EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
What I am saying is that there is concern over those two populations that have been addressed by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. Listening and getting all of the information from scientists, from communities, and from individuals, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board has identified them to us as populations with concern and we are taking the responsible management actions to deal with those concerns.
The minister himself unilaterally made the decision earlier this winter to go ahead before the NWMB decision and after the review.
The minister himself made a unilateral initiative to make a reduction of the polar bear quota in Baffin Bay by ten for four years.
When he said that the reversal of the position by the government was announced last week or some short time ago, why didn’t he make this unilateral decision that was made back into the original numbers until NWMB makes a review and decision where it should go with that Baffin Bay population?
I think the member is confused. It was not the minister himself, me, that made that decision. The decision was made on recommendations by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board with respect to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
The decision that I made to reverse our position as listing special concern is a completely different decision than that.
The special concern, as I say, applies to all of Nunavut, the polar bear populations in Nunavut, and overall, we do feel our polar bear population is very healthy.
I don’t think I’m the only one confused.
I think that three communities in Baffin Bay are also confused on this one because the NWMB did not recommend a polar bear quota reduction this year. They said next year.
The minister unilaterally fast-tracked the decision and maybe that is where the confusion arises.
Can the minister clarify that the NWMB, or Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, made the decision to start the quota reduction immediately? We must have read different messages that we got from NWMB and the minister’s decision that was made earlier. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to thank the member for that clarification and he is right about that.
The NWMB made the decision to reduce the quota. They recommended that we start in 2011 and I changed that. I recommended and changed that variance so that we start this management system this year.
The sooner we start this, it is going to be for the betterment of Nunavut and the communities affected that we get a more and complete population survey done. We will get that done sooner by starting this action.
Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Arvaluk. Thank you, Minister.
Question 386 – 3(2): Issues with Essential Services in Sanikiluaq (Rumbolt)
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in my Member’s Statement, I called on the government to ensure that essential services, such as obtaining driver’s licences and general identification cards, are being delivered in a timely and efficient manner.
Can the minister explain what the process is to obtain a driver’s licence and a general identification card and how long this process should take?
Hon. Peter Taptuna: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the hon. member from Hudson Bay for that question.
The process starts by putting in applications by residents who are requiring driver’s licence and general identification cards from the department.
The applications are processed through our Motor Vehicles Office here in Iqaluit and after that, depending on the completion of an application, there may be some information going back and forth between the communities and the Iqaluit office here.
On the completion of an application, the application is verified by the Motor Vehicles Office here in Iqaluit and then sent down to Ottawa for processing and printing.
As I stated yesterday, many constituents in Sanikiluaq are waiting several months to receive their driver’s licences.
Can the minister explain why it’s taking so long for the people of Sanikiluaq to obtain their driver’s licences?
Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Rumbolt. Minister Taptuna.
Hon. Peter Taptuna: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I again thank the member for that question.
I admit that some of these processes take a bit of time, a bit more than expected.
It takes a number of people and in fact, a team, to process some of these applications and get the service out to the residents of these communities.
It’s almost like teamwork. We have people here in Iqaluit, in these communities, down in Ottawa, at the hamlets, and it takes good coordination.
At times, some of the best laid out plans on delivering the services don’t usually work out, as we all know.
We’re trying to make it more effective and trying to process some of these applications in a timely manner. I admit yes, some of these applications have taken a long time.
We’re hoping and we’re trying to improve the system so that we become more effective to deliver these applications and the general identification cards and driver’s licences to the community members.
I agree that, at times, there is some inefficiency and we’re trying to improve that within the department.
One of the things that our Premier and this government has committed to is that with the government liaison officers in these smaller communities, that would help us out tremendously in delivering the services to the smaller communities, not just in driver’s licences but in other government services too.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister. Your second supplementary, Mr. Rumbolt.
Mr. Rumbolt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of the people of Nunavut having long delays in receiving their driver’s licences was brought up in the House on March 15 by a colleague of mine. Back then, the minister said that he would look into the matter and try and fix the program.
Again he’s saying that they’re trying to find ways to improve the program. Can the minister indicate how long it will take to have this program reviewed?
In delivering a service, you depend on key people within the hamlets, employees and whatnot down in Ottawa, and of course, here in Iqaluit and other various communities that coordinate some of these processes for the applications.
Again, I’ve got to mention that it takes teamwork to accomplish some of these things that his constituency is requesting.
Recently, there were 24 applications from his constituency of Sanikiluaq.
Twenty-one of them have been verified, evaluated, analyzed, and approved for printing and processing down in Ottawa.
So there have been some improvements, but yes, there are still a lot of improvements to be done. It’s very difficult when you depend on a whole number of people to get to that point of delivering a service.
With additions down into the future with GLOs, or government liaison officers, we see some of these services improving.
Again I will admit, yes, we’re continuing to strive to improve our services to the residents of Nunavut.
When you just answered the question, you said that 21 of the 24 applications from Sanikiluaq were approved and sent to Ottawa for processing.
Can the minister tell me how long it took, if everything was in order, from the time the application was taken to the time the driver’s licences were delivered to the community if everything is okay?
The evaluation of an application to the processing and printing of the card should take approximately four weeks before it gets to the applicant.
Question 387 – 3(2): Dialysis Treatment in Nunavut (Ningeongan)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Health and Social Services and follow up on the minister’s commitment to address the need for a dialysis machine in Nunavut.
In response to my questions on this issue that I asked on March 23, 2010, the minister stated and I quote, “We hope to have more developments that we hope to announce in our upcoming June session.
I will ensure that the member is kept informed on the developments of this situation and what kinds of improvements we make.”
Mr. Speaker, to date, I know for a fact that I have not been informed of any kind of development between that time and now.
On June 1, 2010, I followed up on this issue with the minister and in his response, he stated again and I quote, “… as ministers, sometimes when we say something, we usually don’t set a date. We try not to provide a deadline.”
Mr. Speaker, the record shows that in this case, the minister did set a date. That date was June. We are now in June.
Will the minister provide a detailed update on what specific steps have been taken to address the need for a dialysis machine in Nunavut and when will he provide that update?
I can respond to that. My previous comments were translated into English and I am aware of that as he read them, but I believe that it wasn’t entirely correctly translated.
What I stated was, “I hope to” and in my opinion, this is true. However, “hope” does not denote commitment.
We have a commitment to work on making improvements to the system and we will continue to report on them as we develop them.
The member has had meetings with me as well as my deputy minister.
I can state that this is the case, although he did not mention that as happening. I have spoken with the member on more than one occasion. We have also kept him informed via email correspondence on this matter.
Based on these reasons, we are working towards providing support to residents with liver or kidney problems who require blood cleansing via dialysis.
We really do need to support these types of people as a government. As with most cases where the service is not available in Nunavut, we have no choice but to send them out for treatment.
For those reasons, we will have to prepare and submit a budget, including any resources.
Currently, we do not know how large of a budget this would require. As I stated yesterday, it is not as simple as picking up the dialysis machine and transporting it here to Nunavut as there are many factors we have to keep in mind. We require several trained staff to operate this machine.
As we start to resolve all of these related issues with the assistance of the medical team, we will inform the member. I believe that he stated at the beginning of the session that he would like to meet with me and I agreed to make time to meet the member.
We will meet with the member prior to the end of this session with respect to the dialysis machine issue.
We will look into the March Hansard and we will provide the results or findings.
It should not be surprising that statements made by ministers raise people’s expectations, especially those who have to be away from their home and family for long periods of time.
While I do recognize that sometimes things take longer than expected, I also feel it is important to provide clear and straightforward information to our constituents in a timely manner.
I would also like to state for the record that between March of this year to date, I was not, once again I repeat, I was not informed of any kind of development until I started asking the question.
Can the minister provide some indication of what timelines are set for considering, deliberating, and deciding on the feasibility of a dialysis machine for Nunavut?
Hon. Tagak Curley (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will read them in the statement. I don’t think there was a Point of Order about this particular statement, but based on my previous and earlier response, it was in Inuktitut.
When an Inuk asks me a question, I try to respond in Inuktitut so that the answer can be clearer.
We have to provide these kinds of medical systems to our residents and wherever these machines are not available in Nunavut, the patients have to leave our territory and to receive treatment elsewhere.
Prior to these machines coming into the health system, we have to have all of the processes in place.
With regard to the complex and technical nature of these machines, it’s not because we are trying to provide the service to our residents but we are preparing for all of the medical and technical challenges that we face.
We have to have some training and resources to ensure that it runs properly. There are many issues to deliberate.
I cannot make a definite response about a definite deadline here in this House when we have not completed those preparations, only when it has been deliberated and after approval of the budget.
These are highly technical and cannot just be taken and left in a community in Nunavut.
If that were the case, we would have done so long time ago.
It is only after we have made all of the preparations and have the trained staff in place that there will be a dialysis machine in the future.
I know that the expectations the residents have is there will be a dialysis machine that will be up there, but we are developing our plans and we have not set a timeframe.
That is why I have said that I hope we can have everything in place by this date, but again, we are undertaking all of the preparations to make sure that everything is in place by the time the machine does come up to Nunavut.
The dialysis machine would be an expensive investment for Nunavut. However, the cost of medical travel for the Department of Health and Social Services is also expensive and runs over-budget year after year after year.
Can the minister confirm whether or not his staff have compared the total cost of medical travel and accommodation for patients receiving dialysis treatment outside of the territory to the cost of a dialysis machine?
Hon. Tagak Curley (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, if that was the scenario where we could compare medical travel versus dialysis machines, some of them will be higher and it wouldn’t be very balanced either.
The government does not operate in that manner, so what we have to understand is that we have to have everything in place, fully trained staff, and the fiscal resources available to ensure that the dialysis machine operates smoothly.
It’s not just the funding that’s at issue here.
We need certified technicians who can run that dialysis machine. As I stated, we would also need to train operators. We need more than one operator as well because we will always need backup.
It’s not just the funding. If it was just a funding issue, I am sure we could deal with that. The reason why I cannot respond about the timeframe is because there are other factors that we have to deal with.
We just compared medical travel and the continuum budget shortfall.
It’s true that we do always ask for supplementary appropriations dealing with health medical travel, but then again, we are trying to make more efficient measures in our report.
I will work on that, Mr. Speaker, and provide a more comprehensive report down the road.
I recognize that in order to operate a dialysis machine in Nunavut, staff and technicians would need to be trained and hired.
Can the minister confirm what steps have been taken to identify what training would be required to operate the dialysis machine and whether there are potential candidates for such training in Nunavut?
As I stated earlier, based on his question, these are the kinds of issues that we have to prepare for.
We do have a plan of action, but as all these things settle into place and the funding budget for this is approved, I will start reporting on these as we make progress.
One thing we know, Mr. Speaker, is that the dialysis machine that would assist those with blood disorders, we cannot deal with that here at the Legislative Assembly.
We need doctors and administrators to deal with that. Again, we also have to look at other issues, such as the best practices of other jurisdictions or provinces on how they deal with that when they have remote community challenges.
These are all of the issues being studied by our health department. We will not swerve from that path and we will continue down that road.
Question 388 – 3(2): Status of Airport Improvements in Kimmirut (Schell)
Last fall, the Legislative Assembly approved $800,000 in the 2010-11 capital estimates for improvements to the runway at Kimmirut’s airport.
Can the minister indicate whether this capital project is on schedule to begin this year?
I’ll have to get back to him on that. I don’t have that information in front of me.
As the minister is aware, the airports in Kimmirut and Pangnirtung are extremely challenging places to land given their location.
In March of this year, I asked the minister to look into doing a feasibility study to relocate the Kimmirut Airport.
Can the minister update me today on the status of this issue?
I think that changed throughout the planning because of some certain situation that the government is in and the member is fully aware of that.
I’ll have to get back to him on his question.
I guess he answered part of my next question here where I asked him if it had something to do with the Nunavut Housing Corporation issue there.
I would like to ask him if his department has looked to see if there are any opportunities to get federal money to relocate the airport in the near future.
I will take that question as a notice.
Mr. Schell, your question has been taken as notice.
Question 389 – 3(2): Update on Test Fishery in Cumberland Sound (Komoartok)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Environment, (interpretation ends) Hon. Daniel Shewchuk.
(interpretation) I am quite pleased that there will be research ongoing on the turbot stocks near Pangnirtung this coming summer and additionally, they will be researching other fish stocks during that time.
Our local HTO expressed a concern about the kind of fishing equipment used for this research close to our community. The concern was primarily with regard to bottom trawling, where they drag nets on the ocean floor and it completely vacuums everything on the ocean floor. They do not want to see that in the waters off our community.
Our community HTO would like to know if that will be the case and whether or not this devastating style of fishing will be used as per our concerns. That is my question to the minister.
I thank the member for the concern.
Yes, that’s right, there is going to be test fishing going on, as I made in the Minister’s Statement, and we are aware that the HTO is concerned about the equipment that is going to be used.
A concern that specifically gillnets were going to be used in the test fishery has been addressed and they have been, to my knowledge, eliminated from the types of gear that is going to be used. So it is being addressed, Mr. Speaker.
Again, he stated that this was being looked at, especially the concern expressed by the Pangnirtung HTO with regard to the research vessel.
When will he be able to inform the Pangnirtung HTO that their concerns have been addressed? When will his department inform the Pangnirtung HTO as to whether all of their concerns are been addressed? We would like to know.
I believe that response might have been delivered already, but if not, I will assure that that happens as soon as possible.
Mr. Komoartok (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the minister for that response.
That’s a very good statement to hear.
What I want to ask about now is if there is research going on this summer. Will they be starting early? Again, there’s a lot of loose ice and some landfast ice just offshore of Pangnirtung now, but it is melting very fast.
When will this research vessel be going up to the Cumberland Sound?
Everything is in place, and the turbot test fishery will be starting in late July and going through early August.
Question 390 – 3(2): Investigation or Audit of Health and Social Services (Elliott)
Mr. Speaker, CBC News has recently reported that the Department of Finance is and I quote, “Investigating the Department of Health.”
For the peace of mind of Members of this House and listening public, can the minister clarify whether this is a routine internal audit or an actual investigation of alleged misconduct?
Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Elliott. Minister of Finance, Hon. Keith Peterson.
Mr. Speaker, as we know, the media sometimes uses certain words to get readership and listeners out there.
Mr. Speaker, it’s a routine matter. As I mentioned yesterday, the Department of Finance has a number of… we have Internal Audit Services, we can do compliance audits, performance audits, forensic audits, and operational audits.
So I would like to reassure the members that we are doing our job and we’re trying to help. We’re working with Minister Curley’s department to improve the financial reporting side of the Department of Health.
It was just expressed earlier by another member that annually, the Department of Health has over-expenditures.
I have indicated elsewhere in conversations and meetings that right across Canada, the Department of Health in every province and territory experiences difficulties containing the growing health care costs that our resident populations deserve and need.
So this is just something that we have to do on a regular basis. Whether it’s the Department of Health or some other department, the Department of Finance is there to help.
It’s good to hear that the department is not actually being investigated.
Nonetheless, can the minister indicate what the findings of this internal audit were?
Mr. Speaker, I can’t give that information right now. I haven’t been fully briefed on the outcome of the audit, but at some point, I’m sure I’ll be able to share that information with Mr. Elliott.
Could the minister explain how the Department of Finance is helping Health and Social Services to improve its financial management practices in response to some of the recommendations that the Auditor General and the Assembly made from its own Standing Committee on Oversight of Government Operations and Public Accounts? Thanks.
I’m very pleased that Mr. Elliott is asking these questions.
As we know, the Department of Health, pretty much since 1999, has been a key department in the Government of Nunavut.
The Department of Health touches every person in Nunavut on a daily basis.
Our relatives get sick or need care and attention consumes a growing amount of our finances.  We work with the Department of Health in terms of interpreting Financial Administration Manual directives.
We work with them in analyzing monthly variance reports. We work with them in giving advice on contracting. We assist them with preparations of submissions to the Financial Management Board.
The deputy ministers and the assistant deputy ministers meet on a regular basis. I can’t give details of how often they meet, but in Iqaluit, it’s very frequent.
The senior managers meet and talk about not just the Department of Health but all departments and they talk about services that are available to the Department of Finance to help train staff in preparing budgets, analyzing their budgets, and participating in the capital estimates process and the main estimates process.
It’s an ongoing exercise, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Elliott: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the minister for that.
Could the minister state when he hopes to have the results of the internal audit that will be complete? Thanks.
I can’t put a time on that.
There continues to be an internal process similar to the way the Auditor General of Canada works.
We have to sit down with her officials and talk about what we have found. I will have to talk with my colleague, Minister Curley, about the outcomes of the review.
At some point, we will be in a position to discuss it further.
Again, it is part of our role as the Department of Finance, a central agency department. It’s not a case of setting timelines.
We want to do a good job. We’re not out there to do quick reviews.
We have to look at all kinds of information and make sure that all of the facts are known and give everybody an opportunity to participate in the final outcome of the report.
Once that information is available, I will determine if I can share that with Mr. Elliott.
Tabled Document 165 – 3(2): Dry Cargo Resupply Programme Activity Summary - Shipping Year 2008 (Kusugak)
I am pleased to table the following document: Dry Cargo Resupply Programme Activity Summary - Shipping Year 2008.
Tabled Document 166 – 3(2): Saillivik Policy (Curley)
I wish to table the following document that I spoke about: the Saillivik Policy.
Tabled Document 167 – 3(2): Elections under the Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act (Speaker)