EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
With respect to the beer and wine store pilot project here in Iqaluit, as we have been continuously saying, it was a recommendation of the Nunavut Liquor Task Force that a pilot project be considered to disrupt the bootleggers and binge drinkers in Nunavut who are preying on people’s desires to drink.
We have been working very diligently in public consultations last year with the community of Iqaluit. In online surveys, 97 percent of the 310 surveyed were in support.
Of course, the plebiscite was last April 20, where there was, I think, 78 percent of the people that voted were in favour of the beer and wine store.
We did, of course, amend the Liquor Act and the Liquor Regulations to put steps in place to open up a beer and wine store. I must say that the beer and wine store would be offering low-alcohol, low-cost beer and wine to customers.
We will be making an announcement in due course when we would open a beer and wine store.
We haven’t made an announcement yet.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Mr. Shooyook.
I also appreciate the minister’s preparations by having this plan for this initiative.
I have another question which is largely outside of these issues.
During our sessions last year, when this was first being debated and planned, there was a component included, which, in my opinion, is part of this initiative.
In the communities outside of Iqaluit, with respect to the sales of beer and wine, both the Northern and Co-op stores were mentioned as possible avenues, if the communities wanted the same type of venue. I seemed to understand at that point that the communities have the discretion of whether to allow or disallow the sales of beer and wine.
If they have the discretion, does this mean that local stores may start selling wine and beer? Will they open up drinking establishments throughout our communities?
Is that the purpose of this strategy you have planned out?
Mr. Chairman, we have been very careful with this whole beer and wine store pilot project concept.
The liquor task force looked at Greenland and other jurisdictions. They saw that a beer and wine store in Greenland has had success. We have heard reports from the media from Northern Quebec where beer and wine stores were opened and there was little or no impact on the local community.
In fact, I believe there were reports where the crime decreased.
That’s right in the media and you know the media likes to sensationalize things sometimes, no offence to the media. I’m not trying to make you guys look bad, but I read stuff and that was very positive.
We’re taking a very measured approach to this. It’s a pilot project and we have consistently said that we will monitor this pilot project to see if there is any discernable or major impact or negative impacts.
The cabinet can make a decision to shut the beer and wine store pilot project down if we see it’s contributing negatively to the community.
Our intent by the beer and wine pilot project is to disrupt the bootleggers and, hopefully, encourage people not to binge drink.
You answered part of what I was going to ask. He seems to read my mind.
I understood what he said, but I’ll just go ahead anyway.
I understand that after the beer and wine store has been open for a certain period of time and it resulted in too many problems, it could be closed down.
Is that what you plan to do? I know you mentioned negative impacts, but on the other hand, would you decide to keep it open?
My final question is: what is the objective?
As I have continuously said, it’s a pilot project and it will be a three-year pilot project. We would monitor the sales and the regulations.
I don’t have the details in the regulations, but there are limitations on how much beer and wine an individual can purchase per day.
I believe it would be open, under regulations, six days a week.
Of course, people will have to produce ID and perhaps other identification to purchase the beer and wine.
It will be a government-run beer and wine store. As a government-run beer and wine store, we monitor the results, how it’s going, the impact on the local community here in Iqaluit.
We could make that decision to close the beer and wine store. Right now, it’s a pilot project to see how it will work.
We are hopeful and positive that it will work well, but we always retain that authority to shut it down if necessary.
Welcome, Minister Peterson as well as your officials.
Last week when CGS minister was in front of the committee, he talked about the program review that the GN had undertaken and CGS put forth in their budget for 21 new PYs in their IT. However, we have never seen any results from that first phase of the operational review.
When can we expect those results?
The lead minister on that particular initiative would be the Minister for EIA. I believe it’s his intention to table phase 1 as soon as possible. We still have to make a decision at the cabinet.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Mr. Joanasie.
I guess the finance department helps each department with their needs in terms of prioritizing.
With this program review, how much of a say does your department have in that program review? Let’s say for example, the 21 PYs that were earmarked for CG&S, did you put that forward on their behalf and then it was submitted?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Minister Peterson
Hon. Keith Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank Mr. Joanasie for the first question.
The Department of Finance is full partners with EIA and the consulting group that are working on the operational audits, phase 1 and phase 2.
Of course, we all contribute in our way. We have access to very detailed, comprehensive information that the consulting firm would require to do the review.
With respect to the main estimates, the finance department coordinates the development of the main estimates and that’s an annual process. As the Minister of Finance, I bring a draft call letter to the Financial Management Board and they would approve that call letter.
Basically, the call letter sets out the parameters for all departments to follow with respect to developing their main estimates.
It’s a comprehensive, lengthy process.
It began last June and we worked all the way up until December.
This past Christmas, we began finalization of the main estimates so that we could give them to the Legislative Assembly to distribute to the standing committee for review.
All departments bring forward their requests.
There is give and take for each department’s main estimates. Every department has a lot of requests, a lot of needs, but there is a limited budget to go around. We have to make some hard decisions in terms of what PYs, programs, and new initiatives will be funded.
That leads to the House like what I am doing today, sitting in Committee of the Whole answering your questions.
I think I will reserve my other questions on the program review for EIA.
I have a little bit of curiosity with the grants and contributions.
You’re also taking a good look at how this can be delivered better.
Are one of the things you’re looking at or have you discussed about the possibility of streamlining the whole grants and contributions through, perhaps, your department and there would be no grants and contributions in the departmental budget line items?
I thank Mr. Joanasie for his interesting question.
Mr. Chairman, I like to think the Department of Finance is a department that ensures that government departments comply with the Financial Administration Act, the FAM directives, and many other policies of the government.
We’re not subject matter experts on individual grants and contributions programs. Those would be better suited to remain with the individual departments because they do have the subject matter experts.
We would be there to ensure that they administer the grants and contributions programs as per the goals and objectives of the particular programs that are set out by cabinet.
That would be our role.
We’re on C-4.
Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted. $2,862,000.
Go to page C-5.
It reads, Branch Summary. Finance.
Mr. Mikkungwak (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Your department’s draft 2016-19 business plan indicates that one of the priorities of the Policy, Planning and Financial Management Branch of your department for the 2016-17 fiscal year is the “Implementation of the comprehensive tax review.”
It also indicates that “Over 60 projects have been identified…”
Can you describe what specific changes will be made as a result of your department’s comprehensive tax review?
Just for the record and for the public interest, our comprehensive tax review is not us trying to raise the taxes.
It’s a regular item where we would go through and review different tax programs in our government to see if they’re more efficient and more effective.
For example, we were talking in the debate in the last few days about the fuel tax rebate, so we’re doing a review of that. We’re working on the review of the medical expense of Nunavummiut and the property tax arrears list.
We have narrowed it down from about 60 down to a more manageable number of 24 or 25.
These are ongoing reviews. As members will recall, we did something last year related to tobacco products and cigarettes so that it would be clear for wholesalers what taxes they would be paying.
It’s just an annual thing to make our regime a bit more efficient, more effective, and clearer.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Mr. Mikkungwak.
In that same business plan on page 25 under 2016-17, your second bullet there on page 25 of your business plan under Priorities (2016-17), your department’s draft 2016-19 business plan indicates that one of the priorities of the Policy, Planning and Financial Management Branch of your department for the 2016-17 fiscal year is to “Initiate a review of the Insurance Act to identify opportunities to modernize the territory’s regulation of the insurance industry.”
In what specific ways does the government’s regulation of the insurance industry need to be modernized?
This is an early review of the Insurance Act. We’re working with the Northwest Territories and Yukon. We’re having early discussions with them.
We’re just discussing ways we can work together to modernize our legal frameworks, which are separate but similar. It’s just over timing and scope review with our own Act and it will depend on the interest and priorities of the other territories. It’s fairly complex and it’s probably unlikely we would do a review on our own.
We would like to work with the other [two] territories.
I just perused a well written paragraph, so I now have another question.
In your department’s draft 2016-19 business plan, it lists the priorities for the Policy, Planning and Financial Management Branch of your department for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Your department wishes to “Develop and Implement an Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit framework for the department.”
Now for 2016-17, will Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit be part of the plans to resolve alcohol issues or problems?
Is that the purpose behind this language? Can you please explain that for my understanding?
The Department of Finance and the Government of Nunavut, as our overall guiding principles, incorporate IQ in our departments.
What we’re planning to do is develop more IQ in the framework to give people a better understanding of how it should be implemented across the government, and then we will have a committee that discusses and does research on what needs to be reviewed and improved in our departments.
That committee is using the eight guiding IQ principles, so we will make sure it’s incorporated and not just empty words.
I also thank the minister for his forethought since I have been a dedicated advocate for incorporating IQ. For the first time since I was elected to this seat, Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is part of a government plan, so I thank you profusely.
Now, after completion of this plan in our future, with the future elected members of the next Legislative Assembly, does this mean that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and traditional counselling will be incorporated fully and not just wording in a plan?
When do you expect to see that or does it not have a time limit as to the implementation? Can you provide me with some background?
I have listened very intently to Mr. Shooyook for the last almost two and a half years. I know he’s a strong advocate and champion for IQ. It has been in the government and I know that’s what he campaigned on.
Again I would like to assure Mr. Shooyook that the Government of Nunavut is very serious about IQ and respecting Inuit societal values.
That’s why we are striving to incorporate more of that in our department and encouraging other departments as well.
The guiding principles are always in our business plans.
We are working very hard, but we don’t have a specific timeframe to roll out a framework.
Mr. Shooyook, are you finished? Thank you.
Under your business plan, you talk about negotiating and managing the Territorial Formula Financing Agreement. There have been some questions in the House regarding this.
Can you give us an idea of what your relationship is like with your counterpart? I’m sure he’s a new guy.
How receptive do you feel your counterpart is to the situations we have in Nunavut?
I never met Minister Morneau before he got elected, but when I first heard that our territorial formula financing was going to take a hit, we chatted on the phone for close to 20 minutes.
He assured me that he was going to get to work on it right away to look at how that issue occurred.
Then when we got to Ottawa, he met with us in the morning and again in the afternoon. I and the two other territories had very productive discussions with him.
The Minister of Finance for Yukon is also the premier and the acting minister of finance was the premier, so it was like I was almost like the premier with two premiers and myself.
We had very good dialogue with Minister Morneau.
I stressed that it was very important to our territory that we not lose funding because we already feel that we are being under funded. The TFF is intended to provide us with a basic level of service that other Canadians enjoy.
It’s a real struggle to balance all our needs and demands up here just on the daily O&M part, and then we have our capital projects. He was very receptive.
As we saw, they were able to recover $26 million of the $34 million we were short, so that was helpful.
I did have an opportunity to also sit down and talk to him face to face about the two business cases that we presented, one for housing and one for energy in Nunavut.
He was very receptive of that and asked some good questions. That was very positive.
It’s not very often you get the Minister of Finance of Canada, who is probably one of busiest people in Canada, so it’s not very often you get to meet with him for half an hour on your own and then another half hour with a couple of other finance ministers.
We’re very hopeful that on March 22, we will get some good news and then of course, they have to make some legislative changes to ensure that the issue we had with the TFF for this fiscal year does not manifest itself going forward in future fiscal years.
Overall, my impression is we have a very good working relationship with the Minister of Finance and, of course, our Member of Parliament for Nunavut, Hunter Tootoo, is only a phone call or an email away as well. He’s in Ottawa.
When I saw Minister Tootoo in Cambridge Bay a few weeks ago during the Kitikmeot Trade Show when he was leaving, I asked him to give the Minister of Finance of Canada a poke and I think he did give him a poke because a few days later, we got the positive announcement.
Can the minister just clarify for me: when he talked about legislative changes that are needed to be made, is that the Government of Nunavut or the federal government?
Please clarify that for us, Minister Peterson.
It’s not the Government of Nunavut that would make those legislative changes; that would be the Government of Canada.
Can the minister tell us what those changes would be like?
What made what happened to Nunavut happen?
You say that legislative changes are going to make it so that it doesn’t happen again.
What are those changes?
As near as I can understand, if I can blame anybody, it’s Statistics Canada and they do their own thing. They reviewed the numbers, population growth, and the estimates in infrastructure in all provinces and territories.
It’s a very complex formula that the Government of Canada uses. They inputted revised data from Stats Canada on December 1.
Coincidentally, it was the day, on an annual basis, that the Department of Finance of Canada uses to figure out our TFF for the next year. They inputted that data and out came a lower number.
Finance Canada has reworked the numbers and I’m not privy to the details of what they did, but I think that the numbers will go back three years and then it will go forward.
They’ve got to make these legislative changes.
Again, it’s a Government of Canada activity that they have to do; it has nothing to do with the three territories.
We are on C-5. It reads, Branch Summary.
In your business plan on page 25 in the Priorities (2016-17), it says, “Conduct a GN-wide employee survey to provide data for the 2019-2022 Human Resources Strategy and contribute to the development of an Employee Wellness Program.”
What types of information will be obtained through the survey?
I’m going to give Mr. D’Arcy an opportunity to speak for a while.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) I will give him that opportunity.
What we’re looking at is a range of questions and people’s feelings about workplace wellness and how we can improve our workplace; what we’re doing well and what we’re not doing well with respect to not just an harassment-free workplace but also a workplace where people can be happy to come to work and can be in an environment where they can be productive.
I don’t have the specific questions in front of me, but the questions are all about employee satisfaction and how they feel in the workplace and how we can do better.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you Mr. D’Arcy. Mr. Qirngnuq.
I have a question to the Minister of Finance regarding his departmental business plan.
He referred to this item on social services earlier.
However, with respect to the regional offices listed in C-5, which region would that be placed in? Our colleague, Mr. Shooyook, spoke about that issue, so I wonder where this will go. That is my question.
Hon. Keith Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank Mr. Qirngnuq for the question.
I don’t think there’s a specific line item for IQ. It’s just going to be in that whole policy and planning section and it will be for the overall department.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Mr. Qirngnuq.
Yes, it is always good to get information and I’m sure that it will come around later, but it’s always good to hear things ahead of time when it comes to expenditure budgeting and so on.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Qirngnuq.
So there was no question in your statement or did you have a question?
I don’t think I heard a question, so if you would clarify that, please. Mr. Qirngnuq.
I was using my dialect. I did have a question in there, but sometimes some people don’t understand me and I apologize.
For your information, please feel free and do not apologize for using your own dialect.
Let’s all use our own dialect.
Minister Peterson, if you understood it through the interpreter, would you respond to that, please. Minister Peterson.
I thank Mr. Qirngnuq for his question.
Yes, that is our plan. We’re already incorporating IQ through our government operations and all the guiding principles.
It’s important to continue that and that’s what we’re doing here with this; just continue that and make it an important priority in our department and throughout the government.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Qirngnuq.
Mr. Qirngnuq (interpretation): Yes, this is going to be my last comment. It’s not a question.
We will look forward to having Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit implemented in our departments.
I will look forward to that too with you.
Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted. $8,608,000.
I don’t have very many questions in this area, but I would like to know more about the role of the Internal Audit Services Branch that you have.
Can you tell us exactly what their role is and how they work?
I thank Ms. Angnakak for her two questions.
We’re a large organization with a lot of employees and many departments and public agencies, so it’s always good, like any large organization, even smaller organizations, I guess, as well if they can afford it, to have the internal audit services so that we can audit as required.
In Internal Audit Services, we do five types of assurances and engagements. We can do compliance audits to make sure departments are complying with the programs that they provide.
We can do operational and performance audits to ensure that they’re being efficient and effective. We can do forensic audits on departments if they indicate or tell us that they suspect there could be some fraud or investigation. We can provide them with consulting and advisory services as to how to better manage and run their departments or deliver their programs.
As I indicated earlier, we have, I think, ten auditors in Internal Audit Services, but not all positions are filled at all times, so they fluctuate between four and six auditors at any given time because of transfers and people resigning or retiring.
We can’t audit everything. We have to develop an annual audit plan to ensure that we schedule our time on important projects.
Each audit, depending on what type of audit it is, could take anywhere from two weeks to four to six months.
In a nutshell, that’s what Internal Audit Services does. They audit departments, provide services, support to departments, and they give the deputy minister and myself reports to read and they’re quite comprehensive and detailed.
Can the minister explain what triggers an audit? For example, you said forensics - how do you say it - or there’s compliance. What triggers an audit?
If I understand it correctly, the audit would be initiated through the audit plan at the request of a particular department.
Would a department request an audit of their own department and, if so, why would that be?
The department might request an audit on their own department if they suspect there’s some wrongdoing in the department.
If there is something they detect in their review of reports, they may request an audit. Of course, we would conduct that audit.
They’re probably audits related to potential fraud, embezzlement, and those sorts of things.
I am writing down while I remember what I want to ask.
This sparks my interest.
One of my questions is also about entities like Nunavut Tourism or the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation and the development corporation.
Do you conduct audits from them as well?
We could for outside use. It would depend on what’s in their contribution agreement.
We could audit organizations like the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation or the Nunavut Development Corporation.
Has that happened in the recent past?
We have audited the Qulliq Energy Corporation. There have been three or four audits over the last three years.
When you do an audit, what happens to that information and how do you use it?
It would depend on the nature of the audit, but typically, we would send the audit back to the client department, and then they would develop a plan and then proceed from there.
Once you have received the information, you go back to the department, and then they take that information and make changes, do you also go back again to make sure that the changes that you said need changing, if that makes any sense, were actually implemented?
Yes, we would do a follow-up audit. It would kind of be pointless to do an audit and make recommendations if we didn’t follow up to make sure that the departments were implementing our recommendations.
It’s no different than the Auditor General of Canada. When they audit the Government of Nunavut, they make recommendations and we respond, and then they may do follow-up audits to find out if we have complied with the recommendations.