EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Speaker, a larger federal presence in the Kitikmeot of such key federal departments as Indian and Northern Affairs would enable our residents, communities, and businesses better access to important information on available programs and services. In addition, it might reduce the need for expensive trips to Iqaluit and Ottawa to meet with officials to discuss how they can help to develop our region.
Mr. Speaker, when federal officials and politicians come to Iqaluit, they often say that they visited Nunavut. However, they fail to recognize that Nunavut is much more than just Iqaluit.
Nunavut is over two million square kilometres in size, extends across three time zones, and has residents living in 27 communities.
Mr. Speaker, when the House of Commons adjourns for the summer, I encourage ministers and Members of Parliament from Ottawa to come and visit the Kitikmeot to learn about our challenges, issues and opportunities.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in urging the federal government to increase its presence in the Kitikmeot.
Members’ Statements. Member for Uqqummiut, Mr. Arreak.
Member’s Statement 461 – 2(4): Integration of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into Government Policies and Practices (Arreak)
I would like to comment once again with respect to Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and its lack of use.
Since 1999, when Nunavut was created, we were told that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit would be integrated into the government system.
Today, it seems to be everyone’s favourite topic but we are starting to lose our knowledgeable elders. Time is running out since our experts on the subject are being lost and we have yet to start integrating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in Nunavut.
Yesterday, we were informed that an elder died in Baker Lake. I’m sure this individual could have made a huge contribution in regard to the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit database and I imagine that this elder was looking forward to the day that the government would start applying Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
People are still waiting. Even young people are inquiring as to when Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit will be implemented and taught, and more specifically, knowledge relating to the land, the animals, and traditional Inuit way of living.
Although we hear that the government will use Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and are asking about its integration, not one department is utilizing this knowledge.
Inuit in particular have accumulated a lot of knowledge about animals. They have had to subsist on animals for thousands of years, so they know them like the back of their hands.
However, whenever Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and science are used in conjunction to make decisions on animals, everyone believes the scientists and it always seems to win out.
This is not integration. This means that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, which is knowledge on par with science, is being denigrated since science is also accumulated knowledge. (interpretation ends) IQ is knowledge just like science is knowledge.
(interpretation) We ought to make decisions using Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit with regards to matters that either our communities or our government are dealing with.
Member’s Statement 462 –2 (4): Arctic Gospel Concert #2 at Inuksuk High School (Picco)
Tonight at seven o’clock here in Iqaluit at the Tisi area in the Inuksuk High School, there will be an Arctic Gospel Concert #2.
Mr. Speaker, the concert includes some of the very best musicians in Nunavut. All proceeds raised will go towards rebuilding the St. Jude’s Cathedral here in Iqaluit. We will have a canteen, a cake walk, and a wheel barrel for donations.
Mr. Speaker, it should be great fun. I would like to take this opportunity to invite all members and the listening audience here in Iqaluit to attend.
And I want to say just very quickly that the big hit over the last couple of nights, and some of the members have been out there to the Ukiivik, has been the youth church band from Pangnirtung and they are phenomenal to hear.
The group, I understand, is going to be going to Ireland very shortly to perform. If you have an opportunity to see this youth group from Pangnirtung, the Speaker’s home community, they are really worth seeing and very entertaining.
So with that, (interpretation) thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member’s Statement 463 – 2(4): Air Transportation in the Kivalliq – Awarding of Medical Travel Contract (Curley)
I rise to comment briefly on air transportation in Nunavut, particularly in the Kivalliq region.
I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, I think all Members of the House share the fact that air transportation is crucial and very important in Nunavut.
We don’t enjoy road transportation, we don’t have any access to visit our friends and relatives, or even on emergency basis to visit communities.
So air transportation is very important in this place and the government must take into account that an Air Transportation Policy is crucial in Nunavut and that the Air Transportation Policy should be in place if we are going to continue to have any input with the changes in air routes and contracts, whether it be a medical contract and so on.
Recently, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health awarded medical contracts to a number of airlines, not only in the Kivalliq region but all regions, I believe.
Mr. Speaker, prior to the awarding of the contract, I cautioned the government in this House that when it’s awarding and considering changes to awarding of airline service contracts for medical travel, it assess the negative impacts that it may have if it creates a monopoly service in the region.
Mr. Speaker, that’s exactly what has happened in my region that it has opted to award a contract to continue the monopoly, and that is not good for the business community and it’s not good for the economy of the Kivalliq region.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the government to seriously put in place a Transportation Policy, that it would also bind each department that they not proceed independently to disrupt medical or air transportation routes in the Kivalliq or anywhere else because to continue to award medical contracts that would increase the monopoly really jeopardizes the air service in the region and that is exactly what may happen the Kivalliq region.
If there are none, Item 5. Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a person who is here from Rankin Inlet.
She is my CA, April Eecherk, and she has many relatives here in Iqaluit.
Please welcome her.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Curley. Welcome to the Gallery.
If there are no more, I would like to welcome everybody in the House.
Member for Arviat, Mr. Arv... Alagalak. I’m sorry.
Question 569 – 2(4): Trades Trainee Positions (Alagalak)
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): I’ve been called all sorts of names, so that is not a problem.
I know that I may cause some discomfort, but I rise to ask some questions and I will remaining standing here.
However, I do not want to be rebuked or disparaged by government staff, so I make this statement in the House.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I would like to direct my question to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, I believe it was either last year or so, we had three students from Arviat attending the Nunavut Housing Trust Fund Program with funds from the federal government.
The program states that training positions should be awarded to Inuit, who will be trained in the various trades required in the construction of these units using the funds allotted to the trust fund and the federal government has made that statement publicly already.
So for that reason, I’m not talking about the contractors, but I think that we, as a government, have to rethink our approach to implementing this training.
Can the minister take into consideration these types of ideas, which use construction projects to conduct training, to discuss these issues further with construction companies?
We should enter into agreements for these apprentice positions in the trades, such as carpentry, electricians, plumbers, or other trades that Nunavut has a shortfall of skilled workers in. We have to keep our needs under consideration when we are trying to implement measures to train Nunavummiut under that particular program. This should include a review of the positions that the government stated would be included in this program.
We just recently received the funding for the Nunavut Housing Trust and we presently have 33 trainees.
It’s still in the infancy stages, Mr. Speaker, so problems will continue to emerge. However, we are working to provide more employment to Inuit.
I can say, (interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, (interpretation) we have already put in the pockets of Inuit (interpretation ends) $11 million from that Nunavut Housing Trust Fund. (interpretation) We have never had a program like that before and I’m very happy about it.
The Nunavut Housing Trust Delivery Strategy clearly states, as I said it again, that a number of trainees would be involved in the construction of 725 new public housing units.
Can the minister explain why no trainees have been identified to work under the housing construction program in Arviat?
(interpretation) They started to work, but I feel that they didn’t get enough support in my constituency and I will reiterate my position on this.
Four units have been completed and they will start again this summer.
I said it in my earlier response that we have 33 registered apprentices on site, in addition to many pre-trade labourers. As for the community of Arviat, I haven’t been informed of what or how many apprentices they have.
I just have the total figures of Nunavummiut in the apprenticeship program.
It would be good if he could get that information before the summer.
I know none of the 33 apprentices are in my constituency and I’m pretty sure they will not come to our community to work.
(interpretation ends) The Auditor General’s report states that it falls under the Government of Nunavut’s mandate to ensure that training is a component of the housing strategy.
Will the minister ensure that during this year’s construction season, there will be trainees working under the supervision of trades people?
(interpretation) There are all kinds of trades people in Arviat and they have to be consulted, (interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker. (interpretation) Thank you.
I can commit to the member’s request and we will definitely deal with the Arviat issue in terms of having qualified tradesmen on site during the construction season.
Question 570 – 2(4): Huge Increase of Fuel Costs and No Use of Hedging Policy (Tootoo)
Mr. Speaker, last week on Friday, he informed us of a huge increase in the cost to the government of buying fuel. I think on Friday, he said it was between $70 million and $85 million more.
Mr. Speaker, I know, like I said well over a year ago, this government developed a policy to help deal with and protect Nunavut from these huge cost increases in fuel.
Can the minister clearly state here in the House why it went through all the trouble to put together a hedging policy and why they didn’t use it?
I spoke to this issue already.
Staff from the Departments of Finance and Justice are working together to look into ways that we can get assistance because of the sky rocketing prices of fuel and for the future. I’m not sure if it would be insurance or if it’s called a hedging policy, but they’re presently trying to get an account and they’re trying to complete it.
We are currently working with Merrill Lynch & Associates to try and come up with a solution.
This was delayed due to the extra work, but we are expecting a report and once all of the issues have been finalized, then we could review it and use it.
I believe that the policy was approved over a year ago by Cabinet and you’re saying that they’re just working on it now.
It’s a little late now, we’re going to be hit, as the minister indicated, with $70 million to $85 million and potentially even more because we haven’t bought our fuel yet and we all know that the price changes daily, so I would say it’s a little late for this year.
My question is: why didn’t they implement or use the policy for this year’s re-supply?
It could have saved us a whole lot of money and we wouldn’t be looking at between $70 million to $85 million hit this year.
Can you explain why it wasn’t used for this year’s re-supply?
As I mentioned earlier, this is quite a complex matter involving various issues. I even want to have an information session with the members tomorrow so that we can better understand the issues involved with this subject.
However, this is, as I said, a very complex issue and we would have to very carefully deliberate on it.
If we look at the Yukon, they underwent this experience with the hedging policy by buying fuel futures but the price went the other way and they lost a lot of money.
Now, they’re having financial problems in the Yukon.
Buying commodity futures is a risky business and because someone made the wrong judgement, they lost a great deal of money.
This is not a simple matter and we have to methodically consider the issue.
Currently, staff from the Departments of Justice and Finance are currently working together but they have not completed their work on the issue.
We expect this shortly and after we get the facts, we hope to use this is the future. That is what I can state, Mr. Speaker.
Like I said, the policy was developed over a year ago and there was even some talk, I believe, of they might have though of using it for last year’s re-supply and there was concerns raised about it here in the House at that time.
Why are they just doing it now?
They had all that time to be ready to use that policy that could have saved us this $70 million to $85 million hit or more, you know, it could have lessened that blow on us as a government. Why did the government not pursue what they’re doing now at the beginning?
Why did they wait until after?
We are not just waiting. Just to let the members know that we did not wait for prices to increase before we looked into the matter. Like I said, it is very complicated.
Further, on March 24, 2007, it was approved by the Financial Management Board, so yes, that part is true.
However, our staff from the Department of Finance had to do further research due to its complexity and technicalities, so we had to find a person well versed in the business.
There are quite a few reasons, but during our current fiscal year, we will not be using it.
What I’m trying to say is that we are now working on this matter and further, we hope to use it in the near future.
However, we have to ensure that we explore all of the issues, what with prices still in limbo and since we have not completed our research into the matter, we could find ourselves in a precarious position if we tried to use it.
We could lose a large amount of funds if we were to utilize this, instead of saving money on these futures.
Due to the way it is setup, we are not in the situation by virtue of purposefully avoiding it, but rather because of the complexity of this matter and due to wanting it to be as prepared as possible. There is no doubt, however, that it will be improved to satisfaction.
I’m a little concerned; the minister indicated that they couldn’t use it because it was not set up right.
When they approved it last March, didn’t they look at it to see if it was set up right? Did they approve a policy that wasn’t set up properly? I mean, how do they look at things like that?
Is the minister saying that they approved a policy that was flawed?
We approved the policy in May 2007.
The regulations do not form part of the policy because those regulations have to be developed after the policy is established.
When it comes to policies, we proceed to work on the regulations based on the parameters of the policy.
This is not an easy task and that is the reason why we were delayed, Mr. Speaker.
Question 571 – 2(4): Funding for the Development of Inuktitut Curriculum (Curley)
My question is for the Minister of Education and it’s partly related to the question that I asked the minister earlier, but I didn’t get a clear response.
Mr. Speaker, two days ago, the minister repeatedly alluded to the fact that the new education legislation would have to be in place before additional funds could be allocated to developing further Inuktitut curriculum materials.
Can the minister clarify for this House whether there is anything in the current Education Act which would preclude or prevent the allocation of additional funds for Inuktitut resources?
I’m so happy that the member asked this question so that we can actually clarify some of the misstatements that have been made in the House. So, for the record, I would like to clarify something.
The question that the member asked and the member suggests in his question that it wasn’t answered completely by the minister, and some other questions that have been raised in the House concerning the Education Act and why we can’t put money into the department, as it were, without passing the legislation, so let’s say, for the record, and I’ll try to make it clear, if, in the legislation, and in this case, in the legislation, it states, for example, there would be a guaranteed pupil-teacher ratio, guaranteed amounts for elders, guaranteed classroom sizes, guaranteed resources, guaranteed curriculum, and so on, because it’s in legislation, so when the legislation is passed, the money will flow.
If the House, right now, wants to take $10 million or $14 million and vote to give it to the Department of Education, it can do that. The minister can bring forward a proposal and the $14 million can go in and it will go in the base, the core funding of the Department of Education.
But next year, because of rising oil prices, because the world collapses, the government of the day, the newly elected Members of the Legislative Assembly in November, six months from now, will say, “We’ve got to cut,” so they can cut from the Department of Education.
But if there are amounts in legislation, not only would they have to cut from the department, they would actually have to go in and change legislation, and that takes away the guarantee.
So in legislation, the difference is it’s legislated. There are legislated amounts and you have to do something.
If you want to just take money and put it in, that would be great, if you had the money to do that.
Mr. Curley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was a good performance to confuse the question.
The information provided is really completely not related to my question.
Nunavummiut Inuktitut teachers would like to get more money so that they can have classroom materials to teach students, so that they can pass their grades, succeed, and go on to contribute to the development of Nunavut.
The minister says he cannot do that with the current Act. My first question was: what prevents him from providing additional money with the current Education Act so that the materials can be translated and developed?
Now I’m confused.
The member has on his desk copies of the Inuktitut curriculum resources from grades one through 12 and kindergarten, in Inuktitut and English available to all schools.
What the member is saying is that the resources that the teachers have requested, we are putting $3 million or $4 million a year, especially into the high school levels starting with grade seven through to 12 for new materials because we haven’t been doing that.
In the past, we have been concentrating on K-5. So those monies are going out there and the material is there.
Now, part of the curriculum framework, and the member has it on his desk, gives him an overview.
Nothing stops the department from putting money into resources because there is a budget item. And when you approve the Department of Education’s budget, there are monies for our TLSs, or teaching learning centres. There is one in the Kivalliq, there is one in the Baffin, there is one in the Kitikmeot region, and there is one in Pond Inlet; there are four of them.
That ongoing work of all those Inuit – Mark Kalluak, we have talked about it in the House, Nunia Qanatsiak in Arviat – these guys are working everyday putting together curriculum resources.
The difference is that in the new Education Act, so that we can implement a fully bilingual education system, we need more resources to do that. So the Education Act has extra money in it to be able to provide that Bilingual Education Strategy that was tabled here in the House in 2004.
So hopefully that is clear for the member.
That is good information to have, but it still doesn’t answer the question.
Inuktitut teachers and DEAs are asking for additional money so that they can have their teaching material translated into Inuktitut and developed for those individuals who choose to do so, which they currently do.
What prevents the minister from allocating, for instance, $5 million or $10 million toward Inuktitut programming right now? What hinders you from doing so with the current Act?
I think I can paraphrase what the member is saying when he says what is stopping the minister from putting $5 million or $10 million with the current Act that’s in place into the budget.
The member has been a minister and the member has been sitting here for at least four years in this House, almost, as with the rest of the members.
Any monies voted into this House for a budget, whether it’s Education, Health, Economic Development, has to be approved by the Assembly.
So if the member would want me to put an extra $4 million into the Department of Education and dedicate that $4 million directly for curriculum and curriculum resources, that can be done by the House, but already in the budget of the department, there is I think it’s $3.5 million that we put in every year and expend because all of us approve the budget here in the House on curriculum and curriculum resource material.
I have met with our Inuit teachers and I have actually met with some of them in Inuvik, and I know I have received a letter from one of the teachers in Rankin Inlet, and I have met with the teachers and the staff in Rankin Inlet at the high school.
One of their concerns is, is that we have thematic units in place and a thematic unit means a theme.
So in the Inuktitut curriculum, if it says, a theme on families, we provide all the documentation on the theme.
Sometimes the teacher has to find different examples of families, there’s the family in Nunavut or a family in Russia, and that’s the photocopying and that’s the kind of work that you’re talking about doing.
That is underway and that is happening at our four TLCs that we have just talked about.
So yes, I would welcome extra new $4 million or $5 million and put it directly into the department and we can do that from the House, but next year, because it’s not legislated, that could be taken right out of the base.
So hopefully that helps clarify the member’s concern.
It sort of helps, you know, the minister is saying that everything that he’s doing currently and cannot do is all hypothetical.
So unless members on this side of the House do a certain actions that he has prevented from going on and continuing to lead the Department of Education. I believe that’s what he is saying. He cannot lead unless this part of the group to approves certain actions.
Mr. Speaker, I believe we have deferred the O&M supplementary estimates, which gives the minister an opportunity to give some leadership.
The minister does not seem to want to lead the Department of Education.
Why does he not just submit his resignation today?
Hon. Ed. Picco: I will if he will resign with me, because what he is saying is that facetious.
Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, there is a supplementary appropriation in front of the House, it has nothing to do with Education.
We all know the fiscal situation that we find ourselves in and we have built, into legislation, a fiscal framework for the Department of Education, contingent on the passing of Bill 21.