EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
For communities that are getting decentralised, for example under the Department of Public Works, Telecommunication and Technical Services and Nunavut Housing Corporation.
There is a legislation regarding Municipality last fall.
In taking over these responsibilities.
Are they producing Municipal legislation to give the authorization.
I apologize I did not quite understand the question.
Please rephrase your question Mr. Nutarak.
I am going to wait for people to relax a little bit and I will come back with the question later.
That will be it for now.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I was asking about the Municipal legislation last fall.
I understood there was a legislation that was created by the Government of NWT.
But are they still doing Municipal legislation review.
Yesterday during my opening remarks I mentioned the review of the Municipal legislation.
Obviously, they were created by the Territorial Government before this Government.
As we now have our own Government we have to review the legislation that affects the Municipalities.
This has been one of the funding requirements.
Once we go into consultations with the communities and with the Members of Legislature.
We will go into detail once we reached that item.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): As we speak the Hamlets have been requesting block funding and before April he indicated that he would be giving quarterly funding to the Municipalities as of April 1st.
Now I am wondering which funding arrangements are in effect right now.
We have never discussed in detail block funding.
But the Mayor themselves have indicated that they would consider receiving block funding but I have never actually discussed this in detail with the Ministers.
Although I will be bringing up at their during their Association of Municipalities AGM.
We want to discuss formula funding.
Some of them are running properly in their funding arrangements.
Although they can use their money on a monthly bases it becomes too difficult and if you receive funding on a monthly bases.
So we thought it would be better if we funded the Municipalities quarterly.
But if the Municipalities having difficulty managing it’s finances and we would get their books in proper order and start funding them quarterly.
But for those communities that have been running smoothly they began their quarterly funding as of April 1, rather than on a monthly basis.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): This is the end of my questions for the meantime.
But I will ask more questions when we go through the budget.
Before we go on to another member, just before we broke for lunch I asked someone if someone could take my place as a Chairperson and Mr. Nutarak volunteered.
So if you can come up.
I can ask some questions.
First of all my question is in regards to the arena in Kimmirut.
We could not find a lot to put it in but now we have the lot now.
Perhaps if the lot was not adequate but we found another lot to put the arena in.
I just wondered to see if he could provide more funding to the arena.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): What we are doing right now is if we get the approval of our budget than we would order the supplies for that construction of it and we would build it this fiscal year.
I have no more questions.
I am going to be asking the Minister of Community Government & Transportation a question.
First I would like to make a comment first and then I will ask questions when we are dealing with the budget.
First, I would like to say we have had concerns in one of my constituencies.
The concerns or the problems that we have had we will talk about it right now.
In one of my communities we have heard through the media that the population is increasing at a very fast rate as compared to other Nunavut communities.
We have heard the community is experiencing shortage of housing.
I will talk about the problems that we have had in one of the communities that I represent.
The people that provide public housing and when the people and the population is increasing we have many problems with the funding that goes to the communities or the Hamlets.
There has been no review of funding provided to the communities thus far.
We have had problems with our community because we were in a deficit situation.
The Government was providing us with inadequate funding for the communities operation although the community is growing every year and that is the problem that we have encountered with our community.
Perhaps it is not the only community that is experiencing the problem but the minister stated that their funding would not increase that much and it seems that for the community the problem will still exist.
The other problem that we had was the water, sewage and garbage services because they cut the funding for those services.
That is why we have been having deficit problems because we have not been receiving adequate funding for the operation of our Municipal Government although the population is growing.
The other problem that we have encountered is there should be a review done by the Government to find out how much the community or Municipal Government has to receive in funding for their operation.
For such things as water and sewage delivery.
It seems like the Government does not believe that Municipality should be receiving more funding.
So we have had those problems recently.
The community Council should be listened to when they have problems with the inadequate funding and the Department should do their best to provide them with adequate assistance or adequate funding.
Because the communities themselves know how much they need to run their Municipal Government and their operations in the community.
They have been running their Municipal Government for quite some time and they should be able to get some assistance because the population is increasing and we have problems with inadequate funding.
In some communities know how to make some revenues to operate their Municipal Government but I think the ones that do not know how to make revenue.
Those are the communities have to be given adequate funding.
Because they do not know how to invest the money like other communities do.
Those are some of the things that we have had problems with and I wanted to make that comment to the Minister.
As well I think the Community Government & Transportation should be able to provide the communities with more funding to run their housing and other things that they do in the communities.
Like the money that is given to the communities is limited and if you do not have enough then you go into deficit.
If there is a surplus that is good for the community.
But if you give the community just a little bit of money then you have only a limited amount of money to run your community.
So that is why some of the communities are in deficit.
When they do not have enough money to spend to operate their Municipal Government.
The Hamlets in the communities are the Local Government of each community and they should be considered by the Department and the Department should believe the communities when they say they do not have enough money to operate their Municipal Government.
I wanted to make those statements and make a comment at this time.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): That is why we want to work with the Local Governments in the communities.
Last fall that there was a letter from one of the communities that someone said that Clyde River should no longer existed as a Nunavut community.
I know as a department we did not believe that.
When we heard it over the media that it was not very pleasant.
But my Department and officials work very hard to try to help the Hamlets.
Our employees and our staff believe that they should try to help the communities run their government effectively.
Because we provide funding for the communities we have to do a review at the funding that we provide for the communities.
Although the funding is not very large in amount, it has to be given to each project in the community.
Because of how the community uses that money and for what purpose.
We would like to work with the Members of the Legislature so the Municipal Government we would also like to talk to Municipal Council in the communities.
We believe when they tell us their problems.
If there were any problems that they encounter we would like to tell them that the Hamlet administrator or people in the position to run the Municipal Government.
I am not talking about Clyde River or Broughton Island.
But in general all the communities like we have to tell the people that is running Municipal Government or that is running the Councils in the communities that.
I would like to be able to meet with the Mayors from time to time, or the SAOs to talk with them on how best.
We can not tell them what to do.
We can make suggestions to them just so that they do not encounter any problems.
Only if they encounter problems can we go and assist them and tell them how best to use their Municipal funding and to tell them if they do your job this way your Municipal Government can run better.
In addition, we have to go in a train some communities in order for them to run their Municipal Government.
We can make suggestions as to how they can best use of the funding that they receive or how their staff can be best in the best position to administer the job that they suppose to do in the communities.
I would like everybody to believe that and know that we have department staff that really want to help.
I am not trying to argue with any of the Members.
You have to believe that staff try their best to help their communities.
They do not just go to the communities to tell them what to do.
Whenever there is a problem that is encountered by the Hamlet Council then we can go in and see if we can help the communities out to run effectively.
We can not tell them how to run their own Municipal Government.
We can not do that as a Department.
So this way we can with my staff help and with the help of the staff of the Hamlet Councils we can provide them with financial assistance or to do their accounting as well.
To help them to make sure they are spending the funding properly in the communities and to assist them.
Perhaps some get into deficits.
What we have done is we have to.
If they could perhaps think it about it in the future that just in case they get into a deficit they would have to borrow some extra money to run their Municipal Government.
We will be looking as a department to help the Municipal Councils and Municipal Governments run effectively.
These are the things that we could be looking at Mr. Chairperson.
His response was very good and if that is the case then I would urge him to go ahead with his plans.
However, I would like to state that there are some communities that run properly and there are others the run deficits.
I know that there are staff within the communities that do assist the Councils.
However, due to lack of funding some employees of the Hamlet never get pay raises.
Their pay rates stay the same although they have been working for a number of years for the same Hamlet Council.
This has been a problem raised by some employees of the Hamlet Councils and they have to pay for their rents.
If they are home owners and they have utilities to pay.
Sometimes they can not keep up with the payment because they do not make enough money.
I would like the Department to consider this further so that they can run the Hamlets properly.
I would like to ask the Department to see if he could look into this situation.
Yes it is up to the Union and the Hamlet Council to decide how their employees or their staff can have their pay raises.
We as a Department do not have the authority to deal with that.
We also have to remember there are twenty-six communities in Nunavut that run differently from one another.
I know it would be more appropriate for a community to get increased funding to run their operations.
We do not have any rules in our department for how the hamlets run their personnel operations so we cannot say how much the supervisors, the SAO, or the director should be paid.
It is usually up to the council how much money they will be receiving.
Although we might see a problem that arose in the community we cannot tell the council to increase their staff's pay.
It usually depends on the councils to decide how much they will be paying their employees in conjunction with the union.
These are the kinds of issues that I would like to talk about when the Association of Municipalities has their AGM.
I think it is during the week of May, the first week of May.
The Nunavut Association of Municipalities will be meeting in May involved in that AGM.
We will be discussing all types of issues regarding the hamlets.
I know that we will not solve all the problems but by communicating with each other, I think we can be more accountable to the hamlets.
We will be reviewing all the municipal legislation at the time to so we will be talking with the mayors regarding their legislation and we might even be able to discuss their pay rates.
I mean that is just a possibility but the funding that we give to the communities.
The money we provide from the Nunavut Government for their water and sewer and garbage deliveries.
The housing associations do contribute some funding to the hamlets so they can have their garbage pick-up and water delivered.
These are the kind of things that we will be dealing with, and to see how best the hamlets can run their affairs and provide better services to their people and the Nunavut government does provide housing associations and they hand it over to the hamlet for sewer delivery.
We will be looking into this matter as well.
To see how best we can provide better services for the communities.
These are the kind of things that we want to be able to deal with when we meet with the mayors of the communities or even their deputy mayors.
Perhaps we can provide some solutions for the communities.
You have a short question Mr. Iqaqrialu.
You were talking about working with the communities.
Coming from the government there used to be someone going to communities to train the employees and the staff of hamlet councils.
However, the hamlets had to pay for the government representative who went into the communities to train the SAOs and mayors.
Although a hamlet had a deficit situation they to pay for the instructors and they were costly.
So I would like to see if the department would be going into communities again to train their staff.
If the hamlets would still have to pay for their instructors.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): We want to be able to talk more openly with the newly elected councils.
As to how best they can run their affairs and we would probably have an orientation session but I am not saying the hamlets do not handle or manage their funds well.
However, if there needs to be an improvement as to how they can manage their finances we would be looking at their books. If they are going into a deficit situation then we would try to intervene as soon as we can before they run into huge deficits.
If one community has a major problem we can't say that we will supply them with employees who are well trained but we can send someone from our department to go into the communities and talk to hamlets on how best they can manage their funds within the community.
It is our responsibility as a department to assist the hamlets if they start having problems and if we have to provide them with training then we are more then willing to do that.
I am sure that once we put orientation sessions into the communities we will need to use a lot of money but if it is going to be good for the community then I think it would be well worth the money.
I think it would be worth training the communities so they can run their affairs better in the future.
We are open to the hamlets and if they need help we would be more than willing to help the hamlet councils or their employees to see how we can best serve them.
There is no doubt that we would have to pay for orientation sessions. Thank you Mr. Chairperson.
Chairperson (interpretation): Any further questions Mr. Iqaqrialu.
This is the kind of thing that I have been expecting to hear from the minister and I appreciate his response.
I do not have any more comments but I urge the department to do the best to help the communities.
I think that I can go back to my seat now.
Chairperson (interpretation): It is up to you now Mr. Iqaqrialu, I am just kidding you can come back to your seat.
Are there any further questions from the floor.
I was reading through this but I have a question concerning access roads.
Most of the access roads are made outside of the community boundaries for instance; well I am sure you understand what I mean.
Do you have funding for that program.
Chairperson (interpretation): Hon. Jack Anawak.
Access road funding was provided during the tenor of the territorial government, they put a stop to that and so what we are trying to do is find other sources because we know that access roads have different purposes.
They are good for trailing and for hunting, and they are good for gravel.
Perhaps to go to a gravel area.
They are good for tourism accessing.
So we are looking for different sources where we can put funding into access roads.
However, at this time once the territorial government put an end to the funding.
It has not been restarted.
But at this time we are looking for possible sources whereby we can provide access road funding because of its multipurpose uses for access roads.
If there is a proposal perhaps to just to maintain an access road already in existence, could we access that sort of funding.
Inside our funding arrangements, for example we could look for different sources.
I am sure it is not possible to resource from everyone.
However, what we have felt from the communities themselves they can perhaps volunteer on a working basis by way of providing machinery or equipment.
Although there is not actually any funding, we can try to find different arrangements for the community to work out an access road or to enable to give them their resources aside from financial ones.
To carry out access road maintenance.
Chairperson (interpretation): Further questions or comments.
There are no further questions or comments so I think we can go back to our main estimates on capital project estimates.
If we have no more general comments.
Is that what you want to do.
Capital estimates, page number 7-5.
Capital estimates, in your thinner binders.
Do you all have the right page.
Mr. Minister I think you are sitting with different people at your table.
Perhaps you can reintroduce your witnesses.
Rosemary Keenainak, who is known by everyone and she works with the community governments, and she deals with many of the financial aspects that we are about to cover.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Anawak at this time let us go to 7.4.
Community Government and Transportation, detail of capital.
Buildings and works, headquarters and region.
Total headquarters region 50 thousand dollars.
Recreational facilities, 50 thousand under this item.
Can we have further clarification on what that entails for recreation facilities.
Jack Anawak.
It has become obvious to the communities and looking at the whole of Nunavut it has become evident that these recreation facilities within Nunavut are no longer keeping up with the population growth.
What more can we do to accommodate the growing population.
Can we help the communities set out the priorities for example the bigger centres like Kingait or Pangnirtung or Pond Inlet or Pelly Bay or Gjoa Haven.
Even though the population has grown a lot but their recreation facilities remain the same.
So we wanted to do a review as to how we can make changes to better accommodate the recreation facilities requirements for the communities.
But this is just a study.
Mr. Nutarak do you have any more.
Before we get to capital estimates, I would like to inform you that if this was along time ago and I had no education I would have thought it was a fifty dollar item.
I have no accounting education and it looks like a 50 dollar item and it was a 50 thousand dollar item, just for your information.
The headquarters region, total headquarters region 50 thousand.
Baffin Region.
Total Baffin Region 4 million dollars 205 thousand.
Under the list there is an item for 100 thousand dollars which mean arena retrofit planning design.
Do designing cost up to 100 thousand, that is my question.
I am told that this would be enough to cover the designing aspects of the buildings.
Yes 100 thousand dollars would cover the design aspects of the building.
You have to decide how you would renovate the new skating rink.
Concerning the new arena design and construction for Kimmirut.
It says that part of it will be construction.
Do the arena all have different design.
So do they all have different construction in the communities or is there a basic standard kind of arena provided to the communities.
Well of course the communities are all different because their lands are all different.
For example here in Iqaluit there are similarities but they are usually based on the differences of community requirements.
Mr. Akesuk, do you have anymore comments.
Under this list first, if I understand that the Nunavut Government was going to start doing planning stages for the Igloolik community hall.
The hamlet has written a number of times to your department and in your response to their letters it states here that if these criteria are filled then it will be considered a priority.
This is according to your response.
If the Igloolik community hall is a danger to the public it is obviously a danger because it is overcrowded.
Should there be an accident people could be in great danger.
The other criteria I led to understand is the priority under the minister's response is this: if its purposes are for the purpose of decentralization because this is part of the decentralization process undertaken by the Nunavut Government.
We expect some employees to be coming into our community.
We expect some population growth.
I just wonder if it could be designed at an earlier date.
We are under page 7-5.
We are under capital estimates.
We are finished with general comments.
We are now under capital estimates and we have to follow that process and nevertheless Mr. Anawak I will give you a chance to respond.
There are so many community halls that are inadequate in size such as Pangnirtung, Gjoa Haven, Pond Inlet, and Igloolik although they already have inadequate sizes of community halls.
Part of the problem is going to be compounded by decentralized employment and we were talking about the amount of 50 thousand dollars.
How else can we help these people to so a recreation facility study because we have to factor in the number of people that will be adding to the population which is already on a growing rate.
We have taken these into consideration and I know for sure that while we are working under these we are going to keep you informed.
We are going to seek your advise on what the best way would be to go about doing this study and doing these arrangements at this time.
Under the various Baffin Erosion Protection Study, you have 50 thousand dollars allocated.
Is this for the land sites and can we get a further explanation on the erosion protection study.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): My staff informs me that the study is for mainly for Arctic Bay and Hall Beach, and it is the erosion protection study of sand and whatever.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Irqittuq.
The reason I asked this question is because I now that in my community there is erosion that is occurring perhaps because of permafrost on the shoreline and I think there is a house and if that foundation erodes the house will probably collapse.
What we have to do is we have to do some study of the erosion that is occurring and I now what the member is talking about because I was there in Hall Beach.
We had to walk a short distance to get into the boat.
After we do a study we will find out which one has to be constructed first or which one is going to be a priority.
I am sorry I did not finish asking the question.
I just wondered whether the arena in Kimmirut, have they found a lot for it.
If there is a lot that is found that is adequate, would the planning and the construction start this year.