EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Speaker, this Bill will allow the Government of Nunavut to confirm that we have clear legal title to all of the assets being transferred to Nunavut as part of the division of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, it will allow us to be certain that the Nunavut Power Corporation may begin operations on April 1st 2001 and all issues related to legal title of assets to be clearly defined.
Bill 6 has been read for the second time and accordingly will be moved to Committee of the Whole for consideration.
Bill 1 and Bill 4.
By the authority vested in me according to Motion 002-1(5), Committee of the Whole will stay in session until it reports itself out with Mr. Iqaqrialu in the Chair.
If the members could please stay here, we will be witnessing a signing ceremony between the Auditor General of Canada and the Government of Nunavut’s own Finance Minister.
Another information item.
Our Member for Akulliq, Mr. Alakannuark, has just left the Chambers today.
He will be going to the hospital tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock for surgery and we hope that all goes well during that procedure.
At this time, we will take a half hour break.
We will resume Committee of the Whole with Mr. Iqaqrialu as Chairperson in approximately half an hour.
>> House recessed at 3.09 p.m. and resumed at 3.57 p.m.
We can begin the committee of the whole.
Welcome back members.
We will continue with the Orders of the Day and the committee will now come to order.
In committee of the whole we have the following items to deal with.
Bill 1, Appropriation Act, and Bill 4.
I would like to deal with Bill 4 and then we will deal with Bill 1, Culture, Language, Elders & Youth after that is complete.
If we have time, we wish to then begin the Department of Finance.
Do we agree that we will deal with Bill 4 and Bill 1.
The Minister responsible for Bill 4, do you have any opening remarks.
Bill 4 – Amendment to the Interpretation Act, Time Zone – Consideration in Committee
Bill 4 is just one little item, an amendment to the Interpretation Act for the time zone, to bring the original time zones from 1999 back.
We are just going to be going back to the same time zones as we had previous to the change.
Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee on Government Operations & Services was pleased to have the opportunity this past weekend, on a fine Saturday morning to review bill 4 with the Premier and his officials and we were very happy to have them there.
Members of the standing committee support the government's decision to return Nunavut to three time zones.
Over the past year too much time and effort has been devoted to the issue and this bill will allow us to move onto more pressing matters.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to make the observation that the single time zone initiative was one which was well intended on the part of the government, however as the Premier has noted in this House, it turned out to be a better idea in theory than it was in practice.
Mr. Chairman, having the courage to experiment and try to do things differently is one of the reasons why Nunavut was created and one of the reasons why members stood for election to this assembly.
At the same time it is a mature government that is able to listen to its constituents and be frank and ungrudging in acknowledging that something has clearly not worked out.
Members recognize that some of the things we try will succeed and some will not.
Prolonging an unworkable issue simply for the sake of appearing unyielding does not serve the public's interest.
Mr. Chairman, the standing committee would like to thank the Premier for his leadership on this issue ands urges all members to support bill 4.
If you can get your officials to come and sit at the witness table.
Also our legal counsel, welcome.
Can you hear the translation.
Hello, hello.
Welcome and welcome to Ms. Sue Cooper, our legal counsel.
We are discussing the times zones, An Act to Amend the Interpretation Act.
Thank you. Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Interpretation Act, Time Zones.
We're on bill 4.
Mr. Premier if you have any opening comments.
Do any members have comments on bill 4.
In regards to bill 4, when we first got elected as Members of the Legislative Assembly, we all had concerns about the time zones and I would like to thank government for changing their minds.
But I would like to ask if there are any concerns from Nunavummiut.
If they decide that they want to get back to the time zone that the government established, will we do that.
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): We’re not going to be dealing with the time zones any more as long as I'm the government leader.
Whoever wants to become the minister responsible for time zones, I encourage them to do so.
I asked the minister and he responded to me because there might be some public concerns again in trying to get back to the time zone that the government established.
I understand that this will not be acted upon further.
At this time, let's deal with bill 4 clause by clause.
Page 1, bill 4, clause one.
Chairperson (interpretation): Getting back to bill 4.
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you Ms. Cooper for coming.
That was a short bill.
Now do we agree that we deal with bill 1, Appropriation Act 2001/2002, Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
Capital estimates and the main estimates.
I would like Minister Kattuk to at this time go and sit at the witness table.
Once you get there, you can get your officials to come and sit with you.
Thank you Mr. Kattuk.
At this time if you can bring in your witness.
The Sergeant-At-Arms can bring your officials to be seated with you.
Thank you, Mr. Kattuk.
If you could introduce your officials.
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On my left Phoebe Hainnu, Assistant Deputy Minister and on my right Carmen Levi, my Deputy Minister.
Would the members please turn to the capital estimates of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.
Page 8-6 and 8-7.
To page 8-6.
The other day when we were meeting I wasn't here.
I just want to mention something before we deal with the capital estimates.
The youth and elders and our language.
Our youth, as government we've talked about trying to assist them and help them.
We as leaders or hamlets should be willing to assist the youth as much as we can, so they can have a brighter future.
If they don't have any assistance as a youth, when there is no one to help them it is not a very happy occasion.
We as leaders should assist our youth.
The youth need to listen to the elders, to ensure we keep our culture.
What we've come through and what we utilized, they need to ponder on those.
Yes, we can't go back to the past, but we want them to understand what brought us here.
We have survived because of our elders.
We want them to adhere to what the elders say.
As to the future, we need to encourage our youth in our communities to plan well for their future.
When elders and youth get together they can enhance the language by communicating more.
We in Kugluktuk don't want to forget our language and want to utilize it more and promote it more.
About written documents, some of the documents are not in Inuinnaqtuun and they are not happy when this kind of thing happens.
We need to remember as the Government of Nunavut even the Government of Canada documents, which people need to be informed of.
They need to get them into the Inuit language and translated.
I wanted to mention those things.
We are on page 8-6.
Could you tell us if we can make our general comments before we go onto the other pages, Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Williams. Yes, we're on general comments now.
I would like to make a brief comment but I'm sure it's going to be of some assistance to the people at the witness table and welcome.
First of all, with regards to culture in Nunavut.
Yes, we have a lot of expectations from all the government departments and all the departments have been expecting things from Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
If we can incorporate our culture into our system, I know it's going to come out some time in the future and I think it's time we go ahead.
Also in regards to language, as Inuit people, our language is our identity and our culture.
Knowing the fact that we are a public government, we're not just a government for Inuit, and this we haven't forgotten.
Language, we have to improve the Inuit language where the old terms are used.
I think it would be more appropriate in the communities to use for example, if we can promote Inuit language in the communities within Nunavut, we have adult education in all the communities of Nunavut.
They can have upgrading and they do upgrading at Arctic College for their adult education, perhaps we could use adult education for Inuit culture because some of the students weren’t taught syllabics and don't know how to read and write.
Perhaps we could use adult education facilities to teach Inuktitut for Inuit with an Inuk instructor.
Also, non-natives would like to learn how to speak Inuktitut, perhaps we could utilize those and I wanted to use that as my example.
In regards to adults and elders.
I think the elders in Nunavut are increasing because in the past we had a high mortality rate and we have to as Inuit, our culture was not all good, but we should collect the best parts of our culture and integrate them into our government system.
Your department can advise us instead of just using the elders.
Inuit people have to be involved at the decision making level and that's what we expect of your department.
To involve Inuit people in the Nunavut Territory.
In regards to youth, I know that it's very hard to discuss that matter but as Inuit people, we have a culture.
As young people, we don't make good decisions and we learn from our parents.
Once we became capable, that's the only time we took part in the decision-making.
This is a bit different today and I'm sure we'll have to look at it to make the young people involved in the decision-making.
But when we were young people, we were not involved in meetings such as this and we now involve the youth at various levels of meetings because young people in these times, we need to teach them all these things.
Perhaps if they could be taught, it would be ideal.
I know that no department such as this existed until the Nunavut government with the Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
Nunavut residents and government should be giving support to your department so that it can grow and mature.
I know that it won't take too many years to mature, but perhaps since it's very new, some communities don't know what your responsibilities are.
I think it's a good idea to have Inuit instructors at the local level, in their learning centres.
I'm not too sure whether you have considered this or not, but I have never heard about it.
We go upgrade in the adult education facilities but I'm sure we could use those facilities to be trained in Inuktitut language.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I will have further questions in regards to that.
Each member has ten minutes for opening comments with the Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
Mr. Nutarak do you have general comments, if there's nobody else who has general comments I would like him to take my Chair for a bit.
Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
In regards to elders and youth I want to make general comments.
First of all, I'd like to say that the Qallunaaq culture has everything in written form and I just wanted to point that out first of all.
When we became the Nunavut government we kept stressing that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit had to be utilized and it has to be brought out because there's nothing really very visual and we need to bring it out.
If we don't bring it out ourselves, if we don't take on that responsibility nobody else is going to teach us Inuit culture and we have to take that responsibility to bring that out.
As Nunavummiut, we have to bring that out and I'm sure that everyone is aware, I just wanted to point that out further.
But when we start dealing with this issue I don't know where but in the past we've lost part of our culture and traditions, which deteriorated our lifestyle and our way of life.
For that reason we have seen so many suicides, completed suicides and also various social problems arise from being assimilated into a different culture and we're now starting to use a different culture and we have seen problems in the past.
The elders, our ancestors did not have everything handy but the only way they could find out things is through shamanism.
In those days we did not have anything in written form the only way that Inuit people would find out about something in the north is through rituals of shamanism.
Also, some of the shamans were good shamans and they tried to help their fellow human beings like when people would get sick or ill a shaman would try and heal them using their own rituals.
Some shamans were not all good in the past, some were negative shamans who did negative acts in our culture.
For that reason, we have to start getting the good ones and I'm sure that we have forgotten parts of it but there are elders available that we can learn from and we can learn the good parts from our elders.
So as younger people, we can start accumulating the good things of our culture.
Now that we have a different way of life, we have warm homes and we all now have hunting equipment and our culture has changed.
We now have many properties and we can protect our culture using those.
We have no other way except to go ahead with the culture we're living in now.
The department will work with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, I will be giving them my full support because I believe that I can give them my support.
I have also been working on this issue, how we can integrate our positive culture into our way of life so that we can have better lives.
I've considered this for a while so therefore, I will be supporting the minister and his officials when they work on these issues.
It is very hard to work on something all alone, especially when no one has ever really worked on that issue.
The only way we can come up with positive things is by working together.
In regards to Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and developing it in your department, I will be in support of your officials and it would be ideal to support Nunavut residents and the elders.
I urge the residents of Nunavut and the elders to promote and support our culture because no other culture is going to promote the Nunavut culture.
We're the only people who can promote our culture because that is our way of life.
Therefore, we need to have full co-operation amongst all of us.
The Nunavut Government I believe has provided insufficient funds to the department and I truly believe that we need to increase their budget as we go into the future and learn more about the department.
I just wanted to state that Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, for allowing me.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, you still have three minutes.
You’re just short of your general comments.
You can come back and retake your seat.
Chairperson (Mr. Iqaqrialu) (interpretation): Page 8-6, Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
I will be reading from this text.
What does the term elders mean in respect to the Inuit language.
I think we need to come up with a better term when we say elders and youth in Inuktitut.
That is just something for you to think about so it will make more sense.
Culture, Language, Elders & Youth, branch summary.
Total capital expenditures, 1 million dollars.
Mr. Chairman, I'm just wondering if the minister could give us a breakdown of what these dollars are used for and also if he could provide us with an idea, like there was 1 million dollars allocated there last year as well.
I'm just wondering if he could provide us with how those funds were accessed last year as well.
Minister Kattuk can you give us a break down.
There's 1 million dollars that is on 8-7.
The breakdown is indicated on page 8-7.
The funds from last year that the member is asking about, there was already a question posed regarding this matter and I will be providing a break down, or providing a document as soon as I'm able.
Chairperson (interpretation): There's 1 million that the question was posed about.
We will not agree to this right away.
The breakdown is on 8-7 and 8-8.
Building and works, under capital expenditures, building and works, that is where we are at right now.
In Culture, Language, Elders & Youth it says Nunavut elders and youth.
What is this for.
What is the purpose of this funding.
Is it a question regarding the 200 thousand dollars, Nunavut youth and elders.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): On 8-7. There's 200 thousand dollars allocated for Nunavut youth and elders.
That’s what I'm asking about.
Do you see it on this page.
It is under building and works.
That's part of this 800 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): Minister Kattuk.
Under the capital estimates this is for the young people in communities.
Three hundred thousand dollars is allocated for the Nunavut Heritage Centre.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Which community will this be in.
This is for the elders and youth in every community.
I will be very glad if you keep calling me Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister Kattuk.
Mr. Nutarak anything else.
I want clarification under the Capital Estimates.
Is this 200 thousand dollars just an operational budget.
Because I think it should be under main estimates.
Chairperson (interpretation): Yes, Ms. Williams we are under capital estimates.
Minister Kattuk if you could clarify please.
This is for a Nunavut Youth and Elders’ Centre.
This money is used to allow the youth and elders to travel to other communities to do research.
Chairperson (interpretation): Anything else Ms. Williams.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): No thank you.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I don’t think he answered the question.
I wanted to perhaps rephrase that.
The Nunavut youth and elders centre 20 thousand dollars.
What is that for operations or perhaps for travel for when the elders and youth travel to a meeting.
Or perhaps it is for operations for youth centres and what not.
Hon. Peter Kattuk: That Nunavut youth and elders centre that’s for a feasibility study.
We are going to visit communities.
I think some communities are going to have centres.
This is to have a study in Nunavut.
It is mainly for a feasibility study for Nunavut communities.
This money will be used for those communities who don't have elders or youth centres.
This is for a feasibility studies for those communities.
I had assumed it was for operations.
In some cases some of the youth centres need to utilize this money for operations and maintenance.
Is that under this section or in another section of the budget.
I would like to know.
We are aware that some of the communities already have such centres.
However for the future of our communities the elders and the youth centres we want to see better centres and some of this money will be used for that research.
That is why it is under the capital estimates.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I'm sorry.
I have an understanding.
You answered some of my question.
I understand some of the communities have youth centres.
Perhaps the question I want to ask, perhaps it is an O&M budget.
As we know some of the centres don't have operations and maintenance funding.
Last year we had some O&M funding for youth centres.
Perhaps it's not in the budget this year.
My question is in regards to the O&M for these buildings.
If it's not in the budget, I'm disappointed.
The O&M is on page 8-11.
I want the minister to clarify, it says Nunavut Youth and Elders Centre.
Maybe he could tell us which communities have centres already.
I hope to get your title right some time.
Right now we cannot identify the communities that have such centres right now but we can give her a list later.
I know that Kugaaruk is one of the communities listed here for the elders and youth centre.
Ms. Williams: The question that I have is on page 8-7, Nunavut Language Centre.
Is that headquarters in Kugluktuk for the Language Bureau.
This 300 thousand dollars is also for research and feasibility studies.
That is what this money is allotted for.
I've run out of names.
For building and works, total capital expenditures is 800 thousand dollars.
I don't have any more names, are you all in agreement.
Total Kitikmeot region, 200 thousand.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Last year we took 200 thousand dollars out of the budget that was allotted for Cambridge Bay.
This money that was available for Cambridge Bay was 300 thousand dollars.
Now we've taken that 200 thousand dollars, is the Heritage Centre in Cambridge Bay finished.
The question that was just posed, I think the construction workers have a better idea of the completion date of the heritage centre.
Perhaps sometime around November or December, the building will be complete.
This heritage centre will actually come into being.
It's not being taken away. Thank you.
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): It's still there.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): This will be my last one.
I thought there was an amendment in that portion, that's what I thought was going to be done to the Cambridge Bay Heritage Centre.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, I don't hear a question.
But if you want to respond Mr. Minister.
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): Well we didn't know about the change, it just went ahead as planned.
Total Kitikmeot region, 200 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): Opposed. Carried. Total contributions, 1 million dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): Culture, Language, Elders & Youth, 1 million dollars. Total capital expenditures.
Culture, Language, Elders & Youth, total capital, 1 million dollars.
I apologise, I forgot to give you the number, that was 8-5.
Culture, Language, Elders & Youth, program summary.
Directorate, 2 million 4 thousand dollars.
There's no comments.
Two million 400 thousand.
I said 400 thousand, it's 4 thousand dollars.
I apologize. I think I read it in Inuktitut.
Page 8-8, Culture, Language, Elders & Youth, 726 thousand dollars.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Would I be able to ask a question on page 8-7.
Under the 250 thousand dollars, the Status of Women and family violence.
What kind of programs and what kind of projects have you done.
There's a slight difference in the Inuktitut and the English.
But I would like to get an up to date status on what’s happening with the women and the family violence.
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): The 250 thousand dollars, I'll get my Deputy Minister to give you an overview of what has been happening in that area.
We just recently appointed women to sit on the Status of Women Council and we also set aside some training for the communities.
This is where the 250 thousand dollars comes in.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Levi.
Last year, it was 300 thousand and now this year it has gone down to 250 thousand, which is a slight decrease.
Are the training programs already in place or are they ready to go.
The budget did go down by 50 thousand.
The 50 thousand for the women's initiative grant and the Status of Women Council of Nunavut are the ones who are setting up their agenda.
The 250 thousand dollars will be used mainly for the Status of Women Council of Nunavut and this money will be used at their discretion.
I'd like to ask a supplementary question.
The minister stated that the money would be at the discretion of the Women's Council.
It is not often we hear that word discretion within the government.
So with the 300 thousand dollars what did they achieve and what kind of programs did they deliver.
Or is it at the discretion of the Women’s Council.
Well maybe saying at their discretion is too wide.
There are policies in place.
If they want to operate with that money, the Women's Council uses these policies to run their programs.
We hope that we have a good working relationship with the Status of Women Council.
There was a slight decrease from 300 thousand to 250 thousand because the 50 thousand has been allotted somewhere else.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Maybe I should rephrase my question.
What I am trying to say is what kinds of programs did they implement with this 300 thousand dollars.
You understood Mr. Kattuk.
The Status of Women Council have been working on setting up the policies to run their operations.