EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I know, specifically here in Iqaluit, that much like the Homeless Shelter that I talked about earlier today, and a lot like the Power Corporation that was talked about for some time now, that are struggling to pay their bills, and then find funding to just meet their basic operational requirements.
I am looking for a commitment because it hasn’t been changed in some time.
Will he bring forward some changes to increase that funding to the member daycares?
Is he in support of that, because I believe there have been some major changes in operations and maintenance costs and that, to these organizations?
I am not getting any kind of an indication of a commitment of whether or not the minister would be willing to bring forward some changes.
I know if the needs are there, I think that the minister knows that the need is there, so is he willing to address that need and bring forward the changes for increased funding for the daycares?
Hon. Ed Picco: Yes we are, Mr. Chairman.
So when those needs are assessed and determined by the department, then the answer would be yes.
Does the minister have an idea of when that will be?
There is a process that is well known by the member for accessing funds in the programs and services in the department.
We need to be able to look at it, as the member said, doing assessments on what the needs are, what the program is, and when the last increases were.
I would hope to be in a position in the next Session in May, to come forward with that information and then look at it at that time.
Has any of that work started yet or is it something that’s going to start now that it has been raised?
As soon as the budget cycle is complete, in this Session when the budget is complete, then we would be able to move on to that and other issues.
Is the minister indicating that nothing can happen with the Department of Education without the budget being approved?
I am sure staff would say that something that happens all the time, not just in the budget cycle.
What I am saying is that we are focused right now in trying to budget through the House.
If the budget goes through the House, than there are a lot of new initiatives within the budget that we need to be able to do.
I would suggest to the member that when we return in the spring Session in May, I’ll have the information that the member has asked for and we have asked the staff to do that.
So is the Minister stating that this is a new initiative?
No work has been done to date.
As I said earlier we have brought in a new program under this category under daycare, and that parents staying in school initiative, we got to look at the needs out there and determined there were a lot of students that drop out of school that the member talked about yesterday. Because there was no program in place where they could actually be able to attend school, where they couldn’t be able to afford daycare and so on.
What we have done is introduced in this budget and under this category, under daycare and childcare, a new initiative.
So the work has been done in the department and this category in the department itself.
What I am suggesting to the member is that once the business cycle is finished, the budget cycle is finished within the next couple of weeks. One of the things that we have to do now, as the member has asked for, and you concurred and agreed with, is do a review on those budgets.
Has the Minister or the department staff in that Division ever received any concerns about the adequacy of the funding, for the formula for member daycares across the territory?
From time to time we have field workers that go to the communities to facilitate with member daycares and at times around O&M funding and so on, have been raised.
I am aware of those.
That is why we concur with the member that we will review again, the issues around the funding that the member is talking about.
Any question to G-14, G-15 and G-16?
Questions to G-14, G-15, G-16.
Yesterday, I had questions on Income Support.
The minister referred me to Childhood services and now here we are.
I am curious that when recipients receive their money, there must be some sort of process or other processes that the department implements to make sure that money that they receive are used for the purposes intended.
Can the Minister comment on that?
Within the department itself and under that section, there is a Compliance Officer that works with the Income Support Workers to make sure that there is compliance under the Income Support Act.
I’ve heard about incidences where they’ve received money and through some process, they convert the money to VCR’s and not into food.
Then they turn the VCR’s into something else and it still, it is not food.
I am wondering if the minister could comment on that, please.
It is very hard for the minister to comment on hearsay, what people said something happened here and something happened there.
When a person receives Income Support, they are assessed, they receive their cheque, and they are given the cheque.
Then you would expect that based on adult circumstances, then they would use the income support money that has been granted or given for what it was meant to be.
There are some follow-up cases and in cases that we are aware of, issues where income support hasn’t been used as it was allocated for, then those were dealt with using the proper mechanisms.
Can the minister comment on how it works when you have a household with 13 people in it and there are four adults, there is a mother and father and some other relatives and they have 6 or 7 kids, who is actually entitled to income support money?
Is that the head of the household, for his wife and children? When you have a couple of other relatives there, do they apply and receive money themselves?
Can you comment on that, Mr. Minister?
As Ms. Teiman explained yesterday, any Nunavut resident over the age of 18 is eligible to apply for Income Support.
Once that person over the age of 18 applies, and then a case assessment is done, which takes into account the financial needs and the other needs of the client that is applying, including the domestic situation, then the client is referred either within the program or without the program.
That would mean that they are accepted into program or they are not.
Can the minister tell us what happens in those rare cases where there are investigations for compliance?
If the recipients are in non-compliance, what are the penalties?
I think it would depend on the severity of the issue around the receiving of the Income Support Program, what information has been acknowledged and made known to the Income Support Worker.
Could the minister tell us what would happen if the person were in non-compliance, was penalized severely but yet they still required some funding for food.
How would they be dealt with by the department?
It depends on the issue.
Hamlets determine what is being paid out in Income Support.
For example, does it go out in a cheque or a voucher or paid out in another way?
Each case would be judged on its own merits.
If I went to the Income Support and they do an assessment on me and they say, “Mr. Picco, you are eligible for $500,” and they give me the $500, and I use the $500 for something other than food or clothes.
That money has been given to me, it is up to me, I have an individual choice to make use of the money that was given to me.
We are not playing Big Brother here.
If there have been issues of fraud, where I actually go into an Income Support Worker and suggest to them that I am living in a certain situation on the case study and then it turns out, I think that is what the member is saying, if the information that I give them is completely wrong, I received money that I am not entitled to, then that is a different case.
As I said earlier, there are mechanisms and procedures in place to deal with that.
For the record, please introduce your staff.
I am joined at the table by Ms. Taiwan, who is the Director of Income Support Programs with the Government of Nunavut.
Ms. Teiman, welcome to the Witness Table.
For the record, could the Minister comment on what his department is doing to install an Electronic Information System and do you have an estimate on what it would cost?
Is the member talking about an electronic file data system where we would be tracking cheques and so on and so forth?
Is that what the member is asking about?
I am referring to an electronic system where the client’s case history would be there year after year.
It would also track payments easily.
Instead of having a drawer full of files, you would have an electronic system that would make it easier for Income Support Workers to deal with clients in particular, when there is a high turn over in Income Support Workers.
They could easily retrieve information on the clients that they are meeting with.
In a lot of areas in Nunavut, we’re trying to get up to speed with the rest of the country when it comes to issues like that.
Electronic filing is one.
I know for example, school student records, there is a good example.
With health records are another example, and the member pointed out another example which is with Income Support clients.
We’re exploring options right now with the Government of the Northwest Territories on a system that they have in place to see if we can access that type of program here.
I would like to refer to page G-16, Northern Student Education Initiative.
It’s for students who attend post-secondary institutions and training programs in the Edmonton area.
We also have students in Nova Scotia and other provinces.
Is this just for the Edmonton area or can it also be used for the other provinces also?
This program was originally started under the Government of the Northwest Territories and it provides assistance to students who are studying in Edmonton from Nunavut.
Some of those students for example, a majority of students are actually at NATE, which is the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton.
The program is about $15,000, as the member pointed out.
They help students with housing, campus and city orientation.
That service is free to all Nunavut students who are studying in the Edmonton region.
Does that mean then that this lady from Coral Harbour that is attending University in Nova Scotia is not eligible to receive support from this pot of funds?
Right now, when we look at the three cities, we call them gateway cities for Nunavut, which includes Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa; we only have this part-time position in Edmonton.
We would hope to be in a position where we would have something similar, some type of similar services in Winnipeg and Ottawa because we’re seeing post-secondary student enrolments happening.
The person is on the ground in Edmonton, so they wouldn’t be able to help for example, on orientations on some of the issues in Nova Scotia because we don’t have any one in place in that province.
Mr. Netser (interpretation): That’s all.
Chairman: Questions to G-14, G-15, G-16.
In reference to the Early Childhood Programs for Healthy Children’s Initiative, can the minister elaborate on what specific programs that that funding is for?
The Healthy Children’s Initiative was also inherited from the Northwest Territories and is a partnership program with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social Services.
I appreciate that information.
The program that was inherited, has the department looked at specifically what it does?
Is it achieving what it’s supposed to be achieving?
Is it receiving adequate funding? Do they need more funding?
Maybe the minister can elaborate a little bit more on that.
The program was intended to support children across Nunavut and it works on the early childhood family centered programs and services that are being delivered.
So far, the funding has been adequate.
It’s a good program.
There has been a strong uptake on the program.
There’s also support of services which funds additional programs and services for children that are from ages below one to six that require extra support to reach their full potential.
The Healthy Children Initiative is also administered through the regional education offices in Nunavut and proposal calls on a regular basis would go out to community organizations and newspapers, on the program.
The proposals are submitted by community through Early Childhood Education organizations, the District Education Authorities, and as I said earlier, hamlet offices. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know the minister and I had an exchange the other day in dealing with starting upstream and something that I have, as an issue, raised in the past is the concept to look at, is the idea of having a preschool program available to anybody who wants to take it because I know, particularly, of cases here in talking to some of the kindergarten teachers, that there is a very wide range of students that enter into the kindergarten program.
Some are ready to be there, some are more than ready to be there, and some aren’t ready to be there.
I think if there was a universal Early Childhood Program that would help prepare these kids to be ready to enter the system and take full advantage of the learning opportunities that are available to them once they hit kindergarten and Grade 1.
Is that something that the minister could commit to looking into?
When the concept of a junior kindergarten program in Nunavut has been widely discussed over the past couple of years, it’s something that this minister certainly endorses.
It’s something that I think, that we would like to bring forward and facilitate at some point.
I just want to clarify for the minister, and I know it’s not just a junior kindergarten program that I am talking about, I know in other countries and other jurisdictions, I think France was a good example, where they have an Early Childhood Program that starts at age three that’s available to parents to take their kids to, junior kindergarten in 4 and then 5 when they go to the kindergarten program.
I am wondering if the Minister and I know that is not something that we can look at implementing right away, but take a look at it and see what would be required.
I know that there would be infrastructure needs and staffing needs.
I think also, to move to type of program would elevate a lot of the problems in the daycare centres with lack of space, by moving the older kids to pre-school programs and freeing up spaces for the younger ones.
I know that there have been cases in the past where people have had to resign their employment because they don’t have childcare available for those infants and those spaces are very limited throughout Nunavut.
Is that something that the Minister can look into and report back to the House?
My next question deals with something that my colleague was asking and that is the Northern Student Education Initiative.
I am wondering if the Minister can specifically outline and clarify how that program works and what it’s specifically used for.
As I said earlier this program was something that we carried over from the Government of the Northwest Territories.
It is $15,000 that helps to fund the position in Edmonton.
This program endorses and sponsors different agencies and other organizations.
The partnership of 9 groups, including Education of Government of Nunavut, Government of the Northwest Territories includes a lot of employers in the Northwest Territories, DeBeers, Diavik, BHP Billiton, and so on.
And again, programs assists Nunavut students who are studying in Edmonton and helps them with housing, campus and city orientation, banking, bus to schools, all those types of logistics when you are traveling to a city like Edmonton.
Chairman: Minister Picco, thank you.
Would the Minister feel it is a good use, successful program and a good allocation of funding for those students that take advantage of that area?
It is mostly accessed by our trades’ apprentices because they attend NAIT the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
It is welcomed by those who have gone there.
It is something in an earlier question like, we like to see in Winnipeg and in Ottawa where some of our other students as our post-secondary, have increase.
For $15,000 it seems like we get a good bang for our buck there.
I think it would be a good idea if it is working good and it is not costing us very much money, to look at trying to start programs like that in the other centres that we have a majority of our students, whether it be Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa or so on.
The Minister has indicated that he would like to see that going, but is the department doing anything specifically to try and get that going in those areas?
Hon. Ed Picco: Plans are that at the end of the academic year, that we actually look at what is financially and logistically available to implement the program to other communities, that the Member talks about, Ottawa and in Winnipeg because that’s where the majority of where our students are actually attending in post-secondary institutions.
Again, the $15,000 is a small amount and I think we are getting good value for that as the member has indicated but that’s because there are nine different groups helping to support those positions; BHP Billiton, Diavik Diamond Mine, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and so on.
That’s the type of partnerships we would want to look at if we fund the same positions in Ottawa and/or Winnipeg.
G-14, G-15, G-16, Mr. Curley.
I have a question under G-15.
For Early Childhood Program daycare contribution, it states, there are two programs under these.
There is $1,585,000 line item, it’s a daycare contribution and for family day homes.
What are family day homes and who can get contributions from this?
Family day homes are licensed daycares in a private residence.
So, in this case if you wanted to set up a daycare in your home, the Government of Nunavut would go in and inspect the home, make sure it was user friendly for the children that would be staying there.
They would allocate the number of children you would be able to hold in that licensed day home, and these are monies that would be available to that day home operator, to be able to facilitate that.
I am also aware that in my community, mostly the majority of the babysitters are the grandparents when their children are at work.
I wonder why we can’t provide any form of support.
Of course, do they need to be educated in English?
No, I mean, if you want to open a licensed daycare program in your home, then if you’re going to be licensed, you have to do that under the regulations and so on.
You can be unilingual.
That’s not an issue.
The issue here would be if it’s licensed.
If it’s licensed, then there is extra support that we can give that person.
At the same time, the member is correct, when elders and so on are staying home and babysitting, and then there are subsidies that are available to the client base that a parent can apply for, that we have actually talked about.
For the first time in this budget, we’ve actually allowed and the member was, said earlier, was well welcomed when we put the money in for younger parents that we would actually be able to now cover off the costs that they have for daycares.
So that, they can pay daycare whether at the licensed daycare, home daycare or indeed having friends, neighbours, relatives or grandparents taking care of their children.
Yes, I don’t think there are many people in the public out there who know about this program.
I think most of them; family day homes are geared towards just a small amount of day homes.
Why isn’t the public aware of this family day home program?
I’m sure that the elders, when they end up babysitting and the children and their grandchildren end up going to eat at the elder’s home.
Perhaps the Minister or his officials can send out information criteria or whatever and publicize this program.
We don’t want the government to just be a cash flow for those daycares that have licenses and I’m sure that there are few licensed daycares.
I want to hear from the Minister if he can provide the information to the communities out there and when would you start the dissemination of the information to the communities?
Yes, I think the member is correct that if there’s not a good public awareness, that there are monies to provide a licensed daycare space in a private home, I think that’s something that the department should be advertising.
So that’s something that we will expedite as the member has asked.
Yes, I agree that it’s a good idea, Mr. Minister.
So you will commit to providing more information, if so, by what means do you try and synchronize that information so that people who honestly can provide a good home, good families, whether they be unilingual, can also be given their license so that the child or whatever is cared for in a good home and reliable homes. There are many of them, and I would ask the minister to actually commit and if so, how and when?
The Department of Education has regional offices in every region of Nunavut, and we do have a person who is in charge of the daycare section.
I would be open to suggestions from the member and the members on how they would like or how they feel the best penetration of this type of news could happen across Nunavut.
Is it radio ads, is it the newspaper ads, is it advertisement on the local radio, and I would be willing to take that information forward.
This is not a new program.
Licensing daycare space in the private home is something that has been ongoing since Nunavut began.
So if the people are not well aware of it, then this is a good opportunity to bring that forward.
Perhaps if I first ask a question under page G-14, it states (interpretation ends) fees and payments of $25,370,000.
I am just wondering Minister Picco, what this is used for.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Alagalak. (interpretation ends) Minister Picco.
I wonder if the member could just point me out which $370,000. Is it on page G-14, the current early childhood services, or you could tell me where I could find the $370,000 and then I will be able to answer the question?
Mr. Alagalak had asked a question to fees and payments of $25,370,000.
The $25,370,000 under fees and payments consists of the income support or social assistance payments throughout Nunavut.
That’s the actual monies that are paid out in income support.
On page G-15 (interpretation ends) the title of it is community capacity building.
I know we have gone into this, giving the community some more empowerment in their own community.
But you have $1,500,000, a budget of $1,500,000.
How many communities are involved in this, to deliver income support in Nunavut?
Under the contribution agreements, for the delivery of income support to hamlets or the CTI, the Community Transfer Initiative, in 2005/06, we anticipate having about 13 contribution agreements in place with hamlets across Nunavut.
Hall Beach and Whale Cove are returning their contracts back to the government on April 1st, 2005, the Funding Formula for the Contributions Agreements based on case load in the particular community.
I didn’t understand this clearly, the income support section on G-10, $989,000, it wasn’t stated there.
Any further questions to G-14, G-15, G-16?
Under the Community Capacity Building, the Minister had indicated that there were some communities that were turning back their agreements.
One would assume that the agreements have been in place for a little while now.
I’m just wondering why this is the first time we’re seeing this funding in the budget.
Was it taken out of somewhere else or moved from a different area in the budget?
It’s always been in the budget as far as we know, since Nunavut began on April 1, 1999.
It might have been in a different cost category.
I anticipated that it was always in the budget but under that item, community capacity building, I see that it is the first time that it shows up in the Main Estimates since 2003/04.
For sure there was nothing in there prior to that in that area, so this is a new line item in the budget.
I’m just wondering if the Minister or his officials could indicate on where that funding came from.
Previously it was in Contract Services.
That’s where it was located in the budget but then because of the way the budget rolls itself out, we’ve put it into the area that the member has acknowledged.