EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I look forward to pursuing this issue during our time here in Pangnirtung and I’ll be asking a question at the appropriate time.
Member’s Statement 172 – 1(6): Thank you to the People of Pangnirtung
Mr. Irqittuq (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Speaker, I don’t have a member’s statement but I’m very pleased and I also would like to congratulate Mr. Kilabuk for holding the session here in Pangnirtung instead of Igloolik, which was the original place that I wanted go before we made a decision on Pangnirtung I feel very welcome.
I would like to thank the people of Pangnirtung for the hospitality but Peter owes me one.
Member’s Statement 173 – 1(6): How to Include Elders Knowledge in the School System
Mr. Alakannuark (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Speaker I would like to thank and I feel very welcome here in Pangnirtung.
I would like to thank the people of Pangnirtung.
It is a nice time of the season to be here in Pangnirtung when the weather is still warm.
I would like to make a brief statement on elders and their in depth knowledge of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
There are very few of these elders now.
The question, I guess, would be, how are we going to include the elders in the formal schooling system and how can we integrate the elders in the school system so that they can teach our students about the cultural, the language, social issues, survival in the arctic and also knowing the safety issues that place us in our daily lives.
What can we do to implement these types of programs right away?
Member’s Statement 174 – 1(6): Kayaking – White Water Championships
Mr. Speaker, before I get to my member statement, I too would like to thank the MLA from Pangnirtung and the community for the warm welcome that we’ve received since we got here.
I know I just got here this morning myself due to restraints, personal things that wait for someone to show up and help my partner with the new baby and before I could leave.
But since this morning the hospitality has been great.
Like every community across Nunavut I think that shares the common bond of hospitality.
Mr. Speaker I’m pleased to rise today in order to congratulate the Frobisher Bay Kayaking Club.
Earlier this year I spoke to this house in Iqaluit, regarding the Kayaking camp that was held in Iqaluit, and included instruction by world class kayaker Mr. Tim Stumpel.
Mr. Speaker, this camp is part of a long journey that will lead twelve young Nunavummiut to National White Watering Racing Camp in Madawaska River in Ontario this summer.
The July excursion included participation in the Canadian National White Water Championship.
Mr. Speaker I’m pleased to report that the Frobisher Bay Kayaking Club cleaned up in the fourteen years and under category, with Joshua Kilabuk, winning gold, Aggu Peter, winning silver and Levi Pishukti, winning bronze.
That’s right Mr. Speaker, these young paddlers swept the podium at their first ever participation at a competition, let alone a national competition.
Mr. Speaker, this performance would not have been possible without the tireless effort of the Frobisher Bay Kayaking Club especially the club president, Miss Suzanne Laliberte.
The club offers the youth of Iqaluit the opportunity to learn and compete at a national level.
Mr. Speaker it is widely recognized that the participation and organized sporting activity is an excellent way to keep our youth engaged in our communities while building their self confidence.
These are real wellness initiatives and they make real differences in the lives of our constituents.
Mr. Speaker I look forward to seeing these successful young people in the Sylvia Grinnell River again next summer working to polish their skills that were proven in Ontario last summer, while preparing to represent Nunavut in future national and international competitions.
Mr. Speaker I ask my colleagues into joining me in congratulating these young paddlers on the job well done.
Member’s Statement 175 – 1(6): Children’s Advocate for Nunavut
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Pangnirtung for welcoming us to their community.
I was one of the members who vied to have the Legislative Assembly go to Resolute Bay.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak out for the rights and needs of Nunavut’s children and youth.
According to the very recent census information, 46.5% of Nunavut’s population is age 19 or under.
This means that close to 12,000 Nunavummiut rely on us to make decisions that affect them.
I say that they rely on us, Mr. Speaker, because these individuals nearly half of all Nunavut’s population are not eligible to vote for members of the Legislative Assembly.
And yet our role as lawmakers can have a profound influence on the lives of these youths.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, the Nunavut Association of Municipalities recently passed a resolution pertaining to the pressing needs for the children’s advocate in Nunavut.
The Association has even gone so far as to consult with outside jurisdictions on this issue and over two years has actively lobbied the Department of Health and Social Services to bring forward the relevant legislation.
Unfortunately, we have only heard reports through the media that such legislation will take time and may not be possible within the life of this government.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education has spoken a number of times in this House about the Children’s First Secretariat, an interdepartmental committee focusing on the children of Nunavut.
And in May, Mr. Speaker, he tabled a newsletter outlining the accomplishments of the Secretariat to date.
I was disappointed to note that this document makes no reference to the need for an advocate for children’s rights.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to neglect this issue.
We cannot afford to neglect the rights of our children.
Too many children in Nunavut have no one to turn to for protection most of the time for understanding and to be a voice for them.
Mr. Speaker, I for one supports the establishment of a position, commission, or institution that will actively represent the rights of children and youth.
And that will work towards protecting the interests of children who cannot speak for themselves.
It may be that such a position could be incorporated within the structure that is being worked on, a structure established to deal with the human rights issue, but the appropriate legislation .
I would like unanimous consent to conclude my Member’s Statement.
Speaker: The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Appropriate legislation is still necessary and must therefore make it happen.
Not in the next government, not sometime in the future, but now.
We urgently need it.
(interpretation) I urge my colleagues to join me in encouraging the government to bring forward such legislation at the earliest opportunity.
At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the relevant Ministers questions on this issue.
Member’s Statement 176 – 1(6): Terminal Building in Pond Inlet Too Small
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Pangnirtung.
This is not that first time that I have been here so I feel like I’ve come to my second home.
Mr. Speaker, as a member representing the community of Pond Inlet I will be making a wish list and I do know what is required in the community of Pangnirtung.
As you know, and I’m sure every member, every minister knows that the terminal building in Pond Inlet is way too small to accommodate the community of Pond Inlet.
I would like to urge the appropriate department to work on it as soon as possible.
It’s becoming safety issue.
I think it was about ten years ago that the terminal was way too small to accommodate everybody who would use the airport.
When a plane is coming in, the passengers are coming out and then there are the people who are there to meet them, usually what happens is that the majority of the people at the airport have to wait outside in the middle of winter.
Thank you and please give me a hand.
Member’s Statement 177 – 1(6): How the Government Could Work Well with the Young and the Old
Thank you for the warm welcome Mr. Kilabuk.
One thing, as the members of the Legislative Assembly we usually go to a lot of the communities within Nunavut, especially as a new government you would want to find out what the people of Nunavut think about their own government.
Of course there’s usually a lot of opposition and there are always comments about improvement.
When you’re talking to the young people, of course they think in English first, and then they speak in English.
There was one young person that I was talking to and he said that the government sucks.
Naturally I wouldn’t say it that way, to remember we are still new at this and that there is always room for improvement.
It’s important to keep on asking people for their opinions with as much tolerance as we can give.
I think it’s very important to keep an open and tolerant mind as we carry out our responsibilities as a government.
After all, there are hardly any government anywhere who do not get criticized for its actions.
We have to be as tolerant as possible since we exist because of the people of Nunavut.
So as representatives we have to look at how we can work closer together as a government with the youth.
We must look at increasing funding and create programs that would be more relevant to the growing youth population, among who there is a high rate of suicide.
Youth are waiting for us to take action, or how we should incorporate the participation of elders of Nunavut in solutions for youth.
We now have the power to take action and as leaders we can now take some initiative to make it better for both the youth and elders’ populations in Nunavut.
The elders are not afraid to make their statements and to make their views known and of course it is important to listen and we should take it as a constructive criticism and build it into our programs so that there’s an improvement in the life styles of the young and the old people of Nunavut, now that we are able make these changes.
Member’s Statement 178 – 1(6): Thanking a Person for His New Vest
Mr. Speaker I’ll make a very brief comment.
First of all, I would like to thank the people of Pangnirtung all the people of Pangnirtung and I would especially like to thank Ooloota Veevee who made this vest I think its called a waistcoat in Inuktitut.
Ooloota Veevee, I would like to thank you very much for this wonderful vest and it fits me perfectly, you’re an excellent seamstress Ms. Veevee.
Speaker: Member statements, are there any further members’ statements? Item 4. returns to oral questions.
Item 5. Recognition of visitors in the gallery, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Speaker, I’ll keep my recognition very brief since my constituents in the gallery are way too many to recognize individually at this present time but, I wish to extend welcome to my constituents to visit and I would just like to say that I’ll be making recognitions daily for this up coming week, so I would like to make that known.
Mr. Havioyak: I keep forgetting to put the mike on.
I would like to recognize my wife Margaret Havioyak, would you stand up please.
Speaker: Item 5 recognition of visitors in the gallery.
When we were enroute here we had to travel three days to come into Pangnirtung but I was given the opportunity to be escorted by my wife Lorraine all the way from Kitikmeot.
Thank you very much Lorraine.
I was going to recognize a friend of mine, Mr. Peterloosee Karpik but he’s left already.
I would like to recognize an individual because of course we have the women’s secretariat in our department and we happen to have the chairperson of the secretariat, Ms. Madeline Qummuaktuq.
Speaker: Item 5. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.
I would like to take this opportunity to recognise an individual who is a member of the Rangers.
They usually have sharp shot rifle competitions that are held in the summer and we had training in Ottawa and in preparation for the Whitehorse trials.
There was an individual from Pangnirtung that went with me to those shooting competitions, and we had to run for 500 yards and foot races.
He was an excellent marksman, his name is Joanasie Karpik. I was able to beat him when we were foot racing.
I wanted to recognize Joanasie Karpik.
Let me do a little bit of work here.
The individual that I wanted to recognise, Joanasie Karpik, has left.
I know a lot of people here in Pangnirtung whom I have met over the years and I’ve always felt welcome in all the trips I’ve made to Pangnirtung.
I would like to thank them all, but I would especially like to acknowledge Peterloosee Karpik and to also recognise him and his accomplishments.
When I was young, I started travelling around to the communities in the Northwest Territories.
Peterloosee Karpik worked extremely hard to establish the Pangnirtung Fisheries Organization and also to work on the wildlife issues.
He also worked extremely hard in the ratification of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. This was when I was young and he was an elder then.
Everything is in place now and I would like to especially recognize Peterloosee Karpik, with whom I’ve gone to meetings with in Ottawa, Iqaluit, and various other communities.
He’s been the same person all that time, and he’s very open and receptive and he also knows Inuit and how they do things.
He doesn’t go to the meetings anymore but I would like to say that I’m extremely proud of him.
Mr, Speaker, first of all, I wanted to thank and again welcome to the gallery, Ooloota Veevee, who made my vest, her daughter Lizzie and her son-in-law Geoff Ryan.
I’d also like to welcome from our very successful decentralized office here in Pangnirtung, from the department of Health, Virginia Turner. Sitting next to Virginia is Meeka Mearns and I believe its Bryan Webb.
I’d like to welcome them to the gallery.
First of all, I too, would also like to thank the people of Pangnirtung for welcoming me, especially the elders.
When I was a young person, they didn’t seem to be that old, now their hair is whiter, but I have always depended on them. I would also like to show my appreciation to them for welcoming us to Pangnirtung and I usually do not have a chance to recognize my relatives, so I would like to recognize my brother-in-law, Joanasie Karpik. I thank him, and my niece, Marlee Kooneeliusie and her partner is there with her, Mike Murphy.
I would also like to recognize them as well.
There are a lot of relatives I have here and I would like to say that I appreciate them and welcome them all.
Moving onto Item 6.
Question 194 – 1(6): Status of the Motion to Support Funding for Nursing Programs
In my member’s statement, I spoke about the Nursing Program and the Teaching Program that is happening in Nunavut.
They don’t have enough instructors that are elders.
When we had a meeting in May, I made a motion and it was supported by members, all of the members of the Legislative Assembly.
I would like to ask the Minister of Education what is the status of motion that was made in May.
Speaker: Minister responsible for Education, Mr. Kilabuk.
Mr. Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I believe what the member is talking about are the students that make income while they are in college.
As you will recall, we assist the students that are taking those programs and we have increased their financial assistance not too long ago and I would like to say to the member that we have increased their financial assistance and that’s the way we have helped them thus far.
I understand what the Minister is saying but, the students that are taking the Arctic College Programs, whatever their courses are, the student financial assistance has been increased according to the Minister but at the beginning we stated that the Aqsarniit Law Program students are not under the Department of Education.
Like we asked before, which programs should be a priority?
Would it be a lawyer or would it be the nurses that should be given priority, because we need those professionals in Nunavut.
What I’m trying to say is, I realized the student financial assistance has been increased and there was also a motion put in the house that the nursing program should be treated as equal as the law school students.
And my question was Mr. Speaker, what status is the motion in right now, in regards to the nursing programs.
Yes, first of all I would like to make it clear to the members that what we have under their five year program, we cannot go ahead with that until it is approved by the Legislative Assembly.
What we had done with the motion that was made in the house, is we are waiting for some planning because of a lack of funding at this time but on top of the increases to the student financial assistance, we will be providing, we have provided them with other financial assistance as well for the nursing program.
But Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to take that question as notice and reply to him later on.
The Minister is taking this question as notice.
Therefore there will be no further supplementaries.
Oral Questions Mr. Tootoo.
Question 195 – 1(6): Has the Department Sought Legal Opinion on Bill 1
Mr. Speaker, my question is also for the Minister responsible for Education.
Mr. Speaker, as we all know when Bill 1, the proposed Education Act, came before the House for second reading I spoke to a number of issues regarding that.
One of the issues that I raised as a caution at that time was the fact that I had concerns that there may be portions of that piece of legislation that were unconstitutional.
Since then, in the public meetings that we have had, Mr. Speaker, there have been groups that have raised and brought forward to the Committee and other members legal opinions that do state that that Bill violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Education is if the Department sought and received legal opinion on the Act prior to its introduction?
I find it quite difficult to respond to just one section of the proposed Act when it is before the Standing Committee, Mr. Speaker, because the Standing Committee is active in consulting with the communities out there now.
I would like to be able to respond to that question as part of the overall process which we had agreed to that was for the Standing Committee to come back with their findings after the consultations.
Mr. Speaker, I was asking the Minister if the Department had received and asked for legal opinion, I don’t understand what relevance that has to the consultations that the Standing Committee is doing on the Education Act.
I would like to ask the Minster if the Department of Education received or asked for and received a legal opinion on that particular piece of legislation prior to it being introduced into the House?
I want to make it clear that I don’t want to step into the boundaries and roles of the Standing Committees.
However, as per my colleagues question, yes we have sought an opinion from Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if he provide the Committee and the members of this House with a copy of that opinion.
I will provide it to the Standing Committee during the consultations.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister had indicated that he would provide it to the Committee; will he please also provide it to all the members of this House?
And also if he could do that, it must be something that they have already if he could do that as soon as possible, or a timeline as to when we can expect to see it.
As I indicated earlier, I do not want to step outside what we had agreed to already with the Standing Committee and the House in the process that we had agreed to.
So what I will commit to is presenting this to the Standing Committee and the consultation with the Standing Committee make sure that the members of this House get the copies.
Question 196 – 1(6): Review of All Job Competitions
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Human Resources.
Earlier I talked about the artificial bay rest to the newly employment.
Will the Minister commit to all the job descriptions across the Government of Nunavut and revising them with appropriate weights to competency, skill and experience?
The overemphasis on qualifications whenever a position is made available also has been a concern within our department as opposed to looking at the qualifications and skills of applicants.
Yes Mr. Speaker, what we are doing is looking into this at this time within our department as to how we can tackle to the concern that the people have had, Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker: Mr. Havioyak
I like to ask you as to when will this be completed.
Will this be at the next session or when will this document be finalized as to the Inuit employment.
I mentioned that we are in the process of reviewing the barriers that we encounter.
I apologize to the member for not having in front of me the documents on this issue.
Up to now we’ve been trying to look at the major problems that we encounter, the obstructions and after we have identified all these we then will submit a report to the Legislative Assembly on what kind of policies or procedures we will have to go through or if we need more information.
Mr. Havioyak: I know you’re reviewing it now, how about possible, maybe a time frame.
Could you be looking at a year, 3 months, just like to have an idea where when we are expected.
I will inform fellow members of the Legislative Assembly at our session in Iqaluit on what plans we are going present so there will be plenty of opportunity for these plans and concerns to be reviewed.
As we know we will be going to Iqaluit, will this be in November of 2002.
Yes, November 2002.
At our meeting I will bring it up.
Question 197 – 1(6): Deadline to Submit for Bad Gasoline
I would like to ask a question to Minister of Finance.
Recently he spoke in regards to the bad gas issue.
I am grateful that those who suffered damage from the bad gas can now be compensated, but I believe he also stated, December 31, maybe 2003, that the deadline will be December 31.
I want him to indicate which year, 2002 or 2003, the deadline for the compensation program on December 31 is on.
It’s December 31, 2002, so this year.
For us residents from the High Arctic, from the arctic, we have no long roads or highways, no other means of transportation so we depend on snowmobiles and other machines which are liable to break down.
There are still a number of people who are going out hunting and camping even though the bad gasoline is not being used.
But if they have made an order before December 31 and it came in after December 31, how will that work within your stated deadline?
Is the deadline December 31, even though the breakdown happened before December 31?
Mr. Speaker, that’s why there is basically over 2 months left for individuals to submit their final claims.
We’re giving them an opportunity now to, if there are problems, and they want to get their machines checked out to ensure that there aren’t any problems, if there are parts that have to be ordered etc.
So that could be looked after well in advance of the deadline.
Oral questions, supplementary.
There were a number of skidoos that broke down in May and one of my skidoos broke down and I made an order in May and it’s been put in and I haven’t put in a claim for the money that I had to pay.
I am using this example to clarify the question.
My outboard motor also broke down so the part that I ordered hasn’t come in, that part broke down in August and my ATV, a Honda, also broke down and a lot of times these orders can take up to six months or even up to a year.
So, for that reason, the motor for ATV, the parts that I ordered, I have no idea when they’re going to come in, whether they will be in for sure before December 31, or after December 31.
So, there might be some claims that are included but because sometimes we can wait up to almost a year for the parts, especially the High Arctic.
I wonder if he can clarify, if it broke down before the deadline, will we get reimbursed even if we get the parts after?