peter Taptuna.
Many of my constituents in Arctic Bay are deeply concerned about how long it’s taking for the Arctic Bay Airport to actually open up. I was wondering if the minister could tell us today when it will open up and why it’s taking so long to open up.
I thank the hon. member for his question.
As I have said half a dozen times, the airport is due to open in September of 2010 and I think I made that pretty clear on several occasions.
On why it’s taking that long, I’ll answer his second question, it’s because of unforeseen engineering problems and other various unidentified things that happened throughout the construction of the project.
It is permafrost problems and other various things that weren’t foreseen.
In any major project, there are always unforeseen things that man can’t control naturally. There are things in nature that we can’t control.
And the permafrost one was the most time-delaying factor for the project.
So September is the scheduled date of opening the airport.
Mr. Elliott: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank you for that answer.
I guess I find that I have to keep asking because originally, the airport was supposed to be opened over a year ago.
I guess that, like my colleague from Pangnirtung, the building is sitting there and someone is paying for the fuel, someone is paying for the hydro, and those are costs that are incurred by our government, which I’m assuming, because I know that the hamlet is not incurring them.
Over a year ago, our airport was supposed to open. We were told that it was going to be spring of 2010, we were told that it was supposed to be the summer of 2010, and now we’re being told that it’s September of 2010.
So I’m sorry if I keep asking the question over and over again, but people in my community of Arctic Bay are getting confused as to when the government is actually going to open this facility up.
So I need to keep asking so my community knows, so we can get an answer, and so it can actually be opened.
My next question, Mr. Speaker, is the original cost for the Arctic Bay Airport was $17 million. How much or what dollar value is it costing the government for the construction of this airport?
I’ll tell the hon. member again, as I have told him in the past, the cost of the project. The total cost is $25.5 million. Again, it’s due to some unforeseen issues that came up during the construction period.
Some of these uncontrolled costs and the delay in opening are not the fault of the government; there are other factors that are involved.
Nav Canada has got to put their equipment in there and they do things at their own pace. It’s not like we’re just sitting there doing nothing. We have to wait for these other organizations, other entities, other regulators to come in there and install their equipment, and that’s part of the delay.
If the hon. member is going to be asking about the costs of maintaining it while it’s still officially closed, I can get that information for him.
I would love to have that information, but it wasn’t another one of my questions.
My next question, Mr. Speaker, is: is the dollar value of $25.5 million specifically for the airstrip or does that include the terminal building as well?
I believe that includes the air terminal building and that’s one of the cost overruns. It was the air terminal building that went over budget by $600,000. Doing business up north here, you have very little choice in contractors.
You get who is available to get the project done and that’s one of the problems we have up north here.
Again, if he wants an accurate estimate on the total cost of the airport terminal building, I can get that for the hon. minister too... hon. member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe some day but not today. Sure, any information that you could give that I could pass on to my constituents would be greatly appreciated and I’m thankful for that commitment from the minister.
If I could make a request for one more commitment from the minister, that would be again… unfortunately, we only have one airline in Arctic Bay that services the community, it’s actually in Nanisivik, and that’s First Air.
Would he be willing to contact First Air?
I know I’ve had concerns and the carrier is wondering when exactly, and again why I keep asking the question, the terminal will open up so that they could arrange for storage facilities in the community. I imagine that they would have to order it in March and have it brought up on the barge.
If he could commit to speaking with First Air about the exact date that the terminal will open so that they could be ready for servicing the community.
I can’t say I could commit to that. The business runs on its own and they have their own agenda.
Once the facilities are functional and operational with all of the safety equipment in there, including the safety manual that the hamlet is going to handle, the airline can actually contact anybody that they want to and determine how they’re going to schedule their own part of that business. I can’t commit to the member at this time on that.
Question 264 – 3(2): Challenges Facing Municipalities (Ningeongan)
Just prior to directing my question, I wish to note that today is my daughter’s birthday. My daughter, Faith Ipiksaut Ningeongan, is celebrating her birthday, so best wishes on your birthday.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Community and Government Services, the Hon. Lorne Kusugak.
Both the minister and I are former mayors and I believe that both of us recognize the importance of municipalities having strong and stable workforces.
Last year, the business plan for the Department of CGS stated and I quote, “Turnover in Hamlet senior management was very high during the fiscal year, which typically has an impact on financial results.
Improving the capacity of long term staff retention and increasing the stability of senior staff will be key to reversing adverse trends.”
As the minister is likely aware, the communities of Coral Harbour and Chesterfield Inlet currently do not have SAOs.
It’s my understanding that we are not alone in suffering high turnover.
Has the minister’s department been able to identify the factors that contribute to high turnover in municipalities and if so, how is it addressing them?
Hon. Lorne Kusugak (interpretation): I would like to thank the Member for Nanulik for asking the question.
I also wish his daughter a happy birthday and a very good day.
The SAOs at the hamlet offices are the foundation for the smooth operation of community governments.
I think we’re all aware that when there are no SAOs, everything suddenly becomes difficult.
We all know that when we don’t have local people working and when a new SAO position is opened up, it is preferable to hire locally since there would be no moving expenses involved.
What we are currently doing is having municipal training organized with the assistance of the Municipal Training Organization for potential SAOs in our communities so that hamlet councils operate more efficiently, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Your first supplementary, Mr. Ningeongan.
Mr. Ningeongan (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) We always talk about preparing our own people to take on responsibilities and such.
Strong financial management skills are absolutely essential for senior municipal employees to be successful.
Can the minister indicate if providing training in this area will be a focus of the MTO in the coming year?
The training program that we make available through the Municipal Training Organization is an ongoing one.
I can’t say that there’s going to be financial management training available this year because I don’t have the information as to when and what training programs are available through the MTO, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister of Finance told us this week that the GN has over 900 vacant jobs.
It can be very hard for smaller municipalities to compete with the GN for skilled employees.
Does the department provide adequate funding to municipalities so that they can attract qualified applicants?
I also thank the member for asking that very good question.
When municipalities are looking for SAOs and other skilled employees, we work very closely with them right from the beginning of the process, from screening to the interviewing of potential employees.
We cooperatively determine the qualified candidates and we assist them in looking for a qualified senior administrative officer.
As he just referenced, the community of Chesterfield Inlet is advertising for an SAO and the process is almost complete.
During the search for an SAO in Coral Harbour, our officials worked with the hamlet council and generally the executive committee to prepare an advertisement for the position as well as when they would screen candidates. So we do our utmost to assist these communities in attracting the best candidates possible, Mr. Speaker.
Your final supplementary… that’s it?
Thank you. (interpretation ends) Oral Questions.
Question 265 – 3(2): Nomination for Innovative Human Resource Practices (Okalik)
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) I would like to turn to the Minister of the Qulliq Energy Corporation.
In his Minister’s Statement today, he was applauding the nomination of an individual in the Power Corporation.
In looking at the award and the criteria, I noticed that the eligibility criterion to be awarded for this prize is that the person has to be physically located in Manitoba. I don’t know how this will be awarded to the nominee, so that’s my question to the minister. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As my learned colleague pointed out earlier today the rules, privileges, and rights that we have here in the House, Mr. Speaker, it’s my understanding that, according to the rules and privileges that I have as a minister, I can choose to either answer the question, not answer the question, or take the question as notice.
Given those rights and privileges that I have, I’ll take that question as notice.
Mr. Okalik, your question has been taken as notice.
I would like to remind members that this is not a playground. This is a serious place of business to conduct our business for the good people of Nunavut.
Question 266 – 3(2): Implementation of New Language Law (Elliott)
My question was for the Minister of Languages, but he can’t talk very well when he’s not in the House. Is there anyone else who has a question? I do have more.
I guess I’ll change directions here.
An Hon. Member: He’s coming in.
Mr. Elliott: Is he coming?
Speaker: Thank you…
My question is directed to the Minister of Languages, the Hon. Louis Tapardjuk.
In his Minister’s Statement today on the language summit and implementation plan, I just have some serious concerns again with the speed at which the government moving on different things.
The Language Act and the Inuit Protection Act are very important for the preservation of the Inuktitut language in our territory, so it would be nice to have quick and swift action.
On Friday, June 12, I had asked questions to the minister about when the implementation process would begin and he had mentioned that in March of 2010, he would be tabling that. As well, on November 30, I asked questions because he had mentioned that there was going to be the language summit happening in February.
Each time he said that, I raised concerns saying, “Is it too close to the end of February?” And, “Would he be able to meet the March deadline?” He assured us that he would meet the March deadline.
Now we’re being told from his member’s statement that it will be the fall sitting, which is seven months past that. Will that be ready when we sit in the fall?
Minister of Languages, Hon. Louis Tapardjuk.
It will be available for tabling in the House at our fall session.
Could the minister explain what unforeseen events have happened to make it be delayed for seven months?
I believe we started our consultation tours of the regions and entities in April and May of last year.
We were committed to holding a language summit with all Nunavummiut and others after the regional meetings in February of 2010 and everything went according to plan.
However, we had a slight problem because it is a major undertaking. We will have to identify what plans we will have under the Inuit Language Protection Act and how the official languages of Inuktitut, English, and French are to be implemented by the courts, the government, and others.
Those are difficult tasks to carry out, but we are committed to complete them.
One of the challenges is identifying in the plans how their enforcement will be monitored.
Departments within the government were asked for feedback on what types of problems or challenges they might encounter once the language law is implemented. Once this Act comes into force, implementation plans will have to be completed.
This is a major task and it has caused delays because we have to wait for the implementation plans of the various government departments.
We have now targeted the fall as our deadline for announcing the final results of our planning.
We have an obligation to present detailed plans and it will take some time to complete plans for each department.
That’s actually the answer I was hoping to get.
We are reviewing the O&M budget right now. In every business plan, we are seeing reviews, studies, strategies, and things that are supposed to be implemented.
If I was working in a government department and my business plan says they are going to work towards implementing and following what it says in the Language Act and it is not ready for implementation, you would have to change your plans.
What direction is the minister giving to all other departments in terms of handling this? Are you saying everything is on hold until the next sitting?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Things are going to go ahead as planned. In the House, Members of the Legislative Assembly will also have to tell us how they want to do the implementation process with the Language Act.
The government itself will have to identify what plans they have. Nothing has been put on hold, planning is proceeding, and we will continue to have our staff carry out their work.
I would like to clarify this aspect. The terminology committee called the Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit has been established and it will soon have to become operational in order to ensure that we use this committee fully.
Our expectations are that this process will have been finalized and completed before our fall session of this year. We expect it to be operational at that time, Mr. Speaker.
Like Mr. Okalik said the other day, I’m in lifelong learning, so I’m continuing to learn every day. I think as soon as I started in this job, I have been learning ever since.
My next question is: in terms of the regulations, when will those be finalized?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): At this time, we have employees who will be doing the preparatory work for the two pieces of legislation related to language.
The regulations will be part of the planning process.
I cannot state to the member when the exact date of the completion of the regulations will be, but it has been included in our planning documentation.
We have started working on the implementation plan for the two pieces of language legislation.
Our expectation is that they will be ready for submission at our fall session and the information will be included in the plan with respect to the regulations.
We will then start ongoing consultations with NTI and other stakeholders until the regulations have been completed.
I expect, Mr. Speaker, that the documents will be ready for distribution at the fall session, Mr. Speaker.
Question 267 – 3(2): Funding for Upinnginiq in Pangnirtung (Komoartok)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Education, (interpretation ends) Hon. Louis Tapardjuk.
(interpretation) In Committee of the Whole, I alluded to this matter, but I would like to formally ask the question in the House. Funding is provided for students from kindergarten to grade 12 in my community to go out on the land for three weeks and go home for the weekends.
This program has been running for 19 years and has been very successful. We’re very proud of the fact that students are able to go out on the land. The smaller ones just go for a day trip, but the older ones overnight there.
We appreciate the many years of support from the Kakivak Association.
The DEAs and the teachers do fundraising to pay and support the land skills program.
When I was in Pangnirtung, it would cost $75,000 to $90,000 to purchase groceries, fuel, and to pay for cooks, guides, and elders for the three-week trip.
To date, the Department of Education has not provided any funding, except by way of application.
I would like to ask the minister if he could commit to setting aside some funds to be used by the DEAs and/or set aside some funding to be used for such programs to be done all across Nunavut.
Yes, it’s true that they are doing very good work in Pangnirtung, which is very beneficial, and it is true that the funding for this line item will probably not go ahead.
However, if the main estimates for the Department of Education are approved, there is a program for elders’ training and teaching culture.
The DEAs have the discretion as to how they will be using it.