EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
At the same time, Mr. Speaker, as of April 1, 2005, officially as a legal entity, our Nunavut Energy Centre is in place.
Now the gearing up and ramping up of programs under the Nunavut Energy Centre has to begin.
Mr. Speaker, we would hope to be in a position to begin staffing and have the doors opened in that centre in April and by the end of June of this year.
So, Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of things and there’s inter-departmental work occurring, not only through the Qulliq Energy Corporation, but also with other levels of government and those are being coordinated, and I must say very well, through Community and Government Services and that was demonstrated with the booklet that was tabled in the House.
Speaker (interpretation): Second Supplementary, Mr. Evyagotailak.
(Interpretation ends) Can the Minister inform this House as to what decision will be made with respect to matching funds for the Hamlet of Kugluktuk’s Sustainable Energy Initiatives?
The issue around the matching funds, which we would consider a 50 percent dollar, meaning if the hamlet came up with $100, then we would try to match it with either $50 from the Qulliq Energy Corporation, and again $50 from the federal government with some of the programs are in place.
That question is still up in the air right now because, as I said earlier, the discussions that are ongoing with our partner, the federal government in Ottawa.
Mr. Speaker, I am not able to update the Member on what those numbers are or where that proposal would be until after our meeting next week with our federal counterparts.
Oral Questions. Member for Akulliq. Mr. Mapsalak.
Question 422 – 2(2): Assistance to Non-decentralized Communities
My question is directed to the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism.
I have been continuing to ask about the non-decentralized communities, and Mr. Speaker, it’s nice to see other communities with more employment.
According to the government, they said that they were going to look into the non-decentralized communities in Nunavut.
As that is the case, maybe the Minister can tell me what has been done so far with the two communities that I represent, what type of action has been taken in regards to economic development or employment opportunities in those two communities?
The two communities that my colleague represents, in April with the new budget, will be given $100 thousand.
It would be used for those communities to develop opportunities for economic development.
For those with smaller business communities who need to be supported through funding, there would be funds made available.
If anybody wishes to pursue a small business and has an idea of what type of business he or she may want, we give full support and services in that area.
There is also support available in Rankin Inlet, through economic development and even Cambridge Bay, EDO and of course they can go through our offices too.
The communities with those divisions are available and if somebody wishes to discuss with us, of course we’re open at any time to give support.
I do realize that there may be a few people who have plans for starting a business.
I think the main reason is in the remote communities, sometimes even when they have applied, according to the policies and regulations they have to comply with; of course they have to have so much money in order to contribute to their own business.
Sometimes when they do wish to do that, it is difficult for them to come up with some funds to put into the business.
Would there be some sort of subsidy, even if they don’t have enough money if they wanted to develop some sort of business on their own.
There are small incentive business funds and through economic development, our staff would be able to work.
There are contributions and grants that are available in what ever type of business that person may wish to pursue as long as that person is capable and able to carry out the business they have in mind.
There are quite a few people who, I’m not sure, but sometimes they come up with problems even when they do have a good plan to start a business.
If they don’t have proper resources, who would they be able to complain to if they were in fact turned down even if they know that they’re capable of running a business.
Is there a grievance procedure in place.
Yes, anybody can make a complaint whether to their own Members of the Legislative Assembly, or to me.
Of course that person could write to us and we’re available for those.
Question 423 – 2(2): Direct Appointments of Nunavut Power Corporation, Qulliq Energy Corporation and Qulliq Fuel Corporation
I will direct my question to the Qulliq Energy Corporation.
It has been quite a while since we’ve heard who the CEO of the Nunavut Power Corporation is.
Was this CEO appointed?
The President and CEO of the Qulliq Energy Corporation is well known in Nunavut, a long time resident and lawyer, Ms. Anne Crawford.
Ms. Crawford was appointed several months ago by the Premier, as the president.
I didn’t ask about the Qulliq Energy Corporation, Nunavut Power Corporation and the Qulliq Fuel Corporation.
I would like for you to give me a proper answer before I ask my other question.
I thought the questioning was the appointment of the Qulliq Energy Corporation president, who was that person, I answered it and it was Ms. Crawford is the president and CEO of the Qulliq Energy Corporation.
Does the Member want me to name off some of the other executive positions within the corporation and identify those individuals and their corporate rankings.
If that is what the Member would like to have.
I don’t know what to say to the Minister.
You are not paying any attention.
You are either using up my time, or you are refusing to answer the question, which is your privilege.
I asked who the president of Qulliq Energy Corporation, Nunavut Power Corporation or the Qulliq Fuel Corporation.
They are all under your division.
It has been a while since we’ve heard who they are because as history dictates they change pretty rapidly.
I am not trying to play cat and mouse with the Member.
So I resent the Member saying.
Just making sure to ascertaining your question, if you ran out of time, you could ask to have consent to get more time.
The Qulliq Energy Corporation operates under different names, as the Member has suggested.
For example, the Qulliq Fuel Corporation is an entity, but has no corporate structure or board.
There is only one board for all of the related corporations.
The head of the corporation is Ms. Anne Crawford, next to Ms. Crawford is Mr. Jamie Flaherty and Mr. Bobby Gunn.
The Chief Operating Officer of the corporation is Mr. Hazen Hawker.
The other corporation that the Member is talking about operates as legal entities of the corporation, itself.
Speaker (interpretation): Second supplementary. Mr. Curley.
So the Member will understand that the holding company is the Qulliq Energy Corporation’s subsidiary; there are three divisions.
So obviously, for the purpose of operations, I would assume they have independent CEOs in those divisions, but it appears there is only one now.
Could the Minister also respond to this part of my question; was that a direct appointment when the President was hired?
Just to quickly update the Member and for clarification purposes, again, the Qulliq Energy Corporation was set up under the Qulliq Energy Corporation Act in 2003, and it operates under trade names, which are not same as corporations and their trade names.
Mr. Speaker, there are three trade names associated with the Qulliq Energy Corporation; they are Nunavut Power, Qulliq Energy, and what I just spoke about earlier, the Nunavut Energy Centre. That’s the three corporate names operating under the Qulliq Energy Corporation.
We have also registered the name ‘Qulliq Fuel Corporation’ or ‘Qulliq Fuel’, but we don’t use it as a corporation; it’s a registered trade name so we have it in place.
On the Member’s second question on the appointment, it was a direct appointment by the Premier.
It was explained several months ago that on the legislative authority of the Premier, he has the right to appoint senior members, and in this case, he appointed Ms. Crawford.
In her position, it’s equivalent of a Deputy Minister of government.
That’s interesting because I found the item on page 6 of the 40 of the Procurement Contracting Report of the Standing Committee for fiscal year 2003 and 2004, there’s an item listed here for sole sourced contracts in the amount of $75 thousand, 500 for executive service for Qulliq Energy Corporation.
Is the Premier simply just walking over to the Board of Directors’ meeting if she was a member to hire and cough up the $75 thousand, 500?
Mr. Curley makes a really good point on certain issues.
Mr. Speaker, we had to look back with the corporation itself and when it was set up.
Mr. Speaker, the Search Committee that was appointed, and maybe I should run through some of the people.
Mr. Speaker, there was a Search Committee put in place and that’s how Mr. Blennerhassett was hired.
As the Member knows, the Qulliq Energy Corporation and the Power Corporation started in April 1, 2001.
In June of 2003, and the Member just said 2003-04, so that’s why I am saying this, in 2003, Mr. Blennerhassett left his position, and Mr. Speaker, an Executive Hunting Firm was put in place to hire a position.
Mr. Aylward was hired.
Mr. Aylward worked for us for several months through the corporation, and Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, had cancer and had to leave his position.
Mr. Speaker, after that, Mr. Gunn and Mr. Flaherty were involved in the corporation with senior management positions until we get to point of where we are right now, we are at 2004, late 2004, Mr. Okalik, using his legislative authority, appointed Ms. Crawford, and that’s the reason for the contract.
Question 424 – 2(2): Update on Bill C-38 – Same Sex Marriage
Bill C-38 is ready for third reading by the federal government, and some of my constituents were not happy about the Bill where same sex marriage would become legal.
I wanted to ask a question to the acting Justice Minister, Mr. Picco, of where the Government of Nunavut stands on the same sex marriage legislation.
Bill C-38, as the Member has indicated, is a federal piece of legislation.
In Canada, federal legislation overrides in most cases, territorial or provincial legislation.
Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that Bill C-38 has received second reading in the House of Commons.
Whether the bill receives third and final reading and goes into law, it will depend a lot on the next couple of weeks in what occurs in Ottawa with the possible pending federal election.
So, that’s basically where Bill C-38 legislation is right now.
What will the Government of Nunavut be doing when the federal government is dealing with this bill?
The Government of Nunavut has been playing a wait and see attitude on what occurs on the federal scene.
It is not dissimilar to some of the other jurisdictions in Canada.
I am aware that the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church cannot perform same sex marriage according to their laws.
Will the people who wish to be married be able to be wed by churches, according to Bill C-38?
My understanding is that the intent of Bill C-38, which is federal legislation, is to allow the facilitation and the union of same sexed partners in a civil ceremony.
It is my understanding from the bill and following like many Members here in the house, that the bill allows for individuals to marry of the same sex through Justice of the Peace and so on.
Mr. Speaker, there is nothing in that bill that forces any denomination, any church, Anglican, Catholic, Pentecostal, or what have you to use their churches to bless the same sex union.
I think that’s a level of comfort for some people in Nunavut knowing that.
At the same time, again, the intent of the bill is not to force our religious denominations to do something that they do not want to do.
Can the Minister tell us as to how many, like there are three territories, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and the Yukon, and there are provinces and they all have their own authority.
How many jurisdictions have the power to marry same sex couples?
I stand to be corrected; again, like most of the Members in this house following this story, I believe there are three jurisdictions in the country right now, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and possibly New Brunswick where same sex legislation is not in place at the local provincial or territorial level.
The other jurisdictions in the country, the other nine, including the Yukon Territory, have passed, I believe, same sex legislation where they allow Justice of the Peace, Mayors and so on to marry same sex, same gendered couples in civil ceremonies in their jurisdictions.
That is not the case in Nunavut.
We’ll have to wait for the outcome of what happens with Bill C-38, like the other jurisdictions that I mentioned.
Question 425 – 2(2): Status of Request for Proposal for Wind Generator Power
In the general rate application, there was an attachment to support the application and it contains some information in Section 7.3, “Looking Forward”.
It mentioned a request for proposal for independent wind generated electricity.
In January 2003, there were two developers that were recommended for further evaluation on the wind technology.
Could the Minister tell us what the current status is for the evaluation for those two developers for wind energy?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister responsible for Qulliq Energy Corporation, Mr. Picco.
As I said earlier in response to Mr. Curley, the corporation was set up on April 1, 2001 and a year and a half later, in 2003 we had issued a request for proposal looking for at the opportunities for wind generated power.
At that time, the proposals came in, and there were two very good proposals out of the proposals that had been submitted.
One of the mitigating circumstances was that there was not an up to date wind map by Environment Canada for Nunavut.
That caused some difficulty not only logistically but physically for the corporations that responded.
So, the proposal call was put on hold until the wind map was completed.
The wind map now has been completed by Environment Canada and indeed has pointed out that there are a couple of different communities in Nunavut that have very real potential for wind generation.
Within this new capital budget, that has been put forward and again, I tabled it in the house by the corporation.
There is an opportunity to now to explore some other alternative energy sources.
That’s where the proposal call and the situation is right now.
Cambridge Bay has had a long history of wind turbine technology.
It’s also mentioned in the GRA.
Our last turbine fell down in 2002 and it hasn’t been replaced.
It was a private sector initiative.
We have a long history of wind technology.
Is the Qulliq Energy Corporation actually considering Cambridge Bay as a potential site for the advancement of wind technology in Nunavut?
I just saw Mr. Curley, and think he was trying to say that there is a lot of hot air, wind, maybe, on this side of the house.
With the information and the documented information from Environment Canada, in deed Cambridge Bay is probably one of the best locations to have a wind farm and a wind turbine put in place.
Previously, the Northwest Territories Power Corporation would put up wind mills, wind turbines, as the Member has said.
They would be one off.
They would put one or two in a community, for example in Kugluktuk.
They never put the operations and maintenance or the other associated costs to keep these wind mills up.
They wanted to see if this technology would work.
It was almost like a feasibility study.
What we’re looking at, to be economically sustainable, you need some economies of scale.
In that case, you need 10 to 20 wind turbines in the wind farm and that’s the direction we’re taking right now.
I thank the Minister for his answer.
When I was up in Kotzebue, Alaska in August 2002, in a town of 3000, they had 14 to 16 wind turbines and the technology is all from Canada.
I think it probably works and we could save a lot of money up here and a lot of oil.
In the same GRA application, Qulliq Energy Corporation mentioned a pre-feasibility study for potential hydro-electric projects near the city of Iqaluit. As we know, the City of Iqaluit has huge power demands, I think it’s currently 11 megawatts, when the new billings come out, we are looking at probably 14 to 15 megawatts in the future.
My question for the Minister: can the Minister tell us what the status is of hydro-electrical studies on the Sylvia Grinnell River?
The last numbers I looked at I think indicated that almost 60 percent of all diesel fuel purchase for the power corporation comes to Iqaluit because of the tremendous electrical load and growth here. Those costs, when you look at it in dollar value, is extremely high.
There’s a need to be a little bit more aggressive when we look at opportunities for alternative energies here in Iqaluit because of the cost to the whole system across Nunavut.
There have been some studies done on different sites, including Anna Marie Port; the bay towards Nunngarut Area, the Sylvia Grinnell River, as the Member said, and I believe Hakim River.
There were at least four or five, and this is over the last several 10 or 12 years.
The issue with Sylvia Grinnell is this: the Sylvia Grinnell has huge uptake potential as a hydro site.
It would sustain the City of Iqaluit for many more years to come; it has the potential for growth in the megawatt category; and it’s adjacent and close to the community.
The difficulty with the Sylvia Grinnell issue is that it’s located in a park, and at the same time, it’s a well known char river and so there are environmental concerns.
Today, with modern technology, there are ways of mitigating and negating those environmental issues. But, Mr. Speaker, there are also the potential of other sites.
In the capital budget that was proposed, put forward and actually tabled here in the House, there’s several hundred thousand dollars to do the next stages on some of the other sites in the area that may be offering potential, but also to negate some of the environmental issues.
So we are looking at some other alternative sites.
Now, Nunavut depends almost 100 percent on oil for operations.
As we know, the price of oil is not getting any cheaper; I think it is $50 USD a barrel.
I have seen projections as high as $80 to $90, a fair amount of New York City had projected $106 USD per barrel in the years ahead, and supplies of oil is decreasing, so it has become more expensive to extract it from the land.
We are going to need some kind of combination of wind, hydro, micro-hydro, other alternative energy solutions to sustain ourselves in the next five, 10 to 50 years.
My question for the Minister: can the Minister tell us whether the Qulliq Energy Corporation is developing an energy policy to guide Nunavut over the difficult years ahead that we are likely going to face up here?
Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A little over a year-and-a-half ago, the Government of Nunavut adopted an energy policy and it was tabled in the House for the government.
That was a document belonging to the previous government.
We are working on that energy policy that was prorogued in the previous government and bringing that forward as a new Energy Policy for this government.
That also includes things like the energy centre that we have just talked about.
As I said in response to Mr. Alagalak’s question, my meeting on Tuesday with Minister Dionne is to look at some opportunities for leveraging federal funds to deal with some of the issues that the Member has just raised, especially when we look at issues around Kyoto Accord and how we can help Canada meet its obligations.
For us, that’s other alternative energies other than diesel-generated electricity.
Question 426 – 2(2): Federal Government Funding to Decrease the Flow of Alcohol/Drugs
I will direct my question to the acting Minister of Justice.
The communities have been very concerned about the import of drugs and alcohol from the South, and I am told that this is the responsibility of the federal government.
What has the Nunavut Government done and have they lobbied the Government to decrease the import of drugs to Nunavut?
The Government of Nunavut has been working in cooperation with our federal friends, the RCMP, because, as the Member has pointed out, they have the jurisdiction when we deal with issues around illegal drugs, like marijuana, hashish, heroine and cocaine.
In this case the Government of Nunavut a little over a year ago introduced Jack the dog.
Jack the dog was the RCMP sniffing dog, as one of the initiatives that we lobbied our federal friends, the RCMP, to bring in this drug enforcement dog and have him at the airport, and so on.
That was one of the things that have been done.
There have been tighter controls in place by our federal officials through the RCMP.
The Member is correct of bringing drugs, illegal contraband into Nunavut and that is to fly it or mail it in.
The mail system is another federal responsibility.
With the extra screening processes that are now available in our airports, we would hope that there will be more seizures taking place.
That is ongoing work with the Department of Justice and the RCMP.
As the Minister indicated, he stated that there are two modes of transportation to import the drugs that are actually killers.
What are we doing as the government to decrease the amount of drugs coming in through the Post Office?
We see more and more suicides every year because of drug usage.
Many of our social workers and people who work with our families throughout Nunavut, have indicated that there is increased awareness of drug abuse throughout our Nunavut communities.
I stand corrected on my earlier statement when I said that the two major conduits for drugs into Nunavut are the airlines and Canada Post.
One of the Members pointed out to me, of course there is also the opportunity for sealift for bringing in contraband and drugs.
The Canada Post Corporation, which is a federal Crown Agency, has the responsibility of bring in mail and general mail deliveries for most of Canada, including Nunavut.
We need to be able to work closer with Canada Post to ensure that they are working on their monitoring efforts.
I know for example here in Iqaluit there have been some indications where Canada Post employees have seized or made known to the RCMP that there were possible drug shipments that have been made in the past.
That also includes alcohol that sometimes is shipped in through the mail.
I don’t see any reason why the Department of Justice or the Government of Nunavut couldn’t work with our federal partner, Canada Post, to probably enforce more stringently some of these guidelines and rules.
We’re all aware that the only form of bringing in supplies to the communities is by airplanes if there are no other forms of transportation, like Bombardiers.
On every plane day, there are drugs coming in.
Why is it that they can’t do searches on scheduled flights?
The Member raises something that a lot of people in Nunavut feel why isn’t there more aggressive screening for drugs, especially in our gateway cities of Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa before they get into Nunavut, itself.
Part of that is when we had the dog, Jack, introduced by the RCMP, and actually did some good aggressive work.
The RCMP try to do spot checks so that they are not allowing people to know when they are out doing their work, so people are not tipped off.
They do them on a regular basis.
I do not have the information with me Mr. Speaker, to update the house on how often this has occurred in the last couple of months.
That is information I can get for the Members and again, following up on what the Member has said, I think he’s made a good point that we need to be more aggressive, especially with our screening measures at airports to ensure that some of these drug supplies are not making their way into Nunavut.
Could the Minister give us an indication of the size or the quantity of drugs like cocaine and other drugs?
We have heard that street value is approximately $24 million worth of drugs coming into Nunavut.