EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
They were not informed that the shipping route was slated to go through that area adjacent to these two communities and these ships are enormous.
The other impacted communities of Iqaluit, Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, Igloolik, and Hall Beach have already been consulted about the possible routing. However, the two communities that comprise my constituency were never consulted about this route by either party.
They do not even have information on the number of ships to be used, including the number of ships that are scheduled to pass through Hudson Strait, and these ships will be plying that route even in the winter. This is of great concern to my communities and perhaps with the assistance of my two constituency communities, I can draft up a letter requesting that information to be disbursed to these two communities.
If there are no more, Item 4. Returns to Oral Questions.
Member for Rankin South and Whale Cove, Ms. Brown.
I would like to recognize two individuals sitting in the Gallery. Yesterday, I had every intention of recognizing the individuals, but I didn’t.
The first individual I would like to mention is Annette Boucher from Rankin Inlet. She will be paging with us for this week.
Her mother is Leonie and Abe Boucher is her father.
Her mom is also my younger sister.
They have lived in Rankin Inlet for a very long time and also residing in my riding.
The second individual I would like to recognize is Ellie Cansfield sitting out in the Gallery. I would like to thank her for observing the proceedings and please be welcomed in the House.
I would also like to recognize the President of KCC and a long time Keewatin resident, and her husband, Ken Masen. They are accountants in the Keewatin region.
Thank you. Our visitors and our staff, welcome.
Question 560 – 2(4): Renovations to Hamlet Office Building in Kugaaruk (Mapsalak)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of CG&S.
Mr. Speaker, not too long ago, I was asking some questions to the minister about the Kugaaruk Hamlet Office which is quite old and in desperate need of repair.
I would like to ask the minister what has been done about it.
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to thank the member for raising his question.
I’m looking into my documents to find out about the Kugaaruk situation.
There are quite a lot of hamlet council offices that are in need of repair.
Everything is aging and will have to be repaired and brought up to code.
In any event, we have to make proper plans before replacing any of these facilities.
We’re even looking at the utilidor systems because all of them are aging. It seems like they were built about the same time that the communities were established 20 to 30 years ago.
I share the member’s concern, but I don’t have the information in front of me, so I can’t respond to his question at this time.
Mr. Mapsalak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to thank the minister.
Again, the hamlet office definitely needs repair or renovation and we have absolutely no space there if we wanted to relocate them.
I would like to ask the minister if she would respond to my question prior to the end of this sitting.
I don’t want to say yes to a lot of things, but I know exactly where the member is coming from. Again, all the community facilities are aging.
I believe the hamlet offices, garages, the municipal garages, sewage systems, and dumps were all built at approximately the same time, which are now overloaded, so we need to consider them.
I will review the Five-Year Capital Plan and once I have reviewed it, I will get back to the member on his question.
I just want to ask the minister because I have brought this up before and I’m pretty sure her officials try and check as to what has happened.
I’m pretty sure this has been looked into, so I wonder if the minister can provide me with correspondence to the status of the office in Kugaaruk before the end of the session.
We all want to do a good job and we don’t want to omit any communities.
I will certainly check into this and provide you with the information via correspondence.
Question 561 – 2(4): Baseball Diamond for Pond Inlet (Arvaluk)
I, too, have a question for the Minister of CGS. It must be her lucky day.
During the Committee of the Whole review of the capital budget, I noticed that there was nothing for the baseball diamond that was to be constructed. First of all, I appreciate her response.
I don’t see in the appropriation, which was agreed to, the arena that was going to be constructed as soon as the community hall was finished.
I don’t see that in the documents, so can the minister tell me what the status of that arena is?
I have lots of paper in front of me.
To my colleague’s question, we went to visit his community and I remember that very clearly. I can tell him today that it’s in the design stage and it is almost 100 percent complete.
So it’s almost 100 percent complete.
Once the design and planning is complete, will you advise the hamlet council as to exactly when the construction will start?
The present arena is about 30 years old and it was inadequate when it was built in the first place.
Meanwhile, other communities have received very good arenas.
Will you write to the hamlet council once the design is complete?
I thank the member for that. The department and the NCIAC have listed the arena project as a priority.
Yes, I can write that letter to the hamlet council in Pond Inlet.
Officials will be consulting with the community this summer, too.
Minister, do you expect, once you have the design done to be attached to the community hall, to have the orders made for this summer’s sealift season?
Currently, there is no funding for the arena project, but officials are working on developing a budget with associated funds.
The project is currently under review by Technical Services and as I read this note, it was to be completed by January of 2008. It’s too early for me to tell whether the supplies would be there this summer, but I can certainly check into that, Mr. Speaker.
Would you then convey that information to the hamlet about the complete plans and when it would start, and when it would finish, etcetera, rather than leaving the community up in the air once again this year?
Can you give them a concrete plan as to when you expect the work to begin?
I’m quite concerned, Mr. Speaker, because I have been reading the Northern Connections from the three governments - the Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut - that there is actually an Airport Capital Assistance Program that was not used to improve the Iqaluit airport, rather they used the Building Canada Infrastructure Fund that could have been used for arenas and stuff like that.
So I would like to get concrete information as soon as possible and relay that message to the Pond Inlet Hamlet.
As you know, the member, Phase I has been completed already, and that was the community hall, and we’re now into Phase II. As the member asked if I could convey to the hamlet council in Pond Inlet, I will do that.
Question 562 – 2(4): Income Support Payments and Growing Global Food Crisis (Peterson)
My question is for the Minister of Education, who is responsible for the Income Support Program.
Mr. Speaker, as the minister knows, for months now, there have been well-documented reports of a global food crisis sparked by rising commodity prices for wheat, corn, soy beans, livestock, and they’re all priced in U.S. dollars. As we know, the higher fuel costs are adding to shipping.
Canada has been sheltered this year because of our rising loonie against the U.S. dollar, so we have been lucky, but now, it is stabilizing near parity.
I read recently that inflation is expected to increase in Canada by 3.5 percent in 2009, and that’s in southern Canada. In Nunavut, it would be much higher.
My question for the minister: can the minister tell the House if his department is factoring in the already increasing Nunavut food prices in 2008 when they calculate the income support payments to their clients?
The member again is correct when he talks about the situation on a worldwide basis and we have heard on the news that there is a crisis in many communities and countries. For example, we saw riots in Haiti because of the increased cost of basic food staples.
Most of those basic food staples, Mr. Speaker, are corn, rice, and so on. What the Department of Education has done, through the Income Support Program, has increased by 15 percent during the life of this Assembly the income support amount. We closely monitor the food baskets based on the consumer price index, or CPI, for our given communities.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the minister for that response. The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, in their revised northern food basket survey of 2006, indicated that it would cost a family of four in Cambridge Bay $382 per week for a nutritious diet of food.
That’s almost $1,600 per month and that’s in 2006 dollars.
With the ravages of inflation since then, it must be more in 2008.
My question for the minister: you indicated that they track staple of foods or basket of foods in various Nunavut communities. Can the minister tell the House what the department currently estimates the cost of feeding a family of four weekly in Cambridge Bay is when they’re processing income support payments?
We have several programs in place for famillies that are on income support, and the members are aware that it includes a very low rental amount of $30 or more a month, we have a subsidy in place for the electrical costs, and so on.
We did increase the income support amount by 15 percent. I don’t have the actual cost for a basket of food in Cambridge Bay.
What I can say is that, as the member is aware, in Cambridge Bay, like all across Nunavut, residents were increased by the 15 percent amount that we have talked about earlier in the House.
I’m pretty sure that the food prices have gone up a lot more than 15 percent since 2004 in most communities. The communities I go to, I usually go to the Northern and Co-op stores and compare, and they’re fairly high all across Nunavut, even here in Iqaluit. It’s amazing the prices that people have to pay.
Mr. Speaker, the Food Mail Program has helped to mitigate the high costs of shipping and purchasing food in remote and rural communities.
Many Nunavut communities are able to take advantage of this program, particularly if they have credit cards and in Nunavut grocery stores as well, when they purchase food through resale.
My question for the minister: can the minister tell the House who monitors food prices in Nunavut grocery stores to ensure that some food mail savings flow through to consumers, particularly for those on income support?
There has been a lot of controversy over the Food Mail Program. As the member knows, the Food Mail Program is administered by the federal Government of Canada.
They monitor the costs and they look at the total. For example, if there’s an increase in freight rates, then the federal Food Mail Program has to increase the amount of money they put into the program. So that is monitored by our federal partner.
It has had a significant impact in many of our communities by keeping the costs of perishable foods especially lower than they would be if the subsidy wasn’t in place.
Indeed, I believe I saw some figures recently which indicated that the federal government had increased the cost on the mail subsidy program for food by over 20 percent. They do monitor that cost and they do look at the end result on a regular basis.
If the federal government is monitoring the Food Mail Program, I hope that they’re ensuring that some costs are flowing through to low income residents in Nunavut. It is very expensive to live in Nunavut; there is no doubt about that.
Mr. Speaker, the minister indicated that the Income Support Program has increased by 15 percent since the beginning of the start of this Assembly; I think it’s up around $30 million now.
In my mind, the sustainability of the Income Support Program is in some doubt as it keeps increasing and we have seen that tremendous increase. It doesn’t appear that the demand is going to decrease for that program in the face of all the increasing costs I mentioned earlier.
My question for the minister, and I’m sure the minister has met with his federal, provincial, and territorial counterparts in various meetings: can the minister tell the House what initiatives his department is considering discussing or has discussed with his federal or provincial counterparts to address high food costs for low-income families in Nunavut?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Income Support Program is a program of last resort.
Probably the best and surest way to lower the income support levels in our communities is through economic development. I believe some of the members have been very strong in the House talking about economic opportunities, whether that’s in the mining industry or the fishing industry, and so on. When we see those numbers actually take off, we see the number of households per family on income support considerably drop off.
There is a concern in some jurisdictions, when we meet with our federal, provincial, and territorial counterparts, about the amounts of income support.
But across the country, you see those amounts dropping, especially in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland, where they have seen increased economic opportunity.
We see the same thing, for example, here in Nunavut communities, Baker Lake, as an example, where we are seeing increased economic activity.
Question 563 – 2(4): CGS Initiatives in Kugluktuk (Evyagotailak)
I am grateful to you for this opportunity to ask questions.
I’m not expecting many positive answers but I would like an answer. We see a lot of documents in front of us.
I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Community and Government Services.
Last week, I was pleased to take part in an announcement that included her department’s initiatives in Kugluktuk.
I have been raising a number of these issues and I am glad to see the government taking action. We are thankful for that.
Mr. Speaker, (interpretation ends) one of the department’s plans is to invest $450,000 this year to develop a solution to the Water Quality Program in Kugluktuk.
Can the minister indicate to me what the timeline is for completing the work?
I’m sorry that he did not speak long enough for me to find the document, but I’m still looking for it.
In regard to his question on timelines, it doesn’t appear here but I know that they will be working on it this summer.
The contractors will start their work this coming summer, with the contract having been awarded to A.D. Williams.
I cannot respond as to when it will be completed.
Concerns have been brought to my attention that the community has recently experienced a shortage of naphtha.
Can the minister indicate to me today if she will ask her officials in the Petroleum Products Division to address this issue and ensure that this year’s fuel resupply will include an adequate amount for the community?
Although it might not be in relation to his first question, I would like to say that (interpretation ends) I’ll take that as notice. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member, I’m just letting you know that your question has been taken as notice.
Question 564 – 2(4): Fuel Supplies in Baker Lake (Simailak)
I’m sorry that I was going to be asking the same question as Mr. Tootoo today.
If I had known, I would have asked a different question.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Community and Government Services, who is responsible for the Petroleum Products Division.
As the minister knows, Baker Lake is experiencing unprecedented economic growth due to the activities of exploration and mining companies.
I had asked this question back in our February session, Mr. Speaker.
My questions were in regard to the added costs incurred by these companies due to the Petroleum Products Division bringing in an inadequate amount of fuel to Baker Lake last winter.
Can the minister update the House today as to how the Petroleum Products Division is working with the industries so that they could provide adequate fuel supplies this summer?
Can the minister update us on how the Petroleum Products Division has been working with the industry to address this issue?
What the member is saying is correct. The community of Baker Lake is indeed experiencing fuel shortages due to increasing demands.
I believe that the exploration and mining activities will only increase and the number of their workers will be increasing as well, so the fuel has been increasingly in short supply.
The Department of Community and Government Services takes part in the planning process and will continue to do their planning with regards to the increased demands.
I can state today that there’s a possibility that we might start taking advantage of Churchill again since they have additional capacity in their tank farms and we could store the additional fuel there.
The Baker Lake fuel tanks currently do not have the capacity for us to store more fuel and are inadequate for the amounts we are looking at, but I’m not sure if we have any future plans to add more fuel tanks in that community.
I raised the same concern last winter about the fuel shortage in Baker Lake.
I stated that the existing fuel was inadequate and would be inadequate after this winter. This winter, the Hercules flew to Baker Lake five times to transport fuel.
We expect that aircraft to arrive approximately 30 times to deliver fuel to Baker Lake. Although the scow season is almost here, I know that we are still going to experience a shortage of fuel.
In looking at the factors, there is a cause of concern here. Is the Petroleum Products Division properly reviewing their annual plans for fuel resupply to include the additional fuel requirements some communities need due to activities in their areas?
I know for a fact that these exploration and mining companies have had discussions with the Petroleum Products Division staff about the amounts of fuel they would like to buy for the upcoming year.
Can the minister indicate to me what her department is doing to ensure that this year’s sealift provides adequate quantities of fuel to Baker Lake?
Minister of Community and Government Services and Minister responsible for the Petroleum Products Division, Minister Brown.
It is a concern, not only in Baker Lake but in other areas, too, because communities are just growing too fast, too rapidly.
And in some instances, in some communities, there are mining activities. Because of that, the demand for fuel, oil, and gasoline is much more than previous years.
Just as an example, PPD had approximately 2 million litres of diesel fuel and 700,000 litres of gasoline on hand in Churchill from which to draw on in the event of a community shortfall.
That’s where PPD and CGS are hauling from Churchill to Baker Lake because they had run short.
In the interim, that will continue.
However, after that, CGS and PPD are still monitoring the situation and what to do in the future.
If need be, I guess they will develop a plan for Baker Lake.
From what I see, I think the alternative is to use the storage from Churchill.
Mr. Simailak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, having fuel set aside in Churchill was timely, but this is obviously an expensive solution.
This spring, we have heard that transporting fuel by aircraft is going to cost over $4 million and this is only for chartering the aircraft.
The government constantly talks about being short of money and yet, this appears to be an added waste of government money.
I would like to get clarification from the minister whether the Petroleum Products Division staff in Rankin Inlet are doing their work properly.
Are they even in the office all day when they have to work, or is it because they have so much freedom that the plans for the community resupply are not updated, even though a lot of communities are experiencing fuel shortages?
We also know in Baker Lake that the Agnico-Eagle Company is using their own fuel which they purchased themselves and transported by barge to Baker Lake.
The barges are still at Baker Lake and they do not purchase fuel from the PPD.
I would like to ask the minister if the Petroleum Products Division staff are being monitored or even supervised to ensure that they are doing their work properly.
An Hon. Member: Good question.
I’m a bit offended on some of the comments that were made about CGS and PPD.
I could even ask if there is anything right that PPD and CGS is doing.
Of course, they are.
We have light in here and everybody has fuel in Nunavut.
How about the hamlet councils in the communities?
Are they preparing and planning for their future when they make agreements with KIA or with the mining company?
Are they planning sufficiently so that there is enough fuel oil for them and for the mining company activities so that the poor community of Baker Lake does not have to run out of fuel, oil, or gasoline?
I’m quite offended that the question has to come on behalf of PPD and CGS because they are doing what they can.
If there’s a situation in the communities, who is right there? They send their technical staff right away or they order any expert to come to the community right away; they respond right away.
So the answer is yes, PPD and CGS are doing what they can. And with the limited number of staff and resources that they have, they are doing a wonderful job and I praise them.
I thank our Member from Cambridge Bay before when he thanked the government staff.
I congratulate him for that because all the staff of the government are doing what they can.
The Government of Nunavut, I think we wanted this, I think we have to support it, I think we don’t have to say and ask if they’re doing a good job or not because there are disciplinary actions to take when it’s necessary.
We are planning for Baker Lake to make sure that they’re equipped with what their needs are for fuel, oil, and gasoline.
It’s important that we plan for the future.
There are just not sufficient tanks in some communities and that’s one of the priorities that the communities have to work on along with the PPD staff to construct these, or to develop tank farms.
A lot of communities have many needs, not only for tank farms but also for other infrastructure. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Since the minister asked about this issue, I can respond to the minister that the Hamlet of Baker Lake has a long-term plan to make sure that the mining companies and the people of Baker Lake are provided adequately with petroleum products. They meet with these companies and are continuing their work.
They also worked on the amount of fuel required to meet all of these demands. However, CGS apparently ordered an insufficient amount of fuel last year.
I would like to ask her this last question if I may, Mr. Speaker. I wrote a letter to the minister last March and highlighted these issues. I searched high and low for the response letter in my office at Baker Lake and our offices here, but I could not recall whether or not the minister responded to my letter about petroleum products.
So my final question to the minister is if the minister can commit to me that she will reply to my letter written in March before the end of this sitting. If she can respond, it would be much appreciated.
Yes, I thought I responded to your letter of March and if I didn’t, then I’m sorry.
I will look for the correspondence that you referenced and I will respond to you by the end of this sitting here.
I also know that the Hamlet of Baker Lake does very good work. I work very well with the people and the Hamlet of Baker Lake and we consult extensively with them. I would like to thank the member for reminding me about his letter.
Question 565 – 2(4): Public Housing Construction in Sanikiluaq (Kattuk)
Under the Nunavut Housing Trust, my community of Sanikiluaq is scheduled to receive 27 new units between 2006 and 2009.
I would like to thank the minister for his recent letter to me in which he updated me on the status of three five-plex units that were scheduled to be constructed for the fiscal years 2006-07 and 2007-08.