EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
As we know, when you have a workplace where it’s not adequate, the morale is placed in how well of a job they do.
As we know, the RCMP officers that come up to the communities to work also need cross-culture training. As we know, this is a harsh environment that we live in, and the officers should be trained for cross-culture environment and even surviving on the land because at times it can be beneficial for them.
That’s something that I’ve thought about for a while.
As well, for Court Services, we need to have people who speak in the Inuinnaqtun language.
As well, having elders advisors are beneficial for young people who are in trouble with the law because they can give advice to the young people as to how they should behave.
As well, in terms of people who are incarcerated.
We know there are a lot of young people, not just young people, but as a matter of fact Inuit who are incarcerated.
I’ve been approached by staff from the Correctional Facilities that we need more Inuit employed at these facilities.
We have to take into account that Article 23 of the Land Claims has to be included.
We all know that in our territory we have a high unemployment rate.
Although we know some people who don’t have criminal records apply but don’t get hired.
Another factor is we have a lot of people who are sent down to the corrections to be incarcerated and I think it would be more beneficial for those young people to go on the land programs, where they can be taught survival skills.
These are very beneficial for young people.
It gives them reassurance.
At times when they go through these programs which are beneficial, they don’t re-offend.
When they have nothing to do or are always incarcerated, they often seem to go back into the community and to re-offend.
These types of things we have to take into account.
I will ask questions on those plans at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. Premier and your officials and welcome.
I want to bring up what I have been told by my constituents in regards to the RCMP.
When they come into a small community from down south, they have no idea how it’s like.
I have experience in one of my constituents; a couple, if they are having problems or disagreements, they are not even put through the Justice Committee. A lot of times, married couples are ordered not to see each other, even though they have kids.
What they do is they just remove that man from a house and is prevented from seeing his spouse and children.
I wonder when the RCMP come up from down south, they are coming from cities, and they seem to go over the Inuit and sort of forget how it should be with the Inuit.
In some communities, this can create problems as to how they are treated by some RCMP members.
So who do they complain to if they are unhappy because they are not too sure who to contact.
When it is time for questions, I will ask more questions on this.
This was already brought up in my constituency.
I have been told to bring this up when we are discussing this, but the previous member who just made a general comment, I fully support his concern in regards to that it’s not the Inuit custom where a couple is separated, especially when the children are witnessing this; and this is very hurtful to the children.
We also realize that their intentions are to help others, but it’s really hurtful to the children.
It was already stated.
In regards to illegal drugs and alcohol; this is a big problem anywhere in Nunavut. We see a lot of unemployed people who have very expensive assets. It seems like they are just using the other people, and we definitely need to take a serious look at this because when we are gone, our children or grandchildren will have to live with each other.
The problem with alcohol and drugs seems like our future is very bleak even just thinking about it, but at this time, we can make improvements, we can do something about this so that our people will be able live happily together, even if we are gone.
When we are elected, we are given authority to be able to make changes hopefully for the better.
We have a big task ahead of us.
The Government of Nunavut will always have obstacles because we still have to consider the federal legislation that is not appropriate to us and this can be our obstacle.
At this time as we sit here, we are given authority to be able to make changes for the better.
And because I recognize this and in my constituency this is a big concern and is talked about a lot when it comes to alcohol and drugs.
It doesn’t help how our future is going to be.
Personally I have a concern in regards to that.
That is why I brought it up.
At this time I don’t have anybody on my list on general comments.
Then we’ll go on to Justice, Branch Summary.
E-5 and E-6.
Before we start in regards to Justice I’d like to remind members from time to time members may wish pose questions that relate to information in one document or the other.
Please be specific as to which document and page number you are referring to when posing questions or referring to specific sections.
Also, I would like to remind members of question period guidelines which apply during both formal session and Committee of the Whole.
The guidelines, the questions must not be hypothetical or seek an opinion.
That was a reminder.
So make sure that you don’t forget.
In regards to the general comments that I made earlier, I’ll go back to Business Plans later.
Maybe if I speak in English.
Complain procedure for the communities to take when they are not pleased with the policing services.
My Deputy will respond.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Webber.
Mr. Weber: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The complaint procedure is that RCMP would receive the first complaint.
If there is a complaint about a member, the member of the public would go to the Detachment Commander and make a complaint there.
From there there would be an internal RCMP investigation and that includes involvement from Headquarters for V Division for Nunavut.
The member of the public would then get a response from the RCMP directly indicating whether there has been a problem found or not.
If the member of the public is still not satisfied with that response then they can go to the RCMP Commission on a national level and complain there, and then there is a review conducted above the level of V Division as well.
Chairman (interpretation): We’re on page E-5 and E-6.
The Board in V Division, how long is their term?
There is no Board.
I don’t know what Board he’s referring to.
If you can clarify then I will try my best to respond.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): I apologize.
First, is there a Committee or a sub-committee from the RCMP in Nunavut?
There is no Committee in the communities or in the region.
If a person wishes to make a complaint, there is such a body at the national level if they have a problem with a particular member.
That commission that you’re talking about, how long is their term?
This is a national organization and we have no control over it so I can’t respond to that but I can certainly check into it and let him know later.
Under the business plan, E-4, (interpretation ends): It talks about the diversion protocol that some cases may be resolved through the Community Justice Committees as opposed to using the courts by incorporating Inuit values and including traditional counseling.
Who decides what cases will be diverted to the Community Justice Committees?
It is done through an agreement as to which Committee can look after.
So, it is through an agreement.
It’s usually the Elder’s Advisor and they don’t seem to have any authority.
Like I mentioned before, if a young couple, has problems, they are separated and they are prevented from seeing each other or the children.
Why is it like that because they seem to be going, they’re not including the elders and the Advisors don’t seem to have any power over that?
Presently there are 12 communities where we have made an agreement with the communities which is through the Justice Committees.
A lot of times, there are things that have to go through the courts.
The less serious ones are handled locally by the Justice Committee.
So if they can’t go through the court, then what happens to the advice from the elders?
If there is an agreement with the Justice committee, and those offences that has to be dealt with by the court.
During court sittings, the elders usually have a seat too.
We don’t have too much authority, but whatever authority we try and utilize.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): I just put my hand up and it’s my turn.
My question is under E-6, because I think we were under E-6, in regards to Akitsiraq Law School.
Last year, they requested a lot more funding.
Now, it seems to be half.
I realize that they will be graduating soon.
Maybe, they’re going to operate another half year only.
I wonder why it is like that.
The graduation will take place in June and they will have one more year of funding, but we have found some funding for half a year to employ them in our department.
They will be doing on-the-ob training, but their academic schooling is finished.
It just seems like there is no plan in place, if they’re going to open Akitsiraq Law School again for other students.
What is the status of the Akitsiraq Law School after the graduation of those first students.
Are there no applications from the public wanting to take Akitsiraq Law School?
We’re discussing that right now and we have to review the system because there is a committee that reviews that Akitsiraq Law School.
They’re doing a review on it right now to see if they’re going to continue the law school.
Perhaps, what they’re trying to do is find out how much cheaper it would be to have another one like that.
I didn’t really understand.
Are we just going to go to E-6 at this time Mr. Chairman.
We’re on E-5 and E-6 at this time for questions.
I will be asking more questions when we reach those other pages.
We’re on E-5 and E-6, but under the business plans, can we use the business plans and use any page as long as we let you know if that’s okay with you Mr. Chairman.
Yes, go ahead, ask your question, Mr. Netser.
Mr. Netser (interpretation): Under the Human Right’s Tribunal, page E-30, and were very happy to be receiving those tribunal head office in Coral Harbour.
(interpretation ends) The status of the Human Right’s Tribunal.
With the passage of the Human Right’s Act, the Human Right’s Initiative moved into the implementation phase.
An interim executive director was appointed.
In the process of hiring the executive director and two human rights officers began.
Members of the Human Right’s Tribunal were appointed and the location of the Human Right’s Office was chosen and the office itself was established.
(interpretation) It states that they would be set up in Coral Harbour but looking at the business plans, there is no community mentioned.
So, I just want to know if that’s the case.
The question that you asked on the Human Right’s Tribunal, it’s on page E-14. You can ask your question when we get to E-14 of the main estimates.
We are hearing the questions on E-5 and E-6.
I am just looking at this and I notice a couple of things that the grants and contributions that are with the government jobs and I had assumed that that was the difference in the funding to the law school program.
Also, Mr. Chairman, there’s a huge jump in the travel and transportation.
I am just wondering, if in 2003/04, the $141 million went down $59 million, and now it’s back up to $124 million.
I would like an explanation as to why it seems to vary so much.
It seems like the member asked a question and responded to his question.
The grants and contributions are in that amount because they are going to be working in our department and they will be doing some traveling as well.
That’s why there’s an increase in the grants and contributions.
Your question is true and your response is true as well.
Is the minister indicating that the increase in travel and transportation is going to be due to law students traveling around and doing work for the government?
What they are going to do is they are going to be training on the job, and they will be doing some traveling as well.
That’s why there’s an increase in there.
We are on page E-5 and E-6 under the main estimates justice branch.
The minister or the deputy minister can respond to my question.
The recent agreement in the amount of $20 million is there.
So my question is: is there a constraint or is there any illegal drug trade and bootlegging, and if this worked on a lot more, are you going to be able to get some more funding from the territorial policing agreement or would you have to get more money because of what you are doing more?
Perhaps if I can get a response to that, Mr. Chairman.
We are on E-6 right now.
We will be working on enforcement on the next page.
Mr. Curley: Mr. Chairman, I am dealing with the territorial policing agreement, which is on the bottom of the directorate.
I want to hear from the director’s side before we get into...what I am dealing with is the negotiating with this.
This agreement has finally been approved and it’s in place, but the Assembly here has not rubber stamped the territorial spending requirement.
That’s what I am dealing with.
So before I will be able to ask further questions, but right from the beginning, it’s part of the legal directory part of the enforcement process within this territorial funding agreement that we have or would that be over and above the $20 million stuff?
I am sorry if I made a mistake.
The police conduct day-to-day activities, such as trying to prevent illegal drugs and bootlegging in communities, and they follow the rules that they are supposed to be following.
What they do is they deal with such things as boot legging, according to the day jobs that they do.
Mr. Curley: My supplementary question is, if that is part of their ongoing responsibilities, I assume, what I am looking at is, on the daily enforcements that appear, if they see illegal sales of drugs or alcohol, I’m sure that they will go and clamp down on them.
What I’m trying to get at is, is there a particular strategy at all to deal with the territorial problem as a whole, or are we just sort of leaving it with the RCMP and if they find, by chance, someone who shouldn’t be illegally selling drugs or alcohol, there is no particular overall Nunavut strategy through the directorate mandate.
The police are doing their job and we have police dogs that sniff out illegal drugs.
The communities asks for those police dogs and we usually provide them to the communities.
They have helped a lot in regards to finding and seizing drugs in the communities.
But in regards to boot legging, we could do more in that regard.
But, we don’t have any strategy in place at this time for the illegal sale of liquor.
I will have to speak with my colleagues and set up something.
I appreciate the minister’s reply, I think I’m beginning to understand where they’re coming from.
I appreciate the continuing enforcement of the role of the RCMP.
I have often believed that the RCMP are doing this pretty much all alone.
I don’t see any direction from the Government of Nunavut that says we have a major problem with the illegal drug trade and its impact on our young people.
I don’t have any statements coming for the initiative or whether it be strategy plan down.
I believe the RCMP just because they are the only enforcement officers, they need more support than we’re giving them.
They need to clamp down on boot legging in Nunavut.
I really believe when you say you work with the community we need to do more with the community.
We need to train them and equip them because we are not sure exactly if we want to help the RCMP or whatever, whether or not we know all the rights and privileges that goes with acquiring information.
There may be certain things that we have to know, but I believe the municipalities should be trained along with law enforcement officials.
So, what I’m trying to suggest, the minister needs to do more in that regard because it is having a quite a negative impact on our young people.
Many families are breaking apart and what not.
And we all think that we seem to be interested in spousal assault.
What are the root causes of all these other factors.
They lead to illegal drug trade in many respects, drug trade and all and having an impact.
They are having a field day because they know Nunavut is good for that kind of business.
That’s what I’m trying to get at.
I would like the minister to commit maybe to having a review in this area, and present something that we can understand, and adopt the legislature and Members of this House of this Assembly.
Yes, this is a concern of all people.
Prior to the division of Nunavut some of the communities didn’t even have any RCMP officers, and we have heard the concerns of Nunavummiut.
We have established RCMP officers in all the communities of Nunavut.
And for illegal drugs, we will get the RCMP and we have obtained a narcotics dog.
Even though it has been a bit more costly for government but we as members of the Legislative Assembly agree to the funding that there going to use.
This is not new and every time we plan for Main Estimates we work and deal with the issues.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): Yes, I believe that they don’t really mind, I believe there’s room for improvement and to clamp down, and I’m sure that in some communities we can do some clamping down and we can strategize.
Make a strategy for illegal bootlegging and I’m sure we can reduce the drug trade if we work closely together and cooperatively with the RCMP.
For that reason and when the Main Estimates stays to the way they are I’m sure the problem is just going to increase if we don’t do anything about it, it’s going to increase with illegal drug trade and bootlegging.
So that’s why I’m trying to state my point.
I believe this area needs to be reviewed again and if it’s okay, then you can say that all is well.
I believe that this shouldn’t continue, the drug trade should stop, I believe it’s affecting our young people negatively.
Even when we discuss this matter out in the open in the public meetings they talk about it and it goes down a bit but nobody wants to talk about this openly.
Mr. Chairman: Thank you Mr. Curley, I don’t think that was a question, more of a comment.
Would you like to respond, Premier Okalik.
It’s more of a comment then a question.
It’s not just us Nunavummiut that are starting to alleviate this problem, this is a great concern down south and we try to work with the federal government to strengthen the Act to alleviate the selling of elicit drugs and also for bootlegging.
If it’s the request of the members of the legislature that we can tighten up the Act for bootlegging. Thank you
Mr. Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Curley.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): I wanted to ask the minister, I was wondering if Government of Nunavut has a strategy on the enforcement side of the policing, and give the strategy to the RCMP.
I believe we need a strategy for the long term.
I believe that the sale of illegal drugs is impacting some families, and some families, due to addiction, are totally broke.
And they don’t care how expensive the drugs are, for that reason I think the government should have a strategy.
Don’t we need to strengthen the municipalities in regards to this issue so that was my question if he is willing to consider this?
Yes we have to comply by the legislation and we can’t just arrest anyone.
So, therefore by going through the RCMP, we have trying to make this run smoothly by providing funding.
I am not an RCMP officer.
The RCMP has to comply with your regulations and once we start arresting people just like that we probably could lose out if we take them to court.
Therefore I believe that it is totally up to the Act.
That is why I was asking.
I believe that it’s not just the minister’s responsibility.
I believe that the government as a whole has responsibility for that and even Members of the Legislative Assembly.
The problem is increasing and it is a huge business.
I believe that there has to be a strategy within the government and give that strategy to the RCMP.
Is that just good for the law enforcement side?
The other provinces RCMP’s are responsible for the enforcement side.
We can provide additional funding to deal with the illegal drug trade.
Now I understand that it is totally up to the RCMP.
We need to do something about that because it is impacting negatively on our young people.
The bootleggers know that it is okay if nobody finds out if they’re bootlegging since they know that the government will not do anything, so that is why it is continuing to happen.
For that reason, I was wondering why you don’t want to provide more support to the RCMP when the communities are facing challenges?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): No matter how I respond, nobody is going to like that.
We had increased the funding for the RCMP Division.
We try to help them and assist them to alleviate the problem that they are facing such as selling of illegal drugs and bootlegging.
We will continue to use the RCMP.
We can try to alleviate the problem and reduce the problem but we cannot definitely stop the whole thing.
We want to make sure that the laws are tighter for the bootleggers and drug traffickers.
Perhaps on E-7, it states that senior management access base between the Nunavut Government and the RCMP oversees the financial aspects of federal/territorial policing agreements.
The department contracts with Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada for the provision of RCMP services, under the Territorial Policing Agreement.
You can correct me if I am wrong but I think the major problem is the lack of funding.
What happened was in Sanikiluaq on January 31st we were facing a hardship for an individual.
In the evening after 8 o’clock we had an urgent case.
Someone phoned to 266-8811, but the response was (interpretation end) can you come over to house number 927, my brother is dead.
She was terrified, and in shock.
When she called, they hung up on her on the other end of the line.
(interpretation) I was wondering what the cause is.
Was it because of a lack of funding?
When there are emergency cases after 5:00, the RCMP responds to calls after 5:00.
I don’t think it’s adequate, especially when the calls are coming in from the communities outside of Iqaluit.
Is it due to a lack of funding, the lack of overtime, is it set up that way.
You asked about page E-7.
Yes, we have not approved E-5 and E-6, I’m sorry.
As we go through the pages, if you don’t mind, the minister can respond when we go to that page.
Mr. Kattuk (interpretation): Maybe if we get to E-8.
Chairman (interpretation): On page E-8, we are on the Justice Branch Summary. $3 million 200, total operations and maintenance, $3 million 284 thousand.
Chairman: I will allow him to respond, but it is on E-8 or E-7.
You asked for page E-7, in regards to what was just stated or asked.
Yes, I have had someone investigate this and look into it, although I cannot give you a response here, this has already been looked into.
So, which investigation are you talking about.
I have asked them to look into the incident and what had actually happened and if this is a factual issue.
There was quite a bit of a rush within the family, so I’ve asked them to look into this further.
Once the results come in, I’ll provide them.
I’m finished.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Justice.
Just before I ask the question, I want to mention that earlier, I mentioned that the RCMP should really be taught how to build an iglu or to make a camp out on the land, just for emergency, just in case they’re out to look for a person who commits crime.
Just last week, four RCMP were shot and the murderer had run away. After a while, he committed suicide.
The RCMP wanted to go and look for the person later on that shot the RCMP’s, but he shot himself later.
But it can happen.
If those kinds of things happen up north, you wonder sometimes where the criminals are going to take off to.
There are no highways.
There are a lot of snowmobiles in the communities.
If they commit crimes they might take off and go somewhere else to try and avoid being arrested by the RCMP.