EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask all members to join to me in extending our best wishes and support to all the members of the restorative justice committees and commend them for their good work.
Member’s Statement 046 – 2(3): Soccer Trials in Iqaluit (Picco)
Over the past weekend, the regional soccer trials were held here in Iqaluit.
The tournament was well attended throughout the weekend. Teams from Dorset to Hall Beach, Arctic Bay, Igloolik, Pond Inlet, and Iqaluit participated.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the coaches, the officials, and all the volunteers who helped make this weekend an all around success.
I also would like to send special thanks to the staff of Inuksuk High School, who billeted many of the students at the school and volunteered their time to help organize the event.
I would also like to thank Mr. Barnabas for helping me present the medals to the participants at the end of the event.
Mr. Speaker, the Territorials are being held here in Iqaluit during the week of December 2, and we look forward to hosting the teams again here in Iqaluit.
Back to Orders of the Day. Item 4.
I would like to acknowledge a couple of individuals from Hall Beach; pages, their chaperone, and also my Constituency Assistant Jake Iqitugiak, and also on that side, a young page, a new page, Lena Kuppak, and also Sharon Pialaaq.
So I would like you to acknowledge these two individuals for being the pages for this week from my constituency.
Question 042 – 2(3): Concern on HTLV-1 (Tootoo)
Mr. Speaker, over the last few months here in Nunavut, there has been some concern over a disease that has been discovered. I would like to take this opportunity to, first off, thank the minister for, as she had indicated last week, meeting with the regular members and her Cabinet colleagues to brief us on this new disease. Just after that and around the same time, they went public with that information.
My question to the minister, I know since that announcement was made, there has been a lot of concern over the knowledge of this disease and I’m just wondering if you could explain, for the record, when the department became aware of it and why they decided to wait, if they did indeed wait, to let the public know about it?
The department became aware of it some time in June, that HTLV-1 existed in Nunavut.
One of the first things that we did, first of all, was to research the whole issue around what HTLV-1 is. It’s a very rare disease that existed in one other place in Canada and that was in, I believe, British Columbia.
Once we had discovered HTLV-1 was present in Nunavut, we then worked with public health agencies to start planning to get an idea as to how widespread the issue was.
We also worked with Canada’s Chief Medical Officer in that area.
So the answer is that we discovered it in June.
I’m just wondering if the minister could explain why the department decided to, if they knew about it in June, to not inform the public about it until the time when they did later in the fall.
When we became aware of it, first of all, we had to deal with the immediate families of the individual and the impacted family and we had to sit down with the family to explain what HTLV-1 was.
Secondly, we had to figure out how widespread the problem was in Nunavut and further researched that through the health centres as well as the families that were impacted by HTLV-1.
We also went and collected a team of individuals to research what HTLV-1 is. HTLV-1 is a very rare disease that can exist in people who may never be affected by it.
Because of the incidence that we experienced in May/June, we had to then research further the situation and educate our staff, educate our professionals, and then do information in preparation for release. We didn’t want to create a panic; we also wanted to research and do a public health information session so that people in Nunavut are receiving the correct information around HTLV-1.
And, the issue was that we needed to form a team to get a real handle on the situation before we started to talk about it publicly because we didn’t know, at that time, how broad the issue may be, and to some extent, we won’t know that until the testing has been completed in about six months from now.
It’s my understanding that there are only certain methods by which this disease can be transmitted, and my concern and probably the concern a lot of people is without knowing anything about it for a few months, was the fact that there could be more infections or that the disease could spread as a result of ignorance of the public knowing after the Department of Health did.
So was that one of the factors that was looked at on deciding whether or not to go public with it at the time?
HTLV-1 is a very, very rare disease that only existed in one other province in Canada. HTLV-1 has also been found in other countries outside of Canada.
So when we discovered HTLV-1 existed with a person from Nunavut, we needed to go back and research and work with the Canada Public Health Agency on what do we mean by HTLV-1 and research as to how people can catch HTLV-1 or how it spreads.
We needed to do that research, plus at the same time, we needed to contact the family where HTLV-1 was discovered to figure out the impacts of it.
So what we have done from that point on in gathering all of the information was to, first of all, test individuals that may be contracted, with the assistance of the Canada Public Health offices, and with that, we then prepared the information sheet related to HTLV-1 and prepared all of the health centres.
We talked to community health representatives, we talked to the regular caucus, we talked to the media, we put out media advisors to try and educate what HTLV-1 is in Nunavut because it’s so rare and it has never existed in Nunavut before. Our job was to educate our own staff what HTLV-1 was, how people can be tested, and what are the symptoms of HTLV-1.
So there were a number of steps that were taken and right now we continue to advise the general public what HTLV-1 is through different sources.
One example is through our community health representatives, community health education committees, or hamlets, and local radio shows.
There are the different ways we are trying to get the message out, but we needed to gather our own facts as to the extent of it, what it is, how it’s contracted, and how to prevent it.
So all of that was gathered and we were able to go to the public to educate Nunavummiut what HTLV-1 was.
I think there was probably close to five months that the Department of Health knew that this disease was out there before informing anyone about it.
I was just wondering, is the minister stating that they, in fact, didn’t take, elicit or didn’t worry about the possibility of the disease being spread in that time period, in the first five months that they knew about it, by not informing the public of it so that people could take preventative measures right away instead of waiting? I guess that’s my question and that’s what a lot of people are wondering.
If you knew, how come you didn’t let people know right away?
And if you didn’t, was the opinion or the safety of the public not one of the things that was taken into consideration once it was discovered in Nunavut?
When we discovered HTLV-1, there was immediate contact made to the family impacted.
We needed to find out what HTLV-1 was, how it was spread, and we needed to get the team, as well as the support from the Canada Public Health Agency involved in researching and assisting in Nunavut’s response to the issue.
People can have HTLV-1 and never be affected by it, so it could have existed prior to June. So, we continue to work with the public agency office, as well as our health centres to get a broader understanding as to how widespread HTLV-1 is.
But in terms of taking the necessary steps to educate the public, it’s no different than what the practice or the procedures that we would follow in the case of Tuberculosis or AIDS or any other type of disease in Nunavut. So the procedures followed were through the normal course of action.
As well, we worked very closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada in our procedures.
The National Chief Medical Officer is Dr. David Butler-Jones, who assisted the Nunavut Government in the procedures in the review of HTLV-1. He has written us and advised us that he was to confirm his support in the involvement of his office.
We continue to work with him, but through their support in dealing with a rare disease like HTLV-1, they were satisfied with the procedures that we followed in conducting our research, as well as advising the general public as to what HTLV-1 was.
Question 043 – 2(3): Training for H&SS Employees on Information and Privacy Issues (Curley)
It is clear that more work needs to be done with respect to tightening up the department’s practices as they relate to protecting the privacy of Nunavummiut and preventing the unauthorized disclosure of personal information.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, the 2004-05 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Nunavut, which was tabled in the House last week, includes the following recommendations, and I will quote: “I would be recommending that the position of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Coordinator for the Department of Health and Social Services be given a full-time billing and that this person be given responsibility not only for coordinating and answering access requests, but for dealing with the very significant and real privacy issues with this department, in particular, has to deal with on a daily basis.”
My first question is: what training and guidance is provided to Health and Social Services employees on their responsibilities with respect to privacy issues?
The training of departmental staff, who are the internal coordinators when ATIPP requests occur, are no different than any other employee in any other department that’s responsible for ATIPP training or coordination.
I believe that training is conducted through the ATIPP coordinator for the Government of Nunavut and I believe that position is located either with Justice or Executive.
The training offered again, is no different than any other ATIPP coordinator in the various departments.
Mr. Curley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it’s the usual training, I don’t think the Privacy Commissioner of Nunavut would be recommending such an action.
There is a lack of real thought in the policies of your department. The minister told the House last week that the leaked investigation into the Clyde River incident took place.
Can the minister account to the House and to Nunavummiut the specific steps that were taken in conducting this investigation and tell us whether this was done under oath?
When the article appeared in the paper and I contacted my department, the deputy contacted the person that was also interviewed during that time.
The Health Inspector/Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, because his primary responsibility was to do the public education around HTLV-1, we contacted him to see if there had been any other interviews with his division with the media.
The response we got at that time was no.
We also contacted the paper to see who they made reference to in relation to the senior government official which I dealt with Thursday and Friday.
On Friday, I also took the opportunity to speak to the media about whom this was or from what government the senior official would be and the only response I received from the media was that again there are three levels of government so there is no clear indication of which level of government that came from.
So we have done our part in terms of investigating internally.
All information internally is taken seriously and I think we have done our part in investigating the issue around the paper. The other situation that I would like to add and table today, I have all the copies of the article relating to HTLV-1, issue and when you go through those articles, there are a number of sources and a number of people interviewed outside of the government and I think that has to be noted in that situation.
Mr. Curley: My question is not answered Mr. Speaker.
I asked the minister if the investigation and the questions that were asked and answers received were taken under oath.
If the member is asking if my employees swore to the Bible to the interviews for this particular issue in terms of an oath, no, that was not done. The investigation took place with my department through the senior officials in terms of the division responsible for the public health education related to the HTLV-1.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Your final supplementary, Mr. Curley.
Mr. Curley: Mr. Speaker, the issue of disclosing personal information is a serious issue.
Nunavummiut would seek protection from the government that their names and communities would not be disclosed to either the press or anyone by the senior ranking officials in the government.
It is, I believe, misuse of personal information contrary to section 59 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that we are dealing with.
Why has not the minister instead of carry out an internal review of what may have happened, actually asked the Minister of Justice or the Information Commissioner to carry out the investigation.
If not, can the minister tell this House why she has not asked the Department of Justice to help in this case?
If the member is suggesting that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation in terms of how the information got to the paper, I’d be glad to request that with the Premier’s Office, the Minister of Justice.
But I want to also re-assure the member again there are two levels of government and we don’t know for sure which level of government the newspaper makes reference to in the paper.
I take the issue around privacy very, very seriously and I think the issue around Members in the House requesting information related to medical, I have had to also write letters to Members of this House and members of the legislature about the sensitivity of requesting information on medical clients, again, to protect individual’s medical records.
I believe that I have written to each and every member about that because you are, in my opinion, requesting information on people that I have no right to release under ATIPP.
So I do take this issue very seriously and I will ask the Minister of Justice to see if he can conduct an investigation in regards to the procedures.
Question 044 – 2(3): Government of Nunavut’s Position on the Bathurst Port and Road Project (Peterson)
My question is for the Minister of Mines. In my members’ statement, I spoke about the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project.
Mr. Speaker, the 2005 Nunavut Economic Outlook indicated that the biggest upside risk to their forecast was if the BIPAR funding was secured. What this means is the project would significantly skew their forecast: employment would increase, tax revenues would be generated, and so on.
My question for the minister is: what is the Government of Nunavut’s official position on BIPAR?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister for Mines, Minister Kilabuk.
First of all, I would like to apologize to my colleague. I understand it in English, but I wonder if he can clarify his question; I didn’t quite fully get his question.
Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Peterson, can you clarify your question again?
I will try to be clear this time. I am talking about the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project; the acronym is BIPAR. The Nunavut Economic Outlook indicated that the biggest upside risk in their forecast was if BIPAR was to get approved and funding was secured.
What this means is that employment would increase, tax revenues would be generated, there would be education, career, and contract opportunities.
There are potentially 17,000 person years of employment, billions of dollars in increases to our federal and territorial GDP.
My question for the minister is: what is the Government of Nunavut’s official position on the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road project?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and my colleague for the clarification.
Our position is the government has been and continues to be in full support of the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project. That’s still the message that we convey and forward to the federal government in seeking support from them.
The Commissioner’s Address, last week, indicated that the Government of Nunavut plans to use half of its share of the Northern Strategy Funding for economic development. Can the minister tell me: will any of this funding be used for the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road project?
Unfortunately, at this time, I’m not in the position to indicate, to my colleague, where the funding will be approved from that funding.
We all know that significant investments would be required to make the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road project a reality. The minister mentioned in his earlier answer that they are trying to get this message across in Ottawa. Can the minister tell the House, today, what progress has been made to get Ottawa on board in supporting this vital initiative?
I will indicate to this House at this time that my department officials are continuing to support and have further discussions to push this file forward. But to my colleague, I will commit to getting a most recent update on those discussions and provide it to my colleague.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I thank the minister for that commitment to give me an update; I’m sure the folks back in the Kitikmeot look forward to that.
Mr. Speaker, the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road project will require serious commitments by many partners, both public and private, by the public I mean by municipalities and territorial and federal governments. They are going to need a lead proponent from the territories. I’m wondering if the minister could tell the House, today, if the Government of Nunavut has considered becoming a lead proponent in the project.
I do agree with my colleague that this will take a whole number of team players to see it through and I agree that this government needs to be a leader in promoting this project.
As I said, the government committed, in representing my department, as one of the leaders in this file, and also further seeking the support from not only the Kitikmeot groups, but also within the government so that we can, united, push this in seeking the support and financial resources this project rightfully deserves from the Federal Government.
Question 045 – 2(3): Coordinator of Patient Travel Location and Organization (Tootoo)
Again, my question is for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, and I hope it’s not on anything rare this time, I hope.
Mr. Speaker, the department’s ‘Care Closer to Home’ Strategy aims at reducing medical travel costs by providing more services here in Nunavut.
At the same time, however, certain medical procedures we know can only be performed in the South.
Can the minister describe what departmental organization is currently in place to coordinate and manage patient travel for services outside of Nunavut and clarify, for the House, where the positions that administer this function are located?
Can the member repeat the last point of his question?
Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Tootoo, if you would clarify your question please.
The last part of the question is asking the minister to describe what departmental organization is currently in place to coordinate and manage patient medical travel for services outside of Nunavut and clarify, for the House, where the positions that administer that function are located.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and a thank you to the member for clarifying that.
The patient travel, it is our approach to respond to requests by steps. When there’s a requirement for care outside of the community, the nurse in charge or the nurses will make the referral for the treatment in Yellowknife, in Winnipeg, or in Ottawa.
So the individual that makes the referral contacts the regional office travel coordinator. In the case of the Kitikmeot, that is referred to the Kitikmeot regional office in Cambridge Bay. They then make the arrangement for the individuals to travel to wherever the appointment is.
Can the minister confirm that there are still plans for a medical travel coordination centre for all of Nunavut that is described in her Department’s most recent Business Plan? And also clarify to this House where that is going to be located.
Mr. Speaker, that function is being reviewed and if we do decide to go forward it will be in the upcoming year’s Main Estimates.
As of right now, we have not made a decision and we continue to review that whole procedure further. We also, personally I have concerns right now as it relates to how for example medevacs would be coordinated outside the territory or within the territory wherever it is located.
It is one that I am monitoring in terms of our research to whether it makes sense to Nunavummiut to centralize this.
At this point in time we have not made a decision and we continue to evaluate the concepts - once we make a decision and once it goes through the New Year Business Plan.
Mr. Speaker, I guess regardless of a decision coming forward are there plans for where that function will be located.
Will it be located here in Iqaluit? Will it be located in Rankin Inlet, or will it be relocated in Cambridge Bay?
I am trying to find out if the minister can indicate what places they are looking at for relocating that function.
As it right now, we have not made a decision on where that will be located.
We are looking right now to see if it makes sense to centralize that function in Nunavut.
I am not quite convinced that centralizing that function will work in Nunavut especially when we have 26 communities and three time zones in coordinating the arrangement of travel as well as medevacs.
So I am taking this very slowly in terms of investigating that to know the impacts of centralizing functions. Sometimes centralizing a function makes sense and other times it does not make sense.
So in this particular one I need to review it further and talk to my staff before we make any decision on whether that is the direction that we want to move forward in.
Mr. Speaker, I have said in this House before and all members know with Iqaluit being the capital, our capital of Nunavut, that went through a whole decentralization process where there were hundreds of jobs that were taken out of the capital.
The time when it was finished Mr. Speaker, I asked the Premier and he said that it was done and that there would be no more jobs moving outside of Iqaluit.
So my question to the minister, I am looking for a commitment regardless of the decision that they come up with that none of those positions will be relocated for medical travel out of Iqaluit.
In my previous hat I was the administrator for moving the decentralization plan positions out of here and I know exactly what the member is concerned about.
One thing that I would like to say is that currently the organizing of medical travel is done through three regional centres, Iqaluit, in the Kivalliq as well in the Kitikmeot.
Centralizing in one of those regions will cost jobs that we know. We don’t know whether this is a direction that we want to proceed with at this point in time.
I’m very aware of maintaining the decentralized numbers and I will commit to keeping decentralized numbers in each community.
So it is one we have not made a decision on yet and once I have reviewed the information on whether centralizing medical travel makes sense or not, I would be pleased to communicate that with members of this House our decision and our findings.
Question 046 – 2(3): Adequate Emergency Shelters (Barnabas)
Under Members’ Statements, I made a statement regarding the emergency services and there is a requirement to have facilities that would be large enough to accommodate the population of a community.
Is there a review done on whether the sizes of the buildings are enough to accommodate a community?
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I would like to thank the member for asking that question.