EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I have noted that the 2006-07 Business Plan for the Department of CGS states that the department is working to explore all aspects of transitioning to taxing status. They expect to issue the final report with recommendations prior to March 31, 2006.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that this report will need to be tabled and made available to MLAs and the public before final decisions are taken.
I will be seeking commitment from the minister on this point.
Before we add new municipal taxes to the burden of our residents, we must ensure that they are fully consulted and that they clearly consent to this being done.
Member’s Statement 180 – 2(3): Arctic Winter Games Athletes (Simailak)
I would like to congratulate the athletes: Shane Niego, basketball; Paul Niego, basketball; Bobby Tagoona, table tennis; Alma Itqiliq, table tennis; Jason Subgut, midget hockey; John Ray Mariq, badminton; Paula Piryuaq, badminton; Zachary Niuqtuq, Inuit games; (interpretation ends) Matthew Arnauyok, Inuit games; Patrick Kingilik, Inuit games; Miranda Uqayuittuq, Inuit games; Ryan Paungrat, wrestling; Kiah Hachey, 16 & under female soccer; Trent Aksawnee, 14 & under male soccer; Derek Mikkingwak, bantam hockey; LeeAnne McLean, basketball; and April Aupaluktuq, basketball.
Member’s Statement 181 – 2(3): Congratulate Arctic Winter Games Participants (Netser)
Hon. Patterk Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to congratulate the athletes from Coral Harbour that are in Alaska. There are 15 participants from Coral Harbour who have gone to Alaska; I believe it’s their first day today.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and encourage three groups of students from Sakku School in Coral Harbour who are part of Team Nunavut going to the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska, as we all know.
The three groups consist of three female wrestlers in the 60 to 71 kilogram category, four male wrestlers in the 57 to 75 kilogram category, and some seven girls under 14 who will compete as part of the Nunavut Soccer Team.
Mr. Speaker, I also have to congratulate them not only on working very hard to earn a chance to compete at the Arctic Winter Games, but also for the hard work they put in their fundraising effort over the past two years to help support their trip.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, Mavis Nakoolak, and my adopted daughter, Olivia Netser, Ashley Etuk, Selma Angootealuk, Kaleen Kaludjak, Brittany Pudlat, Shawnee Nakoolak, and their coach, Marilyn Bruce, I believe they were going to start the games today.
We also have our wrestlers, women: Odelia Imiqtaut, Caitlyn Netser, Lyn Imiqtaut. In the boys, we have: Aqaat Netser, Randy Kataluk, Aita Angootealuk, and also Matthew Netser.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate these athletes who are participating in the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska.
We wish them a safe return.
Member’s Statement 182 – 2(3): Standing Committee Meeting in Pangnirtung (Kilabuk)
For your information, the standing committee went to Pangnirtung this week, Mr. Alagalak’s committee.
They were in Pangnirtung to have a public meeting on Nunavut Arctic College.
James Arreak, Levi Barnabas, Alex Baldwin, Nancy Tupik, and David Alagalak, and we also have, of course, Mary Nashook and Blandina Tulugarjuk.
I would like to thank them all.
I’m making a comment on this issue because the people of Pangnirtung were very pleased to see a Committee of the Legislative Assembly take the time and effort to go to Pangnirtung and to get their input on the Nunavut Arctic College. They were very thankful that the Legislative Assembly made that effort.
Member’s Statement 183 – 2(3): Members’ Hockey Game Fundraiser (Barnabas)
Last night, we played hockey, the Members of the Legislative Assembly versus the firefighters. We were doing some fundraising for the youth of Iqaluit.
Mr. Speaker, I was a little bit disappointed our Premier, Mr. Paul Okalik, didn’t score, but I can say that yours truly scored a few times and assisted six times.
I would like to thank Mr. Picco, Mr. Akesuk, Mr. Okalik, and Hunter, and myself who were able to represent the Nunavut Legislative Assembly.
Member’s Statement 184 – 2(3): Members’ Hockey Game (Tootoo)
I am pleased to be able to rise today after playing hockey last night and even, as my colleague so eloquently pointed out, our Premier was held off the goal list last night.
He failed to score. He is playing like the initials of our former Finance Minister, Mr. Ng - No Goals for Premier Paul as our leader he was held off the score sheet in that aspect.
He did say, however, that he got one goal that wasn’t allowed. For the record, Mr. Speaker, a goal that is not allowed is not a goal.
And he said that he got a whole bunch of assists, but we all know that it is the goals that count not the assists.
He had indicated to me that he was playing like a Toronto Maple Leafs player as the reason he did not score any goals. He passed me that note earlier today and I sent him back one saying did he take all night to think of that excuse for not scoring last night.
All the rest of the members that played last night, as Mr. Barnabas pointed out, did score goals. Myself, I even scored on a penalty shot, thank you Mr. Picco, and that’s something, again, that our Premier, our leader, he was the first one to attempt the penalty shot. I am very sorry to say that he did not even register a shot on net on a penalty shot.
Watching him skate last night, Mr. Speaker, I am sure as our Auditor General would point out this government has been a little bit slow in doing some of the things last night, and I am sure that she would make that observation watching our Premier skate last night as well.
It was a fun game.
We had lots of fun.
No one got injured this year. We actually won.
I think the final score was 7-6 and maybe that is because our Premier was off the ice more than he was on, but I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the firefighters and the youth here in Iqaluit, to thank all the members that came out and played and for the few hundred dollars or more, the considerable amount of money that was raised for the youth here in Iqaluit, and a lot of fun was had by everybody.
Members’ Statements, Mr. Okalik.
Member’s Statement 185 – 2(3): Members’ Hockey Game (Okalik)
As I wrote in a note to my colleague that I will play like a Montreal Canadian player next time I play, so that I will have better performance there on net. That is something I will commit to do for the next game.
But my colleagues neglected to note that I was probably the best fore checker on the ice. As all members know, I am in my forties now, so I have to change my skills around a little. So I am a lot more of a proficient fore checker and took away some pucks from the other team so they were not able to score on a wonderful goalie that played for us last night.
So I must say our goalie, Crystal, was probably the best performer on both sides of the hockey arena. I must compliment our goalie and yes, I am a little sore, but I had a good workout.
I want to thank all of the organizers and the firefighters for joining us and allowing us some ice time last night.
And for the next game, I hope to see more players from our side so that we can put on a better performance for the whole community.
Member’s Statement 186 – 2(3): Health and Education Committee Meeting in Pangnirtung (Alagalak)
I guess I’m too short, you didn’t see me for a while.
I rise today to inform the House that the Standing Committee on Health and Education had a few activities.
It’s more informative that way.
I think we have completed most of the communities that we were slated to visit, except for Coral Harbour. This weekend, we went to Pangnirtung and Arctic Bay.
There was an excellent turnout. There were quite a number of elders who attended those public meetings and we did get a lot of written feedback from the public about the Nunavut Arctic College. So that’s going to be very helpful to the standing committee.
I would like to assure the people out there that your comments are not just going to be put on the shelf, but when we were on our way to Pangnirtung, it was dark, of course, and when you saw the ice, it seemed like it was water.
I thought we had calm waters as I could see from the window; it was the ice, but because it had melted and frozen, it looked like very calm, open water.
After the meeting, we drove around a bit around town and it seemed like it was just in September, there’s absolutely no snow in the town proper and I have never seen that in my lifetime and I’m not young anymore.
Question 208 – 2(3): Auditor General’s Report – Qulliq Energy (Tootoo)
My question isn’t for the minister that failed to score a goal last night; no goal, no question. It’s for the distinguished gentleman sitting next to him, our Minister of Finance.
Mr. Speaker, in the Auditor General’s Report on page 13, I don’t know if that’s a coincidence, the lucky 13, Exhibit 2.3 talks about the reservations in the audit.
There are a couple of them there. One that the Qulliq Energy Corporation is borrowing higher than it’s allowed. The fact that they are borrowing $4.7 million higher than allowed under the Act, I just wonder if the minister could give us an explanation as to why that was allowed.
Hon. David Simailak (interpretation): I apologize, Mr. Speaker.
I am not exactly sure, but 2003-04; we don’t know why they went over at that time.
Mr. Hunter: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Also on that page, on previous audits, there are also comments in there on reservations that write-offs for existing loan documentation for the board of directors was not available at the time of the audit. The annual report to the minister was late for one of the Crown corporations.
Could the minister determine whether or not that the corporation was able find the documentation for the board of directors’ approval for the new loan and the write-off for 2002-03?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister Simailak
Hon. David Simailak (interpretation): I must apologize, Mr. Speaker, I have no idea.
I have never been informed about this subject regarding the business corporation’s financial arrangements.
Mr. Tootoo: The Minister of Finance may not have all the details on this, but given that the Auditor’s General Report deals with the main estimates and the public accounts, in 2003-04, there was a loan that the board of directors’ approval was not available at the time of the audit.
Could the minister indicate whether that approval has been found and provided to the auditors?
I have not received a response at this time.
Speaker (interpretation): Your final supplementary, Mr. Tootoo
Mr. Tootoo: Mr. Speaker, would the minister undertake, from his colleagues, whoever is involved in this, to find out whether those outstanding issues have been dealt with to the satisfaction of the auditors and report back to the members?
Yes, I will ask the minister responsible and respond accordingly.
Question 209 – 2(3): VTA Included as Income for Rent Determination (Barnabas)
I’ll be directing my questions to the Minister responsible for Housing.
Since the new rent scale was introduced, other income has been included in the Income Tax and it has made the housing rent very high.
So how come it has not been included in the assessment?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. Akesuk.
I did not really understand exactly what the question was. Can he restate it please?
Speaker (interpretation): Member for High Arctic, please rephrase your question.
Once the rent scale was renewed, the VTAs, Vacation Travel Assistance, they are included as part of your income and it will be taxed, and also, the Housing Association also includes the vacation pay.
The person who is leasing or renting the housing unit has to pay a higher rent, so why is this the case?
The rent scale is done based on the income or salary. When the salary changes or if the individual’s salary is reduced or if they no longer work, they have to go the Housing Association office to reduce their rent. Perhaps they used their last year’s income to pay the portion of their rent.
I do not understand that. For example, an individual takes a vacation for a month and they get vacation pay for the whole and that is included in their income for a whole year, and their rent increases for a whole year because of one VTA that they received.
The income is used to set the rent scale and that includes the VTA. I could look into that and to see why they have included the VTA. I will look into that and perhaps take the member’s question as notice.
Speaker (interpretation): The question is being taken as notice.
Question 210 – 2(3): Nunavut Arctic College Budget (Curley)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Education. As we heard earlier, the very good news about our revitalizing of the Nunavut Arctic College, and their deficit was $1.6 million last year and there is only $310,000 this year.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Education; what budget cutbacks have you done because there was a huge $1.2 million reduction and there is only $310,000. Perhaps the minister can update the Nunavummiut which program has been cut off and also could he use an example for the budget cutbacks and update us on that.
Speaker (interpretation): Minster of Education, Mr. Picco.
As I pointed out in the annual report of the college, there was a group of administrative as well as financial issues that has taken place within the college to reduce the budget, and that was the mandate I had given the board of governors almost a year ago.
I met with the board of governors over the weekend and they are meeting here in Iqaluit. I passed on to them, at that time, congratulations on reductions of the budget.
Three major issues occurred to reduce the budget. One was the input of new money from the government that the members are aware that we did last year to help bring that deficit down.
Two was the collection of accounts receivables and the better and more efficient administration on that. Third was the increasing in some of the fees that the college charges, for example, on third party funding to be able to bring forward a bigger revenue generation on behalf and for the college.
As the minister very well knows that cutting $1.2 million from any businesses or private companies is a lot to reduce from one’s bottom line, most corporations or companies normally don’t have any pot of monies to access from in order to reduce the deficit.
So I would like the minister to be a little clearer because if the Arctic College has not cut any of its programs or spending, obviously, $1.2 million is a huge amount of money to receive from one source.
Could the minister tell us again what amount of money Nunavut Arctic College received in addition to their regular spending budget from Nunavut Government?
For the financial year-end that is encompassing in this annual report, November 2005, the Government of Nunavut brought forward a supplementary appropriation approved in this House of $1.2 million for Nunavut Arctic College.
The majority of that money, as I said earlier, went toward the deficit reduction plan.
The college has not cut programs.
For example Mr. Speaker, we have not eliminated any of the core programs that are base funded by the college including literacy programs, the NTEP Program, the Nursing Program, and so on.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, the lion’s share of the extra money that was received from the government went to the deficit reduction plan. At the same time, the college tried to tweak their budget to make up the sole differences.
Yes, my question is really to try and get clearer information.
If Nunavummiut are going to be asked to pay an extra $1.2 million to reduce the deficit of one Crown agency’s budget, then that’s a lot to ask.
So were there any conditions attached for this deficit reduction grant, if I may use that word, to reduce Arctic College’s deficit of $1.2 million?
The college has an excellent bursar or finance officer position in Arviat.
That gentleman, over the last couple of years, has done an excellent job in reviewing the financial status of the college.
The college only receives a little over $15 million on an annual basis from the government and the majority of its funding comes from, to run other programs, comes from third party sources.
So we have put together a new financing model or formula for the college that I have brought to the FMB and now we have to cost that model out.
And the member, again, is correct when he suggested logistically as well as financially, the college has to tweak its budget to bring that deficit down. When I received the $1.2 million supplementary, as the members will recall in the House, the majority of that money went towards that deficit.
The deficit is a result of ongoing problems the college has had over the last several years; it’s not something that happened overnight.
Now, we have got the college, I believe, on a stronger financial footing and I think that’s reflected in the report that I tabled today.
Will the minister be willing to table the deficit reduction plan and spending plan for this current fiscal year so that we may have a good understanding of exactly what it takes to wave a magic wand to reduce $1.2 million?
I have to apologize to the member and to the House. Earlier I said, I think the Hansard will show, that in the report that I tabled, Mr. Speaker, I will be tabling the annual report after Question Period, and then the member will see in the annual report, because it actually reflects on upcoming issues and on the financial administration of the college, some of the plans that the member has detailed and they will become public knowledge.
But I want to again reiterate, Mr. Speaker, that the $1.2 million of the supplementary money, the majority of that went to the deficit and that is one of the reasons we have seen the deficit reduced, but at the same time, the college was asked to tweak their budget and find some economies of scale and they have done that.
I will be pleased to present those during the Committee of the Whole, as an example, when we do the college budget, which will be in Committee of the Whole in the next day and a half, I would hope.
Question 211 – 2(3): Inuktitut Interpreter – Sanikiluaq Nursing Station (Kattuk)
I would like to ask a question that is a concern in my constituency, although I had asked this question in November to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to Sanikiluaq.
There has been a study done in Sanikiluaq. Because the population in Sanikiluaq is over 700, the concern is having one interpreter when lots of people have to go to the hospital.
With the population survey, since we have one interpreter for the nursing station, do we have an adequate number of interpreters?
The issue around allocating positions based on growth is one that we are looking at across the board.
I made some reference to it also in committee the last few days is that we need to examine the workloads of social workers and nurses in every community.
I have committed and directed my staff to look at it Nunavut-wide instead of by one community and to look at the distribution of our staff, so that is where that is at and the specific request to review Sanikiluaq has not been done, but it is part of the overall plan to look at how we allocate our positions by community and to also look at the number of cases people work under, whether it be socials workers, or nurses, or doctors, and so on.
So it is a much broader plan and I would like to have that plan sometime in the summer months before I can commit to looking at the allocation of additional PYs.
At the same time, member Kilabuk from Pangnirtung raised again in the House, support staff for various professionals in a community such as social workers.
That is another piece of the review that we will also be doing internally.
I will be directing my question on the interpreter issue.
Has there been a study to see how many interpreters will be involved?
Our plan is to look at the translators also, not just translation for the nursing station, but also for translation needs for social workers and so on.
So it is part of the bigger picture and it will include the support staff for nurses and delivery of the program to the community level.
Question 212 – 2(3): Auditor General’s Report and Problems Within Finance Department (Tootoo)
Again, my question is for the Minister of Finance and it relates to the Auditor General’s Report.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is Chapter 4 that states the government does not provide timely financial information to the Legislative Assembly.
On page 25, paragraph 26; it indicates that there are basically four main steps in doing our financial statements and the audit.
One of them being gathering information, the second one preparing a draft statement and it indicates here that the government took around nine or ten months to gather the bulk of the information needed by for Department of Finance. The second bullet says that it took another three months for them to provide the Auditor General’s staff with a first complete draft of the consolidated financial statement.
Also, Mr. Speaker, it indicates in paragraph 35 that one of the two reasons that it indicates that statements were unduly delayed was a bottleneck within the Department of Finance.
So I just wonder if the minister can elaborate, for the Members of this House, what the Auditor General meant by a bottleneck within the Department of Finance is causing a delay for the statements.
Under (interpretation ends) paragraph 86, we use public sector accounting rules and some of these rules differ from the private sector rules with which most professional accountants are familiar.
In September 2005, it was the Auditor General’s view that only three accountants within the department had experience with these special rules. (interpretation) One of the main reasons was that some of the staff were not familiar with the financial rules and procedures.
There was new staff, changeover of staff and there were not enough financial experts who were familiar with the public sector financial rules. That was the reason for that delay.
Also in there, as the minister indicated, it says, throughout this period, two of three staff with the necessary detailed knowledge had other main duties.
One of them applied for and was appointed to a job unrelated to preparing financial statements and the second was serving as an acting assistant deputy minister with duties far broader than financial statements.
Mr. Speaker, I guess the question is: is it a priority for this government to make sure that they have the adequate resources, including human resources, to make sure that they can get these financial statements done in a timely manner?
When they see someone applying for a transfer out to another position, why would they allow that when they know that that’s their busy time and they have to have those people available to do those financial statements?
Is the minister taking any steps for this year to make sure they have the adequate resources, as far as human resources, available to get this information put together in a timely fashion for the auditor?
Yes, we have rushed the procedure. We have more expert staff at this time.
Also, the ones that are vacant, we are trying to fill as quickly as possible. Also, the staff out in the field, we are continuing to train, and we have been looking to make the procedures more streamlined.
As I quoted earlier from the report, it said the government took nine or ten months to gather the bulk of the information needed for the Department of Finance.
One would assume that when the word government is used here, that’s the government departments providing the required financial information to the Department of Finance to consolidate.
Will the minister confirm that there were delays in that by certain departments and would he be willing to provide a list of when the departments provided the financial information required by the Department of Finance to them?
This is exactly one of the reasons why some of the financial statements were not on time.
If I am able to table such a report, then we can table the report.