EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So for example, if we are dealing with social history, and I know because I have children in high school as an example and I have a child who is in elementary school, they do it, for example, on the historical perspective of Canadians, great Prime Ministers, and so on. There were different course takings being done at the K to five and six levels.
So at the high school level, there are different types of history; geopolitical history, that’s being looked at within the social context, of course, history of the major events of the world like World War I, World War II, and so on.
I think the member is trying to get at local history. Do we have, for example, a Nunavut history of what has occurred in Nunavut, and so on?
And again, I think the answer is a very strong affirmative. There’s some good work being done in our schools on not only incorporating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit within that curriculum development process, but actually specific areas of study which includes the social history and the social fabric itself of Nunavut.
So I hope that helps clarify that answer.
Mr. Curley: Yes, it does help. I think it is all history, whether it would be political, the way of evolution would have changed. They are really scared of change because they are not that far from linking with the world events these days.
It is quite important like for instance, I bet you that you know that Nunavut students would be interested about the Hudson’s Bay Company because they, at one point, were in all parts of Nunavut and Northwest Territories, including some of the provinces.
I have been amazed to know that there is quite a lack of knowledge, except for the older people that when they say Hudson’s Bay Company, they are including their grandfathers.
They are fascinated about the relationship that the Hudson’s Bay Company, at one point, was probably very close to the Kings of England who ruled this world.
I think it is important to our students, so, strategically, I really, truly believe that if you are going to expand the minds of our young people that you really have to challenge them.
I am not so crazy about this 30-year history thing in Nunavut. That is not history yet, we are talking about early contacts with people and so on.
Is it possible that you could utilize some of the even living legends? Kenn Harper can probably be chairing some of the advisory/expert panels that you may want to expand his mind to provide opportunities for young people to learn, whether it would be college or not. Could the minister consider that at least and report back to us one day whether or not we could provide some more credible history programs for students in Nunavut?
I think the member, again, is making a very good point. There are different kinds of history.
There is social history, political history, geographical history. Another history that could be considered is archaeology. Archaeology is the study of past cultures, events and so on, and looking at things.
Nunavut is full of opportunities for archaeological sites.
Right now in grade eight, as an example, we have CD-ROM in the grade eight teacher’s manual for archaeology at that level.
Mr. Curley talks about the Hudson’s Bay Company and as everyone knows, it is the oldest incorporated company in the new world. It is sad to be seeing it sold now that Mr. Zucker, an American, is taking over and losing that bit of Canadiana. So I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that in this conversation with Mr. Curley.
I think the other point is on local history and local colour. The Arctic College has put out a good set of biographies on famous Nunavummiut.
There is an excellent book out right now of Mr. Abraham Okpik and Abe Okpik’s story is being told in the college. I know that they have contacted Mr. Curley personally to do a story and a series on him. I would most welcome Mr. Curley to participate in that.
Some people would have different people who would be the father of Nunavut. Many people who have been involved in the land claims process over the years would refer to Mr. Curley as the father of Nunavut. So I thank Mr. Curley for his support of the programs that we are putting in place and have put in place with the K to 12 system, then again to the college too.
Mr. Curley: I appreciate the minister’s kind words, but I have yet to respond to the offers that have been made for a number of reasons.
It is fascinating stuff; we have two cultures in this part of the world. Not only the Inuit, but as well as the non-Inuit, very diverse.
The reason I am saying that, Mr. Chairman, is I think it is an opportunity that the minister could develop standards and devise strategic plans for all these whether it socio-political economics, history about what happened up here.
It would expand; I think that they are way too parochial right now in schools. The students can now connect to the world through computers and so on. How much more would interest be generated if they had been exposed to some of the early European contacts and whatnot?
We were not isolated from the Kings of England or any other authorities during the last 100 years; fascinating stuff.
Mr. Chairman, if I could, I can invoke your grandfather in a real tremendously respect, he, at one point, was so proud of Hudson’s Bay, even the Prime Minister of the day couldn’t convince him to change his mind.
He was, at one point, asked to do a little demonstration of the cannonball that he used to use at Pangnirtung and he did.
Jimmy Kilabuk was the star and Prime Minister Trudeau asked him to go ahead, take a shot of the big cannonball and it boomed, reverberated right across the Pangnirtung fiords and so on.  So Prime Minister Trudeau was so impressed, he sort of said to Jimmy, his grandfather, “Do it again.”
He was so fascinated. What would you do if the Prime Minister asked you to do it again?
And Mr. Kilabuk looked at him and said, “Nope, one more for Hudson’s Bay ship.”
So their relationship with the trade was so important, Prime Minister Trudeau came to Pangnirtung in April.
The Hudson’s Bay ship was a long ways from coming in, but it was a tradition that when they see a Hudson’s Bay ship down in the fiord, down in the bay, they would shoot that cannonball.
So I’m just encouraged here to, I believe, the two cultures would read a little better.
Right now, that’s not the case, as far as our relationship because we don’t have a history.
You look at IQ, you look at, for instance, the Minister of Environment will tell you whether or not Inuit knowledge of polar bears has any role in scientific stuff, but you go to Alaska and tell them how important bowhead whaling is, and then stating the global warming, it’s very much part of scientific studies.
You couldn’t get any sciences come in without including traditional knowledge and actually speaking to a number of elders. They don’t fool around out there with traditional knowledge. The two may clash, but they meet at every scientific study.
So I think we have an opportunity.
Our history is just as probably as long as the Greenland Inuit, Inuppiat, and Greenland people.
I bet you we can develop something positive and we could do it while we have some of the legends like...
Chairman: Sorry, Mr. Curley your time is up and after members have had the chance to speak, if time permits, I will allow you make your comments.
I would like to ask the minister a question on page G-6 of the main estimates about Homelessness Secretariat contributions.
If the minister could provide us or provide the House with a definition of homelessness as it pertains to Nunavut.
So we have approved now, G-5, and have moved on to G-6, to the Homeless Directorate.
So I’m on G-6 now.
The Government of Nunavut does not have a definition for homeless like any other jurisdiction in this country. What the Government of Nunavut has done, as the only jurisdiction outside the federal government, is create a secretariat for homelessness.
There are two forms of homelessness that are recognized by the federal government and by the general public-at-large, as it were, within the housing fraternity and so on.
Those two are absolute homelessness and relative homelessness.
Absolute homelessness Mr. Chairman, as I explained earlier in Question Period, is a type of homelessness that you see in Toronto and larger urban cities. That’s where someone is standing on a street corner panhandling.
Relative homelessness is what we see in Nunavut predominantly and what we see in Nunavut is when you have 13 or 14 people in a two or three bedroom house; that is homelessness. That is someone being homeless. That’s called relative homelessness.
So that is the two different definitions that are in place, and we use those definitions, Mr. Chairman, as a government when we are working with our federal partner, accessing the SCIPI Program dollars that are available to us as a jurisdiction, and at the same time, when we are planning our programs and services for those individuals.
Chairman: Thank you, Minister Picco, to be clear on which places we are working from, it is G-5 the Education Branch Summary Directorate, but also, G-6 is part of G-5.
I thought the minister was trying to throw me off my train of thought there with that comment. Thanks for that answer, Mr. Minister.
A couple weeks ago, it was reported in the media that there was a lady sleeping in a car at -50 degrees.
Would that be termed the same as absolute homelessness, as it is defined in Toronto?
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Minister Picco.
A lot has changed over the last few years and Mr. Peterson is correct that if a person has no shelter and has to sleep in a car, it is considered, by any definition, to be in a bad situation, but also would be considered as absolutely homeless.
There is a need for a women’s transition home in Iqaluit with dedicated beds for women. Because we do not have that type of shelter and we are seeing that need right now in Iqaluit, Mr. Chairman, this is a very difficult issue to deal with, but we are trying to be proactive, we are trying to access the extra beds.
So the answer to the member’s question is yes, in a case like that, and I do not want to refer to individual or personal cases. I can say in a larger sense that that type of incident is indicative of absolute homelessness, similar to what you would see in southern Canada.
I thank the minister for clearing that up.
When I was in Toronto over the last couple days when I was driving between the hotel and the convention center. I had the opportunity to see a lot of the homeless people sleeping on the streets.
This is a very wealthy city and it is in Ontario. They are sleeping under blankets near subway grates where the heat comes out in the winter, so you can see that there is a homelessness issue there, I do not know how the Government of Ontario deals with it, but you will see in Nunavut, we do not see a lot of people sleeping in cars and sleeping outside.
So if we do not see the problem, does that mean there is really no problem? If we are trying to help the people and we do not see them sleeping out there, does that mean maybe that there is no problem?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman, that is not the way it works. I can say with some security that since 1997, I was involved with the first homeless shelter that was opened here in Iqaluit.
That was only nine years ago and we have seen an increase going from five beds to fourteen and now the 20 beds at night are being used for the issue of homelessness in the community.
There are a lot of different reasons for that, in some cases, people are out of the BCC and they do not decide to return home and because he may not have the familiar family connection in the community, they end up having no place to stay.
In some cases, people are unemployed and have moved to Iqaluit for work and cannot find affordable accommodation and end up on the street. Mr. Curley gave us an example of a case that he is aware of in Rankin Inlet.
So we are starting to see more and more of this type of urban homelessness occurring in our larger communities and we are trying to address that issue.
We’ve had some success.
We’ve moved from an old facility, for the issue here in the community of Iqaluit, to a larger and cleaner facility; are able to do more proactive work with the clientele. At the same time, we’re still looking toward trying to get transition beds and so on for women.
Another example, Mr. Peterson brought it up, is that we never saw the issue of homelessness for women in 1997 when we set up the shelter. Now, we are seeing it. That’s indicative of some of the issues we have in our society today.
The blurb here says, “To provide contribution funding to agencies responsible for providing programs and services to the homeless in Nunavut.” How many agencies are there in Nunavut that are helping in homelessness?
There are different agencies working on the issue of homelessness across the territory. They include, for example, in some cases, where women go to a family violence shelter, because they weren’t homeless, they were asked to leave their home and have no other place to go. There is an example of agencies that are working on the issue of homelessness.
Specifically for homelessness itself, I talked earlier about Cape Dorset, which has a program running right now looking at the issue of homelessness and doing a kind of a study on the issue. Here in Iqaluit, we have the Salvation Army, who is actually running the homeless shelter. We have the Baffin Regional Agvvik Society that working on issues with homelessness for women.
Can the minister, just for the record, tell us who the members are of the Homelessness Secretariat?
It’s me and Pam.
That’s where it was for quite a while until we actually put some budget money into it. Just quickly on the other issue, before I answer that question, he asked me some of the other organizations; the soup kitchen is part of the issue of homelessness in this community, as well as the food bank.
A good example, again, is the situation that the Soup Kitchen is feeding dozens of people a day; 40, 50, 60 people a day.
Some of the other members of the secretariat; we have the Department of Education, which is the Chair, of course; we have HRDC Canada on our secretariat.
We also have involvement from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and the City of Iqaluit. We also invite other groups to attend on an as needed basis.
Can the minister just describe a little bit how the $200,000 that was in the budget in the current fiscal year, how was that spent?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ve been able to do quite a bit with the dollars that have been available to us. First of all, with the Qulliit Status of Women’s Council, we’ve done a $30,000 grant to look at the issue of the impact of homelessness for women.
We’ve helped the Salvation Army with about $120,000; that’s on the management of the Oqota Shelter, which is the homeless shelter for men, as well as furnishings and moving to the new location. We are working with the Harvest Society in Cape Dorset, that I talked about before, on a program that they call ‘In My Room,’ about $11,980.
So the majority of the money under the program has been expended.
Can the minister give us an idea of how you think the money will be spent in the next fiscal year?
As I said earlier today in Question Period, we’ll be doing a call for proposals after April 1, after the budget is complete for the issue of homelessness for agencies.
So I expect that we would spend the majority of our budget at that time.
At the same time, because of the issue of the monies coming from the federal government under the SCIPI Program, we’re not sure how that’s going to continue.
If the federal government pulls out $200,000 or $300,000 less in funding, different programs and services like the homeless shelter, then it would be expected that the Government of Nunavut would then have to pick that up and we’ll have to look at more money.
So right now, for example, the majority of money for a soup kitchen, the money for the food bank, monies for the homeless shelter, and a lot of this money is also coming from the federal government through the SCIPI Program, which is the homeless initiative of the federal government.
If they’re not going to renew that with Mr. Harper’s Government or cut that back, then a substantial cut back to the Government of Nunavut’s programs in cooperation with community groups would be expected and I would expect a larger uptake on our pot.
So that’s something that we need to be aware of. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The minister was talking in the last few comments about the federal government cutting back or eliminating funds.
Do you have some information or indications from someone in the federal government that this may happen?
In any government, when you have a change of regime, all programs and services are usually up for review by that new government coming in.
A good example is the Early Learning and Childcare Agreements that were signed by every province, not by the three territories, but every province in the country, and now, the Harper Government has talked about taking those programs and not renewing those agreements.
It was the same thing with the federal initiative on homelessness. We had a good working relationship with Minister Fontaine and Minister Bradshaw who actually came here and reviewed our situation. Now, with a new federal government in place, they may decrease those programs.
We have not received word from the federal government that, indeed, these programs are continuing over the 2006-07 budget year.
As soon as we are able to, we have a call into the federal government right now, me as minister, to meet with my federal counterpart to discuss the issue of the SCIPI funds and the homelessness, but we have not heard anything yet one way or another.
In 2004-05, the actuals were $100,000 and then we increased it to $200,000 last year. And now you’re asking for $200,000 for next year.
It seems like it’s a Nunavut issue that is increasing. You mentioned 1997, and we’re seeing evidence of that. Then there was that event there two weeks ago with the lady in the car.
That drew some attention to the problem. I don’t think a lot of people in Nunavut and maybe a whole lot of people down south don’t know about or are aware of in Nunavut.
Do you see the possibility that the $200,000 won’t be enough, or ever will be enough? Could we be looking at a lot more money in the years ahead?
I don’t have a crystal ball. What I can say is that, based on current trends and what we’ve seen, as Mr. Curley raised in Rankin Inlet, we’ve seen some issues, the Member in Arviat talked about some of the real struggles for housing.
As our communities get bigger and larger and so on, then you’re going to start having some of those bigger city problems and bigger community problems. That’s what we’re seeing.
In 1997, we didn’t see those things. In 2006, nine years later, we’re starting to see them.
So I would anticipate that when I do a call for proposals for the $100,000 that would be available, we might have considerably more than we would have had this year.
So, yes, the short answer is I could anticipate seeing more money needed for this line item in the budget.
I have no names on my list. Mr. Curley.
Mr. Curley: I want to follow up on the homelessness contribution.
Can the minister tell the committee whether or not there is a policy guideline in place with this Homelessness Secretariat Contribution Program?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome back Mr. Chairman.
Yes, there are program guidelines and so on in place.
Assuming that the other Nunavummiut groups also qualify for this particular program funding, could the minister undertake to table in this House so that we may inform our charity groups out there that there is such a thing as a Contribution Policy in place and that they can apply for funding?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will be doing a public call for proposals after the budget cycle is complete after April 1, which will include advertisements in the Kivalliq News, the Nunatsiaq, and the News North, and we will also be doing other forms of communication for the people at large. We also will be sending out a letter to all hamlets, as well as to all the Members of the Legislative Assembly on the request for proposals for the homelessness initiative.
Your question, Mr. Curley.
I would like to thank the minister for that undertaking.
Can you table the Contribution Policy during this session?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Yes.
We were on Education.
Operations and Maintenance. $1,198,000.
I am turning on to page 7.
This is the area that the minister had indicated earlier that the staff has been working on the new Education Act fall under. I just want to ask the minister for a bit of an update.
I know prior to Christmas, I believe, in the fall as one of the minister’s staff had indicated that the Education Act would be delayed because of the lack of staff or support. I am just wondering if there has been any progress made on this as far as staffing and support for the development of the new Education Act.
Minister Picco, has there been any progress on this?
I would like to consider all the work that we do is progress.
Mr. Chairman, with the Education Act, there is a delay and the biggest issue in the delay has been logistic as well as administrative challenges at which the members are very familiar with to try to get out to the communities and travel around the communities to do the consultations. I hoped to have all the community consultations completed by now and we have not been able to do that, so we have a lot of communities to visit. I want to make sure we complete that task first.
The drafting of the bill will begin this summer 2006 and the draft bill should be ready by this fall to be presented to the standing committee.
We are a few months off. I had promised the Premier that I would try to expedite things.
Maybe I was a little bit ambitious in my programs; I didn’t factor in, as Mr. Curley talked about earlier, issues around the weather. So that’s been our biggest delay.
What I can say is that we’ve held a lot of consultation meetings up to and including last week when we had every Chair of DEAs from across Nunavut here in town discussing the fundamentals around the new Education Act.
I was surprised to hear the minister indicate that he may have been a little bit too ambitious. It doesn’t sound like him.
I’d like to thank the minister for that update, but I know one of the problems that he had indicated was administrative and that there was an indication that there were not enough human resources to work on this file.
The minister has indicated in the past that the former Education Minister, Manitok Thompson, I don’t know what the title is, but is working on that file and developing the legislation. There was an indication from her, I believe, that she didn’t have the support she needed as far as staff goes on that.
Has the department hired anyone to work with Ms. Thompson to assist her in going through that process?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Thompson has been doing yeoman service on the file, as the member has indicated.
She is working really hard. She’s been out into over half the communities in Nunavut providing that feedback from communities and DEAs. She’s been dealing with a lot of the issues, not only logistic issues, but the administrative issues of compiling all this information, and we are hearing a lot of it in Inuktitut, and having it ready for our legislative coordinator, who has to look at it through our policy shop.
So we have had some extra resources available to the minister logistically as well as administratively to continue her work.
I just want to caution the minister for trying to put words in my mouth. I never indicated that anyone was doing yeoman service on anything.
Just to remind him that some people do pay attention to what he says.
Mr. Chairman, as the minister had indicated that they had hired some assistance and support for Ms. Thompson; I am just wondering if he could indicate who they’ve hired to work with Ms. Thompson in developing the made-in-Nunavut Education Act.