EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
It’s good to know that there’s an understanding as to who has the authority to determine when a search and rescue operation ends and a recovery operation begins.
My question, if I may, Mr. Speaker, is: can the minister clarify what funding is available for municipalities that may wish to continue searching for missing persons in circumstances where federal authorities have ended their search and rescue operations?
That’s a good question, especially for communities who want to continue their search and rescue operations. The majority of community search and rescue organizations fundraise for their local search and rescue operations and for items, such as fuel, food, and rations, especially if it involves a longer search.
This fundraising is never quite up to par with what they require throughout the year.
So when a local search and rescue society requests funding for a search and rescue mission, we provide some funding to underwrite the search but only to a certain extent.
If I recall correctly, Mr. Speaker, I believe the limit is $50,000 for all of Nunavut.
We generally end up with a slightly higher number due to the extra missions we are required to undertake.
From this fund, they provide some funding to assist with their mission when it is possible and when search and rescue societies in Nunavut need to search for longer periods in their communities.
Mr. Aupaluktuq (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also thank the minister for his response. This is something that Nunavummiut must understand, especially how they can apply for more funding and how we can offer more assistance to our search and rescue societies.
I know that it will continue to operate in that manner.
As the minister is aware, the Municipality of Baker Lake sent correspondence to the minister on September 12 of this year concerning an incident that occurred in Baker Lake regarding a missing person.
My last question is: will the minister commit to providing me with a copy of his response to the municipality, whether or not he has a copy of his response to that letter, and if I could possibly receive a copy for my records?
Hon. Lorne Kusugak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank you for your question. Yes, I believe on October 14, I sent my formal response to Mayor Aksawnee on the letter he sent.
Further, if you would like to receive a copy upon its arrival to the community, I will make it available to you either via email or copy of the letter.
Question 165 – 3(3): Number of Housing Units Committed for Completion (Elliott)
Mr. Speaker, I would like to base my questions around the construction of new social housing units in our communities.
It has been over a year since the over-commitment of the Nunavut Housing Trust came to light.
Under this program, how many units did the Nunavut Housing Corporation commit to constructing?
I know that the information that is requested is of interest not only to the member but all of my colleagues.
I certainly am willing to provide all the necessary information. It’s going to take a bit of time, in my view, to provide all the technical, all the scheduling, and everything else.
We have committed to completing all the units, particularly the 285 units. We have an agreement with the Government of Canada that they must be completed by the end of March 2012.
That’s the deadline we’re working on and we’re hoping that all the units that my colleagues at cabinet as well as our friends on the other side have committed to provide funding will be completed by the end of March 2012.
In terms of the exact progress in presenting each, I will be prepared to table all of that information. Likely, as we go through the Committee of the Whole on my capital estimates, no doubt, that information will be available and we will be having our technical vice-president as well as the president be prepared to provide further details. (interpretation) Thank you.
I was trying to be very careful in the way that I was wording my question because I was actually dividing up my question into two parts: one specifically around the Nunavut Housing Trust, which was the first, and then I was going to ask questions about the Affordable Housing Initiative, which was the second part. I know he sort of mentioned the 285, so I’ll try again.
To my understanding in discussions we had before, the Nunavut Housing Trust is actually complete.
I was wondering if the minister could provide us with the actual number of housing units that are complete under the Nunavut Housing Trust.
Like I said earlier, it’s going to take a bit of time to break down all the details and I think we will be able to address them today as we go to the Committee of the Whole in terms of the details.
I can assure the member, though, that there are remaining Nunavut housing units that are still being constructed, but the information I have is that they will be completed during this fiscal year, this construction season.
But in terms of the details and exactly how many they are, I am deferring that question as I appear before the Committee of the Whole today.
Most likely by the end of the day, I’ll be able to provide that information.
Again, I can wait for that time, but it would be nice to get the answers now.
In terms of a final dollar value, then, on the Nunavut Housing Trust, I’m talking about specifically the Nunavut Housing Trust.
I know there were problems in the past. We had the Auditor General look at the program and there were supposed to be monthly and quarterly updates to keep track of funding to make sure that it did not get out of control.
So I would hope that the minister has this dollar figure available to us now.
Does he have a dollar figure of what the Nunavut Housing Trust is costing the Government of Nunavut?
I think the member could probably rephrase the question. Do we have a current budget to work with?
We’re working within budget and certainly our project and contractors are working hard to complete the units as per the contract stipulates, and we have no reason at this time to believe that there are any over-commitments whatsoever.
If that is the case, I would immediately be informed and inform my colleagues.
Today we will be prepared to lay out the exact cost to complete construction and provide that information in more time required.
So during the Committee of the Whole, I’ll be prepared to provide that information along with our officials.
I guarantee to the minister that I’m trying to rephrase my questions so that I can at least get one answer to four of my questions I have been asking.
I’m just curious to find out if the minister could provide us with a number of completed units that have been turned over to the local housing authorities under the Nunavut Housing Trust.
Again, we will be able to supplement that question during the Committee of the Whole meeting in more detail and exact details of the whole question.
In terms of the summary, there were 700-some-odd units that the Nunavut Housing Trust committed for Nunavutmiut.
Units completed as of March 31, 2010, if that is of any use, were 319. Units completed during fiscal year 2010-11, 226.
Units completed year to date, 2011-12, 81.
Units at 99 percent occupied, waiting for the inspections, etcetera and so on, 29.
Units not yet complete as of October 13, 71.
Question 166 – 3(3): Contract for Kitikmeot Air Ambulance (Ugyuk)
Have you signed a contract for air ambulances services?
Minister responsible for Nunavut’s Department of Health and Social Services, Minister Curley.
I spoke to that issue yesterday or the day before that once the appeal process is finalized, I will be able to provide details on the contract. The appeals board will be meeting next week and once this appeal process has been completed, I will be able to update the member on the details.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Will you be able to table the criteria developed by your staff for the air ambulance service?
With respect to her question, what I can tell the member is that the RFP was advertised publicly in the newspaper and they included the criteria that my colleague alluded to. Whenever any business requests the RFP, it is sent out along with the criteria.
We will be able to submit the report once the appeal process has been completed.
Question 167 – 3(3): Update on Progress of Devolution Negotiations (Tapardjuk)
We have heard on the news about the Baffinland Iron Mines having submitted their environmental impact statement and they’re holding pre-hearing meetings in communities.
I would like to ask the Premier a question. It seems obvious that if this mine is approved, there will be royalties that the Government of Nunavut would have received if the GN was able to get responsibility over lands and resources via devolution.
I would like to know where the devolution process is. Has the negotiation process been restarted? Has the GN started talks with the federal government?
I would like to hear about this in light of the mine development, Mr. Speaker.
I also thank the member for that important question.
I want devolution to be an issue debated throughout Nunavut by all people.
To date, we are still deliberating on our choices in the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs. We are currently considering our options on the issue of devolution.
Wherever we have an opportunity to meet with the federal government, we continually remind them of this matter. At least I try to remind them.
We are exploring our options, especially areas where we can at least make some headway, and to lay the groundwork and to re-establish the negotiations.
What we kept reiterating was the need to restart this process and we currently are exploring new avenues with the federal government on what the next steps will be.
That is where we’re at now.
With respect to the issue, during our June session, we allocated funding to continue this process.
Nonetheless, although our government may be deliberating on their options, I believe that the Nunavut government will be left behind due to the snail-like pace we are witnessing.
Mr. Speaker, my question to the Premier is: are you still working with the chief negotiator whom you identified in the past or do you have another negotiator who will be facing the federal government?
I want to know where the process is because the House has to understand where this devolution process is going.
With respect to self-determination and devolution, this is a very important priority for the Government of Nunavut.
What we envision is that when we are able to operate self-sufficiently, we have to look at how we have to operate as a government. For example, education, health and social services, government operations, justice, and community justice: we have already identified most of these social-related portfolios which we are responsible for and it is good that we are responsible for these matters.
With respect to land and resources, I truly believe that once we have showcased our capability and capacity to take over responsibility, and wherever there are revenue generating developments stemming from the land or resources, we have to be able to obtain a share of those resources.
I wanted to restate that position. This is a very important priority.
With regard to our negotiators, we do have negotiators identified. We are basically awaiting the federal government’s notification to initiate negotiations.
We have identified the terms of reference for the devolution negotiations.
We have deliberated upon all of the details involved in the devolution process up to and including the breadth of negotiations and this was done collaboratively with our negotiator.
Yes, I am aware that we have the responsibility for the current portfolios we have, but all of the funding for that is from federal government coffers.
We don’t have a very large tax base nor do we have any incoming royalty revenue to date.
From this time onwards, will we always be the stewards of the federal government for our operations or will we have to look at various options to allow Nunavummiut to search for ways to become more self-determining and self-sufficient?
This can only occur if the federal government devolves more powers to our government and only then can we realize that dream.
So, Mr. Speaker, I again reiterate my previous question: did the government retain the same chief negotiator previously announced?
With this matter, if we perhaps look at it this way… . I thank the member for his comments as our colleague’s words are very succinct.
What I want to state is that based on the Tamapta Mandate, which is our blueprint for Nunavut, it states that our people in Nunavut have to make their own decisions in order to become more self-determining and to research ways to solve the challenges they face.
To cite the example my colleague in Rankin Inlet spoke about earlier, it was excellent to hear the story about a committed individual who undertook his own initiative without any government prodding so that he could start the initiative to assist his community.
Those are the types of examples we want to see.
With respect to government funding, we eventually want to be able to generate our own revenue so we are not entirely dependent on federal government handouts.
This is a very important aspect of the devolution process to become self-reliant in the long-term future.
Further, with respect to his question about devolution and our chief negotiator, to date, we have retained our existing chief negotiator.
Boy that was fast!
Nonetheless, I’ll use the remaining time I have to ask a question about this matter.
The process is rather slow and as per the Premier’s statement, the federal government still has not responded as to whether they want to commence negotiations.
Based on what I heard, the federal government will notify us when they are ready to commence negotiations.
Has any thought been given to changing the GN chief negotiator? The reason I state that is because of partisanship. My example is that we have a Conservative government, but our GN chief negotiator is a well-known NDP member.
Will that not be subject to partisanship and thereby slow the process further? I tend to worry about that. Has our government ever considered a different chief negotiator to see if we can speed up the negotiation process to devolve powers from the federal government to the Nunavut government?
That is my last question for now, Mr. Speaker.
As I stated previously, the ability to be self-reliant, we are looking at all the details involved in that process and to see what we need in order to move forward on this file.
Our departmental officials are concentrating on developing the positions for the territory and this includes the consultation with the elected members here in the House as we have to be very active in trying to complete this process.
I thank you for raising your questions, but in response to your question, we are reconsidering all of the issues included in the devolution process to come up with a viable plan.
Question 168 – 3(3): Program Management for Building Houses (Elliott)
Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue with my questions around the construction of new social housing units in our communities.
Through both the Nunavut Housing Trust and Affordable Housing Initiative programs, a lot of construction materials have been shipped to all communities across Nunavut.
One of the recommendations of the Auditor General of Canada was to make sure that overspending did not occur with monthly and quarterly reports on the progress of both projects.
My question to the minister is: was this recommendation followed?
Not only was that accepted and followed, our independent audit, as well as the new corporate management, unlike the previous management that were allowed to use unrelated figures, a flawed system of accounting, and cost controls that were not in place, yes, they are followed.
We will be able to provide more details as we appear before the Committee of the Whole, directly with the chief financial officer.
With the construction to be completed by March 2012, what does the Nunavut Housing Corporation plan to do with the extra construction materials that are out there across the territory?
If there’s any footage left at the boatyards or whatnot of any lumber, I think we addressed that during the winter session, but I think what we need to do is either donate it to the LHOs or we can find charity groups that may be interested in it.
To date, we have not had a direct program that we have established, but the surplus materials are normally provided to the local LHOs.
Yes, I remember some issues were dealt with during the winter sitting.
I know one of the things that were asked that was not available, but now with the new accounting system in place, I’m just wondering: is there a full inventory or has there been a full inventory completed on the amount of excess building material there are out there across the territory?
Hon. Tagak Curley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer is yes.
For that inventory of excess material out across the territory, is there a dollar value attached to that just to give us an idea of how much is out there?
Our new vice-president has done a very good job, Jamie Flaherty. He is a local here in Iqaluit.
He has carried out a complete inventory of all the regions mainly to make sure that the ongoing construction has exact details of what’s required, what’s missing, and whatnot.
Once the construction season is completed by March 31, we will determine exactly what amount has been saved and we will determine where to dispose of the surplus materials.
Question 169 – 3(3): Addiction Levels in Nunavut (Ugyuk)
My questions will be directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I don’t think anyone can deny that many social issues are created, encouraged, felt, and made worse by addictions to substances such as illegal drugs, alcohol, or prescription drugs and to activities such as gambling.
Can the minister clearly describe what steps his department is taking to identify, measure, evaluate, and address the level of addiction in Nunavut?
Hon. Tagak Curley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation) Thank you.
I wish to respond in this manner.
With respect to abuse reporting, I am not aware if a report has been prepared or if any report exists, but these are the types of matters we are generally responsible for.
In 2002, the previous government developed a strategy specifically for mental health.
The Mental Health Strategy is a lengthy document.
This required an action plan, which we are currently redrafting, and this is including substance abuse. This action plan also requires an implementation plan, which is currently under development.
I will be presenting this plan to my colleagues upon its completion.
Further, we are hopeful that it will be completed by this fall and our recommendations will also be submitted to the cabinet.
If they are approved, then we’re hoping that they will be allocated to the departmental O&M funding allocations and at this point, we are finalizing the cost estimates.
At this point, that’s all I can report to you.
With respect to abuse or convicted abusers, I don’t know if any reports are being drafted or underway, other than statistics to use towards crime prevention.
We are looking for the best available options and our officials are very busy trying to complete this work.
We are expectant that it will be submitted to the Executive Council in the short term.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) The Qaujiqatigiit Health Research Centre is based in Iqaluit and conducts research on various health and social issues affecting Nunavut.
Can the minister describe how his department works with this organization to plan research projects and, if so, whether the topic of addictions has been identified for future research?
All research that we are required to know and incorporate is used by our department, but policy proposals and action plans are currently being developed.
We are also aware that many residents have addictions, including substance abuse, whether it is alcohol or drugs. In Nunavut, these addictions usually lead to criminal acts, something that has been proven over time.
That is why we are focused on crime prevention and addictions treatment facilities for people who want to combat their addictions. These are our priorities at this time.
The information in the research is an ongoing development as well. We work with the researchers and sometimes provide them research funding to study these issues.
We are using all avenues available to us, but I’m not sure how that report would be worded. It may be available via the website.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Would the minister agree that doing an in-depth research on types and levels of addiction in Nunavut would help to plan programs and services to address this problem?
I think the point that the member should know is I think we’re beyond that. I think we have identified the types of services that Nunavutmiut want and we will be making announcements on that.
Perhaps even as early as next week, I will be announcing some of the principles that we are working on in terms of developing substance abuse treatment facilities and mobile treatment services that I will be asking the cabinet to consider for the O&M budget.
Member for Quttiktuq, Mr. Elliott. Oh, sorry.
You have one more. Sorry, I put an extra scratch and I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Will the minister commit to working with his colleagues and partners, such as the Qaujiqatigiit Health Research Centre, to conduct an investigation on the level and impact of addictions in Nunavut?
Don’t thank me; thank my officials for catching my mistake.
We can consider any proposals that are submitted, but I certainly will not negotiate right now with the member here whether or not we should appoint a service that has not been requested.
Hopefully I got it right this time.
Question 170 – 3(3): ASIST Training (Elliott)
Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked a number of questions to both the Premier and the minister regarding the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy Action Plan and the ASIST workshop.
Both ministers recognized the importance of the training workshop and stated that they would want to take the ASIST training.
Mr. Speaker, we encourage our employees to take this program.
Can I get the minister to commit to meeting with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly and the House Leader to have all members, if they so wish, take the ASIST workshop?
That’s one of the best propositions that I have received. I certainly will do that.
Question 171 – 3(3): Carving Stone Deposit Evaluation Program (Tapardjuk)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Economic Development and Transportation, Minister Taptuna.
In listening to his Minister’s Statement, it was very interesting to hear that information about the program, which I really liked, as many carvers are held back only by the lack of carving stone, especially serpentinite. This is the difficulty they experience in obtaining a ready source of carving material.
In your Minister’s Statement, you identified that deposits had been found via the Nunavut Carving Stone Deposit Evaluation Program, which is to find significant deposits.
Furthermore, in your statement, you stated that significant carving stone deposits were found near Repulse Bay, Hall Beach, Igloolik, Pangnirtung, Kimmirut, Cape Dorset, and Coral Harbour.
With respect to this information, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the minister: will the department just be looking at identifying these carving stone deposits? Will you inform the communities about the sites that contain these significant deposits?
How will the government, via the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, be able to assist communities who want to access these sites? Will the stone be quarried and transported to the communities?
Can the minister provide more details on the program to make it clear and concise?
I thank the Member for Amittuq for that excellent question.