EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Speaker last night the minister indicated in Committee of the Whole that the department was conducting a review on, I'm not sure what the review is.
But maybe, in his answer if he could refer to what exactly the review is called, whether it's a funding review or PTR review, if he could in his answer let me know what that is.
But I'd like to ask him, he indicated last night that there are two individuals co-ordinating or doing this review.
I would just like to ask the minister who exactly it is that’s doing that.
We responded to that question yesterday, and our staff, I'm not sure exactly who it is but it is somebody from the legal division, and there's two people who will be co-ordinating this review.
One of our staff will be from the policy division.
It's the same answer I got last night and I still don't know exactly who is doing it.
But I would like to ask the minister if he's willing to provide us with the terms of reference for this review.
I don't have the documents in front of me but I will be able to show the member a copy once I get a copy of the terms of reference from my office.
I'd like to ask the minister if the results of this review, if he plans on incorporating those results into any new legislation that may be brought forward by his department.
After the review if there have to be changes made, it would have to be agreed to by all members.
Supplementary. Final Supplementary.
Mr. Tootoo: No bonus today Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate getting all my supplementaries anyway Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker I'd like to ask the minister, he had indicated that there are two individuals who are co-ordinating this review, someone from his department and possibly someone from justice, I don't know, I look forward to finding that out.
But will the people that are co-ordinating this review be consulting with the people that this review directly affects.
Mr. Speaker, I'm talking about the teachers in the classrooms that have to deal with the shortfalls in the formula right now and also Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry Mr. Speaker, long Committee of the Whole yesterday, also the DEA representatives who have to administer this formula and have to work with what it gives them.
I'm just wondering if the minister can commit to seeking input from those organizations and individuals as a part of this review.
Yesterday I talked about the review and they are going to be reviewing it in detail and in our department, we will be reviewing their work.
Mr. Speaker, we talked about how they'll be working on the process and I will invite individuals that might need to be involved.
Question 093- 1(5): Payment for Hall Beach Gravesite Relocations
I said yesterday that I was going to be asking the Minister of Health & Social Services some questions.
Mr. Speaker, we've been working on this for a while now and I've met with the minister in his office a few times.
The grave sites that were moved, I've been informed that the individuals that were moving the graves would be paid for their services. I'm trying to find out when the payments may be available.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member bringing this forward and as I stand here in this House and I think Mr. Anawak has answered some questions on this in the past and it has come up several times.
I know Mr. Evaloadjuk used to bring it up in the GNWT in Yellowknife.
Now the torch has been passed to Mr. Irqittuq.
He's been bringing it forward.
Two weeks ago, I believe, we received a fax from the Hamlet of Hall Beach outlining the whole history of the project as well as a request form the hamlet for payment.
That was our official, first real official request to my department.
Mr. Speaker, we are hoping to have a written response to the hamlet and also the member in the next couple of days.
When this project was being done it's confusing, we have been working on this and the hamlet has written to the minister and with that I have approached the minister on this and the minister said that I could give him the request form for payment.
The response seems to be opposite now, I am confused as to what action he is going to take.
I am just trying to find out what the contents of his letter to the Hamlet of Hall Beach will be.
No one here in the House would deny the stress and so on as the member relayed the other day of having to dig up the bodies and then move them with the coffin falling apart.
Build new coffins for them and so on.
I understand Mr. Speaker, after speaking with the Deputy Minister of our department yesterday about some of the traumatic stress that would bring in after the fact.
The concern that we’ve had Mr. Speaker, it is safe to say is that the government is trying to find out who would be responsible for the payment.
How do you do the payment without prejudice.
Mr. Speaker, the records are very murky on the issue from the federal government who, it seems in the late 60's had given the authorization and asked for this to occur.
As I said before Mr. Speaker, the previous member for Amittuq used to bring it up in the Assembly.
Now it has come forward to us.
Mr. Speaker, sooner or later, the buck has to stop somewhere.
I am trying to get a response to the member.
I just told you I would have that response to him and to the hamlet in the next two weeks, at the very latest.
That is the strongest confirmation I can give at the present time.
When I talked to the minister at one point he said that he had found some funds, some money to pay for this.
It seems like now in his response that he has to study it further, check with the federal government and so on.
What is the roadblock now, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I didn't say I was looking for money.
I am trying to be as clear as possible here.
I understand that it is a very stressful situation.
I know several people that are involved in this.
The letter from the hamlet clearly identified their concern.
All I am saying Mr. Speaker, is, whose responsibility is it to pay the individuals.
Is it the Government of Nunavut, is it the GNWT, was it the federal government.
What department should it have been; Community Government & Transportation, should it be Executive, should it be Health.
That is the type of questions that we are trying to answer Mr. Speaker, at the present time.
That is what we are doing.
We have to be able to review what has happened in the past.
Who was responsible.
I am not a lawyer, Mr. Speaker, but we have to make sure in cases like that of precedent and prejudice and so on.
I've told the member in the strongest way possible today in the House, that I would have a letter to him on this subject within the next two weeks outlining the stance of the Department of Health & Social Services, the minister and the Government of Nunavut.
Final Supplementary. Mr. Irqittuq.
I seem to be dreaming.
He stated that he was going write to me a letter.
There is some money and the project was done.
The information on the project is readily available.
The minister informed me that the money was there; the workers would be paid soon, before April.
I am sure there was a meeting in which this was said.
I am also sure that the minister I met was that same Ed Picco.
Can he confirm this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the member knows fully well that before anything can happen, you need a written letter in formal writing stating what the concern is, what has happened and documentation to back that up before a cheque is issued.
You just don't say "Ed can I have a cheque" and here it is.
The member knows that.
All I've said to him, we've received two weeks ago from the Hamlet of Hall Beach an explanation of what has happened, a motion from the hamlet asking for compensation for the payment of this situation that happened, I believe in 1968 or 1967.
Again we had to make sure as a government that we don't prejudice ourselves on these types of incidents, there's not a precedence.
At the same time Mr. Speaker, we are compassionate, we know that there should be closure brought to the event.
There's no one trying to dodge the member or not answer his question.
I'm answering his question.
I believe if he checks the Hansard tomorrow he'll see that I've now answered it three times.
We will try in the next two weeks, he will have his answer in the next two weeks.
But we had to be cognisant, Mr. Speaker, of the rules of the different financial administration Acts and the different Acts that govern the Legislative Assembly when it comes to pay outs as the member fully knows.
Hopefully at that time Mr. Speaker, the member will be happy.
I would like to add that the situation, Mr. Speaker, if I may, on his earlier questions on this situation in Igloolik.
The health centre is open, there was one person there sick today, there's been several emergency situations and because of that the health centre was closed just briefly.
It is open for emergencies, a point of clarification.
The member will note that question period is now up.
Before we proceed to Orders of the Day, and item 7, I have just a few comments I'd like to make.
I had mentioned earlier that I hope to deal with the point of order that was raised yesterday.
I just want to correct it that the point of order will be dealt with in Committee of the Whole.
Again provided that we have the information by day's end.
I'll ask the members, I'm sure they won't mind, I'd like to recognize a number of individuals that have travelled here from Ottawa to spend a week in the capital of Nunavut.
They are with the internship program and they'll spend a year working in the House of Commons with various members, writing questions, statements and research.
They've just returned from Belfast, Ireland where they were over there and spent some time studying the workings of that Assembly.
They are here checking the newest Assembly opened in Canada, Nunavut.
Most of these students have graduated with a degree in political science, philosophy and other disciplines.
They have informed me that their trip here to Nunavut is probably the most exciting to them.
The list of individuals here are; Maya Bevam, Jennifer Chandler, Caitlin Hayward, Carolyn West, Carrolyn Johnston, Nathalie Labonte’, Alice MacLachlan from my home province of Nova Scotia, Robert Nichols, Jackie Steele, Jonathan Weir, and the director, the guy that keeps it all together, Leslie Pal.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): I was just going to ask if we could go back to item 5.
Speaker: Are the members in agreement.
I believe that my colleague, Minister Thompson, represents this individual in Rankin Inlet, but I would like to welcome Raymond Ningeochiak, Second Vice-President of NTI.
Speaker: Welcome to the gallery and to the other people from the public that are here visiting.
Bill 2 - Supplementary Appropriation No. 2, 2000-2001 - Notice
I give notice that on Friday March 9, 2001 I shall move that Bill 2 - Supplementary Appropriation No. 2, 2000-2001 be read for the first time.
Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Ng. Item 16.
Bill 1 - Appropriation Act 2001-2002.
In accordance with the authority vested in me by Motion 002-1(5), the Committee of the Whole will stay in session until it reports itself out with Mr. Iqaqrialu as the Chairperson.
Before we proceed, we will break for 15 minutes.
>>House recessed at 3.04 pm and resumed at 3.29 p.m.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, we can begin again with Committee of the Whole.
Before we begin, I just want the members to remember that we are going to be dealing with the Capital Estimates, so please keep your comments to the topic.
We will be dealing with the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Manitok Thompson is the Minister. I am sorry, during the Committee of the Whole, we have the Appropriations Act No. 1, 2001-2002.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation is next.
At this time I will ask Mr. Havioyak as to what is the wish of the committee.
We wish to deal with the Housing Corporation capital.
Do we agree that we will be dealing with the Housing Corporation.
At this time the minister can give her opening comments.
I hope that we won’t be meeting all night like yesterday as my dog might perish and my plants might dry up.
I just want the members to know that so we don't have to meet here all night.
(interpretation ends) Next year is already shaping up to look like a very busy year for the Corporation, with the implementation of many of the recommendations of the Task Force.
(interpretation) Mr. Chairman, our new identity logo, an igloo with a house as an entryway, represents our commitment to the future for new construction techniques and fresh approaches to housing challenges while using the proven methods and traditional knowledge of the past.
(interpretation ends) This represents what we mean with our new Mission Statement you have read in our 2001 - 2002 Business Plan.
That plan, guided by the Bathurst Mandate and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit has as its long-term goals the four sections or principles of the Task Force.
The fourteen recommendations are the strategies we will be implementing, or continuing to implement during fiscal 2001 - 2002 and into the future.
As we all know the Corporation is separate, but a part of the government.
Governed by the Nunavut Housing Corporation Act, the Corporation is able to maximize the use of housing funds in a way that cannot happen under the usual government accounting system.
Committee members will see the Corporation staff have worked very hard this year to change the housing reporting and planning with a view towards providing current, timely, accurate and forward-looking documents that reflect the form and function of regular Nunavut Government departments, but keep the flavour of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Mr. Chairman, committee members will note that there have been some challenges with staffing the Corporation this year.
Currently we are at about eighty percent, with about fifty percent Inuit employees.
In the short term we will continue to recruit the management team for headquarters, who will then build their departmental groups up from there.
Regarding capital funding set at 14 million for fiscal year 2001/2002. Housing is one of the two priorities of this government along with education.
This priority can be seen through the capital allocation process, a process that puts these departments first and second for capital allocations.
We will use every cent we have been allocated for housing under the 5-year Capital Plan in a directed, effective way to ensure we deliver the product that Nunavut needs.
The Corporation is pleased that the government has seen fit to increase its operating funds for fiscal 2001-2002.
Before I tell you how we are using our funding though, I need to tell you about the new method of presentation the Corporation has used this year.
This year, Corporation staff reviewed our presentation of 2000-2001 and determined that, by just showing the Government of Nunavut portion of the funding, members were not receiving as accurate a picture of Corporation activities as is possible.
For fiscal 2001-2002, the Corporation is receiving 40.6 million in O&M dollars from the Government of Nunavut.
In addition, 58 million will be received from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, to be used for social housing purposes.
The Corporation generates a further 2.5 million dollars through mortgage payments, interest earned on deposits and other sources.
When capital dollars are included, the total Corporation budget for fiscal 2001-2002 is just over 115 million dollars.
These funds will be used for grants and contributions to the Local Housing Organizations of 61.6 million dollars, 22 million dollars to our district operations and 31.6 million dollars to headquarters.
The Corporation appreciates the O&M increases from the Government of Nunavut and is optimistic that they will become part of its base for the future.
Mr. Chairman, we remain excited about and dedicated to housing in the territory.
The Corporation is moving forward, we are making it happen.
We are implementing the Task Force recommendations; we are pulling the political forces for housing together for Nunavut and the Inuit world in a co-ordinated effort on behalf of us all, we are making positive impacts on the federal scene.
We are continuing to build new public housing units.
Our team is excited about the growth of housing in fiscal 2001-2002 and we are eager to get on with the job.
Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you very much for allowing me to provide my general comments.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Minister of Housing.
I think that your logo is quite impressive but there is something missing and it should be added. There should be an addition to it.
The igloo is not complete.
I just want to make sure that there should be another thing added to it.
Opening comments. The Chairperson of the Committee on Community Empowerment and Sustainable Development.
As Chairman of the Standing Committee on Community Empowerment and Sustainable Development, I am pleased to be able to provide opening comments as we begin the review of the 2001-2002 budget for the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Mr. Chairman, over the past few months, the standing committee has had the opportunity to meet with the Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation on several occasions, and have carefully reviewed their capital plan, main estimates and business plan.
The committee was pleased to hear the Minister of Finance state, during the Budget Address that "adequate and affordable housing is a priority issue for the Government of Nunavut."
However, members were shocked to read, in the capital plan, that spending on social housing has been reduced by approximately 50% from 2000-2001.
This continues to be of great concern to the committee, especially when we read in the Corporation's own business plan that the potential demand for housing in Nunavut will increase by approximately 260 homes per year over the next five years.
Mr. Chairman, social housing is the area where needs are still the greatest.
The committee believes that the housing corporation budget does not place enough emphasis on social housing, particularly given that the Bathurst Mandate identifies housing as one of the two core priorities of the Government of Nunavut.
Mr. Chairman, the commitment by the Housing Corporation, as reiterated in the Budget Address, to begin acting on the recommendations of the Minister's Task Force on Housing is encouraging.
The recommendations that were made by the task force were well thought out and moving forward on them will be a positive step toward addressing the overwhelming need for housing in Nunavut.
The committee noted that the corporation is also taking on several projects in the next fiscal year to review its current programs and introduce new ones, such as a public housing rent scale review; developing new homeownership programs; creating new and improved housing designs and finalizing the Housing Needs Study.
The committee looks forward to seeing a new initiative introduced under the homeownership programs that will provide assistance to homeowners who wish to renovate their homes.
Conducting all these projects is an ambitious undertaking and the committee is pleased to see that they are finally being started.
The standing committee would urge the Nunavut Housing Corporation to complete all of these projects in a timely fashion so that we can move forward on improving the current housing situation in Nunavut.
I wonder if the minister has witnesses to bring to the table at this time.
Thank you, now that your officials are here, if you could introduce them.
On my right is the President of the Housing Corporation, Pam Hine and to my left, Chris Darcy who also works with the Housing Corporation.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Madam Minister.
Does the committee agree to go to Capital Estimates for the Housing Corporation on page 12-5. Detail of expenditures.
Members can have 10 minutes each for general comments, once the general comments are completed, under 12.5 we'll be going page by page to the questions. Then on 12-6 the members can ask general questions under details of expenditures. Let's begin with 12-5.
You have 10 minutes for general comments, do you agree.
Are there any general comments. Mr. Arvaluk.
Regarding the minister’s opening comments and also the opening comments by the chair of the standing committee.
It is now evident that they will be utilizing close to 14 million dollars for capital expenditures for buildings and works and for retrofits of the public housing.
There are concerns that I have in your opening comments on page 5-5, 115 million dollars will be budgeted for 2001-2002 for the Corporation’s budget but the capital programs are 14 million dollars.
It’s only approximately 10% of the total.
Do you not think that the money that is allocated to the Housing Corporation, 115 million dollars, that we should reconsider a better distribution of that.
As she stated in her opening comments the Housing Corporation, although connected to the government, is an entity on its own and they have a president but they are also given a portion of the funding.
So maybe it’s time that we start considering how we can have the Housing Corporation more efficient, so we could have more for the capital projects.
I’m going to be asking that this be considered carefully.
It also mentioned that the recommendations of the task force will be implemented.
I think the urgency is now that the funding that is used by the Housing Corporation should be reviewed to make sure that we get the best use of our dollars.
We have a better idea as to how the Housing Corporation system works but still the operations side of the Housing Corporation is very expensive.
We can’t get an adequate number of houses due to the expensive cost of operations.
If we can build close to the number of 115 million dollars worth of units, we can build many more units.
But this 14 million dollars is good enough to build one school, if we were to build one school, I noted that when the chair of standing committee did his opening comments.
In view of that Mr. Chairman, before we go to the capital estimates, I would like to ask about Housing Corporation expenditures and expenditures of housing associations and housing corporation revenue whether it be through rent or sales not from the Nunavut government or federal government.
The ratio between your revenue and your expenditures, what is the actual ratio.
We're doing general comments right now, so I will give an opportunity to the rest of the members to do their general comments before questions.
I will give that opportunity to all the members.
It's encouraging to hear the minister’s comments and also the chair of the standing committee's comments.
Our chairman of the Standing Committee has stated that the funding has decreased or is too small for Nunavut.
As I look at the funds that will be used for those who want to buy their own homes, the committee has also stated that people who are unemployed have a hard time maintaining the house that they own.
We have to find other alternatives to help and to support the homeowners, perhaps if we can think of ways to find programs to help the people who own their own homes, in terms of dollars.
As we know if we don’t have employment we can't own our own homes, we can't afford to own our homes.
As we know we have many people who are unemployed and we have more youth coming up and coming into our work force, they will eventually look to buy their own homes.
As well, we have to take into consideration the number of people who are staying in one home.
When there's overcrowding, problems arise, the other social issues, and once we can get to that situation where they start having social problems eventually the young people think about not helping themselves and some commit suicide.
Before we get into any further social problems that we deal with, we should look at trying to help our young people and the people who are unemployed, the population is increasing, as we know.
Although I have not seen it in this statement, I just want to use an example about my own community. I know there are many young people who want to own their own homes.
Although they want to own their own homes, they have problems finding employment and getting in to public housing.