EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
My next question is regarding the 57 positions. Of those 57 positions, are there any vacancies at all?
Yes, there are vacancies.
If you could just give us a moment, we can tally them up.
As with all departments, there are always vacancies everywhere. There are 13 vacant positions from those 57.
With those 22 new positions, including 13 vacancies, will you be able to fill all those 35 positions in total?
Chairman: Minister Sammurtok.
Hon. Joe Savikataaq: Thank you.
It’s Minister Savikataaq.
Some of these vacant positions may be filled by casuals right now. As I stated earlier, some of the duties of these new positions we are requesting may have casuals in them, so we will do our best in working with HR to have these positions filled, but it’s an HR responsibility to do the advertising and the hiring.
We will be part of the process, but in the end, HR will have to be the one that does the hiring.
Next name on the list, Mr. Enook.
Mr. Enook (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for recognizing me again.
I believe I have two questions on this same subject of the 21 PYs that are planned to be created together.
Let me start with this question: what if we don’t approve this request? If the members didn’t approve this request, will this mean the end of your world?
What would be the result if members don’t approve this request?
If the committee doesn’t approve the request for the new positions, then I guess we would have to continue on how we are with not providing adequate service, with problems with security, with chances of data being breached for personal information. There are many things that could go wrong. We have been lucky so far.
We need the stuff and we’re hoping that you will approve it.
If it’s not approved, then we will have to do whatever we need to do and there are chances that maybe it will take a little longer when your computer goes down to get it fixed or your cellphone quits working and they might say, “Well, we just don’t have the manpower to work it at the time being,” but we’re hoping that you will approve our request.
It appears that I have three questions.
Mr. Chairman, I would like further clarification because that’s a lot of PYs.
How do you make a sudden request of 21 PYs in total in one year?
Is it after you reviewed your departmental operations? What brought about this request for 21 employees?
Were you looking at issues within your department? There was absolutely nothing in last year’s estimates and all of a sudden we see 21 new PYs.
Are you basing those numbers on reports or by reviewing your department or by what other purpose?
The member is correct. He asked if there was a review of where this came from. Did someone just figure that we should just have them?
There was a review done and the review was of all departments. Remember that the mandate the Full Caucus gave was to review all programs from all the government departments and there was a review done.
The review showed that CG&S, through their IT, is not providing sufficient service to the departments. We’re falling behind, we’re lacking, and we have been lucky that there hasn’t been - what’s the proper word here - bad stuff that happened, I guess, in simple terms.
We have been lucky. The review showed that we are way under capacity and this is just a first step. Probably next year, we will be requesting more because, even with these 21 positions, we will still be under-servicing the departments.
I have another question regarding your request for $2.5 million for 21 positions.
My colleague, possibly Mr. Rumbolt, asked a question about whether they’re going to be provided staff housing.
You indicated that you don’t have enough, but you can look at leasing private homes in Iqaluit to house these employees.
I thought I had one question, but I have two. Let me first ask this question.
Does the money you’re requesting do not include subsidized housing? When the Minister of Health was here, we were talking about what essential positions require housing, such as nurses and other professionals.
Did you say that you would have to provide housing? Housing is available in Iqaluit, including housing that can be leased. Are these 21 positions so essential that we will be providing them with housing too?
These positions will go through the normal hiring practices and policies of the GN through HR and if a person is in their own house or buys their own house or is renting private accommodations, then they will qualify for the normal housing allowance package that all GN employees get.
We’re not getting or given any special, preferential treatment in terms of housing for these positions.
They’re just going to be going through the normal hiring process.
Mr. Enook (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I’ll rephrase my question.
Through an agreement, it indicates that some PYs will be provided housing.
For example, if you were a nurse, you would be provided staff housing or if your job was an essential position, then they would require housing.
For those 21 positions, does it say that because they’re essential, they will be provided staff housing?
The $2.6 million that we are requesting for these 21 positions is strictly only for the compensation and benefits, so their salaries.
They’re being advertised without housing, but if need be, then housing would be requested through Housing and Housing would let us know how long it would take.
That $2.6 million is just a regular benefits and compensation package that we are requesting.
I don’t know how I can make it clearer.
With those 21 PYs that you listed, is staff housing provided?
Does it say something like that in the job advertisement? You say that you’re going to use the normal hiring process.
Yes, I understand that. In the job advertisement, is it going to state that staff housing will be provided?
For example, nurses are provided staff housing.
Does any one of these job advertisements say that there will be housing provided?
As the member stated about health, I think I see what he is getting at.
Health is priority 1 in terms of housing. Some of these positions are priority 2 and some are priority 3.
Health would have priority over these. In terms of priority, some jobs are priority 2 for housing and some are priority 3, but they’re just under the regular Staff Housing Policy. Some are priority 2 and some are 3.
Do I understand that the minister stated that these are only for current employees?
Some time in the future, are you going to be requesting that they be under priority 2?
Of course, they will need a housing subsidy.
Does it mean that in the future, you will ask for a supplementary appropriation to meet the housing needs of these staff?
No, we won’t be coming back to request any more funding for housing or anything. A job would be advertised without housing, if need be.
If we feel that we can’t fill it and if we find out the reasoning is due to no housing, then we would put in a request to the housing corporation for a staff house, which they are responsible for.
All we’re asking for is the $2.6 million to fund these positions. There will be no asking for any extra money for housing.
We’re hoping that these positions will be filled and, if need be, the private housing market would fill them.
If we can’t fill them and we feel that the reason is for housing, then we would put a request into the Nunavut Housing Corporation to get staff housing, but there is no other money involved in either process.
My question is again regarding the 21 positions.
In Nunavut, we’re always either short of staff or we don’t have enough staff to handle the demand.
We always have to bring in a lot of people into Nunavut to do the work because of the staff shortage, especially in professional positions that require specialized training.
With regard to these 21 positions, if they’re going to be filled with someone from outside the territory, are the costs of moving included?
If I’m not mistaken, moving costs for one person will be about $30,000, if not more.
We have 21 positions that might be filled from outside the territory.
Are you not concerned about where those extra costs will come from?
This $2.6 million, as I indicated, is just for competition and benefits for these employees.
As the member stated, it might be costly to bring the workers in from the south, if they have to come in from the south, but that would be paid for by HR as part of their regular recruiting process.
As I stated earlier, we do have an agreement and there is a program with Nunavut Arctic College that does produce IT students after a two-year program.
We might be able to fill them, but we won’t be asking for any more money to bring people in because that’s what HR does. It’s their job.
Whether they bring in a computer worker, a nurse, a teacher, a plumber, or whatever is needed, it’s HR’s responsibility to relocate, to bring someone from the south or it might even be someone from the smaller communities.
We don’t know, but that is the duty and function of HR. Thank you.
This is truly my last question for Mr. Minister.
You mentioned the good work being done at Arctic College to train students in these skill sets.
For positions that have been identified as term positions and to fill them as students graduate from Arctic College, have you considered doing so over the next two or three years?
It would seem like an obvious solution to fill those positions by fellow Nunavummiut in this manner.
If I understand the member correctly, I think he is talking about two different things, but one of them is term employees.
We need these positions now to fulfill our mandate.
It doesn’t matter which department you are. It’s a lot harder to recruit if it’s a term position because, when people are going to get uprooted from where they live and move to somewhere else, they want job security in order to make their commitment.
As for those Arctic College students and graduates, we want to get as many as we can, but there are many different, varied jobs here and some of these jobs are very technical in nature.
We know that we will have to import workers to come in.
That’s not to say that we won’t take on trainees or interns in the future, but currently right now, we need these positions filled to fulfill our mandate to provide the services that are required by the different departments.
Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted. $33,797,000.
We’re now at J-7.
I know I have brought this subject up so many times over the years. I feel like a broken record, but I will continue and see how it goes.
I want to talk about office space in the communities. I think it was five or six years ago when I first brought up the issue of the lack of office space in my community in particular.
The Department of Community Government and Services’ answer to that was “We will do a study and see what kind of office space is needed throughout the territory,” which they did.
When it was completed, they said that they were going to do an office space strategy.
Can you update us today on whether this office space strategy is completed or not?
There are two phases to the office needs study.
Phase 1 is done and phase 2 is more or less done, but we have to go through it and analyze it because it’s a huge document.
Phase 2 is 635 pages. We have to find out exactly what it’s telling us.
You say phase 1 and phase 2 of the strategy.
What exactly are you doing in these phases? What kind of analysis are you doing on this study that was done?
Phase 1 is to find out the inventory: what do we have in each community, who is in these offices, and what are they being used for?
Phase 2 is: what can we do to fix the problem if there are any shortages of office space in each community?
It’s safe to say that, given the fact that five or six years ago, I brought up the lack of office in my community and the government turned around and said, “We will do a study for the whole territory,” which they completed. Lo and behold, they found out that “Yes, I am lacking office space in my community,” and then they turn around and issue an RFP for office space in my community, which just closed a couple of months ago.
Lo and behold, they find out that there is no office space in my community.
When are they going to get the message that the community of Sanikiluaq requires office space and get on the ball so that we can start at least a planning process instead of doing everything territorial-wide? Look at a community that is lacking.
We have income support workers working out of a storage room.
We have health professionals in overcrowded conditions. We have the GLO and the probation officer working out of the hamlet office.
We have GN employees scattered all over the community.
When will the GN get the message that we really need office space in our community and start the process of implementing a plan to get infrastructure in place?
I know the member has brought it up many times here.
The reason we need a plan is there are different departments that have different needs.
You have to plan around those departments because we not only have to build for today, but if we’re going to build something in the community, either build or lease, whatever you’re going to do, you want to plan ahead so that you don’t build a four-office building and then next year, you find out, “Well, this department needs another four offices because we didn’t know that they were going to plan on expanding their workforce.”
All of that is taken into consideration.
We also want to do this as one big project, not just Sanikiluaq, because it’s way more efficient to do it as one big project so that we know all the needs and then we can prioritize which communities’ needs are higher than others.
We have come to the realization that in the smaller communities where there’s not much infrastructure to rent office space, the GN will probably have to build their own offices in the smaller communities, which Sanikiluaq would be one.
We have to work with the other departments to figure out what their current needs are and what their future needs will be.
All of that is being looked at right now, but we know that we need office space in communities, not just Sanikiluaq. It’s a need base.
I know the member has been vocal, so we hear about it more in Sanikiluaq than other places, but it’s an issue in many places. It’s the same old story where there are only so many dollars to go around.
We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that people have adequate office space to work in.
As part of your office space strategy, are you also looking into the option of entering into a third party type thing where you work with a contractor and have them build the office space requirements in communities and then enter into long-term leases with these companies?
Is there any intention of doing it that way?
Yes, we’re looking at that too because it is easier for governments to have a long-term lease than it is to try to get a request for funding to build a very expensive office building. Yes, we are looking at that too.
The needs study for Sanikiluaq, for example, we have put it out to as far as 2031, so we’re trying to anticipate needs for way out there.
We have a deficit limit.
The cap limit is there too, but we are looking at all options and long-term lease is one of the options.
Like I said, it’s generally easier to get that through than it is to request for, in some places, it could be multi-million dollars to build an office building.
If you’re looking at 20-year needs for every community, that’s going to incur a large sum of money in order to accomplish such a feat.
Back to the strategy, you said something about being on phase 2.
When do you anticipate completing phase 2 of the strategy and have it to the point where you maybe table it in the House or have it ready for other MLAs to review?
We’re on the final stages there.
We’re working with the proponent there to finalize it.
Like I told the member, it’s a big document, 635 pages, and if we have to table it in four languages there, there would be a few dead trees, one for each MLA, but when it’s all done, we will consider that.
Just to clarify myself when I said earlier about long-term lease, it’s considered a long-term debt, so about the longest you can do is a five-year lease.
I’m not sure if I caught it or not and I apologize if I missed it, but I did ask: when did he anticipate having this strategy completed to the point where it can be reviewed?
I can’t give the member a firm date because, like I said, we’re working with the proponent there.
All the data is there; we just have to go through it and see exactly what it means. We just got it.
We’ve got to be able to answer the questions that may be asked from the data that’s in there, so we have to analyze it a bit more and get more explanation from the proponent.
I believe I just have one question in regard to infrastructure to the minister and department.
When we look at this particular budget line area, is this Infrastructure Branch overseen by the Nunavut Community Infrastructure Advisory Committee?
No, we’re just dealing with O&M here and this has nothing to do with that.
I understand that we’re dealing with O&M.
I just want to know if that committee oversees this branch summary or if that is solely by the senior management of Community and Government Services.
No, that committee would just make recommendations towards infrastructure projects that would be approved. This is a CG&S budget.
Iqsuqtii, please escort the witnesses.
Report of the Committee of the Whole. Mr. Akoak.
A reminder that there’s a meeting of the Management and Services Board at ten o’clock in the Tuktu Boardroom.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) This House stands adjourned until Thursday, March 3, at 1:30 p.m.
>>House adjourned at 17:55  Appendix – March 2, 2016
Response to the Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Annual Reports and 2015-2016 Corporate and Business Plans of the Nunavut Development Corporation and Nunavut Business Credit Corporation
P.O. Box 1200
Pursuant to Rule 91(5) of the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Government of Nunavut to the Standing Committee on Oversight of Government Operations and Public Accounts November 3, 2015 Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Annual Reports and 2015-2016 Corporate and Business Plans of the Nunavut Development Corporation and Nunavut Business Credit Corporation (Standing Committee Report).
The Government commends the members of the Standing Committee for their critical role and valuable examination of the publications produced by the Nunavut Development Corporation and Nunavut Business Credit Corporation.
The Government finds these recommendations consistent with the work of advancing our Government’s mandate under Sivumut Abluqta to “encourage and support economic development initiatives that build on and add value to identified areas of potential, including the harvesting, arts and tourism sectors”. The Government of Nunavut thanks the members of the Standing Committee for providing the impetus to assess how economic development is being addressed within the Territory and the relationship between the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation and the Nunavut Development Corporation and the Government of Nunavut.
This process has ensured our focus going forward on how economic development programming is being addressed by the Government of Nunavut and its public agencies, specifically Nunavut Business Credit Corporation, going forward.
The responses to the Standing Committee’s recommendations have been set out below:
Responses to Recommendation #1:
Nunavut Development Corporation has applied a consistent methodology for several years in determining the number of jobs created and/or sustained.
This ensures objectivity and comparability year after year of this performance measure.
Nunavut Development Corporation divides the investee’s reported Nunavut payroll by the Corporation’s job cost multiplier of $37,977 to determine the jobs created and/or sustained. The job cost multiplier of $37,997 is set out under Section 2 (2) of the Regulations under the Nunavut Development Corporation Act.
The Nunavut Development Corporation has set out the definition of a small community under Section III of its Investment Policies and Guidelines (see below). The Investment Polices and Guidelines have been approved by the board of directors.
Section III (C) 3 of the NDC’s Investment Policies and Guidelines reads as follows:
Emphasis on Nunavut’s Smaller Communities
In assessing and making investments from the Venture Investment Fund, the Corporation shall emphasize and give preference to investments that benefit Nunavut’s smaller communities (i.e. those communities whose populations is less than 1,000 as measured by the Nunavut Bureau of Statistics).
Nunavut Development Corporation operates in compliance with its Act and, accordingly, only makes investments from its Venture Investment Fund in those business enterprises that can demonstrate a positive return on investment (ROI) within three years of placing the investment.
ROI is a standard ratio used to support business investment decisions and is specifically stated in Section 21(4) under  the Corporation’s Act.
Nunavut Development Corporation relies on the ROI calculation as an indicator of sustainable profitability.
Operating subsidies from the Corporation’s Subsidy Fund may also be given to subsidiary companies to offset operating losses but are restricted to $37,997 per job created or sustained directly or indirectly as a result of the business.
Any additional subsidy beyond this prescribed threshold must first be approved by the Financial Management Board.
These provisions are explicitly included in Section 16 (4) of the Act and Section 2 (2) of the Regulations.
Section 21 (4) of the Act states:
Rate of Return
The Corporation shall not invest in a business enterprise from the Venture Investment Fund unless the rate of return expected within three years from the date of investment is positive
Section 16 (4) of the Act states:
Amount of subsidy from the Subsidy Fund
The Corporation may for each job directly or indirectly created in a project or subsidiary, pay from the Subsidy Fund to a subsidiary or for the benefit of a project, a subsidy for operating costs each fiscal year
(a) in an amount not exceeding the prescribed maximum for the project or subsidiary: and
(b) in an amount greater than the prescribed maximum for the project or subsidiary with the approval of the Financial Management Board.
Section 2 (2) of the Regulations states:
Maximum Amounts
The maximum amount the Corporation may, for each job directly or indirectly created in a project or subsidiary, pay from the Subsidy Fund to a subsidiary or for the benefit of a project, as a subsidy for operating costs each fiscal year under paragraph 16 (4)(a) of the Act is $37,997
As per the Corporation’s Investment Policies and Guidelines, the Board must take into consideration the impact on the existing market when making decisions regarding investments from the Venture Investment Fund.
As per Section III (D) 6, the board must explicitly consider the following directive – The manner in which the proposed investment may disrupt or otherwise affect the market.
The standing committee further recommends that the Government of Nunavut, in its response to this report, provide a detailed update on the status of the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation’s work to  “develop quantifiable performance measures and annual reporting practices to enable an objective assessment of the corporation’s success in fulfilling its statutory mandate to stimulate economic development and employment in Nunavut.”
The Department of Economic Development and Transportation, together with Nunavut Business Credit Corporation, will undertake further work in 2016-2017 to development meaningful performance measures that can be consistently applied and used to assess the success of its funding programs.
Potential measures may include jobs created, goods and services purchased and/or goods and services provided by a business that has received funding.