EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Bill 27 can be dealt with at Committee of the Whole.
Tabled Document 213 – 2(3): Public Service Annual Report 2005-06 (Tapardjuk)
I would like to table the following document: Public Service Annual Report for 2005-06.
Just to remind the members that we only have two pages today. Please bring the documents to the Clerk.
Tabled Document 214 – 2(3): Exempt from Jury Duty Letter from John Aulajut (Alagalak)
I received a letter from a resident from Arviat to provide more support for people who work in churches to be exempted from jury duty.
This is to table the documents.
Tabled Document 215 – 2(3): Workers’ Compensation Board Magazine: Reflections on Safe Workplace Practices Across the North, Summer 2006 (Netser)
I wish to table the following document: Workers’ Compensation Board Magazine: Reflections on Safe Workplace Practices Across the North, Summer 2000.
Tabled Document 216 – 2(3): Ministerial Meeting Report – FPT Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, September 21, 2006 from Department of ED&T (Akesuk)
I wish to table the following document: FTP Council of Ministers responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety.
Tabled Document 217 – 2(3): GN Merit/Bonus Summary 2005-06 (Picco)
Tabled Document 218 – 2(3): Deputy Minister Travel Expenses for Fiscal Year 2005-06 (Picco)
Tabled Document 219 – 2(3): Minimum Wage Annual Report, July 2006 (Picco)
On behalf of the Premier I would like to table three documents: Deputy Minister Travel Expenses for 2005-06, Government of Nunavut 2005-06 Merit/Bonus Summaries and Minimum Wage Annual Report.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Picco. Tabling of Documents.
Minister for the Environment, Minister Netser.
Tabled Document 220 – 2(3): Ministerial Meeting Report of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment October 2006 from Department of Environment (Netser)
I wish to table a document: Ministerial Meeting Report of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Netser. We are waiting for the documents to be brought up.
Just to remind the members that we’ve only got two pages working on the floor.
Tabled Document 221 – 2(3): Report on the Payment of Member Indemnities, Allowances and Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2006 (Speaker)
I would like to table, my colleagues (interpretation ends) Pursuant to Section 63 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table a report on the payment of member indemnities, allowances and expenses for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006.
Tabled Document 222 – 2(3): Report of Contracting Activity for the Office of the Legislative Assembly for the Fiscal Year 2005-06 (Speaker)
Again honourable members I wish to table today the Report of Contracting Activity for Legislative Assembly for those contracts with a value greater than $5,000 for the fiscal year 2005-06.
(interpretation) Tabling of Documents.
Bills 8, 16, 23, 24, 25, and 26 and Bill 27 with Mr. Arreak in the Chair.
Chairman (Mr. Arreak): Thank you, committee members.
In Committee of the Whole, we have the following items to deal with: Bills 8, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27.
We wish to continue with the review of Bill 26 and the Capital Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services.
After that, we will switch to Bill 27 and deal with the clause-by-clause review of this bill. We will then go back to Bill 26 and commence with the review of the Capital Estimates for the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, followed by the Legislative Assembly.
If time permits, we will commence the clause-by-clause review of Bill 8.
Are we in agreement that we first deal with the Capital Estimates for Health and Social Services, then Bill 27?
Chairman: Thank you. Madame Minister, do you have any witnesses you would like to bring to the table?
Chairman: Thank you. (interpretation) Sergeant-at-Arms, if you can escort the officials.
For the record, minister, please introduce your witnesses. Minister Aglukkaq.
To my right is Ron Browne, the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services.
And to my left is Rosemary Brown, the Manager of Capital Projects for the Department of Health and Social Services.
Welcome. (interpretation ends) On Friday we were on page H-6. Turn to page H-6 of your Capital Estimates.
Tangible Assets. (interpretation) Are there any questions?
(interpretation ends) Total Headquarters Region. $1 million.
Chairman (interpretation): Go to the bottom. (interpretation ends) Tangible Assets.
Chairman (Mr. Barnabas) (interpretation): We are on page H-6.
Qikiqtarjuaq Region.
I have a question under that line item.
Last year, during the committee meeting, I talked about the Qikiqtarjuaq Health Centre. It was built in 1972 and it’s old infrastructure now. It’s the oldest facility in all of Nunavut.
Every time the fire department, or if there’s any health inspection done, it’s always being condemned.
I don’t see it in your five-year forecast. Will your department be planning for the Qikiqtarjuaq Health Centre?
The member is correct in that the building was built in the 70s. It went through some renovations back in 1991.
Presently, we don’t have that project in the five-year capital plan.
Mr. Arreak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also would like to thank the minister.
I know that the unit was constructed in the early 1970s and it was renovated later on, but it’s not up-to-date with the building codes. The oxygen tanks don’t even have a space in that nursing station because they lack space.
To date, they can’t keep up with the current equipment that they’re supposed to have in the facility. I’m not talking about the renovation of the building; I was asking whether the department has any plans to construct a new health centre in Qikiqtarjuaq.
We recognize that building was originally built in 1972; it was renovated in 1991.
We continue to try and address all of our aging facilities, as I mentioned in my opening remarks.
It is one of the older units. We have been dealing with older units like the Iqaluit hospital that is 44 years old, and that will be done this year.
We dealt with the Rankin Inlet facility, which is 36 years old; so those two are done.
As we work to try and address our aging facilities, they will be based on a review, in partnership with Community and Government Services, on our facilities.
We have other facilities that are on the list of trying to upgrade them such as Arctic Bay, as well as Repulse Bay.
I think we have heard the last week that we have limited capital dollars and we are trying to stretch those to where the project renovations or project developments are most needed.
We do recognize that it is an aging facility amongst all of the other facilities in Nunavut that we are trying to maintain.
I realize that the government doesn’t have enough funding.
You stated that the hospital in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet are old and that they are building new ones for the bigger centres but it seems like the smaller communities are being left behind again.
I brought this up last year and if it doesn’t show up in the five-year capital plan I will remind them. I wonder if it can be considered or put in the five-year capital plan starting from now.
Department of Health is working very closely with Community and Government Services to look at all our current facilities. We have a number of facilities that are aging and if I were to look at just what we needed to do we couldn’t keep up to a lot of those facilities and we are trying to address the limited resources to where they’re most needed and it’s not on the basis of the larger communities or not. The next two projects are Arctic Bay and Repulse Bay as well as Taloyoak being delayed for the last seven years addressing higher priorities as an example.
So I agree with the member, yeah, we will continue to try and include that in our projects as we move forward. At this point in time we are trying to address projects where there is most need in our communities.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Ms Aglukkaq.
We’re on Tangible Assets. $6,919,000. Does the committee agree?
Chairman: We’ll go on page H-7.
Tangible Assets. Total.
Welcome minister and the officials to the committee today.
I want to ask about the…this is a capital question related to the project that is still ongoing: the status of the boarding home in Cambridge Bay.
I know the materials are there. I’ve been asking this question for many years, long before I was an MLA, when the boarding home will be completed.
So I will ask the question again today to the minister, when will the boarding home in Cambridge Bay be completed so that it’s serving the Kitikmeot patients who come to Cambridge Bay for treatment at the Kitikmeot Health Facility.
I appreciate the member raising this concern and I know he brought it up this fall, around the boarding home.
The current plans to have their boarding home completely renovated will be next year, late next year.
There were some delays in the initial start up but my officials have told me that we will be going through the tender for that after Christmas hoping that the project will be completed later the next year.
The member raised the issue around providing services in the region, we recognise that as well and that project is in parallel…as we expand services from the regional health centre, we are not near providing full services from the hospital.
So those two projects, initiatives are continuing simultaneously if I may use those words.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, minister.
I don’t know if that’s good news, because I’ve heard probably four, five times over the last couple of years that the boarding home would be built next year, a certain year. One of the former deputy ministers even e-mailed to the effect it would be opened by 2005 so obviously that didn’t happen, but we’re hopeful, I guess.
Still related to boarding homes, I think it was in July 2004 some of my colleagues and the minister toured the - not the minister she didn’t come to the tour - but in Yellowknife we toured the Lena Pederson Boarding Home at the time. The deputy minister said that at some point the government would be reviewing the lease on that facility with the view to either extending the lease or leasing another building, or constructing a new building to serve the patients that had to go to Yellowknife from the Kitikmeot.
I’m wondering if the minister could give me an update on what the planning is in terms of replacing that facility for the patients from the Kitikmeot.
We are looking at all our facilities for boarding homes and we had looked at expanding or looking at expanding the one in Yellowknife.
Right now, the more pressing issues are where we have no boarding homes, and that’s in Rankin Inlet as an example, and Cambridge Bay as we deal with those two others as we expand on the services there.
At the same time, we need to look at proceeding with Iqaluit with the hospital expanding here, so the priority right now to do an RFP is in the facilities for Rankin Inlet as well as here in the new year. We are looking at an RFP for Cambridge Bay on the operations side sometime later in the construction, so we haven’t made a decision on Yellowknife, but we do recognize that there is a need to expand the facility there as well.
Right now we are examining those options and trying to balance the direction where we most need to address at this point in time.
I get, I have a lot of constituents who come to my office or stop me or send me e-mails to complain about the facility in Yellowknife.
I don’t think they have too much problem with the service. The operation in Yellowknife is kind of unique. The building is owned by one company and the services are provided by, I think two to three other companies, whereas maybe three, or four, or five different types of contracts.
The facility itself is coming up on 20 years of age, and a lot of the people that I talked to are concerned, in particular when elders have to go to the facility and it’s not, or disabled people, they’re not capable of being treated well in the building.
The doors open the wrong way, it’s difficult to maneuver up and down the steps, such things like that.
We’ve had some reports where elders have slipped in the washroom and bumped their heads or hurt their legs, so it is a real concern in the Kitikmeot.
I’m wondering if the minister has received some of the complaints that have come from the Kitikmeot, and if she’s asked her officials to review the facility in Yellowknife with the view to the short and long term future of replacement with a facility that’s more in line with the type of facility that’s in Edmonton; theLarga boarding home about which a lot of people in Kitikmeot have wonderful things to say.
So they compare the two and wonder why the Government of Nunavut is still using the facility in Yellowknife and what the plans are; if the minister could comment.
I mean, I recognize the member’s comments and observations and I have gone through all the facilities that we operate for boarding home services and right now the most pressing are where there are no facilities and Iqaluit being another one, as well as the one in Ottawa.
The one in Ottawa is a real concern to us, and we want to move on that very quickly because it is too small, and Iqaluit’s too small, and nothing in Rankin and none in Cambridge, so we have, we need to meet all those and I try to move forward on each of those.
One of the other works that we’ve undertaken is that most other boarding homes are funded through Health Canada and we’ve had to work to consolidate all the service provider information from Edmonton, Larga, to Yellowknife, to here, Ottawa, and include all that information as part of the overall planning providing expanded services for Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay.
So that took up a lot of our time over the summer months as we tried to move forward in this.
But that review is done, and we will be able to at least go forward with Health Canada with discussions around moving forward in addressing expanded service as an example.
We recognize that Yellowknife there is a need there, but right now, the other areas are greater needs. So we still want to move forward in developing the facility. It’s just that I don’t have a set date for when we will do a tender on that facility at this point in time.
I can’t be sure of the dates, but I believe the lease on the facility in Yellowknife is probably expiring fairly soon. I think there were two or three years left when we talked about it in 2004. I guess I would be concerned if the government was looking at locking in on a long term lease; 10 to 15 years.
That would kind of curb their ability to look at a new facility in Yellowknife.
I’m wondering if the minister is aware of the status of that lease in Yellowknife.
The member is correct. I believe there are around three or four years.
I don’t have an exact deadline. We have two different leases; one for the service side, and one for the capital lease building side. I believe it’s about three or four years from now, but I don’t have the exact date.
I can provide that to the member.
I am referring to the capital lease.
We’re not really concerned with the operating lease, but the capital lease, because if you leave it too long, and you get into the last year of the lease, then you’ve pretty much tied your hands in terms of your ability to look at leasing other facilities or going to tender to construct a new facility.
We’ve seen that occur a couple of times in the last two years in Nunavut where leases weren’t reviewed early enough and it prevented the government from making more strategic decisions that would help people in the long run.
So I want assurances from the minister that they’re on top of that lease. As I said, the facilities are old. It’s something that really has to be looked at.
If people go to Yellowknife they don’t want to be falling down stairs, or falling in washrooms.
They want to be able to be safe in a facility.
When people are going into the hospital they don’t want to be injured in the facility while in Yellowknife to go to the hospital.
So, I hope the minister will look into that.
At the recent Kitikmeot Inuit Association AGM I made a presentation, and a discussion came up around the table from all the delegates from around the Kitikmeot, certainly in Cambridge Bay, the issue of looking out for elders.
It came out that people think that we should be putting more support into elders in terms of providing seniors’ facilities, because some of the elders are not doing well at home.
They’re not doing well in the care of their relatives.
So I wonder if the minister could give me an overview of what the short and long term plan is for the Department of Health to look at elders’ facilities in the Kitikmeot region given the fact that elders are living longer and they’re going to need more specialized care?
As a follow-up to the earlier question on the boarding home in Yellowknife, I can provide to the member the expiry date of that building; the lease contract and report the next steps we will be taking with that, but immediately we’re proceeding with the RFP for Iqaluit, and Rankin Inlet after Christmas to move forward. At the same time the one in Ottawa is moving forward.
So I will have that information to the member and I do recognize that the facility is aging, amongst all the other facilities that we have to manage, so I’ll commit to that.
In terms of seniors’ homes, just for the record, just to clarify, the Continuing Care Facilities will provide some assistance to that group of individuals, that we’re looking at, constructing in Nunavut; one in Igloolik, and one in Gjoa Haven, but that Continuing Care Facility is not strictly dedicated for elders but rather broad.
Presently, we try and provide services around home care nurses for our seniors that require assistance, at the same time when, depending on the needs of the seniors, those services expand.
As it is right now we have no facilities, per se, that go towards just senior’s homes.
We have facilities that we’re gearing toward people who require 24/7 care in the Continuing Care Facilities.
Some of the initiatives that are underway, not in every community, but in some communities and I will use, I believe it’s in Clyde River, that there is elder dedicated housing that was designed by Housing, where they provide homes to seniors and elders and home care services are made available to those individuals.
I know in some communities that is an option that is being considered instead of going down the path of a senior’s home, but rather working with dedicating some of the houses that were awarded to the community, through Nunavut Housing Corporation announcements and converting those into the model that was designed by the Nunavut Housing Corporation for senior or elders’ dedicated units. Those units have a common living space.
We have made arrangements in some communities where they require home care assistance where we provide that.
Right now, in terms of a senior plan per region, that’s not in place, but rather we work with Housing, as an example, to provide that. In other communities we provide services through contract to some communities: in Baker Lake, in Arviat, here. But in terms of constructing new capital projects for dedicated senior units; that’s not in the books today.
Can I ask the minister if she would take a few minutes and have one of her officials draft a letter and send it to the President of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association explaining all that to him that he can share with some of the delegates who were pressing for that type of facility.
I know that people across Nunavut are asking for everything, including all the MLAs, but the reality is that funding is in short supply. Saying no to people is not a good idea either, so I think I’d like an explanation of why certain projects can’t go ahead, or can’t be funded in the short term, it would help the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. Then they can review that with their members, and perhaps they can they can come up with suggestions to all their members.
So if the minister would commit to doing that I would appreciate it; if the minister could comment.
Some communities are very proactive in pursuing initiatives like this. One of the models I think is not talked about much is the partnership with Nunavut Housing Corporation in dedicated units for elders and the model in the Chairman’s community is one that I know and some communities are also exploring in providing assisted living or homecare services in one dedicated area for seniors, but I will certainly share that.
And I think in some communities the housing associations are very active in looking at allocating some of the units that they receive through the Minister of Housing’s announcement to look at developing with elders and they have been in contact with me and my officials on what type of homecare service can we provide if they build and that service is available for us to deliver.
So I will continue to provide…I’ll commit to provide that information to President of the KIA.
My next question is related to sort of almost my favourite topic is the status of the housing to support the new health facility in Cambridge Bay. You mentioned the other day that there are 20 to 25 houses required. How do you propose to acquire those 20 to 25 houses so that facility can become a hundred percent operational?
The Department of Health has put forward their needs assessment to Nunavut Housing Corporation who provides housing services to the government.
Health, we have issues around getting the housing to provide these services for health care not just in Cambridge Bay, but in Rankin Inlet, as well as here.
We have put our case forward to the Housing Corporation and I understand they have done some RFP’s and are trying to address it that way. We’ll need to continue to work together to try and address that. As it is right now, there is a shortage of housing in Nunavut and we are working with the Minister of Housing to try and address those needs.
I believe I heard the Minister of the Housing Corporation state the other day that they are looking at leasing, talking to the owners of the three-plex to lease that facility but that would still leave you with 22 houses short.
So if that is counted for 2007-08 do you envision the facility not opening, I mean, not being hundred percent operational till 2008-09.
We will be working towards recruiting staff where we can and where there are housing needs, it is an area that is of concern to us, not just in Cambridge Bay, but here, as well as in Rankin Inlet.
Where we can look for it in the services we will continue to do that but the current housing situation in Cambridge Bay is limited. I have been working with the Nunavut Housing Corporation to try and address the shortage there through an RFP process.
And I think there is also a number of initiatives that the Nunavut Housing Corporation has undertaken; to try and as an incentive to get people to do access units and what not, but we are not there yet.
I don’t know exactly when the Department of Health and Social Services staffing level will be at a place where can say it is 100 percent but it certainly is a delay with what we are trying to achieve as a department in expanding our services.
Can the minister tell me if they had all the housing that they required could they hire all the doctors and nurses for that facility?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Mr. Chairman, I think that’s a bit of a hypothetical question.
If I were to be able to say yes, I would say yes. You can only try so hard in trying to fill our positions, but that would be the intention.
Nice try, Mr. Peterson.
In eight seconds or less, Mr. Peterson.
I apologise for the hypothetical question.
I know the minister is working hard.
I have talked to the Assistant Deputy Minister numerous times. We share the same office building, so, he is well aware of my concern and the concerns of my constituents.
In fact, it’s a concern right across Kitikmeot region, and it ties in with the whole Closer to Home Health Strategy.
And, if we don’t get the housing, she’s not going to be able to hire the staff, and we’re just going to keep going around in circles, and I’m going to keep asking the questions. So, I don’t know where it ends.