EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
My question for the minister; I sent him this information as well. My question for the minister: is MLA Hawkins correct in his perception that Nunavut is sleeping and doesn’t realize that the Bathurst Port and Road Project may be a good argument?
I wasn’t talking about the docks. The docks are coming from DFO; Minister Cannon is from Minister of Transportation and the deep sea port area that you are talking about where we could put a deep sea port, again we had seven possible locations for deep sea port.
And myself, as a Minister for Mines, hopefully, I’m not sleeping, I’m trying to be awake as I can be awake on these issues.
Again, the federal government, we keep asking about what they’re going to do, how they can help us.
Like I said to Mr. Lunn, Natural Resources, we also talked about how we want support from the Cabinet ministers in the federal level.
I believe that we’re, we as a government, are still supporting those roads and ports.
We want to work closely with the mining companies that are mining in our territory and how we could fast-track this and we’re doing our very best and I’m also still going to do my very best to work with the federal ministers on this issue.
I am very glad to hear the Government of Nunavut isn’t sleeping. That is the perception in the Northwest Territories that they can get the jump on us. So I hope we can get the jump on them since we have done a lot of work on this initiative.
There was a transportation workshop that was held in Yellowknife in early September where 18 options were discussed to replace the existing winter roads. Of the 18 options, the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project came out as one of the best in the longer term.
My question for the Minister: has Economic Development and Transportation taken the initiative in contacting the Tahera Corporation, Diavik Diamond Mines and Ekati Diamond Mines to discuss their willingness to support the Bathurst Port and Road Project if the Government of Nunavut takes the lead?
We want to work very closely with those mining companies and also the Inuit Organizations that are involved in mining. I think it is a good way of trying to work out something that will work for our territory.
There are different mining companies that are interested in working with us and we want to work with them.
Like I said, we want to work very closely with the federal level and if we have to lead this, I think it is very important that we have Inuit corporations and the mining companies to be the lead and also the communities that would benefit from a road and port.
I thank the minister for that answer. It sounds to me like the ministers have had a lot of meetings or discussions with various people and maybe it is time to bring them all together face to face.
The minister committed to me in late September that he would contact his colleagues in the Northwest Territories and Ottawa and the industry as well as the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and the Kitikmeot Corporation to set up a stakeholders meeting to discuss the Bathurst Port and Road.
My question for the minister: would the minister reaffirm that commitment to me today and then update me on the progress to date to set up a stakeholders meeting?
We have a mining symposium being held in April of next year. I think it is important that we have these mining companies here in our territory. I think that is the best time to try and meet as many people as we could during that time.
I’ll get my staff to look into how we can meet with these people in April if we could do that.
Before we proceed, allow me to please to acknowledge the presence of Raymond Ningeocheak, Second Vice President of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, who I am sure is listening to the deliberations.
Speaker: Welcome to the Gallery, Mr. Ningeocheak. (interpretation) Oral Questions.
Question 351 – 2(3): Update on the Wildlife Act Amendments (Barnabas)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of the Environment.
When I was touring my constituency I was asked to ask this question.
It is not that we are not against the non natives but there was a Wildlife Act consultation in Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and also in Rankin Inlet.
I don’t know if they went to the smaller communities but they were supposed to come to our community.
The amendments to the Wildlife Act, the proposed amendments are now getting more authority within the municipalities.
Can the minister update, in the House, what kind of amendments they are planning to have, or proposing?
Hon. Patterk Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did not quite understand the member, is he talking about the beneficiaries? I would like to get his question clarified.
Can you please clarify your question, Mr. Barnabas.
The problems we encounter in my constituency are, if common-law couples stay together and they are starting to receive the harvesting rights, transfer of harvesting rights, are there any amendments affecting that?
Hon. Patterk Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, I understand the question.
It is in the regulations, the beneficiaries who are living with a non-native; we have given that responsibility to the HTO.
We already know those, the old ones, alright.
We already know in the Wildlife Act, your common-laws spouses can get hunting rights, but are there any amendments to the transfer of harvesting rights, like, if you are married to a non-beneficiary, how long is the residency requirement before they can go out hunting?
Is this amended inside the Wildlife Act?
Sorry, when a non-beneficiary moves to Nunavut, the residency requirement is three months.
Then they are given a hunting licence.
If they have a common-law who is a beneficiary, their common-law spouse is able to give their harvesting rights to the partner. For the transient individuals, the residency requirement is three months before they can go out caribou hunting.
I don’t think we understand. As Inuit people we don’t understand the process of this.
First of all, I found out that the residency requirement was that if an individual comes in from the south, it was amended.
It was a one-year residency requirement, and then it was changed to a six month residency requirement in the amendments.
Can you table the amendments to the House to make sure that Nunavummiut can see those?
Hon. Patterk Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the wildlife regulations are being deliberated on, and once these are completed I will be able to table them.
Once these regulations are complete, and once the consultations are complete, once the communities are consulted, what are the minister’s plans if the amendments are not supported by the people?
In the First Assembly, the Wildlife Act was already implemented. But now, we’re dealing with the regulations, and I do want to state that when the regulations are not supported by Inuit they can be changed.
Oral Question Period is now over.
Item 10. Petitions. (interpretation ends) Item 11.
Tabled Document 163 – 2(3): State of Inuit Culture and Society 2003-04 &2004-05 – NTI Annual Report: Housing in Nunavut – The Time for Action is Now – Iniksaqattiarniq (Okalik)
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
What I’m going to table affects Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated because according to the legislation, I have to table this report.
Iniksaqattiarniq 2003-04 – 2004-05 Annual Report on Inuit Culture.
So I have to table those in the House.
We’ll find out what the exact names are once the documents make it up to the Table Officers.
Tabled Document 164 – 2(3): Army Training Centre – Correspondence with Honourable Gordon O’Connor, Minister of National Defense (Barnabas)
I would like to table a document. It is regarding correspondence between the Minister of National Defense on Arctic Army Training Centre.
Earlier today I made a statement that this was very important, the protection of the sovereignty of Canada, especially in the High Arctic, and to have the military existing up there.
Today I would like to table all the correspondence between myself and the Honourable Gordon O’Connor, who is the Minister of National Defense.
Please provide the documents to the Table Officers.
Tabled Document 165 – 2(3): Conservation Officer Recruitment DVD (Netser)
I would like to table the following material: the Conservation Officer Recruitment Video.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Netser.
Tabled Document 166 – 2(3): Response to the Standing Committee on Health and Education in its Report on the Review of Nunavut Arctic College Submitted by NAC Board of Governors (Picco)
Tabled Document 167 – 2(3): Masters of Education Program – Letter of Appreciation to Minister (Picco)
It’s a great pleasure today to table the following document: the Response to the Standing Committee on Education and Health on the Report on the Review of Nunavut Arctic College.
The second document I would like to table is: Correspondence from the University of P.E.I. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker: Can we have those documents brought forward please.
Bill 27 – An Act to Amend the Pharmacy Act – Notice
I give notice that on Monday, November 17, 2006 that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Pharmacy Act, will be read for the first time.
Speaker: Could the minister please provide the Notice of Motion to the Clerk’s Table.
Bill 23 – Supplementary Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act #4, 2005-06 – Notice
I give notice that on Monday, November 27, 2006 that Bill 23, Supplementary Appropriation (Operations and Maintenance) Act #4, 2005-06, be read for the first time.
Please proceed, Mr. Simailak.
Bill 24 – Supplementary Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act #2, 2006-07 – Notice
Bill 25 – Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act #2, 2006-07 – Notice
I have two Notices of Motions for First Reading of Bills.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, November 27, 2006 that Bill 24, Supplementary Appropriation (Operations and Maintenance) Act #2, 2006-07, be read for the first time.
And also, Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, November 27, 2006 that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act #2, 2006-07, be read for the first time.
Before we proceed with Committee of the Whole, we will take a 20-minute break.
>>House recessed at 15:44 and Committee resumed at 16:17
Chairman (Mr. Arreak)(interpretation): Thank you for coming back.
I would like to call the committee meeting to order. (interpretation ends) In Committee of the Whole we have the following item to deal with: Bill 26.
We wish to continue with the review of Bill 26 and the capital main estimates for the Department of Education.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Evyagotailak. (interpretation ends) Are we in agreement to deal with the capital estimates for Education?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you for agreeing. (interpretation ends) Yesterday, the Minister of Education and the co-chair of the standing committee delivered their opening comments.
I would like to ask Minister Picco if he has witnesses he would like to bring to the table.
Yes, I do, and I will ask them to join me at the table.
Chairman: Thank you. (interpretation) Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses.
Thank you, Sergeant-at-Arms, and Minister. (interpretation ends) Minister, for the record, please introduce your staff.
I’m very pleased to have with me today on my immediate right is Mr. Tim Innualuk, and Tim is the Manager for Capital Planning with the Department of Education.
On my immediate left is Mr. Lorne Levy, Lorne is the mentor within the Department of Education and now in a new role; a Special Advisor to CSIS and CGS on Capital Planning.
In the Gallery, Mr. Chairman, we have with us Kathy Okpik, who is the Deputy Minister of the Department of Education. And next to Kathy is Mr. Mac Clendenning, and Mac, as most members know, is the President of Nunavut Arctic College.
Chairman: Thank you, Minister Picco. (interpretation) If there are any general comments from the members, you have ten minutes.
Once the ten minutes is over and after one person makes a general comment, then give the other people a chance to do that first.
Just a short comment. Will I be able to ask questions from the minister’s opening remarks, or do I have to wait until everything is done?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Arvaluk.
We will be dealing with the capital estimates; as long as it’s in the budget, then you can ask questions.
I realized that we will be in support of the department’s opening remarks.
Education is dealt with by all the provinces in Canada, but it’s too bad from 1982 on that there were health issues that were being dealt with by GNWT and we have had a lot of problems with our education issues.
But I’m happy to day that the minister has allotted expenditures of over $23 million in 2007-08 for a strong budget for education.
I think that those are expenditures for up to 2020.
I think we already know that there’s going to be a growth in population, especially when you see a lot of people in the communities growing and other people moving to other communities.
I think Education has to have a good plan in place and to have some capital expenditure money to build more schools. If we’re going to be planning every year, or planning for five years, and if the plan is not in place, then we have an emergency situation because before 1999, NWT did not want to have a deficit on April 1, 1999.
As soon as we got the Nunavut Government, the schools were...I think you remember in Baker Lake especially, there was a fire because of the hazardous electrical wiring in the schools, and we had to pay a lot of money to renovate that because the GNWT did not want to have a deficit.
Everything was put on hold and we could not do any renovations.
We didn’t put it this way; there should have been, in the Nunavut Act, that there should be a deficit and the federal government, in turn, pay for those renovations and stuff.
Because it did not happen this way, we will always not have enough money for education.
I’d like to ask the minister on his Opening Address on the first page.
I would like to get some clarification. They have allotted money for Arctic College in Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, and Rankin Inlet.
Have there been any plans, is there a plan in place, or does the Arctic College have a separate capital planning person or is it somebody at the witness table?
Yes I will not allow you to ask that question at this time because we’re under general comments. But during the questioning of the minister you can ask him that question later on.
What I’m looking for from the members are general comments at this time.
If there are none, we will go to G-6.
(interpretation ends) Corporate Services.
Tangible Assets. Total Headquarters. $6,186,000.
Mr. Arvaluk, did you have a question?
Yes, I’m not really sure which page you were referring to in the capital estimates.
Chairman: G-6.
Mr. Arvaluk: Before we go to that page, under the minister’s opening comments I would like to ask a question.
On the first page it states that $23 million, and $66 million for 2011-12, budget totaling in these amounts.
Is that for the Department of Education alone? Or does that include Nunavut Arctic College, or do they have their own person to do the capital planning?
The member asked a question first, I believe, on the staffing requirements under the capital budget for the Department of Education. The capital planner position within the Department of Education is a shared position.
The capital planning for the college is done at the Department of Education which includes the school side of things and the college side of things.
So all the logistic as well as the administrative side of the work for capital planning are done through the Department of Education.
And, the amount that is given, there is $66,024,000 over that period from 2006-07 to 2011-12, in that time frame, that’s inclusive of Nunavut Arctic College campus development, student accommodations, as well as community learning centres.
Chairman: Thank you, Minister. Mr. Arvaluk.
On page 3 of the minister’s opening remarks, it states that, in the third paragraph that; “...we have emphasized principals of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in our planning and design, as well as supporting multipurpose facilities, partnerships, student training, as fundamental elements in our construction contracts.”
Can the minister tell me if you can use an example of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit that you used in planning and designing?
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Arvaluk.
Under the planning processes for Nunavut Arctic College two years ago, when I became the minister, one of the first things I asked the department to ensure was that we would design our schools from that point onward, or any major renovation that we would do, to include for example, a daycare space.
Under the principals of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, looking after our children under Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, one of the major priorities of that and one of the major outlines of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is the care of the children.
I believe, by encompassing and focusing that dedicated space within our schools, and having a total community type of environment for the children is part of that.
The second part is; in the schools that we’re designing, and we’re building a good example now, is in the new Aqsarniit School as an example, which is in town. The members can have a chance to look at it.
We’ve actually put in place rooms, multi-purpose, multi-faceted rooms, elders rooms, where elders would be able to do story telling for example, and sharing their knowledge.
We also have a drumming room for example that has been set up in one of the schools.
In the larger schools in communities we also facilitated where in the shop area that there is contingency to be able bring snowmobiles for example to do small engine repair in and out of the facility and to make the school to be more conducive to that. So those are several of the different things that we have been doing to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit within the school design.
We also work with elders in communities through the offices of the DEA and the new schools that we are developing all have dedicated elders areas in those schools.
I am not really sure about the response he gave me about the $23 million. The proposed expenditure of $23 million would be used for the Trade School in Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit.
I wonder if you can give me some clarification on the $23 million.
The number that is being referred to, $23 million, is the actual amount of the total budget for the capital for the Department of Education. Just for clarification, as I said earlier, that $23 million is inclusive K to 12 schools, kindergarten to grade 12, as well as Nunavut Arctic College and the Community Learning Centres as well as the Nunavut Trade School and any other assorted educational facility.
The $23 million is for all schools, CLCs, the College and student residences.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): My third question on page 4 of his opening remarks about the middle of the page.
It states that an example of the recent tendering for Gjoa Haven school renovations and that they only received one bid that exceeded the budget by almost $23 million.
Can the minister explain to me what the original estimate for Gjoa Haven school renovations?
Were they that far off, or did they underestimate the amount?
It doesn’t explain there, or did they want that much money that exceeded the budget by $23 million?
What the member has brought up is probably one of the most important and onerous things that is facing this government today and tomorrow.
That is the increased cost of our capital budget. In the case of the Gjoa Haven school we had looked at about $17 million for the school when we put the original tender out. There was only one response and it came in at $40 million: $23 million over the budget.
Now, you might have heard me say in my Member’s Statement today as an example.
We just under, the Class C estimate of the Anglican Church here in Iqaluit, which is not a government project and we looked at between $3.5 and $4 million and it is coming in at $6 million; almost double. So what has happened in Gjoa Haven is not unique just to the school in Gjoa Haven. It is happening all across Nunavut with our Capital Budget.
But it is also reflective of what we are seeing in the west, especially in Alberta, which with an over-heated economy drawing skilled journeymen carpenters, plumbers and so on trades people to the west. That is boosting up the costs.
The Department of Community and Government Services indicated to us when they looked at the tender that came in on that school and we had to go back and re-tender that again and to see if we can get more bids on it and that is what we have done.
So hopefully that answers some of the member’s questions on why the cost is so much.
It is a reason, or it is being caused in what we are seeing happening, not only in the national, or Canadian marketplace in construction, but indeed, internationally. We are seeing projects come in across the board, 20, 30, 40 percent more than what we allowed for under the tender document.
We are on Page G-6.
Mr. Arvaluk: On the same issue, has the Department of Education, or the government as a whole for that matter, considered going back to the partnership with the community by negotiating construction projects with small construction businesses that are locally owned, that can be done a lot cheaper.
With other technical requirements, such as plumbing, and electrical, etcetera, to be done by somebody else?
There are a number of private workers now in the community that fix furnaces, licensed one-man company type people.
In fact, it has been quite troublesome in my community that people who will qualify under NNI Policy, for example, Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, is competing with our small construction business people in the community.
There are small construction companies in my community who also qualify under NNI Policy who cannot compete because they cannot upfront the type of capital requirement to start up the construction.
I have an example that I will not use right now, but that had happened when the larger corporations like Nunavut Construction Corporation, Qikiqtaaluk Corporation and other Inuit owned corporations compete with the small local construction companies. We have gone back to exactly where we were before, before we created the NNI Policy.
I think we have to be very prudent in trying to get the local businesses going, have a local economy going to keep the money in town to even put into construction of schools.
Has this been considered, rather than just by saying, “Oh $23 million is too much and we are going to have to re-tender that.” Have they considered working with the community see if they could come up with acceptable costs to build or renovate those schools?
Maybe you can raise that question too when we are dealing with Community and Government Services next week, because the Minister for Community and Government Services is responsible, but if you wish to respond, Mr. Picco.
When you are looking at a project, on a project by project basis, in this case, what we have tried to demonstrate in the community of Gjoa Haven is we are trying to bundle the project.
That’s look at the component pieces of doing the project itself, the actual construction project, and to look at what kind of economies of scale and cost-effectiveness that we can achieve from the local community itself. At the same time be able to use those economies of scale and bring the cost of the project down.
One way of doing that is bringing in some component parts of the project, for example, let’s say the foundation. We would actually purchase the foundation parts, bring them into the community and say, look, we can bring the foundation parts in on the ship and do it for, you know, $27 a pile, why are you coming back in and offering us $92 a pile.
So that is part of the idea of working with the local contractors and companies.
At the same time under the NNI Policy, it gives a leg-up or an opportunity for local businesses at the local level in a smaller community to be able to be sub-contractors, for example, on a large project.