EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Hon. Jack Anawak: My response is that we're not necessarily going to say well we're going to make sure that a community like Sanikiluaq and Rankin and Kugluktuk are enhanced before the communities get the full recreational facilities.
All I'm saying is that when we look at the problems that we are undergoing today, we would like to make sure that Resolute Bay and Grise Fjord get hockey arenas.
Again I point out that to build hockey arenas in those two communities would be quite a bit more than at this point if we have some additional money but not necessarily enough to build hockey arenas or other recreational facilities, we may have some to enhance some other recreational facilities without necessarily saying our priorities are to enhance the recreational facilities. Because our priorities are to make a good recreational program available to all and to get the maximum usage of the recreational facilities that we have.
Knowing there is global warming, your priorities might change.
I just want to go back a little bit to asking a question that I had.
The five year capital projects that were being planned, did I hear that there were consultations in all the communities, and if that happened then a lot of miscommunication happened.
I keep getting letters from my community about these five year capital projects and another one that I wanted to mention was, that I almost got all excited about the hockey rink in Resolute and Grise Fiord, I said I was going to be getting them but we'll get them soon.
Another one I wanted to ask was that swimming pool in Nanisivik, that's not run by the Nunavut Government is it.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): The 5-year capital planning has not been completed as yet.
If we're going to complete the whole 5-year plan we would have to be in agreement with all the communities as the Nunavut Government because we're mostly concerned with safety issues, even though we would like to have all these establishments fixed.
If we put all these priorities in place we still have to carry out certain priorities if they are required by law, so legal priorities are more important than other needs.
But where possible, we want to avoid conflict with community priorities and that's how we want to conduct ourselves.
We will continue to consult with the communities, maybe through telephone consultations or fax or maybe through computer now that you can use this as a communication tool.
We have no more excuses as to why we cannot communicate with all the communities, even as far as Grise Fiord we cannot say there is no way that we can communicate with them.  We have written to them, we've sent out our 1-800 numbers to the communities, so we want them to realize there shouldn't be any barriers of communication with us.
We urge them to contact us by the various channels now available.
We've always open to all the communities even through the district offices, even directly to us at our headquarters office.
We will continue to smoothen our decentralization efforts during the transition period.
I was thinking that even if you listen to our whispering that's okay.
But yes, for the people of Arctic Bay to utilize the Nanisivik swimming pool we can be approached, then our department would try to make arrangements with the mining company who owns the swimming pool.
I'm sure, the member knows more than I do, that we could assist the community if they want to use the swimming pool in Nanisivik.
Or they can talk to the mines themselves.
Any more, Ms. Williams.
Okay, Mr. Havioyak.
The department is responsible for, along with the hamlets, for land use planning.
Again, I would like to use Kugluktuk as an example, probably it is the same right across Nunavut, regarding the leases.
I just want to give an example of an individual who bought a house hoping that the lease would be turned over to the buyer.
But lately he learned that, yes, he can get the land lease, but it took him almost two years or a year and half to get a response for the application, what's happening with the application.
Why is the process so slow.
I ask this because after he ordered all the supplies by barge to do some improvements on the house hoping that the land lease would be done by that time.
But it never was done, the paper work was never done.
Even today it's not complete, after a year and a half.
I'm just wondering why it takes so long to get these land lease paperwork or administrative work, approval or something. What is the process.
Is that normal.
Should there be some time limit, for that individual to take almost two years, it'll be two years by the time this spring comes.
About six months later he purchased all the materials to do some improvements on the house and they are still sitting there.
So, he's losing some time there.
So, I'm just wondering what's the process, what's the normal period of time to get a response for the applicants.
I guess the shortest answer would be to say because the municipality administers the land we would have to, in order for us to check something out like that and to maybe try and respond to the long delay, we would want to learn the individual case. Then we could look at it and the problems that they went through and use that as an example to see if it’s the process.
But again the land is administered through the hamlet so, maybe we can take a look at the individual case and see the problems that they went through and see what we can do.
Mr. Havioyak: The reason I’m saying this is because it can happen in the future where a buyer, I'm just saying the possibility a buyer can sue, I don't know the formal legal term, but because he was losing money, he could sue the government.
Let's use the Co-op for example, if they sell the lot, that house to that individual but because the paperwork does not get done, the Co-op couldn't turn over anything because there was no paperwork done. The buyer is saying, I should sue this guy for spending so much money on the material that can be damaged stored outside.
He's spending 50 thousand or 40 thousand dollars worth of material sitting out there and it could come to a point where he’s taking court action for these types of things.
So, that's why I brought it up.
If it had been done earlier or if it was on deadline these types of things wouldn't happen.
I'm just trying to get some information how or what the normal response time I guess is given to that.
I would just like to say that I would want the department to take a look at why it took this long, see what improvements can be made to expedite processes like that because there's no point in us delaying any application.
Again the land is administered through the hamlet but we would want to be working together with the hamlet to make sure delays like that do not occur. So we will work on it.
There's two things that I'm thinking about, one was already talked about by the minister and he wrote a letter to the hamlets about the 85 million dollars of capital money put aside for the next five years.
It has not been determined exactly what it will be used for.
To use an example, some of the communities that don't have proper roads.
I'll use Chesterfield Inlet as an example as they don't have any gravel within their community and there are a lot of rocks on the road and they get flat tires on their vehicles from that.
If the community wants to have roads as a priority to the gravel pits, could they do that.
Is that what he meant when he wrote to the hamlets.
At this time what we said to the communities was that the amount of 85 million dollars is to be used for capital projects but what we said was we will be consulting with the communities about it.
That 85 million seems like a huge amount of money but it probably will be in the neighbourhood of 17 million per year, so what we have to do is consult with communities as to the planning of their priorities, and that 85 million dollars would be for five years.
What I can't say is that this is what we want you guys to do.
I can't tell the communities that these are the priorities because the communities have their own priorities so what we have to do is consult with the communities on the 5-year capital plan.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): Do I understand the minister to say that 85 million is going to be for the 5-year capital plan so each community will be allotted same amount of money each year.
The amounts each year will be staggered, it won't always be the same amount.
I can't say how much difference it would be.
I mentioned before that the communities are thinking more towards the future and I would like to thank the minister for his response, for recognizing the priorities of the communities.
That it is not just about water and sewage trucks but also about the health of the community.
For example, aircraft have to have adequate runways so they don't have an accident, we would also like to not have them landing on access roads and stuff.
We would like them to take off safely from the community airstrip, we want a safe environment.
There are people that live in the communities who go hunting for a living, some of them every day.
In some communities, say for instance, Iqaluit or Rankin Inlet, especially Iqaluit, it seems like the needs of the hunters are not considered at all, to provide them with access roads out of the community.
The other day, we almost lost our way trying to get out of the community.
We had to go by the airport, by the lagoon, which we found by observing the ravens and then go past the FOL site.
If you're an older person it must be very hard and I was wondering why a lot of people in Iqaluit have metal hitches on their kamotiks, it's because they have to go through a maze of turns when they go out hunting.
The question that I have is, seeing that hamlets are given much more leeway in deciding what they want for their communities, what they have to have is access roads to their hunting grounds and I just wondered if the communities are involved in this.
I just wondered if the communities would have more involvement in community planning if you understand what I'm talking about.
I have always said that I'm from Repulse Bay because I grew up in Repulse Bay.
Growing up in Repulse Bay, the settlement council was established and after that they wanted to gain hamlet status.
It seemed like they had a competition in the communities in the Kivalliq region to see which one of us was going to have hamlet status first.
But when I was over there I noticed that, in Rankin Inlet, I noticed that the public was not ever asked a question as to where the building is going to be situated and where the hospital is going to be situated and where the school is going to be situated, where they are going to put the garage and where they are going to put the fuel tanks.
The public was not given input as to the community planning. Like I mentioned before I grew up in Repulse Bay and that nursing station should've been near a residential area, they should have put the nursing station location inside the community.
These problems existed when I became the mayor in Rankin Inlet.
So in regards to the member’s question about community planning I agree with the member, that the communities should have input into the community planning, although the first priorities are health and safety but involvement of the community should be included, as long as it doesn't interfere with the health and safety aspects.
The people in the communities know their community and they previously had no involvement whatsoever in community planning and what they could have said was if they were refused to be involved in the community planning, they could've just asked why can't we be involved.
As long as I'm the Minister of Community Government and Transportation, I will let the communities know that I would like to involve the communities in the planning of their community and as well when one of the members asked about hamlet councillors, how they can get more ideas so they are.
They have to try and be leaders, leaders in the community and we want them to be involved more in planning of their communities. I support the involvement and leadership of each community.
Are you going to be informing the hamlet that since the creation of Nunavut and since we're going to be charting our own destiny that they should start considering other things, other than providing services for the community.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): After April and when we're in the new year, we would like to have mayors and the community representatives get together to discuss further their leadership role in their communities.
We're not going to be talking about how we could improve the services, what we'd like to talk about is the hamlet councils and their leadership role, that conference that I'm talking about, that I would like to see will take place some time after April 1.
As one of the members stated, I think it was the MLA for Quttiktuq who said that we should hold workshops or orientation workshops, when they are first elected.
The mayors will be having a meeting and they also requested to bring their senior administrative officers.
We're not against them bringing their SAO's but we wanted the mayors or their representatives to realise that they are the leaders at the community level.
A lot of them believe that their SAO's know a lot more, which they might in some areas but it is the mayors who are elected.
They know a lot more about what's happening in their communities and I think that's what we have to focus more on and that's one of the reasons I would like to have the mayors get together after April 1st.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): I would like to ask a general question on transportation.
Can I pose that general question or does that go in another category.
Chairperson (interpretation): The floor is now open for general comments, we have not got into the capital estimates yet.
Most of us have realised that a lot of the communities, through no fault of the Nunavut Government but with the Government of the Northwest Territories, we made dock facilities in communities that we've never even been to.
We just saw the map and we pointed and said put that docking facility here, this would be the perfect location for putting in a docking facility so they try and build it the best that they can.
Again, using Chesterfield Inlet as an example, they tried building a docking facility but the people of Chester were telling them that when it's blowing from the Hudson Bay, it would just get washed away. They put in huge boulders, those boulders that I'm talking about are half the size of this chamber, around this circle, but when the wind blew from the ocean they just got washed away.
That's what was predicted by the residents, they spend 40 thousand dollars rebuilding the boulders every summer but when it flows over, they are washed away.
What I'm trying to say is if they had listened to the people of Chesterfield Inlet, the docking facility would still be there.
That 85 million dollars could be put to good use if you listen to the communities.
The minister has stated earlier that he had a meeting with the Bob Nault and he said he was very receptive and there is a possibility that he might be giving us further funds, additional funds that could be used to rebuild or relocate the docking facilities in some of the communities.
On his example of Chesterfield Inlet, I have used that docking facility and I do know that when there's high winds they have very high waves from Hudson Bay.
In regards to the capital dollars, it could be used for the building of roads or the building of access roads or the docking facilities.
Nunavut is the only territory or province that has no docking facilities for these types of small crafts that we use.
Our officials have asked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and they are drafting up an agreement, once that agreement is signed we can access funds from the DFO that will be used for these docking facilities and also making the communities more accessible by small craft.
I agree with the member, that these communities are the ones that know their communities and they're the ones who know where these facilities should be built and I wouldn’t want to oppose their decisions because of course we have to respect the communities and their suggestions.
If we're going to be rebuilding or building docking facilities, the people might even suggest moving it to another location because of course they know where the water is bad, when there are high winds, where the currents are and where the ice movements are. So we'll take all this into consideration.
I would like to recognise the clock and that we report progress.
There's a motion on the floor to report progress and it is not debatable.
The Minister of Education is going to be hosting a meeting with the Council for the Disabled, that will be at 7 o'clock at the Nanuq room and anyone is invited.
Thank you very much Mr. Anawak.
We'll see you again tomorrow. Mr. Anawak.
I would like to say thank you but I would like to keep going tomorrow until we finish this department.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Minister of Education. Mr. Kilabuk.
I just wanted to say I am not going to be alone hosting that meeting you announced.
I sent out a memo earlier this week and invited all the members to this meeting.
Thank you we will see you tomorrow.
The Speaker may return to the chambers.
Speaker: Returning to the Orders of the Day. Item 19.
Maybe we should move on to item 20. Report of the Committee of the Whole.
Is there a seconder. Mr. Havioyak.
Orders of the Day for Friday March 16, 2001:
This House will stand adjourned until March 16 at 10 a.m. Sergeant-At-Arms.
>>House adjourned at 6.05 p.m.
Friday March 16, 2001
Pages 650 - 691
Friday March 16, 2001 4
032 – 1(5): Status of Negotiations with the NEU (Ng) 4
033 – 1(5): Palliative Care Workshop (Picco) 4
034 – 1(5): Nunavut Film Symposium (Kattuk) 4
117 – 1(5): Wrong Identity on Trip Home (Alakannuark) 4
118 – 1(5): Big Game Hunt (Picco) 4
119 – 1(5): Anti-trapping Groups (Anawak) 4
120 - 1(5): Premier’s Dialect (Nutarak) 4
121 - 1(5): Clyde River Dialect (Iqaqrialu) 4
122 - 1(5): Emergency Preparedness at Airports (Iqaqrialu) 4
123 - 1(5): Translation of Harvesters’ Fuel Subsidy Application (Nutarak) 4
124 - 1(5): Equity between Akitsiraq and Nursing Program Students (Williams) 4
125 - 1(5): Extra Funding for Akitsiraq Students (Tootoo) 4
126 – 1(5): Coral Harbour Caribou Harvest Study (Arvaluk) 4
127 – 1(5): Labour Standards Act Amendments (Williams) 4
128 – 1(5): Marine Act & Regulations (Iqaqrialu) 4
129 - 1(5): Status of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Nutarak) 4
130 - 1(5): Country Food in Medical Boarding Homes (Alakannuark) 4
009 - 1(5): Replacement of the Baffin Regional Hospital Sign (Tootoo) 4
012 - 1(5): Shamanism & Traditional Laws and Customs of Inuit (Nutarak) 4  Friday March 16, 2001
Speaker (Mr. O’Brien): I will do the prayer today.
Speaker: Ublakkut. Good morning Premier, members.
Moving on to item 2.
Minister’s Statement 032 – 1(5): Status of Negotiations with the NEU
Hon. Kelvin Ng: Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report on the progress in the negotiations between the Government of Nunavut and the Nunavut Employees’ Union.
I would like to commend both the union and the government negotiating teams for their hard work and commitment in working towards the first made in Nunavut collective agreement covering the Government of Nunavut’s Public Service.
Mr. Speaker, both the Government of Nunavut and the NEU commenced negotiations for a new collective agreement in December 1999.
Since that time the negotiating teams met on five different occasions with each bargaining session lasting four to five days.
At the present time the negotiations are continuing with the help of Mr. Tom Hodges, a mediator selected by both sides.
This part of the bargaining process is in accordance with the provisions of the Public Service Act and is standard practice in negotiating a collective agreement.
Mr. Speaker, the parties first met with the mediator during the week of January 20 to 24 and I can advise that the session was productive, however more work remains to be done.
Further talks are scheduled from April 4 to 8.
At this important stage of the negotiations, both sides have agreed to a news blackout.
Mr. Speaker, I will keep the MLAs informed of any additional progress made through the mediation process.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister Ng. Ministers’ Statements.
Minister’s Statement 033 – 1(5): Palliative Care Workshop
Hon. Ed Picco: Ullaakuttauq Uqaqti.
Mr. Speaker, as you know the Department of Health & Social Services has been attempting to deliver programs and services that are more responsive to local needs and which incorporate Inuit values.
Many Nunavummiut who are in the later stages of disease, are now choosing to spend their last days or weeks at home with family and friends and to die at home.
Mr. Speaker, there is a need to develop the skills of staff to better care for and support terminally ill people and their families in their home communities.
This is often a very stressful and emotional time for families, friends and workers.
In response to this need, I am pleased to tell you that the Kitikmeot Health & Social Services office just completed hosting a palliative care workshop from March 13th to 15th in Cambridge Bay.
Mr. Speaker, a Palliative Care Education Team from the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton and a certified grief counsellor also participated in delivering this important workshop.
It was attended by mental health workers, community health representatives, social workers, community health nurses and home care aids from all the western Nunavut communities.
Mr. Speaker, my department hopes to continue to offer such training initiatives here in Nunavut.
We know they are very important Mr. Speaker, because we know that our families, communities and staff need to develop skills so that we can care for those amongst us who are nearing the end of their lives.
Minister’s Statement 034 – 1(5): Nunavut Film Symposium
There is a growing interest in the commercial film industry in Nunavut.
This growth has the potential to promote economic development, promote cultural awareness and recognize artistic talents in our territory.
I am very proud to announce that the Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth and the Department of Sustainable Development have come together in this joint initiative to recognize this industry and to facilitate conversation with filmmakers.
Together Culture, Language, Elders & Youth and the Department of Sustainable Development have made it possible for the Nunavut Film Symposium to take place at the Astro Theatre in Iqaluit from March 16 to 19.
The symposium will provide a forum for professional filmmakers interested in producing in Nunavut.
Topics for discussion will focus on how the film industry started, the current status and industry needs, and film commissioners from other provinces will share their experiences with film development in their respective provinces. Funding, training and marketing challenges will be discussed and possible solutions will be explored.
One quote from the Nunavut Film Industry Discussion Paper captures our goal: “To create a world class indigenous industry in Nunavut and to promote the expertise, locations and stories of Nunavut to producers around the world.
As my department works closely with the Nunavut Arts Council, I am excited to be involved in conversations about film making in Nunavut.
As the Minister responsible for Culture, I am happy to have the opportunity to express the importance of cultural sensitivity and balance in the making of films and documentaries.
I would like to thank Minister Akesuk for the opportunity to introduce this joint initiative and look forward to his statement after the symposium discussions close.
I would also like to invite you all to the viewing of Isuma Productions’ feature film, “The Fast Runner” at the Astro Theatre on Sunday evening at 6.30 p.m. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member’s Statement 117 – 1(5): Wrong Identity on Trip Home
Since today is Friday, I will be mentioning a humorous issue.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell you what happened in Kugaaruk.
I left my community on February 18 to Iqaluit and arrived on February 19.