EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
The minister tabled the Nunavut Housing Trust Delivery Strategy, I think in the last session, and this session he’s issued a couple of Ministerial Statements to the House updating members on how that strategy is progressing.
It is great to have more housing and training for the communities. While I was reading through the report I noticed that there are some glaring omissions in the report under the incremental cost estimates.
My question for the minister: is there funding in the strategy to help communities complete community surveys, subdivisions, housing lots, pad development to provide the resources to undertake the construction of houses in the communities?
Community and Government Services deal with where the units are going to be built.
The department has stated that we would like to work closely with Community and Government Services to make sure that there are lots available for the units that will be built in the future years.
As the former mayor of the community for four years I’m well aware of what it costs to undertake the development of subdivisions, lots and pads. It is quite a financial undertaking. It places a great burden on the community.
My question for the minister: can the minister clarify what plans the Nunavut Housing Corporation has made to extend the municipal services and the utilities for the new homes that would include such items as telephone poles, power lines and other utilities?
Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Minister Akesuk.
Like I said earlier that we’re working very closely with the communities to make sure that we have appropriate poles, lots, and work with the communities, again, we want to show the federal government that we can build these many units within that timeframe.
So we’re making sure that we work very closely and make sure that we have adequate poles, or lots to build these units. So we’re working very closely with Community and Government Services along with Finance, and Arctic College, along with other departments in the government. So we’re making sure that all units are going to be up by the time we want to finish those units.
As we saw in the Finance Minister’s budget it is going to be a very lean year coming up and a few more years after that.
I don’t think Department of Community and Government Services is going to see all that much money that can flow to the hamlets to assist them with the development of housing lots, pads, and other items like that.
The minister had indicated he was working with all these departments, and working closely with them, but he didn’t tell me specifically how were they going to come up with the finances to help hamlets with their needs to develop the lots, subdivisions, and other utilities in the communities when these houses, or before these houses, arrive in the next fiscal year for construction.
The funding of $200 million, we have reviewed how we can expend that money wisely and as we stated earlier on Community and Government Services and the Department of Finance … we have continually worked with those two departments to look into how we can spend the money wisely and how we can have good results.
That has been our vision, and we’ve been looking at the operations and maintenance costs because these units are going to be beneficial to Nunavummiut.
So we would like to see the funding used wisely, and we will continue to do so.
As we progress with the construction of the units it will be clearer how we can expend the funds more wisely so that we can complete the units.
The $200 million that we’re receiving from the federal government will construct 725 units.
It will not construct any more than that. It will not provide any additional funding. We know that the government doesn’t have any additional funding other than what was announced earlier this week, which is specifically targeted at certain areas.
I don’t know where the government is going to come up with additional money for the incremental costs to go to the hamlets to assist them with all the work they have to do at the community level to undertake such large projects over the next three years.
Mr. Speaker, in the strategy, he also mentioned that it costs an average of $20,000 annually for the operations and maintenance costs for typical public house, social houses. That translates to, when they’re all constructed, $14,500,000.
That is operations and maintenance that the government will have to find to provide the funding to the local housing organizations to operate those houses.
I would like the minister to clarify for me where his department is going to find an additional $14,500,000 to help the local housing organizations operate these houses.
Minister responsible for Nunavut Housing Corporation, Minister Akesuk.
These houses are going to be extremely helpful to the people of Nunavut.
I’m sure that after the houses are constructed, we will have to get additional funds, and we can probably talk to the federal government to get operations and maintenance dollars from them.
We’re going to work extremely hard to get the additional funds from the federal government and we’ll have to work closely with the Department of Finance to make sure that there is money for the operations and maintenance of these houses.
Question 101 – 2(4): Delayed Construction of Aqsarniit Middle School – School Year Loss (Tootoo)
Before I ask my question, I can correct him. When he responded to my colleague earlier, he called the funding formula that we have the TTF, and not TFF.
I’m sure that his good friend Brian was watching and caught those mistakes.
Mr. Speaker, my question to the minister in relation to education deals with the delay that took place at the opening of the Aqsarniit Middle School and at the time there were concerns raised that students there had lost two weeks of instruction time as a result of those delays.
So I would just like to ask the minister if he could update me, the Members of this House, and the public as to the status of where they are in making up that lost time due to the delayed construction.
I, again, thank the member for correcting my TFF and the FFT as he knows he can go URRC, and we’ve had some debate around that before.
Mr. Speaker, in answer to the member’s question, the member and the House is aware that there were some construction issues with the Aqsarniit Middle School.
In cooperation with the local district education authority here in Iqaluit, the staff who put in a lot of time and energy worked the schedule, not only administratively but logistically, they were able to cover off the teaching hours that were needed in cooperation, as I said earlier, with the district education authority.
It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that the Aqsarniit Program is in place and is not in a position of being in jeopardy for the school year.
It’s good to hear that. I know that a lot of people were wondering, with the blizzard days that we’ve been having this year and the schools have been shut down, whether the students would actually achieve the hours of instruction necessary to proceed on to the next year.
My second question, I know in the initial stages of this early in the fall the minister had indicated that the contractor was going to be paying for some of the extra costs involved in making up that extra time.
I was just wondering if you could inform this House as to how much and what kind of support, whether it be financial or with people, that the department received from the contractor in this case.
Because of some of the delays in the construction of the school, we felt that there was an obligation of the contractor to make up some of the monetary needs of the school.
So in cooperation with Community and Government Services, who have the project management oversight of that project, we were able to negotiate with the lead contractor to fund some of the positions that were identified by the school staff and have those in place.
The minister indicated they were able to negotiate that they would be responsible for funding some of the positions necessary to catch up on lost time.
Can he indicate how much funding they received and how many positions that funding was allocated to as a result of those additional costs to the school?
I don’t have the dollar values with me on how much dollar values were used, but I can say I believe there were two positions, and that was my understanding.
As the Minister of Education, I had an opportunity several times to go to the school during and after the construction, we spoke to the staff and said, ‘Look, if there’s anything we could do as the Department of Education to help with extra person-years in the school during that transition period, we would do that.’ And we did do that. I believe it was two person-years and I believe those positions would continue up to the school year.
I’ll be at the Aqsarniit School tomorrow at four o’clock and I’ll have an opportunity, again, to review some of that with some of the staff.
I believe the minister, the staff, the department, and the district education authority have, as you would say, done yeoman service in making sure that the school year was not lost, and I congratulate all of them on that.
It just shows an example of what can happen if we work together.
I would like to ask the minister to commit to providing the amount that the contractors if you want to call it a penalty, or having to compensate the school for those additional costs. Can he commit to providing that information here in the House?
We will be able to break those dollar values out and I believe that we should be able to make that available to the members next week in the house.
Question 102 – 2(4): Victims of Income Support (Mapsalak)
My question today is for the Minister responsible for Income Support.
In my Member’s Statement today, I said that I heard people on income support should be employed but where are the jobs in the smaller communities?
We have been hearing from the government to date that we are going to be focusing on the smaller communities.
In my Member’s Statement today I alluded to the reasons why Nunavummiut have to resort to income support.
Can the minister tell me today if he and his department believe that the residents of smaller communities should all move to decentralized communities in order to get a job?
I think what we are trying to do as the Government of Nunavut since 1999 has been through the decentralization program, and other programs of the government, is to foster and grow our communities, not to shut them down.
The answer to the member’s question is this government supports all communities in Nunavut: decentralized, large, and small.
What we have been trying to do on our different programs, specifically the member is asking about income support programs, is to put a program in place that helps facilitate all people to receive employment, whether in that community or outside the community.
For example, under income support, we have programs for transition to work. We have programs where it helps a person on income support to move to a community to get a job if they have been offered a position. We are also putting training programs in place.
The short answer is no, we are not trying to get people to move out of their communities.
We want people to stay in their communities and try to have full employment through every department in government, whether it is tourism, arts and crafts industries, traditional means in the communities themselves, or through other work projects for example, like the housing program we are putting in place right now.
The situation facing people in the smaller communities is very, very difficult than the situations in the city.
However, in the regulations for income support, they are the same in all communities.
Would the minister commit to reviewing the regulations in order to better meet the needs of the people living in non-decentralized communities where there are particularly no employment opportunities?
Minister responsible for Income Support, Minister Picco.
The benefits under the income support program are known as universal benefits. That means the same benefits program that is in place for Clyde River or Repulse Bay would be found in Iqaluit or Cambridge Bay.
After saying that, if the member has a particular regulation that seems to be discriminatory toward a smaller community, then I’d be prepared to look at that.
I do not believe that my constituency should be punished for ways of wanting to travel to visit their relatives in other communities.
If a person on income support receives an airline ticket that was obtained through Aeroplan points, or a buddy pass, how would the department assess the value of that ticket and why does it consider tickets to be unearned income if people aren’t using them as planned?
What we have done is increased the exemption for earned income by over $400 per family, or $200 for single people.
The problem with a gift like an airline ticket; if you’re on income support and I give someone a ticket to fly from a given community to another community and they’re spending six or seven weeks in the community, then they’re not in their own community looking for work, or seeking employment, and so on.
That’s one of the reasons why it would be considered unearned income and would have to come off the income support.
The idea behind income support is that you have no income. It is not designed to allow someone in the community, for example, to go on a vacation, or something. However, and it’s very important to make this acknowledgement, if a person receives a ticket to travel to a community to visit a sick relative; to attend a funeral; because of an issue like that, or an emergency, then that money, or that ticket is not considered unearned income.
What we’re talking about specifically, and the member has raised, is when a person receives a ticket as a gift to fly someone when they’re on income support and then when they come back that amount would be subtracted from that income support payment.
I don’t know how else to say this but in the smaller communities, when there are no jobs, it’s the same thing even if they try to go to the economic development officer.
I don’t know how else I can explain this but could the minister indicate to me that the social assistance regulations will be reviewed, and when will my constituents see improvements in their lives?
The member has raised this issue with me at my office, and so on. He has written me on it.
I think he has been a very strong advocate for the issue.
At the department, what we’re looking at, I am looking at the regulations to see how I can facilitate what the member is asking for without opening up the whole program.
I can’t, as the minister responsible, just limit if someone receives a ticket and say we won’t include that in his or her income as a household, I would have to do it for all of Nunavut, all 25 communities.
How do you say that it’s okay to receive a free ticket, or what have you, in one community without having to do it in the other communities.
So that’s some of the concerns that we have.
We are reviewing it. So the commitment that I’ve made to the member is to review the regulations to see if there is an opportunity. If any of the members have an opportunity, or suggestion to make of how we could reform that to make it more conducive to Nunavummiut, then we would entertain that.
Question 103 – 2(4): Support for the Families of Sick Children (Evyagotailak)
This question is for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. (interpretation ends)
As the minister has said a number of times there are often situations that do not fit into a set pattern and things have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
But, when a certain type of situation repeats itself over and over again, I believe that some changes need to be made: when a family has a child who needs to be close to medical care that can only be provided in another community, or province, this often means that the whole family has to move.
Can the minister clarify for this House what steps are taken to ensure that a family stays together when one of their children needs to move to be close to medical services?
Currently, we have close to 200 people in care in Nunavut, and the issue of providing that will come up over and over and over until we have met the needs of patients and the facilities in the north.
So we have to address each file and each case on a case-by-case basis, you’re correct.
In the case of the incident I believe the member is referring to, there is a critical team that needs to evaluate the patient’s needs. A critical team that reviews what treatment, what care, and so on will be needed by this particular patient.
Once that assessment is done, and through the doctors, then the next step is to look at where we can place the child or the adult.
In the case of that incident, the critical team is meeting, and will be responding to the family accordingly once they determine what kind of care the person needs, where that care can be provided, and then move forward in that.
But, the first step is the evaluation of the individual patient, and then to start searching for facilities that can treat that person.
It is very hard for families to be away from each other.
I know that the family has been in Edmonton for such a long time, but I’m glad that they are moving the family close to their home.
I am sure that our community social workers do the best they can for the good of the whole family.
Can the minister tell this House what kind of flexibility is available to community social workers to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, especially in the situation of family travel?
The individual teams that make the assessments of the needs of patients are very flexible in that they have to respond to that patient’s needs.
So the flexibility is exercised on the basis of the child or adult’s medical condition and need. So the team that deals with that will respond to that particular individual and decisions are made once the review is completed.
Can the minister provide some clarification on what kinds of policies are in place to ensure that family members, and especially children, are reunited with their parents at the earliest opportunity?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Mr. Speaker, in the case of children and adults that live in facilities out of territory and within the territory, the department provides annual visits for those individuals from their families.
In the case of this particular incident, a review will be done to determine what kind of treatment is necessary, but we don’t move the entire family for those 200 people that are living in care. We have not done that for every situation.
Again, it’s on a case-by-case basis. The particular individual that the member is questioning me about, that assessment has to be done and then a decision will be made how best to treat and provide the support for the child.
So, that assessment has to be done. On a case of relocating every individual patient’s family to Ottawa, or Edmonton, or Calgary, we have not done that for every single file. Again, it’s on a case-by-case basis.
Question 104 – 2(4): High Cost of Fuel for Homeowners (Kattuk)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister responsible for Education and Income Support.
We have a concern on income support. For homeowners, they go through hard times, especially with the prices of fuel, and some homeowners run out of fuel and they don’t have any extra money.
A lot of times they are declined by income support.
I would like to ask the minister; can the minister review this?
Yes, we can review it. In all cases where a person is on income support, or a household is on income support, their electrical costs, as well as fuel costs, the operations, water, sewage and so on. All are covered under the Income Support Program.
If there is an issue with the program itself, for example, if there wasn’t the availability of the household to receive their fuel, then that appeal could be made to the income support worker.
It is extremely difficult in the wintertime especially for those people who have no income whatsoever.
So I am encouraging the minister; can he give an idea of when he can do the review?
As I indicated earlier, we are doing a review of the Income Support Program right now, areas around the subsidies that are available, the amount of the Income Support Program, and so on.
If, for example, a family is in a unit and they’re on income support, then the heating bill, the light bill, all associated bills of running that unit are covered through the income support program and are paid directly to the local housing association or the fuel supplier or what have you.
If the amount of money for that period of time has been budgeted over on the family, then they can appeal to the income support worker and then those costs would be covered.
I am not aware of any case in Nunavut, where for example, a person ran out of fuel in their unit on income support, and weren’t able to get their oil tank refilled.
When you are living alone, $200 is not enough for a whole month.
My further question for the minister might be that sometimes a household runs out of fuel before they get another income support cheques or the money.
How often do you fill up the tanks for the houses?
This question was to Minister Picco. It is up to you if you want to respond.
What the member has described, I would like to use a couple of scenarios.
If the family or the person is in a local housing association unit, then there is an agreement in place in all our communities for fuel delivery for that unit.
If they run out of fuel and they are on income support, then they would be automatically refuelled under that program. If the person is in a rented, private accommodation, then again, if they needed fuel then that would be added on to the income support for that month for that person.
There is not a set, maximum limit in that case.
In the third case, if the person owned their own home, and were on income support, again, income support would cover those amounts.
I am talking about the homeowner that needs help for fuel.
Maybe I should ask again. What I am trying to indicate is how often do income support people get help for their fuel?
How often does the department fill their fuel tanks?
Minister responsible for Income Support, Mr. Picco.
Again, it depends on the community and the household. For example, as I said earlier, if you are on income support and you needed your tank filled up with the fuel supply in the community, whether it is the Co-op or whomever, they will come on a regular basis and fill up the tank. If the income support client’s tank is empty, then the Income Support Program will, again, pay for that tank to be refilled.
When you are in a local housing association house, as the members know, you are renting it, and that unit belongs to the housing association.
Again, they ensure the tank is refilled.  It depends on the unit.
I am not aware of any case where a house froze up because the income support clients weren’t able to receive fuel.
Question 105 – 2(4): More Funding for Defence Lawyers (Curley)
We have heard about people that are supposed to be going to court and they don’t know anything about their lawyer until that day the court party comes in, they don’t know the lawyer.
Federal, provincial, and territorial Justice Ministers met last October.
One of the things that the provincial and territorial ministers have called for is increased federal funding for criminal legal aid and new funding for civil legal aid.
My question is; because I have heard this happen before and they don’t have enough defence lawyers; can the minister explain to the House how the federal government is going to be assisting with funding for those people that are going to need criminal or civil legal aid?
We have been dealing with this for quite some time and I met with the Minister of Justice at the federal level. I asked them if they could assist the people of Nunavut because we are not up to par with the rest of Canada.
They should be able to help us with those kinds of funding for those matters.
We have certain responsibilities, and actually business plan, as well as a strategy that we can develop in our own territory.