EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Return to Oral Question asked by Allan Rumbolt, MLA for Hudson Bay, asked the Minister of Health, No. 235 – 4(2), dated October 28, 2014. The subject is: Status of Medical Clients Living in Other Jurisdictions.
[Mr. Speaker, a constituent of mine in the community of Sanikiluaq requires dialysis treatment which is not available in Nunavut.
Now it seems that he is being pressured to become a resident of Manitoba and Nunavut’s Department of Health no longer wants to provide for his medical treatment. From information that I have received, all he has in his apartment is a bed and he has been left to fend for himself for the rest.
Recently as three weeks ago, there was an announcement through the local radio asking for donations for the patient of money and household items.
Can the minister clearly explain what options are available to Nunavut residents who are required to relocate to other jurisdictions in order to receive the medical treatments they need in order to stay alive?]
All provinces and territories have agreed to and have complementary residency requirements for health care plan enrolment.
A person’s jurisdiction of residence is responsible for providing health benefits and other services. This is in line with the guidelines of the Interprovincial Agreement on Eligibility and Portability of Hospital and Medical Care Insurance, which states:
Cases are reviewed individually and if there is a plan of care that includes a return to Nunavut, then Nunavut health care benefits may be extended. Although health care benefits may be extended, any assistance received under the Extended Health Benefits Policy is limited to one year.
Although guidance is available, individuals are responsible for contacting service providers, such as public housing and income support, in the new jurisdiction.
Support in transitioning may also be available from other local organizations such as the Manitoba Urban Inuit Association.
I am quite proud to have the opportunity to recognize an individual visiting the Gallery today in this House.
My youngest son, Swen Hammuqtuq Ugyuk, is here, whom I love intensely.
As a matter of fact, my endearment name for him is Naglik.
He is a responsible teenager.
His friend sitting beside him is Anna Wolki, who is a mother to my grandchild and is my future daughter-in-law. I also love her dearly.
Also, one of our favourite grandchildren of Nauyaq and me, Mason Kuninaaq, will be turning two years old next year in February.
It’s my second day of recognizing someone in the House.
After here a year, this is my fourth Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery.
I would like to recognize an elder from Gjoa Haven, Mr. David Siksik. Welcome to the House.
Similar to my colleague’s experience of rarely having the opportunity to recognize a constituent, when the opportunity arises, it is very pleasurable to recognize someone.
I already recognized the individual yesterday, but I want him to feel welcome while I am in the House speaking in Inuktitut.
He is a resident of Baker Lake attending meetings here in Iqaluit for the various wildlife-related meetings going on here.
Please welcome  Hugh Tulurialik.
Speaker (interpretation): To my brother-in-law, welcome to the Gallery.
Mr. Tom Sammurtok.
I would like to recognize one of my nephews, Paul Sammurtok.
For a second there, I became a Quassa, but I don’t have a problem with that.
Mr. Speaker, this individual was recognized yesterday, but I want to acknowledge him personally, as he is from Cambridge Bay.
One time, during the winter when it was extremely cold, since I wanted to harvest my first muskox in the west, he was my guide and he enabled me to catch my first muskox.
His stature may look small, but he’s an extremely capable hunter and while out on that trip, he made me feel as if I was a small child while observing him butchering the muskox which was rather huge.
I would like to my colleagues to warmly welcome Mr. Jimmy Haniliak to the Gallery.
Alex Sammurtok.
This person was already recognized, but I want to recognize my paternal cousin, Paul Sammurtok, who is in the Gallery.
Visitors, welcome to the Gallery.
Question 310 – 4(2): Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission (Rumbolt)
Mr. Rumbolt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good afternoon.
Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission.
Mr. Speaker, I think that this is the first question for WSCC that the minister has received during this Assembly, so he might have to pull out a different one of his other 70 lbs. binders that he mentioned yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, a meeting of the International Association of Firefighters was held last month in Yellowknife. One of the concerns that were raised during this meeting was the issue of amending the Workers’ Compensation Act for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories to expand the list of cancers for which firefighters can be covered for under the legislation.
It is my understanding that WSCC itself supports these changes.
Can the minister indicate when he will introduce amendments to Nunavut’s Workers’ Compensation Act?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission, Hon. Minister Mr. Peterson.
Hon. Keith Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank Mr. Rumbolt for the question.
He caught me off guard. As he said, I don’t get very many questions on workers’ safety.
Mr. Speaker, I haven’t been briefed on that yet, but of course, I do have to talk to my colleague from the Northwest Territories because it’s a joint board.
I have to talk to them as well and it’s my plan, hopefully this month, to be talking to them. We don’t have any immediate timeframe to introduce any amendments to the legislation.
The Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission is shared between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
Can the minister indicate how frequently he meets with his NWT counterpart to discuss issues that concern both territories?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Peterson.
We do have representatives on the Workers’ Safety and Compensation [Commission].
Personally I haven’t met with the minister yet.
We have been trying, believe it or not. I go through Yellowknife quite a few times, but we haven’t been able to connect at a time that’s convenient for both of us. We are trying to set up a meeting for later this month and I hope to be able to talk to them then.
Yesterday, the minister tabled WSCC’s 2013 annual report.
However, for some reason, the 2011 annual report has never been tabled in the House.
Will he commit to tabling this outstanding report during the upcoming winter sitting?
I’ll look into it. I was unaware of that. I have only been the minister responsible for workers’ safety for a year now, but I’ll look into that and if it’s outstanding, then we will certainly look into tabling it.
Question 311 – 4(2): Liquor Licensing Board (Hickes)
Yesterday, the Minister of Finance tabled the most recent annual report of the Nunavut Liquor Commission.
Can the Minister of Justice indicate when the outstanding annual reports for the Nunavut Liquor Licensing Board for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 fiscal years will be tabled in the House?
We have requested the outstanding annual reports of the Nunavut Liquor Licensing Board.
I will enquire as to what the status is on that.
The liquor licensing board’s 2011-12 annual report, which was tabled on October 29, 2012, which I have a copy of here, indicated that the appointment of an independent auditor for the board had enabled it to catch up on its annual reporting.
Can the minister explain what factors have caused the board’s 2012-13 and 2013-14 annual reports to be delayed?
We did encourage them to do so this past spring, but we have yet to get a response to what have been the factors. I will follow up on this matter.
Maybe I’ll talk to the minister after and we can find out what the delay has been.
Under section 6 of the Liquor Act, one of the responsibilities of the board is to, and I quote, “generally advise the Minister on all matters of policy, legislation and administration relating to the sale, distribution and consumption of liquor.”
Can the minister describe what kinds of discussion he has had with the board over the past year?
I will look into the matter of the annual reports as they are required to do. Until then, we have not looked into anything else, as the annual reports will explain what has transpired.
Question 312 – 4(2): Grise Fiord Water Supply (Shooyook)
Mr. Speaker, as the minister may recall, on March 20, 2014, I asked him when he would be tabling a copy of his department’s study on Grise Fiord’s water supply, which was based on Grise Fiord’s integrated community infrastructure sustainability plan, completed in 2011.
Mr. Speaker, will the minister commit to tabling his department’s study on Grise Fiord’s water supply by the winter sitting?
I will look into the issue of the Grise Fiord water supply and once I have the information, I’ll pass it on to the member.
As the minister may also recall, on that same day, I had raised concerns that a number of my constituents have raised with me regarding the condition of Grise Fiord’s existing water tanks.
Mr. Speaker, I requested that the minister’s department conduct a review of the capacity of the community’s existing water supply.
In his response, the minister indicated that his department was “currently studying the situation” and that it is undertaking an “ongoing review of the water supply situation.”
Mr. Speaker, can the minister update us today on the work that his department has done since March of this year on this issue?
Regarding your question, our employees went there in the summer and we will start undertaking the work in the summer of 2015.
Mr. Speaker, may I remind the House that Grise Fiord’s main water supply is a glacier-fed stream.
Although the water quality is excellent, there are concerns about the depletion of the glacier in the long term.
As the minister may recall, Grise Fiord had a severe water shortage in 2008.
With water being a basic human need and requirement for life, will the minister agree that addressing the issue of Grise Fiord’s water supply needs to be a priority for his department?
Regarding your question, we have already started working on the issue and I’ll give an update to the member once we have all the information.
Question 313 – 4(2): Baffin Correctional Centre (Angnakak)
Mr. Speaker, the conditions at the Baffin Correctional Centre have been a longstanding concern for Nunavut residents and this issue has been raised in the House on a number of occasions.
Yesterday, I asked the minister how often the Baffin Correctional Centre is inspected by the fire marshal’s office.
As the Minister of Justice has had the opportunity to consult with the minister responsible for the fire marshal’s office, he can now, perhaps, indicate how often the Baffin Correctional Centre is inspected by the fire marshal’s office.
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Twice a year. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It’s good to know that they are doing their inspections; we’ve just got to check up on how many times they are supposed to be doing the inspections.
As the minister is aware, in April of this year, Nunavut Corrections made available the “Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator on Baffin Correctional Centre and the Legal and Policy Framework of Nunavut Corrections.”
Can the minister indicate what actions his department is taking to address the concerns that have been raised in this report?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) A lot of the concerns that were raised have been addressed in the report. Some of the immediate security issues that were identified were addressed, along with some of the fire hazards that were identified in the report. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In light of the fact that many concerns have been raised regarding the conditions at the Baffin Correctional Centre and because the department will soon be opening its new overcrowding relief structure, it may be beneficial for the Members of this Legislative Assembly to witness first hand the conditions of each facility.
Will the minister commit to extending an invitation to all MLAs to participate in a tour of each facility at the appropriate time?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) In my appearance before the standing committee, I issued an invitation to tour our facilities. I have signed off on a letter to the chair of the committee to be available for the end of January, when the standing committees are here, for members to tour our facilities here in Iqaluit. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Question 314 – 4(2): Process for Resolving Health Care Concerns (Joanasie)
As I noted in my Member’s Statement, a recent incident involving the health centre in Cape Dorset has been the subject of a major news story on CBC News.
I do not expect the minister to go into the details about any ongoing investigations. However, I would like her to indicate to the House what lessons the department has learned from this unfortunate experience.
Mr. Speaker, I have directed the department to conduct an external independent review of the administrative processes of this case.
I thank the minister for her good response.
It is important that health care professionals and ordinary Nunavummiut are not afraid to raise concerns in good faith about the quality of health care in our communities.
What message does the Minister of Health have today for our health care professionals and ordinary Nunavummiut about this issue?
The well-being of all Nunavummiut and the level of service that we provide in our health centres are vital.
For that reason, we did an internal review and it was conducted at an operational level.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I have directed my officials at the Department of Health to immediately conduct an external independent review of the administrative processes of this case.
I have heard suggestions from leaders and residents in my constituency that we need to look at setting up some form of independent mechanism to review concerns in this area.
Is the minister open to this idea?
Mr. Speaker, the external independent review will provide information as to what processes the department should or should not take and will identify those and other matters.
Question 315 – 4(2): 2013-14 High School Graduates (Savikataaq)
I would like to question the Minister of Education on his Minister’s Statement.
First, I would like to congratulate all the 206 graduates of Nunavut.
I would like to thank the minister for coming to Arviat for the Arviat graduation because I know graduations are all at about the same time and the minister’s time is limited.
I thank him for being able to make it. I am proud that I was able to be part of the graduation in Arviat.
Mr. Speaker, I’m aware that the number of graduates in Nunavut changes every year.
I would like to ask the minister what the trend is, the general trend of number of graduates in Nunavut.
Hon. Paul Quassa (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleague.
I was very pleased to go to his community to attend graduations in Arviat for that one.
As you stated, it’s true that the number of graduates are different every year.
For this year, like I said, there are 206 graduates.
It’s a smaller number than last year.
Last year, we had 215 graduates in Nunavut.
Even though the numbers seem to drop a bit in recent years, over the longer term, the trend is growing a little bit.
Some years, it’s one or two less and then the next year, it will be many more.
If you look at it from 1999, the number of graduates has been rising, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad the trend is more graduates.
Once the students graduate, I know some do go onto further education.
Does the department track or observe the number of students who go on to further their education, whether it’s through university, college, or trades?
Is there a mechanism to track that?
In Nunavut, we are aware of the grade 12 graduates.
However, we don’t really keep track of what they do afterwards, although we are aware that the number of students who attend Nunavut Arctic College is quite many, as well as to other programs like Nunavut Sivuniksavut.
We don’t keep track of the actual numbers.
I can say that the ones who go to college, we track them more through there as to where they go afterwards and what work placement they go to after they finish college.
However, we don’t have one set up for the high school.
I think it would be useful information to know how many students go on to further their education in any field, whether it be down south or in Nunavut.
I don’t know the process to do it, but would the minister consider setting up a system where you can track the number of students who go to further their education once they have graduated?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister Education, Hon. Minister Mr. Quassa.
Thank you for requesting more information on education.
When they graduate, it would be better if we could track where they go after high school.
Question 316 – 4(2): Human Resources Strategy (Hickes)
I wasn’t expecting to get up again so soon.
Mr. Speaker, today, I have a question for the Minister of Finance.
A couple of days ago, he had tabled the Human Resource Strategy for 2014-18.
There are four priorities listed, but two of them are of special interest to me today in my line of questioning.
Not that they’re not all important to me, but these two are how I’ll direct my question: increasing and enhancing Inuit employment and recruiting the skilled people we need.
Mr. Speaker, a number of times in this House, I have spoken to the need to identify students who are in post-secondary academic studies and linking them to employment within the territory of Nunavut, specifically the Government of Nunavut.
We have a number of capacity issues across the territory and in numerous different departments, and I would so far as to say all the departments.
As I have broached this topic a number of times, I would like an update from the minister if any progress has been made in communication with the department responsible for Financial Assistance for Nunavut Students in linking [post-secondary] academic studies to employment.
Thank you. It’s to the Minister of Finance.
Mr. Speaker, the Human Resource Strategy has been in development for quite a long time and all departments and territorial corporations have been involved, all deputy ministers, all policy officials, committees, the whole departments.
In this strategy, we have stated that all departments, all territorial heads, deputy heads, even if they’re corporation deputy heads, everybody is committed to this process.
I believe that the deputy heads are talking to each other.
In terms of FANS, I cannot speak for the minister, but we have made a commitment to our post-secondary students, our high school students.
Through the summer student employment program, we had 380 applicants last summer and I think we hired 197 throughout Nunavut.
We do make a very serious effort to support our students and give them employment through grades 10, 11, and 12 and beyond as they move forward in their studies.
These are students we hope will continue their education, post-secondary or into apprentice programs.
By working for the government and being supported by government and getting annual increases in their summer pay, they will eventually come to work for the Government of Nunavut.
They should deal with the Department of Family Services in terms of applying in a timely basis for their FANS funding. Of course, the minister can speak to that, but I’m not intimately familiar with the timelines in terms of meeting the deadlines to apply for FANS.
In the strategy that I had referenced in my initial question, on page 11, in “Engaging and developing employees at all levels,” it talks that at senior levels, “employees are encouraged and supported to attend executive development programs or to take education leave to develop academic credentials.”
The next line kind of confused me a bit, Mr. Speaker. It says, “To date, however, training and career development have been focused on the individual’s needs rather than on the longer-term interests of the public service.”
Would the minister be able to elaborate a little bit on the intent of that sentence?
It’s a 34-page document. I did read it all.
There are a few extra pages in here to pick one line out of the document, but I don’t want to put words in the mouths of the people who wrote this.
The Government of Nunavut does want to train employees to work for the Government of Nunavut.
Through performance management and performance appraisals, if they’re in a specific job or planning for a specific job, then we want to focus on providing training to those individuals to do those jobs.
Career progression, so jobs that would enhance their skills to work in a job in a department or in a territorial corporation, is a benefit to the government and to public service.
I would think that any academic studies that are applied for would have to be to the benefit of Nunavut to be approved.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to touch on the ePersonality database that the GN uses for personnel records.
One of the gaps it identifies in here is that it continues to be constrained to “conduct government-wide analyses of workforce skills gaps and potential” that it does not track the “level of education, training programs attended or career history.”
Later in the document, it talks about maintaining career development records, tracking education, career history, and career interests, identifying talent pools, and development of individual learning plans.
Can the minister maybe explain that data collection? Is there a technical reason why it can’t be carried over into the ePersonality software?
Hon. Keith Peterson: Mr. Speaker, I’m not a technical guy, I’m not an IT guy, so I can barely operate my BlackBerry on the best of days.
Mr. Speaker, it does clearly identify in this area, page 12, that we do have shortfalls in ePersonality. I know our staff is working very hard.
We don’t want people to get overly high expectations of how we’re going to track everybody. We do identify that there are shortcomings.
Again, it’s a strategy that’s over four years. We do state here that we’re going to make incremental improvements. Of course, when you’re working with the databases, you do have to test the data and make sure the system works.
I can assure members that we’re very committed to this strategy.
We want to have the best available data to assist us to go forward.
We do want to support and train our employees and make sure that they continue to work for the Government of Nunavut. We have said in our document that we want to make the Government of Nunavut the choice of employers to work for, and we are committed to this document.
Question 317 – 4(2): Outcomes of Three Teaching Models (Mikkungwak)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Education in regard to his Minister’s Statement.
I know that my colleague had asked a question in regard to that, but looking at the Minister’s Statement, we’re always pleased to see graduates in our community. We provide support to the students who are graduating, no matter where they are.
I do want to ask my first question to the Minister of Education.
The DEAs used to select one of three different teaching models that they will be using.
The DEAs (interpretation ends) select a model. (interpretation) Can the minister identify which model is used the most in the higher grades?
Yes, the DEAs can select from one of the three teaching models, which are the Qulliq model, dual model, and immersion model.
If the DEA selects either one of the models, they have to apply it for five years. For example, if Baker Lake chooses the Qulliq model, they would apply that model for five years, unless the DEA decides to formally change the model.
However, we haven’t identified which model will be used.