EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
For example, as I have stated before, these communities are not following the Nunavut time zone, Pangnirtung, Sanikiluaq and Clyde River.
Will the government overrule these communities to change to the Nunavut Time zone or will they follow the Hamlet Act.
The Hamlet Councils do not have any authority in regards to the time change and the Nunavut Government has been using their own Act.
Question 400 – 1(3): Following the Peoples Wishes
Mr. Speaker I have to represent the people of Nunavut and my question is directed to the government leader.
Like we have said many times before, that we have to follow the wishes of the people of Nunavut but today it seems like we are going to bypass the wishes of the people.
I am not sure what the member is asking.
Maybe if he could clarify his question I could probably respond to his question.
Speaker: Would the member clarify his question.
The question I heard a little while ago is, does the hamlet not have stronger legislation.
If we made legislation as a government, for instance for the people who do not want to follow the Nunavut time zone, what will the government do about them.
If they wish to keep their local time will they keep their local time or will they have to go to the Nunavut time as the government says.
We are reviewing this and we would like to hear from all the people of Nunavut as to whether they support it or not.
We will be looking at all the communities that might be having a problem and we will want to hear from all the communities before we will deal with it again.
Do they like the time or don't they.
So we will be reviewing this because we want to have the same time in Nunavut and we will always be looking for a better thing for the people of Nunavut.
Speaker: Mr. Alakannuark, supplementary.
My supplementary question is for the government leader.
What about the hunters, because I am concerned about the hunters, will the hunters be involved in a review.
Many older people in the communities have concerns and they always say they might not have authority or be involved in the government.
We mentioned before the Nunavut Government is for all people and I just wondered if they are going to be involved.
Yes we want them to be involved.
We will hear from all the people in the communities and we will be consulting with them if they come to any problems.
We will be dealing with the legislation on the time zone and we will always want to hear from the people of Nunavut as to the best way to serve them, whether or not it is through legislation.
We will be open and we will be reviewing the problems the communities are having with the time.
Speaker: Final supplementary for Mr. Alakannuark.
The Premier will be reviewing this and he will be seeking input from the communities.
Will you be fixing a time if the majority wants to have different time zones.
We will want to hear from all the people from Nunavut communities.
We can not do anything about it until we do a review.
We will be trying to go to the communities before they go out camping.
Speaker: Time for oral questions is up.
Item 11.
Reports of Special and Standing Committees.
Tabled Document 65 – 1(3): Kitikmeot Leaders Forum Resolution
Tabled Document 66 – 1(3): Letter from Minister Havioyak
I would like to table a resolution from the Kitikmeot Leaders Forum of October 1998, in support of a full size gymnasium for Cambridge Bay.
I would also like to table the letter of the former minister, the Hon. Donald Havioyak from the Kitikmeot Heritage Society requesting his support for the cultural centre for Cambridge Bay.
Tabled Document 67 – 1(3): Nunavut Employees' Union Members' Letters
I want to table today six letters that I received from constituents of mine who belong to the Nunavut Employees' Union.
They are expressing their concern over the direction and tone of the negotiations between the Government of Nunavut and the union.
Tabled Document 68 – 1(3):Achieving Pinasuaqtavut – Health & Social Services Business Plan
Today I would like to table a document called "Achieving Pinasuaqtavut" as requested by the Standing Committee of Culture, Education and Health.
This document is the business plan for the Department of Health and Social Services for the year 2000/2001.
Mr. Speaker, it will form the basis of our operations in the coming year and articulates our goals and guiding principals for the future.
Speaker: Mr. Picco, are you referring to a business plan in your tabled document.
Mr. Speaker, under the rules of the House any document can be tabled during the tabling of documents and at this time I felt it was permissible to table my business plan.
Speaker: Thank you Mr. Picco we're just getting a point of clarification for the record.
Mr. Minister in accordance with motion 14-1(3) Business plan for Health & Social Services is referred to the committee of the whole.
Tabled Document 69 – 1(3): Summary of Wildlife Research Projects
Under Ministers' Statements I mentioned that I would be tabling the Department of Sustainable Development's summary of wildlife research projects in Nunavut.
This is from the statement I made earlier.
Tabled Document 70 – 1(3): Nunavut Employees' Union Members' Letters
I want to table documents from Margaret Amaruk and Irene Niuqtuq, Susan Niuqtuq, Sheila Aksawnee, Neil Mautaritnaak, David Annanowt, who are all employees of the Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School regarding the Northern Employees' Union and the tone of the negotiations.
Speaker: Second Reading of Bills.
Item 20 Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters.
Bill 13 Table Documents 41-1(3), Table Documents 51-1(3), Table Documents 60-1(3), Table Documents 61-1(3) and Table Documents 68-1(3).
In accordance to the authority vested in me by the motion 3-1(3), the Committee of the Whole will stay in session until it reports itself out with Mr. Iqaqrialu as chairperson.
We will now take a 20 minute break prior to the Committee of the Whole.
>>House recessed for 20 minutes
Chairperson (interpretation): We have a quorum now and we are now on Item 3 during Committee of the Whole on the Education Department.
First, I would like to ask the Minister if he has any opening comments, while he is still seated at his usual seat.
Go ahead Mr. Arvaluk.
Yesterday, although I made my opening comments in regards to the financial plans as to how they are going to be allocated, at this point I would like to clarify yesterday, 061-01 tabled document for capital details, substantiation sheets.
Part of it is a little bit different from 2000-2001 plans.
What I am trying to say is we will be using the capital substantiation sheets for 2000-2001.
For the budget for 1999-2000 the detailed information substantiation sheets were tabled for 1999-2000 also included in there and the financial details are the same as the substantiation sheets they are both in detail.
I just wanted to point that out so as not to confuse the Members.
Just in case they might be asking questions so therefore we will probably be looking at the two substantiation sheets and with the main estimates.
Also as I had stated before the translations are not completed yet but you may be able to get them as soon as they are completed.
(interpretation ends) Also Mr. Chairman, yesterday the Honourable Hunter Tootoo asked a question regarding the pupil/teacher ratio in Nunavut schools and whether we are going to review it in the future.
He also asked that during the Question Period.
The pupil/teacher ratio is high now in our schools as it is for many across Canada.
We plan to review it this coming year.
Mr. Chairman, in order for our department to establish a strong foundation, we need to have a strong sense of vision and principles to guide us.
We believe that education is a life-long process.
What we have begun in our first year has been to look at how things have been done in the past and we are re-thinking how else we can do them to do the best for our students and the people we serve.
Developing a Nunavut education system will mean reviewing strategies, formulas and activities.
In our first year we started doing this as staff have been hired to do the work.
Like all other departments there is a lot of work on everyone’s plate and I stated that this morning too.
I am pleased to report that we have begun work on such activities as:
revising the Education Act to make our policies and legislation more reflective of Nunavut.
doing a labour market needs analysis, which will help identify what jobs are needed and what training we need to put in place.
developing a long term curriculum and resource development strategy that will identify priorities our department needs to work on.
doing a language of instruction study to define a language policy and models so that we develop a strong language plan so we develop a strong bilingual education system.
We have begun a full review of income support and start developing strategies and programs that will promote independence.
Reviewing early childhood and day-care programming so that they can also be made more Nunavut relevant.
This coming year we will be looking at formulas used in the past.
We need to look at the K to 12 schools have been funded for teachers, program support teachers, language specialists and assistant principals. It all comes down to cost and what we put in place has to be well planned and impacts best on our students with various types of programming.
Mr. Chairman, I welcome input and ideas from my colleagues and members to help improve learning and teaching in Nunavut.
Mr. Chairman, these are available now they are translated both in English and Inuktitut, those can be had immediately if you want.
Tabvatau, qujannamiik, iqsivautau.
First of all the minister indicated that I was Mr. Speaker, I am not Mr. Speaker, you should call me Mr. Chairman because I am just a Chairman.
I think that is it for your speaking notes.
We will go back to Item 3.
If you want your witnesses to sit with you at the witness stand feel free to do so, however there’s not enough seats down there so the minister and his ADM and DM can only sit with him.
Thank you for sitting down to the witness stand.
You are going to be dealing with the same items that we dealt with yesterday, but Mr. Minister if you could introduce your staff again before we go into general comments.
To my right, Robert Moody, Deputy Minister of Education, and to my left, Naullaq Arnaquq ADM for Education and if I have to introduce the staff members there they have different job titles here.
If you people have to refer to them they will be available.
And who are you.
Hon. James Arvaluk (interpretation): I am sorry.
My name is Arvaluk.
We are still under general comments for the Department of Education.
Are there any general comments or questions.
Mr. Chairman, yesterday I had asked a question and we ran out of time before I could get any response.
The question I had asked the Minister is if the department was doing a study or trying to find out why we seem to have such large discrepancies between the enrolments at the elementary level and the high school level.
I’m just wondering he had indicated staff members who were going to answer that, I’d just ask if I could get that response.
The Minister of Education.
Yes, we are aware of the question.
We also stated that we have inherited this policy from GNWT and there are a lot of policies and regulations within the Act.
So, we are going to have to review all that first and I am not sure about the status, so I am going to get Naullaq to elaborate a little bit more.
Chairperson (interpretation): Naullaq if you could elaborate a little bit more.
Ms. Arnaquq: Thank you. Thank you, Hunter asked the question yesterday where there are some discrepancies.
In the regions we were funding Divisional Boards of Education and going by how many students would be entering schools we would fund up to October 31 and we are still using that old policy.
However, Mr. Arvaluk indicated that there would be a comprehensive review of all the funding that is provided to the schools according to how many students are entering the school system.
There are also program support teachers that have to be funded as well and the assistant principals and the counsellors that are in the schools.
The funding that we provide to these schools usually depends on how many mentally challenged students there are in the schools.
We also have some Inuktitut instructors, we call them language specialists and usually the funding we provide them always depends on the amount of students that are in the classroom.
We also provide funds to the high schools and that depends on how many students will be in the high schools.
Like we said we have inherited the policies of the GNWT Department of Education so we are going to be reviewing everything all the policies that are within the Act, probably will be trying to put out Nunavut made legislation.
Thank you for your response and I think Mr. Tootoo has another question.
Not another question Mr. Chairman.
But just to elaborate more on what I said yesterday is that the numbers that we have in our elementary system are quite high the PTR's are quite high in the elementary level and once you move into the high school level, they seem to drop.
That’s an indication of young people quitting school for whatever reason.
I guess I was asking the minister if the department is doing a study or looking at the reason why we do seem to have such a high drop out rate of students once they get to the high school level and if there’s lots of kids in the elementary level and they seem to fall through the cracks those that are dropping out of high school and that’s what I was referring to Mr. Chairman.
I’m just wondering if you are doing a study, it has nothing to do with the study, just a study on why this is happening.
Hon. James Arvaluk: This is like 101 Dalmatians I think the answer is very much in that part.
In general sometimes it is the community atmosphere, sometimes it is lack of support from parents, sometimes the peer group being involved with something else, but we have been seeing an increase in retention in the last several years and we will continue to try to find a way to improve that.
We have to look at what we do with education and educational programs in the communities and what are the factors are contributing to the drop out rate or fall into the cracks.
I think, like any other community program the school requires strong support from the community, strong support from the parents and the co-ordination and co-operation between the educators and the Department of Education and the public in general.
So we are now looking at overall education as a whole rather than between the school and the pupil area.
So to elaborate more I would like ask again Naullaq Arnaquq to add.
Ms. Arnaquq (interpretation): Thank you.
Yes, we are aware of this problem and we have seen this in the past too.
The programs that we put out in the elementary and in the high schools are very much in need of overhaul.
Both the curriculum and the programs that we provide to schools have to be reviewed and the turnover of teachers mainly in our area is very high so we are going to look into that as well.
A teacher sometimes leaves the community just when their students are getting to know them as well as the public.
I think this is one of the main causes of high school dropouts.
Like the minister indicated if the students are not getting enough support from their parents right from elementary to grades 6 and from grade 6 beyond, I think we need to put some kind of support system for students so they can remain in school.
We have done some research on that and we expect that things will get better in the future because we all know that if a student who has good support from his family and in the community he has the tendency to stay in school and complete his studies.
I mean there are many different reasons that we have to consider when we are reviewing the Education Act.
So, the support system is another thing that we will be looking into, it has become apparent that we need some kind of support system in the schools.
You have to go through the Chairman every time you make a statement or make a response.
I think that everybody should be made aware of that, go through the chairperson.
So, I guess out of that the answer is no.
I didn’t really get an answer.
I couldn’t pick one out of there as to whether that was something that they were doing, looking at reasons why we are losing those children in the high school, not.
Let me just get a straight yes or no answer.
I guess that, either they are or they will be looking into trying to do a study to determine the causes for the high dropouts.
We already know a very large part why individuals sometimes do not continue pursuing high school until they reach, until they graduate.
What we will be trying to do is how to improve the completion or success rate of those students and those are numerous.
We’ll continue to find out, we already know from talking to former students and the teachers and the communities there is some theory, but the methodology how to improve that success rate is not yet been completed and of course we look at some past experiences.
Secondly the society including educators must be up to date on a yearly basis because the young people who are most vulnerable in changing the attitudes towards education, lifestyle the fads and styles and other influences that the television or the society as a whole may bring.
What we will have to do as educators and parents is to make them feel proud of their own language and culture first then building the foundation before we even begin to work anything in the school to improve the success rate.
I would like my Deputy Minister to add to what the Department of Education has been doing so far on that.
Mr. Moody.
Mr. Moody: Nakurmiik Mr. Chairman.
The study that we will be initiating on pupil/teacher ratio will likely start this summer and it will look at what we are doing here in Nunavut, pressures, and will also look at jurisdictions across Canada.
As the minister mentioned, a lot is known about the retention rates and the success or lack of success at the high school level in Nunavut today.
The retention rate, people staying in high school and graduation rates are better today than they were five years ago that’s a positive trend.
We are optimistic that those trends will continue.
On the specific question are we going to do more study on this.
It is my understanding Mr. Chairman that there have been several studies done in Nunavut recently and some actual pilot projects so as the minister mentioned there is a lot known.
However, having said that, the minister has initiated a study which will not begin until later in the new year just again because there is a lot on our plates.
We actually have the terms of reference for the study done.
It was called Determinants of Educational Success and again we will be looking at the success factors, what we know today, what we know in the education literature nationally and internationally, what makes people succeed, what allows them to succeed.
The minister outlines some of the things that are very relevant to Nunavut and relevant in other places like parental support, like community ownership in schools, these things are very important.
So we will be doing that particular one it won’t be, if I understand the members question correctly Mr. Chairman, it won’t be actually part of the PTR review but it’s planned to re-look at the material.
That study will probably not begin until the October/November time frame just because of work load, but we will do it.
The last thing, I’ll just repeat myself in saying that a lot of good work has been done in Nunavut.
So it’s a matter of re-looking at that, seeing the progress we have made because progress has been made and where should we go in the next ten to five years. Nakurmiik amma taima, Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Moody, Deputy Minister.
As we kept hearing at the House that we had our first year anniversary I know that we are starting to work on the problems since we are only a year old, so let’s be aware of the questions we are posing. So, both sides should be careful and aware of the questions.
Mr. Tootoo you may go ahead.
Mr. Tootoo: That’s okay Mr. Chairman.
I will be speaking in English. (interpretation ends) We have been talking a lot about pupil/teacher ratio in the past few days.
One of the reasons it is of such concern to us is because many of our students have special learning needs.
This makes it more difficult for teachers who have large classes, these students requires lots of extra support and specialized equipment.
We have never had enough funding to support the needs of these students.
They need specialists, help, and extra support from staff to be in school. I understand in the west, GNWT they have agreed to put extra funding into student support.
My question is what extra funding have you put into the budget this year for the student support and what are your plans for more funding for his purpose.
We have not put in any extra funding for special needs this year, it’s status quo from last year, but this is one of the things we will also be reviewing that what is a relevant, realistic budget that could be had for special needs.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): I really do not know if you will be able to respond to my question but I would like to ask it. (interpretation ends) What are your plans to provide better support services for the students such as specialists and support staff.
Hon. James Arvaluk: Mr. Chairman as I indicated before that some of these initiatives that the member is requesting have not yet been done, therefore we cannot, you know, all I can really say is all the things that we would do.
We are committed to reviewing all the aspects of the programs that we have inherited from the GNWT reviewing each and every one.
We already made approximately 15-16 new initiatives since we took office on April 1, 1999.
Some of them are lengthy and time consuming, some of them require quite a large amount of budget, for example, Inuktitut curriculum and a lot of other reviews that require community consultations like the Education Act.
But we do not have definite plans what we are going to do with that but we are committed to reviewing them, including special needs amongst other things, all the programs we have inherited from the GNWT.
I am getting confused now.
As the Minister has stated they will use quite large sums of money and they have a surplus.
Where did the surplus come from, was that surplus going to be used for research.
There is surplus of 9.1 million dollars in the Department of Education.
Where did that surplus come from.
We did not have the full capacity of staff.
Two things happened here one the lack of support staff for the first year.
We have been hiring but we have not reached 100 percent.
In fact to date if I am incorrect we are about 75 percent staffed.
That is why what we come up with this so-called surplus.
It is not a true surplus.
It will not reflect the same way as the following year because we plan to have a 100 percent capacity for staffing.
So that they will do the work we have not done.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Minister for Education.
Mr. Chairman the Department of Education as they have stated they are in the planning stages to review the Education Act.
As we have stated, we would like to have staff reflective of Nunavut.
We would like to see acts that reflect Nunavut.
When we were with the GNWT we had hardly seen what we wanted and that is when the Nunavut Government was created.
For example Mr. Chairman in 1999 in the Kitikmeot Regional Council at that time we had our session and they had asked me when I was Chairman.
I was a regional council member as a Mayor.
I was asked to become the NWT Disabled Council.
Since I have been a member of that Board we have been discussing this matter as a Nunavut resident and as a person coming from the Kitikmeot region.
I know that we have physically handicapped people in various communities.
In Kitikmeot we have deaf mute people and we have blind people.
We would like to although we try to help these people out by requesting for funding from GNWT.
It was impossible to get what I want.