EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
And I think as we roll this position out across Nunavut in different communities, we will be able to see the maximum advantage of having a dedicated youth outreach worker dealing with peer pressures, drugs/alcohol addictions, as well as, Mr. Speaker, being able to provide an extra confidence for young people being able to talk to someone who will understand what is going on with them in that community. So, I can guarantee that.
Question 547 – 1(6): Documentation of Elder Knowledge History
Perhaps, over two years I have been asking questions regarding Elders who are leaving us at a very fast rate and we know the knowledge goes with them because they are not passing down this knowledge through any program and yet we need to document the history and those are the questions that I have been asking.
I was asking the Minister last year, Minister Akesuk, when he was the Minister of the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.
He stated that they would be starting a program, specifically a daily journal up to this day for many years and he is an Elder.
And so, we were told that that would be dealt with.
The Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, I’d like to ask him that the commitments made by the previous Minister are still going ahead regarding that project.
Speaker: Minister Responsible for Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, Minister Kilabuk.
As I announced earlier, it will proceed.
The elders’ oral histories will start being documented and I would also like to reiterate that, yes, we are pushing it and it is to help and support the elders’ committees and councils in the communities.
We make plans as a government. Yes, I understand what he says, however, some while we’re planning, while we’re discussing, we continue to lose people each day; our elders, without having been documented, all that oral history and wisdom that they have just goes with them, and this could be used for anything from school curriculum to anything.
I have been asking for a couple of years, if the oral histories from elders who have already been documented for instances, Kuniliusi Nutarak, who has kept a daily journal all his life, perhaps they can be bought by the government immediately and there are other cases where there are elders’ journals, before it’s too late.
Let’s not wait to hire and appoint councils and all these planning committees.
So, I’m asking what the current situation is with that program.
I’d like to apologise to the member regarding the current situation, the status of his question, but that was previously asked of another Minister for that specific question.
I will find out further information and get back to the member regarding the specific questions on those projects.
Would the Minister assure me that he will do that as soon as the session is over or fire somebody?
I will go a step further. I’ll get a response before we leave Baker Lake.
Question 548 – 1(6): Changes to the Funding Formula for the Schools
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to direct my question to the Minister Responsible for Education.
Earlier in my statement I had indicated that the former Minister had tabled last May, over a year ago, a report on funding options for Nunavut schools.
In a Ministers' statement, around the same time, the same day, he’d indicated that using the school funding review and the responses in it to prepare in the coming years for the preparing the budgets for the schools and how they’re staffed.
My question to the Minister, if she could update the house on what recent changes had been made to the funding formula that is used to determine the number of teaching staff positions allocated to the schools.
Speaker: Minister for Education, Minister Thompson.
The report was tabled a year and a half ago, as I know, the original report.
Up to today, I have not seen any changes for the funding formula for the teachers.
It sounds like there is another report generated by the Government just to sit on a shelf and collect dust.
I think this is something that we cannot afford to see happen with this report.
Like I stated in my statement there was two options for increased teachers.
One was 25 this year, coming up immediately and they needed those teachers and the other option was for 60 more teachers.
In there, Mr. Speaker, another issue that has always been raised in the schools is a lack of student support teachers.
There was a request to increase it from 38 to 48 and also student support assistants to be increased from 53 to 78.
Can the Minister confirm whether or not these recommendations will be taken into place for the coming school year?
First of all, I have to look at the options and the report itself in detail.
I can say that the staffing to 2003-2004 funding levels are guaranteed for next year.
There will be no reductions from my Department for that.
We will work around that.
I will take the recommendations from the report very seriously and commit to making sure that we improve student/teacher ratio in Nunavut if it has to, Mr. Speaker, I have already talked to staff and if it boils down to reorganizing the Department, we will do that and make sure that the children in the schools are not suffering because of lack of teachers or resource teachers.
Mr. Speaker, like I had indicated in my Members’ Statement this Government and all the Members of this Assembly made education one of its top two priorities with housing.
To me that would mean any resources we can increase to improve the systems we have done for housing, we have failed to do it in education.
The Minister indicated that there were going to be no layoffs, that there is going to be more students next years, no new teachers. What kind of a commitment is that?
You look at in Nakasuk School in Iqaluit, next year almost all of the classes are going to be split classes.
Almost every grade is going to be a split grade where you are going to have two grades in there.
How can teachers be expected to do their jobs in those kind of working conditions?
Given the record that we have seen by this Government, I would like to ask the Minister to confirm whether reducing the pupil/teacher ratio is still an objective supported by the Department of Education.
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Mr. Speaker, I am aware of the situation at the high school in Iqaluit, the teachers, perhaps there are two or more, they have too many teachers, I think there are three teachers in the high school, but I know their elementary schools are short-staffed.
(interpretation ends) With regards to the Member’s question, I will make sure that there are no layoffs, that has already been directed to the staff and there will not be any layoffs now.
In regards to hiring new staff, I have to look at my numbers first and see what the numbers are out there in order to make a different change in that directive.
Right now, we can do with what we have and without the layoffs going to the schools; we will be able to provide a good education to the students.
Mr. Speaker, I’d urge the Minister to meet with her cabinet colleagues to come up with something to at least meet the forced growth needs of the schools not only in Iqaluit but across Nunavut to come up with that funding somehow to do that.
My final question, Mr. Speaker, is the Minister had indicated that there are going to be no layoffs.
Does that also mean that there are going to be no classifications or down-grading from positions from full-time to part-time?
Is everything going to stay the same or are there going to be positions that are going to be cut in hours in order to meet the fiscal restraints that they’re going to have.
The directive to the staff is that there will be no layoffs as there is and that means what was expected in the last year to be the norm is going to be the same thing this year.
I don’t have that details of where people might be losing hours.
I don’t have that detail for I have 26 communities to deal with.
But I can say that my cabinet colleagues and I have already discussed this from the Bathurst Mandate.
We have all said that we want to improve the student teacher ratio Nunavut-wide and as the Minister I have the commitment to that.
That report that was tabled a year and a half ago will be taken very seriously and we’ll see what we can do to help out our teachers and resource staff in our schools so that our students are not suffering.
Question 549 – 1(6): Public Concerns on Rent Scales
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Housing Corporation.
There was a question from one of my colleagues and I would also like to get some information up to date about the concerns that the communities have regarding the new rental scales.
I just wanted to know what kinds of things that Housing Corporation has done after the people have voiced their concerns.
Speaker: Minister Responsible for Housing. Minister Ng.
Mr. Speaker, it depends on what specific concerns the member is raising or if it’s more of a broader community concern.
As members are aware, there were public consultations that had taken place.
After the rent scale was finalized, there were community consultations to inform people what changes were going to be put in place.
If there were specific individuals that were impacted or didn’t understand things, the staff would have through the local Housing Authorities or required through Housing Corporations, certainly be available to provide more specific information on any specific issues.
It is a great concern to most of the communities, I think and mostly more so to the people that are renting these buildings or houses.
Some people that have been working for a very long time are contemplating resigning and going onto the income support program in order to be able to afford to be in that house, in their houses.
That’s already a problem and I’m sure that the Minister already knows that.
The concern and the clarification that people need to have is that people are alarmed about the calculation that they were going back to incomes from 2001.
Can the Minister clarify that issue in this House so that people would have a proper understanding and if the Housing Corporation is going to change that calculation for people of Nunavut?
Mr. Speaker, yes, it was based on reported income on income tax forms as I had stated on assessments made by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.
And as I had indicated earlier, there were incomes that were not reported normally on the income assessment forms prior to this.
So, it is capturing, I guess, some income that people normally would not have been assessed upon and that is where it is causing some difficulties for certainly some of the higher income earners.
As I indicated earlier as well, I mean if there is problems with this, I mean, we are more than willing to make adjustments based on that, but we have to give the new rent scale an opportunity to work itself out over the course of the year.
Recognizing that there has been a lot of factors taken into consideration to address some of the issues that have been brought forward by members of the public, by stake holders and by task force in respect of family size and respect to the housing condition and in respect to the cost to the community, those types of things that have been factored in to the new rent scale and generally supported in concept.
And what is happening now is there are individuals, obviously they are falling outside of that for whatever reasons and those individuals may have to be looked at as we move to adjust this in the future.
The people that are working for a very long time have to pay very high rent for the units that are not very good to live in.
That is one part.
The part is that not very many people work full-time, but they do work seasonal jobs.
For example, some people in 2001 worked in the shrimp fishery or shrimp boats, but they did not work for the last two years and that income from 2001 was calculated.
So, can the Minister tell us that this will not be happening because it is not a true income for this time?
Mr. Speaker, there are provisions in the rent scale to recognize changing circumstances, particularly a lowering of incomes based on an individual or family situation.
If their income has been, their job status and income status has changed from the time that the assessments have been made, the rents will be reduced accordingly.
At the same time, if the rents, if their increases over the course of the year, their rents would not go up correspondingly in that immediate year.
So, that is kind of the offset.
It is more of an advantage for somebody recognizing if there circumstances changes negatively in the respect of lowering income, lowering rents versus increasing because there would not be increases if their status would have changed immediately, but if they were to go down, then that is recognized immediately.
Will the Minister send one of his staff to, because there seems to be a misunderstanding of Local Housing Authorities and the clients that they have.
Will the Housing Corporation be sending people around to make sure that the calculations are being done properly to make sure that people understand?
I would hate to see people that are working resigning because of high rent that they have to pay for the units that are not very good to live in.
Speaker: Minister, Minister Ng.
Mr. Speaker, one of the key aspects of the rental changes, the new rent scale was to encourage employment opportunities, income generating opportunities and to not discourage it.
So, while having said that, certainly if there are problems, then, in specific communities, I’m more than willing to have Housing Corporation staff work with the Housing Authorities staff in order to rectify that problem.
Question 550 – 1(6): Number of Polar Bear Tags Distributed
When we had our last session of the Legislative Assembly in Iqaluit, I asked some questions to the Minister of Sustainable Development.
I will ask the same questions and rephrase them differently.
There are a lot of women who acquire polar bear tags in the communities.
How many polar bear tags will the community receive?
I thank the member from the Amittuq riding for his question.
What we do is the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and the Department Sustainable Development looks at the tags for polar bears collectively and then they allot them so many tags and in some cases they are increased.
What they do is the agreement is reached between the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and Sustainable Development as to how many polar bear tags are distributed.
That’s the way we do it currently.
In regards to the policy that Sustainable Development currently follows, in my community of Igloolik, they’re running out of polar bear tags and it’s not because the polar bear population is declining, it’s because of the dangerous bears that have to shot and the tag is taken away.
In Igloolik, they have a shortage of polar bear tags.
I’ll put it in a different way.
It has nothing to do with the population of the bears over there.
It’s because of the nuisance bears that are shot; they have to be accounted for by deducting them from the tags allotted.
It doesn’t have anything to do with the population.
I think there should be another study of the polar bear population, or the hunting of bears because of the green house affect, because there will probably be changes again because of the polar bear populations and nuisance bears.
Well not really, but I’ll respond to it.
On the polar bears in the Gulf of Boothia, in 2001/2002, there were 7 tags allocated and if there’s a nuisance bear shot, before the nuisance bear was shot in 2001/2002, there has been 7 and that number has not been changed.
We will look into it again to see what changes we can do and to look at the quota and also to look at the situation where if there has been a bear study and a migration study, looking at all the things such as migration and the warming weather that is warming.
I wasn’t really concerned about that, I know the weather is changing in my constituency.
We will probably get to the bottom of this in Igloolik because we’re not really sure if the green house affect is affecting the area of Igloolik.
But we do know there is a huge population accumulating around the Igloolik area of polar bears.
The question I really had was about when they shoot a female, if they shoot too many females, and then they take away a tag, one tag for so many females.
Maybe it’s because they don’t want the polar bear to decline but Mr. Speaker, our polar bear tags, there’s not very much in numbers at this time.
Is there a possibility that they can be given a tag in the Gulf of Boothia?
We know that the migration of polar bears is different in different years and there are different numbers that come to the communities as nuisance bears.
We can do is look at the situation because we can’t just give out another tag.
In accordance with the agreement, we have to follow the rules.
We can look at the population and the bear population, in November, we can visit the community and meet with the Hunters and Trappers Organization and see what we can do.
I know that Nunavut Wildlife Management Board can give me some information.
Can the Minister give us a report of the numbers of females that have been shot and how many tags have been taken away from the community because of shooting too many females?
That way, if we see the numbers, we can figure out exactly.
Can the Minister provide us with information as to how many females have been shot and how many tags have been returned because of too many females being shot?
This way we can know how many we can get as a quota.
Yes, I will get my staff and the wildlife officers in the communities to meet with each other and we will go to their community and we will give them the information in writing.
Speaker: Just a reminder to the Members that we have six Members yet to ask questions and thirteen minutes left in question period.
So, let us try to pick up the pace.
Question 551 – 1(6): Counsellors Needed in Communities
I thought I was being forgotten.
This is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services for the counsellors, for family counsellors.
During our meeting in March in Iqaluit, he supported the need for counsellors in each community and there is a need for counsellors right inside the Legislative Assembly.
And I talked about the two counsellors in Iqaluit who are bilingual and they were mentioned when we were having a meeting in Iqaluit.
I thought there was going to be more family counsellors provided to the community.
What is happening with the two family counsellors?
Mr. Speaker, just on the counsellors and I would like to touch base on, just very quickly on social services because the Member has raised many times the situation in his community with social workers.
I want to touch base with that first and tell the Member that there are three positions slated out for Pond Inlet, one is the supervisor position and then there is a level 1 and a level 3 social worker.
Mr. Speaker, the supervisor position has been filled and we are in the process of filling the other two positions.
So, that is good news for that community.
Specifically on counsellors, Mr. Speaker, we have, over the last several weeks, have had several different people in the employment of the Department, including Meeka and Abraham Arnakak from Pangnirtung who have actually been delivering counselling programs and services at different workshops and events.
This is in part of what we were talking about in the last Session, giving the opportunity for more counsellors at the community level.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Yes, I have mentioned this numerous times and there is going to be one in Pangnirtung hired and perhaps if he or she will be a family counsellor.
My main question was that with the social services workers, are they going to be hired in Pangnirtung only that position is being filled?
What is happening with the other communities?
Will the other communities receive family counsellors or social workers?
Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of aggressively recruiting social workers across Nunavut and it was our intentions to have social workers in place and try to bring those numbers up and it has been raised by the Members as well.
Ms. Williams, for example, several times in the House and we have been aggressively working on that.
We are also putting in place the child/youth action workers and different positions that are counselling at the same time.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Mr. Speaker, we have mentioned this about utilizing too much money and the women going down to Iqaluit to the safe shelter and he’s fully aware of it.
I think it would be a lot easier if there were a social worker in this community, that can be approached by the people who do need them. He indicated that there is going to be one in Pond Inlet because I know the social worker that was hired was only for the whole community.
How many people, because of the fact that there are no social workers in these communities, how many clients has the safe shelter received.
Do you have the numbers in Iqaluit with the family problems?
Do you have the numbers of how many people have gone to the safe shelter?
No Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the numbers of clients, of women and children that have gone to the Qimaavik Shelter in Iqaluit for the Baffin Region but we can make that information available to the member.
Question 552 – 1(6): Report on Leena Peterson Boarding Home
I also thought I was forgotten.
I would like to raise this question in regards to the Leena Peterson Boarding Home in Yellowknife.
As I stated, this boarding home is insufficient because it’s too small.
As we know, in March, the Minister, I and Ovide went to Yellowknife to look at the boarding home situation.
My question is when will the Minister make known, the results, to the members in regards to the review and in regards to the plans of how to improve the Leena Boarding Home in Yellowknife for the patients that are going down to Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, as soon as I get that information, I will pass it onto the member.
We talked about different options that are available to us.
I did tour the facility.
I do have an outstanding RFP put in process to look at that situation and when that information comes back, I will be in a better position to inform the member on what the next occurrence is.
And thank you, Mr. Minister for your response.
I also want to know, as you stated, you and your staff are doing a review.
I would also like to know about the contracts.
When will this be reviewed?
Mr. Speaker, that is under way.
They are under way right now.
As you stated, are you saying that we will hear about the review today.
Mr. Speaker, I’m in a very difficult position here because I’ve been trying to rush my answers and you know I have problems doing that, to give the member the answer he wants and so on.
So, Mr. Speaker, no, we’re having the review, the process for the RFP, and then I would have the answer for the member.
I would hope that I would have that answer in the coming weeks.
As we know, I’m not the only person that wants answers to this.
The people not only in Kugluktuk, but in the Kitikmeot would like to hear about the review.
While I am the Member of the Legislative Assembly for my riding, I will continue to stress my concerns in regards to this boarding home.
Speaker: I didn’t hear a question, just a comment.
Question 553 – 1(6): Hiring Social Workers from Southern Cities
Before I’m stopped, when we say in Inuktitut, some times not intentionally, you are not telling the truth or you are mistaken, they mean two totally different things.
You can say you lie, or you can say you’re mistaken.
With the social workers, do they still come to each community because there are very few communities with their own social workers?
When social workers are hired from down south right into the community, without any orientation of, perhaps if there was an orientation done about Inuit culture and because with the culture shock sometimes, they’re in a difficult situation because the lack of Inuit culture and because a lot of these social workers are not familiar to our culture.