EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
On your substantiation sheet for Pond Inlet Project 509055, it is stated on the bottom of the second page that the land status for the building site is clearly under negotiation with the Hamlet of Pond Inlet.
I wonder when this substantiation sheet was written because I learned that the mutual agreement or at least a mutually agreed site has been done for the community of Pond Inlet for the CLC site.
If this substantiation sheet is old, then the Minister of Finance, in his opening address, stated that the CLC for Pond Inlet has been fast-tracked, I don’t know the exact word that he used. But I noticed that for 2009-10 that there’s only $200,000 allotted for that year, when 2008 is $2 million, and 2010-11 is $3.5 million and so on.
The amount for 2009-10 doesn’t seem to be really a construction but rather something else because you cannot work a whole year with $200,000. (interpretation) Thank you.
Just very quickly, there were negotiations between the hamlet and the college.
Just recently, in the last 10 to 12 days, there has been a confirmation of the site location for the college and that’s through the good work of the hamlet there. So that’s been completed.
As the members know, when we’re doing a main estimates book, it all has to go to the printers and be translated and so on. So because of the tight time frame, that’s not in the books. So the member is correct; the site is already in place.
The issues with the costing on the capital project substantiation sheet, there was an issue with that line item where it was in the wrong line but that has been corrected on the sheets themselves.  So I think that’s the point that the member is trying to make.
That has been corrected. It was an error on the sheet similar to the spelling we saw earlier yesterday.
The minister will be providing this House with the corrected substantiation sheet. Will that also include putting forward the construction season from 2011-12 to 2010-11?
It’s my understanding that the member should have those sheets.
So if that’s not the case on this project specifically, then maybe for the member’s information, I’ll just go through it.  For 2008-09, we’ve actually budgeted $2,080,000 for that fiscal year, for 2009-10, $3.7 million, and for 2010-11, $4.5 million.
So the total project cost is $7.5 million. So it’s cash flow to begin the construction, as we indicated earlier, we fast tracked it.
As the members know, this was not in the five-year capital plan’ it was too far up on the five-year capital plan. We’ve actually advanced the project because of what we saw as a training need and what was occurring in Mary River. And, that was on the request of the member again.
The member has been very active in ensuring that this facility moves forward.  So, hopefully, that clarifies for the member for the record the costing of the project and the cash flow requirement.
I appreciate the minister’s answer. I just want to have clarification now that 2011-12 is not $1.5 million but rather $50,000 for… I don’t know if there’s a fancy name for that. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That is correct, Mr. Chairman. It’s $50,000 and that’s for the warranty.
Also, on the second page of your substantiation sheet, you stated the design will be exploring the utilization of a reduced size, repeat of the facility completed in Baker Lake and Cape Dorset.
This statement doesn’t seem to reflect that there will be a very high demand for the Arctic College or the CLC facility in Pond Inlet. A lot of it’s got to do with the mining that is being developed near by.
So why is the requirement of that community less than Baker Lake and Cape Dorset?
Can the minister give me the rationale behind the reduction in the size of the design?
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Arvaluk. Minister Picco.
When we say ‘reduced size,’ we’re not talking about any substantial decrease or depreciation of the size of the actual facility for usage, meaning the actual academic area, the training area, the actual classroom space and so on, would be comparable to what you see in the reduced Baker Lake and Cape Dorset CLCs.
As we talked about earlier, the Baker Lake facility is capable of handling a lot of the training issues that we’re seeing in Baker Lake because of the mine development. We feel that that design will be able to accommodate and facilitate the training that would be occurring in Pond Inlet.
Again, part of this is to expedite the process. Part of expediting the process is to move the program up in the capital plan, which is what we’ve done, and to take a design that we’ve already had work, which was the Cape Dorset design, as well as the Baker Lake design, and be able to put that in Pond Inlet to take care of the training needs that the member has been raising.
So when we say ‘reduced size,’ that’s what we’re talking about given the sighting of the building, on the given lot size and so on.
It doesn’t take away from the academic or the other size of the school, for example, would you have a smaller bathroom space, it means it gives you a smaller common space and it gives you a smaller office space for the adult educator and so on.
It’s not necessarily the academic or training side, or the size that would be occupied by the students. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Arvaluk: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hope and pray that the facilities of similar design in Baker Lake and Cape Dorset have no default on them because we received a health centre in Pond Inlet that was the same design as Igloolik and both are having extremely difficult problems with the design and construction of those buildings.
They have been worked on every day this year in both places.
Can the minister tell me that the facilities in Baker Lake and Cape Dorset have been proven as good buildings before the similar design is going to be constructed in Pond Inlet?
I’ve been in both buildings; in Baker Lake several times and I was at the opening of the new centre in Cape Dorset just recently, last spring actually, and those are very nice buildings.
If I was still in adult education, I would love to be able to work in those facilities.
I think just the verbiage being used to describe the facilities is probably a bad choice of words when we say ‘reduced size.’ Again, it will not impact on the actual academics or the training area needs, which is what the member is articulating.
The second point is that the life expectancy on this new facility is 20 years. So we’re looking 20 years out on the training facility itself. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We’re on page G-6. Education.
Detail of Capital. Corporate Services.
Qikiqtaaluk Region. Page G-7. Total Qikiqtaaluk Region. $16,200,000. (interpretation) Do you agree?
Total Kivalliq Region. $7,200,000. (interpretation) Do you agree?
Chairman: Thank you. Kitikmeot Region. Total Kitikmeot Region.
I welcome the minister and his officials back today. In my opening comments yesterday I promised the minister I’d ask for an update from him on what the planning is for a new Arctic College campus in the Kitikmeot region, specifically in Cambridge Bay. I have raised this numerous times over years in meetings and in the House.
I was hoping to see some mention of it in the capital estimates this year, but again, it’s missing. So I wonder if the minister could give me an update of where the planning is and if it’s a priority for his department and for the Government of Nunavut.
I thank the member for his good question. I agree with him that we need a new campus in Cambridge Bay.
Right now, we’re using a multitude of buildings to be able to provide a campus site in the community itself, and that’s something that we need to be able to ascertain at the department.
The issue is actually, right now, I don’t have the money within the capital budget to be able to plan that. For example, we moved the learning centres, as we know, which is over a $6 million project, in the capital plan out because of the mining development issues in the Pond Inlet area and because of some of the other projects that have dropped further down in the five-year capital plan.
What we’re trying to do this year, Mr. Chairman, in conjunction with the new President of Nunavut Arctic College, is to look at the campus program in Cambridge Bay, and to see where we can bring it back into the five-year capital plan with some design and develop money because I think everyone in the House agrees that with the development that’s going on in Cambridge Bay and in the Kitikmeot, we need that campus.
So that’s where we are with it right now. I would hope to be in the position in the New Year when we’re reviewing the capital plan to be able to see if we can get some money within that capital plan and start looking at some designs and some planning work around having a single building as a campus in Cambridge Bay.
Could the minister tell me if he is making a commitment to ensure that that occurs? I understand the Nunavut Arctic College Board of Directors may have passed a resolution also calling on the Department of Education to provide a new campus in the Kitikmeot.
So if the minister could confirm if he is making a commitment that this project is a priority and he will find funding to begin the planning and that, hopefully, next year we’ll see it on the capital plan.
Yes, I make that commitment to the member. Right now, we don’t have any monies in the capital budget or the five-year capital forecast for Cambridge Bay and the new campus.
As I said earlier, over the coming weeks, once we get this budget rolled out and passed through the House, if it goes through in the House here in the New Year, in January, I’ll have an opportunity, as minister, to sit down with our college people and review the motion passed by the board of governors of the college, and to see where we can find some money and so on in the capital plan because I believe there a need for a standalone, single building campus in the community.
I thank the minister for that commitment. I look forward to meeting with the minister and talk about this.
Again, in the coming months, I said it’s very important for our region with all of the training that’s required not only for the Government of Nunavut but also for the private sector in the mining industry.  There are a lot of kids and young adults, even some older adults, that they would be encouraged to go to school or go back to school if we had a proper facility, that it’s not conducive to learning, although the instructors and the staff want to do the best they can with that facility.
Another issue I’ve brought up a few times, I think this is the third time that I’ve brought it up, and that’s the issue of the gym at the Kiilinik High School in Cambridge Bay. I don’t know what happened years ago when they built that facility.
It was a $17 million facility, it was quite expensive at the time, but it’s starting to look like a bargain now when we see $33 million and $35 million price tags for the high schools and elementary schools.
Somebody made a decision at the time, we’ll probably never know who, but when they were constructing the gym, they decided to put in the cheap flooring. It looks like they didn’t put the underlay under the floor, so it’s made the floors feel like you’re running on concrete.
The minister was with me in Cambridge Bay last month. The concern over the years in my riding from the educators, the kids, and the parents of the kids at the high school is that running around on that gym floor with no underlay has been quite hard.
It’s dangerous, in terms of falling down on the floors.
It’s like falling on cement, if anyone has ever tried to do that, and it could cause damage to the children’s limbs and joints as well.
So I’ve asked the minister to look into this, as I said, on two previous occasions. I’m wondering if the minister could give me an update on where his department is with respect to looking into that issue there and providing a mechanism to upgrade the gym flooring.
Again, the member is correct.
We’ve been working with our partners at the Department of CGS to look at what the costing of a floor would be, as well as the basketball backboards.
So we don’t have that costing information yet, but for the member’s information and for his constituents, we have heard what he’s been saying and we’re acting on it, and I would be hope to be in the position in the coming weeks to be able to look at a cost factor to be able to change the flooring in that school.
I certainly hope that this time around that it is a priority, as I’ve asked him on that on two previous occasions.
One of the ironies of this situation, Mr. Chairman, is that when the school was being constructed, we wanted to have a larger facility. The Government of Nunavut told us that if we wanted a large gym that we had to fundraise and contribute some equity to the gym.
The folks in Cambridge Bay and many of our friends from across the North, the corporations actually fundraised and contributed $80,000 towards the gym.
We thought that money would go into things like the underlay and backboards for the gym.  It’s not like we were asking for something for nothing.
We actually worked very hard to fundraise so we have a gym that was second to none to Nunavut, where we could host territorial events and other important events like conferences in that gym.
So it is very important that we do have proper flooring and backboards for the basketball tournaments. Everybody in Nunavut knows we have our junior boys’ and girls’ teams that are quite often the top teams in Nunavut, and they have to run around on hard floors. You can imagine how much better they would be if they had a proper underlay.
Another issue came to my attention recently as well, and it also concerns the gym and I was surprised that it hasn’t come up before, it concerns the stage lighting. We have stage lighting in the cages and we have stage lights, but apparently, there’s no wiring to the lights and there’s no on/off switch.
The electricians that were in the high school working on the upgrade to the trades shop were looking for the wiring for the stage lights.
So we have this beautiful top-of-the-line facility, $17 million, it’s probably worth $40 million now, with inflation and other skyrocketing costs, hopefully, we can stage all kinds of fantastic events but we don’t have an on/off switch and wiring to turn the lights on.
That’s true energy savings. Maybe we have to use candles.
I wonder if the minister, when he’s talking to CGS, if they can also consider looking at the problems with the stage lighting and the wiring, and the control panels for the lighting in the gymnasium.
Hon. Ed. Picco: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We will follow that up. I’m sure that a lot of members would like to have an on or off switch sometimes.
So we’ve made note of it and we will follow that up.
Page G-7. Kitikmeot Region. Total Kitikmeot Region. $1,500,000. (interpretation) Do you agree?
Chairman: Total Tangible Assets. $25,585,000. (interpretation) Do you agree?
Chairman: Go back to page G-4. Education.
Department Summary. Detail of Expenditures. Total Capital Expenditures. $25,585,000. (interpretation) Do you agree?
Chairman: Thank you. (interpretation) Thank you, Members. Thank you, Minister.
If you have any closing remarks, you may do so, Minister Picco.
I would like to thank the committee for their due diligence on the Capital Estimates of the Department of Education and I look forward to discussing some of the other issues that have been raised and follow up with the members on questions and comments, and concerns noted.
Chairman: The next department will be Culture, Language, Elders and Youth. Before we go to that department, we’ll take a 10-minute break.
>>Committee recessed at 16:33 and resumed at 16:50
Chairman: Welcome back, Committee.
I would now like to ask Minister Tapardjuk for the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth to make his opening remarks.
Bill 16 – Appropriation (Capital) Act, 2008-2009 – Consideration in Committee – Culture, Language, Elders and Youth
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Legislative Assembly.
I thank you for the opportunity to present the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth 2008-09 Capital Estimates.
There are significant changes to the department’s capital estimates this year.
These capital estimates are in line with suggestions made by the Department of Finance during the preparation of the 2008-09 capital estimates.
It was suggested that the grants and contribution process would be more efficient if capital contributions were re-profiled under CLEY’s existing operations, grants and contributions in Vote 1 rather than remaining in Vote 2.
To this end, the Financial Management Board has approved the re-profiling of $1,688,000 in the department’s main target (Vote 1) in 2008-09, to address future contributions funding for Recreation Facilities Projects, $681,000, and Community Heritage, Elders and Youth Centres, $1,007,000.
Mr. Chairman and honourable members, this re-profiling of capital funds reflects my department’s ongoing commitment to community capacity building.
The Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth 2008-09 Capital Budget of $910,000 is allocated to two Capital Projects: Piqqusilirivvik, Cultural School, in the amount of $850,000 for the project design; office renovations and equipment in the amount of $60,000 for minor office renovations and the purchase of office furniture and equipment.
Mr. Chairman and honourable members, you are aware that on October 23, 2007, the Honourable David Simailak, Minister of Finance, stated that “to maintain previous time frames and incremental infrastructure commitments made to Nunavummiut with respect to major capital projects, $9 million has been reallocated from the Heritage Centre Project.
This is to provide the cash flow we need to maintain existing schedules. We are committed to returning the $9 million to the Heritage Centre Project budget in future years. The heritage centre is still a priority under Pinasuaqtavut, but at this time we must realize that the balance of the funding required to complete the project is not currently available.”
The Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth remains committed to the establishment of a heritage centre to preserve Nunavut’s cultural legacy.
Although there are no immediate funds that have been committed in 2008-09, you have my assurance that planning is ongoing for the construction of a Nunavut Heritage Centre that I anticipate will take place within the next two years.
The department is continuing its efforts to secure the funding required for the construction of the Nunavut Heritage Centre.
A contract will soon be awarded for the Public Capital Fundraising Campaign for the Nunavut Heritage Centre.
Construction will commence once additional funding is secured from other partners other than the Nunavut Government.
The Piqqusilirivvik remains a major priority and I am pleased to report that the department has obtained another coordinator position from the Department of Education.
This means that the department now has two dedicated positions to work with the steering committee and working groups in moving forward this initiative.
The Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth is also working closely with capital planners at the Department of Community and Government Services in the development of this learning facility.
I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Do you have any witnesses that you would like to bring to the table, minister?
Does the committee agree that the minister can go up to the witness table with his officials?
For the record, please introduce your officials, Mr. Minister.
On my left is Phoebe Hainnu, who my deputy minister, and on my right is David Kolot, Director of Corporate Services.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Minister. Please feel welcome.
Does the Chair of the Ajauqtiit Standing Committee have any opening comments?
Mr. Mapsalak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) The Standing Committee Ajauqtiit has reviewed the proposed Capital Estimates of the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth for the 2008-09 fiscal year, and I am pleased to provide you with the committee’s comments.
The committee notes that the department’s proposed 2008-09 capital budget of $910,000 is approximately 89 percent lower than its 2007-08 budget, primarily as a result of the re-profiling of the department’s grants and contributions program to its operations and maintenance budget.
The committee also notes that $850,000 of the capital budget is going towards the proposed new Piqqusilirivik Cultural School in Clyde River.
Mr. Chairman, the cost of this project is budgeted at $11.5 million.
Mr. Chairman, members were informed that a study defining the programs, administration, operating costs and location for Piqqusilirivik has now been completed.
The committee appreciated the minister’s commitment to table this study during this session.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee also noted that Nunavut Housing Corporation’s budget for staff housing for this project is slightly different than the amount stated in CLEY’s substantiation sheet.
The committee would appreciate a clarification as to whether student accommodation will be included in this budget or if this will be a separate budget.
The standing committee will also monitor the progress of the satellite campuses in Igloolik and Baker Lake.
Mr. Chairman, in 2007-08, $1.5 million was budgeted for the Nunavut Heritage Centre.
In May of 2007, the department carried over $1.5 million for the Nunavut Heritage Centre project and it is not clear what this funding was used for.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee recognizes that most of the budget is expected to be provided through third party funding.
Mr. Chairman, during the Finance Minister’s recent appearance before the Regular Members’ Caucus, he informed members that $9 million from the heritage centre project would be reallocated to ensure that other major capital projects will proceed on schedule.
The Minister of Finance did commit to returning the $9 million to the Heritage Centre project budget in future years.
He also indicated that the heritage centre is still one of the GN’s priorities.
Members of the committee urge the minister to continue to seek third party funding for this important initiative. The committee expects the minister to provide regular updates to the Legislative Assembly and the public on its progress.
Mr. Chairman, the committee noted that the department has made changes to its capital grants and contributions program, as per recommendations made by the Department of Finance.
The capital grants and contributions for this department have now been re-profiled under its operations and maintenance budget.
These were capital contributions for Community, Heritage, Elders and Youth Centres and capital contributions for Recreation Facilities.
As a result, they no longer show in this year’s capital budget.
The committee encourages the minister to continue to table his department’s annual report on its grants and contributions expenditures in a timely manner.
Mr. Chairman, the committee noted that the department has budgeted $60,000 in each fiscal year until 2012-13 for office renovations and minor equipment. However, there are no substantiation sheets for each project.
The committee would like to see a breakdown of how these funds will be used in order to clearly identify what projects will be receiving how much funding.
Before we proceed, I would like to remind members of the following: according to Rule 77(1), you have 10 minutes to speak, and according to Rule 77(2), subject to the discretion of the Chair, a member may speak more than once to a matter under discussion but not until every member wishing to speak has spoken.
I suggest to members that wherever possible make your detailed questions during the page-by-page review of the departmental estimates.
Briefly just to make a general comment.
Last week, we dealt with Language Bills and we did a hearing from the public on how it would be best to protect the Inuit language.
What I am trying to say is that was moved, they moved this $9 million and they don’t know when they would be reallocating it back.