EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Yes, the last Assembly, I am sorry I am referring to the former Northwest Territories.
Are you going to be travelling to the Nunavut communities and having meetings with the community leaders and holding talks with the schools.
I hope that's clear.
Are you going to have a budget to travel to the Nunavut communities.
Speaker: The budget that has been identified for the members by the Speaker's Office is fairly small, not like some other areas.
But it is our intention to, if we can do this in a manner that is feasible, to travel to the various communities and do a tour with the mace, so that residents throughout Nunavut can have an opportunity to see the mace, not as they see it here on TV or in photographs.
So that is our intention to use the Speaker's Office as an educational tool and to travel to the schools to meet the students and the teachers and talk in general terms about the running of the Assembly.
Our intention is to do that within the next year.
Ever since we started the budget process, we have had very little money and because of that there are many needs that are not being met at the community level.
The Ajauqtiit wanted to know how much the Rankin Inlet session cost.
I would also like to know the amount of dollars that we spent for the Rankin Inlet session.
Though our budget is very small we are talking about having our sessions held in various communities.
I would like this to be reviewed very closely.
Mr. Chairman, I realised some time ago that there were figures that were bandied about as to the cost of the Rankin Inlet Assembly that we had when we took the Assembly on the road.
It is my understanding that the incremental cost for that sitting was in the area of 250 thousand dollars, not 750 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): Any further questions. Mr. Iqaqrialu.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman. So that was for all the expenses that we incurred for the Rankin Inlet session.
For members looking for more detailed costs, I will give my good friend here, the Director of Corporate Services…excuse me I believe Mr.
Quirke wants to answer this question so we will go to the Clerk.
Maybe he is getting bored, so Mr. Clerk.
Chairperson: Mr. Quirke.
Clerk: The figure that the Speaker indicated for incremental costs, there were extra costs above the normal costs incurred being held in Iqaluit.
So figures are still being examined to ensure that we have counted all costs.
In terms of running the session, I can tell members that it costs us approximately 23 thousand dollars a day to run a session here in Iqaluit.
So to use that figure as a base, that would be an indication of the total costs in Rankin, 23 thousand dollars a day.
The total costs for Rankin, as I say we are still working on them, but I would expect that with the incremental costs of 250 thousand, 23 thousand times 9 days, it probably was under 500 thousand dollars in total.
It is not really a question.
As a Member of the Legislative Assembly, some of us represent two communities and I think that all of us are aware that when you have two communities, I can use myself as an example, because I represent two communities in the Nattilik area.
I try to represent both of them equally and because I wanted to do that, I wanted to have two CA's each based in each community.
I was only able to get one CA because of our budget and because of the small salary my first CA resigned right away.
I have one CA, though I represent two communities.
One of the concerns that I have is that the other community, I do not hear what is going on in that community because I do not have a CA based there.
I would truly like to have a CA in both communities so that there will be equal representation.
Because of that I have to know what is going on in those two communities equally but because of our small budget I was only able to hire one CA for this year.
I would like to see and I have talked to the Clerk, about this situation, I see a problem because I do not go there often enough and because I do not hear what is happening in that community.
You said that this is under review.
I thank you for that and I am looking forward to the results of that review so that this problem will be solved.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to move onto another issue.
That was more of a comment than a question.
Again, for those of us that represent two communities, the cabinet members are not listening Mr. Chairman, because they are just having discussion on their own about other issues I believe.
For those of us who have two communities, I will use an example, I do not know what the population is for Mr. Akesuk’s riding, he has two communities, Mr. Iqaqrialu has two communities, and Mr. Barnabas I believe is representing three or four communities.
The member for Akulliq represents two communities from the Keewatin area.
There is a transportation problem there.
There are also members who represent one community who do not have to worry about other communities.
For example, when I go home in two days, I will have to go visit my other community right away.
I believe that this should be taken into consideration, I believe the Ajauqtiit Standing Committee has had public meetings in regards to the Chief Electoral Officer's Report.
I think that they will have to take all this into consideration.
Using myself as an example, I have 1 thousand 8 hundred people and I am representing two communities.
Also the member representing one community, using Mr. Irqittuq as an example, he is representing two communities there is 2 thousand total population.
It is a problem and we have to do something about it.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to get a response to that after I have made my statement.
Our communities are very far, they are closer than Rankin Inlet but because of the airline routes we cannot go home directly.
Rankin Inlet people can go to their community in one day, but for the Nattilik you cannot go home in one day.
For example, this Easter we went home and if I was going to try to go to my community, I would leave on Friday and I would not go home directly.
On the way home I would have to go through Yellowknife and take the long route. Our routing for airlines is also a problem.
In addition, Mr. Chairman, in the Nattilik the people of Kitikmeot are far from the capital.
Sometimes the people invite people from their communities.
For example, we have had people from Pangnirtung in here a couple of days ago.
They invited their students in here and they come in to watch the proceedings live instead of just watching it on TV.
We would like to do the same thing with our students from the Kitikmeot area.
Because the Kitikmeot is very far it is quite hard.
We were even thinking about at least giving one of my communities to have an opportunity to come over here to watch the proceedings live or at least have some of the Kitikmeot students, possibly from Taloyoak to invite five or more students to be pages here.
I would be very grateful if we could give the other communities an opportunity to be pages and so on.
I do know that because of the distance it would not happen very often, but I think that we should consider it.
We would be very grateful if we could do that.
Also I think about having a certain allowance from the Kitikmeot area or to give each community the opportunity to provide services, like be a Sergeant-At-Arms or a page.
I think that each Nunavut community should be given this opportunity.
Thank you Mr. Chairman I will leave it at that.
Did you want to respond Mr. Speaker.
Just briefly to the member's comments.
All the comments that the member made are very valid and I know from serving as a member in the last Assembly, and serving more than one community it is difficult to function on just the dollars that we are given.
Also the time for travel and to get back home to your home community and then to visit your second community or your third community.
So I can assure the member that all his points that were brought up whether it be pages or Sergeant-At-Arms and flying time and the costs, that these are being looked at.
As I indicated earlier, in the review that the Director of Corporate Services is doing, it is not our intention to come forward with a package and make it official, but to come back to the members for their review and discussion.
In reference to the pages, there is also a dollar value attached to that.
I think to a certain degree that can be accommodated.
The other point about the Sergeant-At-Arms, that also can be looked at.
There are also some other members that have indicated that they would like to have somebody from their region, their riding.
If you will bear with us for the next few months, hopefully by the fall we will have a package that the members can look at and hopefully it will meet the members' needs.
We will not be able to offer all the services and the increases that are required, that you speak of, but we can certainly go part of the way towards dealing with that.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Puqiqnak.
Comments, general comments, questions.
Because the Legislative Assembly has corporate services and the Legislative Assembly has to use Inuktitut and English in the House, I just wanted to find out from the witnesses how many people in their staff are bilingual and how many non-Inuit have taken Inuktitut language training.
Because we have to provide services for the public.
Inuit as well as English speaking people.
I wonder if I can get a response from the witness table.
Mr. Chairman, I would dearly love to have the answers to those questions.
As members are aware I have only been in the job for three weeks, but I am sure that our trusty Clerk, Mr. Quirke, has some details that he can share with the members.
I know that there are very serious efforts made to ensure that what the member speaks of actually occurs.
As part of the overall plan of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit being incorporated into the Assembly that will play a major role, but I would ask the Clerk, to speak to this issue.
Clerk: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
In terms of the number of staff that are totally bilingual in English and Inuktitut, just bear with me.
We have one in the library, one in research, one in finance, two in the Clerk's office, three in the Clerk's office, there's three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine…possibly ten that are bilingual also counting the casual.
In terms of staff taking advantage of Inuktitut training, we are trying our best to take advantage of the courses offered by the government.
However, we seem to be in a situation where every time a majority of these programs are offered to staff we are in session or we are doing work for Standing Committees.
So we always seem to be in a conflict in terms of timing but we are trying to work around that.
Going back to Inuktitut staff, we have some critical vacancies where previously they were filled by Inuktitut speaking people, that's our Public Affairs Officer.
While that is vacant, the incumbent was Inuktitut speaking.
Therefore, I feel that we have a fairly significant number of Inuktitut speaking staff and we are striving to ensure that the rest of the staff that are unilingual have the capacity and the means to take on Inuktitut speaking.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Quirke.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): The business plan of the Legislative Assembly states that they would like to involve the young people in Nunavut.
Because the young people have to be given the opportunity to be trained to become the leaders for tomorrow.
What kinds of plans do you have in place in this regard.
Whichever one of you…Mr. O'Brien or your officials.
Speaker: Mr. Chairman, as I have indicated earlier we have only been in this building for the last eight months.
We have only been in office for approximately a year and we are making some headway in reference to the issues that the member brings forward.
I have spoken in my earlier comments where we would have Youth Parliaments.
Where we would have the youth from each community, one member, one youth that would come here and this I think, and I believe is a significant move towards bringing the youth to the forefront and having a better understanding of the Assembly and of the government.
I think the very fact that we have our young pages here on a daily basis, it may seem that in most cases they come from the Capital here, and I am sure that members can understand that there is a good reason for that.
However, we have had the opportunity to bring in pages from outside and we will continue to do so.
I think these are two areas where we are moving forward in bringing the youth into the Assembly and to better understand how the Assembly functions.
I have also indicated in my opening remarks that it is also part of our plan to tour the various communities with the mace.
Also to travel to the various schools and speak to the children and the teachers, the educators, the parents as to just how their Assembly, their government functions.
These are the two ways that we have taken on to try to move this issue forward.
Again, if the member or any of the other members have any ideas or recommendations that they would like to put forward we would be only too glad to listen to them and to move forward on them.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): If the Speaker or the staff would have to go to the communities to take the mace to the communities, I wonder how much the freight for the mace would cost.
Chairperson: Mr. Speaker.
Speaker: Mr. Chairman, I believe the question from the member was what would the freight cost be to move the mace around for these community tours that we have been speaking of.
I don't have that information, because we are just in the planning stages.
But I wouldn't think that it would be too much, I think it would be transporting the various individuals to the communities through air costs and hotel costs and so on.
This has not been fully defined yet, but we hope once again to have over the course of the summer, to have more detailed plans available to the members.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I just wanted to ask that question at this time.
So I will ask another question Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): I think those constituency assistants should be trained and be brought to the capital to learn more about the running of the legislative assembly on the day to day procedures.
I wonder how many times our constituency assistants can be brought to the capital here in Iqaluit to train in our day to day operations.
How many times a year can they come here.
I know there has been a training session of the constituency assistants but if Mr. Speaker would like to make a further response to that.
Just briefly, I know that it is on occasion we did have the constituency assistants into the capital for some brief training.
It is my understanding that in the past that it would only be one visit to the capital for training.
Once again we are looking at this overall package and there are only so many dollars to go around. Once we identify this package for your review and discussion in the fall we may then make a determination and you may want to see additional dollars put in that area.
It would probably have to come from somewhere else.
There will be only so many dollars and once that is determined then if members feel that it is critical to get their staff in more than once for training that could again be looked at with the overall package once we get to that point.
Is it is the policy or the guidelines that the constituency assistants can only come to Iqaluit once a year.
Mr. Chairperson it is my understanding that the members’ constituency assistants did travel to Iqaluit a number of months ago.
However, I should point out that the money for that was not budgeted for that at that time and it was found somewhere else so there was no policy and there is no policy.
I guess what I am saying is that if it is the intention of the members to have their assistants to travel here for more training on a regular basis.
Those dollars would have to be put into the budget and it would be significant.
Mr. Nutarak anymore questions.
The previous members of other legislatures in the NWT, I would like to congratulate them because they have been elected to this legislature in Nunavut.
But for those of us that are members of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly that have been elected for the first time we have to whenever we leave from our community to attend a session we have a living allowance of 57 dollars or for how much are the living allowance when we have to be away from home.
I am going to pass that on to our director of corporate services Mr. Pollock.
Mr Pollock.
Mr. Pollock: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
According to our Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, it is legislated of a living allowance of 57 dollars a day.
If the member has to travel outside of the community it is 200 dollars a day, which would include their hotel accommodations.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Pollock I am not quite sure how to pronounce your name.
Your will be named Pudluk from now on in Inuktitut.
The reason why I asked that question is that at times we receive fifty-seven dollars a day.
This fifty-seven dollars is not just for our own spending as members.
We have to spend that money for the whole family and some of it is sent our family for their expenses as well.
I just wondered whether that could be looked into because the price of food is very expensive in the north and I think that this fifty-seven dollars a day is probably inherited from the NWT government.
I just want to make sure this fifty-seven dollars is looked into further and increase that amount.
Which ever one wants to answer that question, Mr. O'Brien or Mr. Pollock.
Mr. Chairperson once again this figure is also part of the review and it could be difficult to give a firm answer as to what the member is seeking here but we should have something ready for this fall for the members to review.
Mr. Chairperson I know that it is pretty hard to deal with at this point and we have met with the FMSB and the caucus members and perhaps we could discuss those other levels.
We can make better plans.
I would like to get into the details please.
You were the last person who was on my list.
There are no capital estimates only for O&M page 1-4.
Any other comment to that page.
Legislative Assembly Office of the Clerk, branch summary, operation and maintenance, total operations and maintenance 5 million 126 thousand dollars.
Some Members: Agree.
Total expenditures 5 million 126 thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Turning the page.
Legislative assembly, expenditures on behalf of members branch summary, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance 4 million 4 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): Total expenditures 4 million 4 thousand dollars.
Some Member: Agreed.
Chairperson (interpretation): Going on to the next page 1-6.
Legislative Assembly Office of the Speaker, branch summary, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance 165 thousand.
Within the fiscal year the staff salary funding has been increased why has it been increased because we hired more staff.
Speaker: Thank you Mr. Chairman I will ask Mr. Pollock, the Director of Corporate Services.
Mr. Pollock.
We have tried to reflect annual merit increases into the budget for this year.
For example, staff were hired last year they would get a annual increase so that takes care of most of the change.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Pollock.
Any further questions in regards to this page.
To 165 thousand total in operations and maintenance, 165 thousand, agreed.
Chairperson (interpretation): Total expenditures 165 thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Going on to the next page.
Page 1-7 legislative assembly, Commissioner of Official Languages, branch summary, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, 381 thousand are you agreed.
Chairperson (interpretation): Total expenditures 381 thousand, are you agreed.
Chairperson (interpretation): page 1-8 total expenditures.
Legislative assembly, distribution of budget.
Some Members: Agreed..
Chairperson: Going on to the next page, oh we are finished with the page and we will go on to page 1-3.
Legislative assembly, program summary, total expenditures for operations and maintenance.
Total operations and maintenance 9 million 676 thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Total expenditures 9 million 676 thousand.
Are you agreed
Chairperson (interpretation): Are you agreed that this department is completed, that tabled document 93-1(3).
First I would like to thank the speaker and his officials for being at the witness table and also would you like to make your closing remarks.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. O'Brien.
Speaker: I have no prepared remarks and I want to say that it is a pleasure today to be with the Clerk and our Director of Corporate Services and to have an opportunity to answer the many questions that were asked by the members. I am certainly glad of the interest in this department.
Speaker: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
You are the Speaker, but you called me the Speaker.
Thank you for being at the witness table and we have now concluded with the department.
We do have other departments to deal with we still have the department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth to deal with.
I had asked what is the wish of the committee.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Mr. Chairperson I would like to proceed with the opening comments for Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
For the department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth we will have the opening remarks, I think the Premier is holding on to that portfolio perhaps Mr. Premier you can do your opening comments.
Culture, Language, Elders & Youth Main Estimates
Hon. Paul Okalik: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am very pleased to be able to make opening comments.
First, I would like to introduce the officials that will be with me at the witness table.
Carmen Levi and Ruth Kadlutsiak who just left the gallery for a bit and Mark Thompson who is the policy analyst and Geela Patterson who is also sitting at the gallery who is the Director for the Women's Secretariat. I also want to introduce one of the people there although he is not going to be one of the officials at the witness table Lodi Pudlout who is a member from the Nunavut Arts Council and he is here to view the proceedings Mr. Chairperson.
Mr. Chairman, in my Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth is a unique department in Canada.
It is working very hard to represent Nunavummiut.
The department, as all Government of Nunavut departments, has been dealing with the numerous staffing challenges.
Despite this we have been successful in listening to the concerns of Nunavummiut and we are caring out several initiatives this year.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our former minister of CLEY, Donald Havioyak, for his dedication, commitment and vision to our government's first year of operation.
Donald's leadership of CLEY was instrumental in allowing the department to establish itself as an integral part of our community.
It is never easy to bring forward new ideas and new ways of doing business but Donald reminded his Cabinet colleagues that what we were doing was not only of importance for government practice but most importantly it was for people.
His views and opinions will be missed by his Cabinet colleagues.
The Department’s Mains Estimates is 7.604 million.
Of this 530 thousand is for additional Operation and Maintenance expenditures and 1 million for Capital.
I would like to take this opportunity to explain some of the initiatives that we are taking and the divisional break down of our budget.
We have three divisions in our department: the Directorate division, the Language and Communications Bureau and the Culture, Elders and Youth division.
Each division has Grants and Contributions that are awarded to the public.
The Directorate Division has 565 thousand in its Grants and Contributions budget. This money is allocated for the Status of Women and People with Disabilities funding programmes.
The Language and Communications Bureau has 788 thousand to administer in funding programmes.
The Culture, Elders and Youth Division has 1.046 million to administer as funding.