EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
The report made three specific recommendations for Nunavut, including one which stated that “the duplication of efforts by the Nunavut Impact Review Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency should be addressed.”
On September 5, 2008, the Government of Canada, the Government of Nunavut, and NTI announced the signing of a Lands and Resources Devolution Negotiation Protocol.
On January 15, 2009, the Government of Canada announced the appointment of a chief federal representative for Nunavut devolution.
The department’s 2009-2010 business plan also indicates that “By coordinating the work of the Sustainable Development Committee of Deputy Ministers, the department will ensure that the Government of Nunavut will focus on the coordination of economic initiatives and environment and land management issues across government…
In particular, the committee coordinates the development of government positions and input to Land and Resource Management Institutions established under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
It also has responsibility for the development of a land management system in anticipation of devolution of responsibility for administration and control of Nunavut’s land.”
The department’s 2009-2010 business plan states that one of its priorities is to “Engage Canada and NTI in formal negotiations for the transfer of provincial-like authority over Crown land and non-renewable resources.”
However, it also indicates that the Government of Canada “has yet to secure a negotiation mandate; therefore formal negotiations have yet to begin.”
The standing committee supports progress towards devolution and will be monitoring developments in this area with attention.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my opening comments on the 2009-2010 Main Estimates and Business Plan of the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.
I would like to remind you that each member has 10 minutes to speak.
Do any members have any general comments pertaining to the opening comments from the Premier?
Mr. Elliott: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you for the chance to speak.
I just have some general comments which I’m sure are sort of questions as well.
There’s no page numbers on here, but the Premier was speaking about the social advocate office and in one of the sentences it says, “This office will continue working on suicide intervention and gender issues.”
I was just wondering if she could elaborate on gender issues. Is she talking male/female issues or are we talking bisexual, homosexual, transsexual? What kind of gender issues are we talking about?
What it means is we have a suicide prevention office within our department and we have one person working there.
We would like to set up a new social advocacy office for the vulnerable population.
We have heard that when we go to the Nunavut communities, there are men, especially young men, who don’t have any support or somebody to advocate for them and we hear of women who need further support. It’s talking about male and female issues.
Chairman: Thank you, Madam Premier.
As I’m sure everyone is aware, I have been pushing for an independent youth and child advocate.
Again, I noticed in your statement, you’re talking about the social advocate office working with a special focus on children’s physical disabilities and advocacy on behalf of those disadvantaged due to their gender.
Once again, my whole concern, and I had mentioned it in my Member’s Statement, is that even the word youth is not present in that sort of statement.
Again, I’m a little concerned with the sort of blanket or one umbrella of a social advocate office. This position is providing three PYs. Are there any MOUs created for what that office will be doing this year?
I know for FMB to allocate money, there must have been some sort of briefing notes as to specific outcomes for this year. If the Premier could elaborate on those priorities.
I would like to remind members that yesterday, my co-chair reminded the members that we should respect and be considerate when members are speaking to issues. I would appreciate it if we can concentrate on matters that we’re dealing with at this time.
Hon Eva Aariak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We have some new people working on that right now. We seconded them from the Department of Finance and the Department of Health and Social Services.
They are going to be working on those plans. We also have the Women’s Secretariat that’s in there as well.
I noticed it says that you will “begin focused study, research, and consultation.” Will that consultation be with communities across Nunavut in terms of how they want to see the social advocate office run or will it be consultation on the best way to handle the social advocate office?
I was trying to get a little more information on what the specific outcomes are by March 31, 2010, and what we will actually have.
Will we have more studies?
We were talking about this morning how we seem to be studied to death, and we want to move forward and get some action done.
What will we have by March 31, 2010?
Hon. Eva Aariak (interpretation): Just taking a few steps back, the position is not a new one from the Department of Finance.
In regard to the position, it already exists in the Department of EIA. We have a new position and one is from the Department of Health and Social Services. That’s just for clarity.
On your comment, I would like to thank you very much for asking those questions.
We have very many people in Nunavut who need help and we have to give them the support that is required.
As I said earlier, men are starting to make their concerns heard and asking for help. Women have made their concerns known and now the men are too.
We also have the physically disabled group of individuals that the government has to seriously consider. The importance of this matter is becoming more important.
We are starting to hear many of these issues as a government.
We started off with: what are we going to do? The question is what the social advocacy office will be doing. We have to make some improvements and look at where we have to make some changes, evaluating what is proceeding as outlined and what is not.
So once all of that is done, the social advocacy office is going to work together with the government departments - the Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the Department of CLEY. They are all going to work together and we will be consulting with the departments I just mentioned as well as stakeholders.
We will consult with these organizations and see how they would like to see the social advocacy office operated and we won’t be able to represent all, but we are going to plan how we can improve the services that are provided to these disadvantaged people.
I thank the Premier for the explanation. So I guess maybe I’ll be the first in the consultation process to put forward that we should once again have an independent youth and child advocate in the territory. At the same time, I think there needs to be, and I hope as the consultation goes by, more education.
I know I had a discussion with you about the whole word of advocacy coming across as a negative type of word, and I think some people and even some members misunderstand the whole idea of what an advocate is, where I think the social advocate office should be even more proactive than reactive.
It is not as if there’s a problem, then you go and complain about it, and you deal with it after the fact.
To me, my idea of a youth and child advocate office is more of a proactive approach to raising awareness, raising education, and helping our young people and their children.
I even had someone tell me that, “Are you saying that the parents are bad?” And in a sense, you’re not saying the parents are bad because you have a child and youth advocate, that’s not the point.
So, I think, to move forward on this issue, I really hope that the government seriously considers my comments and works towards being as proactive as it can in terms of promoting it in a positive aspect.
That’s the end of my comments.
I take that as a comment.
With the social advocacy office, my question is: exactly how is it going to operate? We would like to see it run smoothly and it will also have to follow the rules. I would like to know how it’s going to operate first of all.
This project is brand new and is one that hasn’t been seen previously in Nunavut.
I’m sure that there are a lot of people out there who wanted to see an advocacy office.
First of all, we are going to consult with stakeholders and see where the government can make changes on the policies and programs, and how we can further support the disadvantaged.
This office that we’re proposing to set up in 2009-2010 under the Department of Finance, as I stated earlier, will have a special focus on children’s advocacy, physical disabilities, and advocacy on behalf of those disadvantaged due to their gender.
They’re first going to focus on setting up the policies.
I hope that was clear.
Regarding this issue, we’re talking about disadvantaged people who aren’t being properly represented. They can approach this social advocacy office because it seems like it is open to all.
My hunters are at a disadvantage at all points. Are they going to be able to approach this social advocacy office if they want their concerns dealt with?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Okalik. (interpretation ends) Madam Premier.
Just to elaborate further, women and men will be provided with support, especially those who are underrepresented and also children, who say they need support on social issues, as well as disabled people and children.
They will have special focus on those groups.
They will work on the policy and also on the details as to how it will be operated.
There will be a director in that office and the director will be the manager.
There will also be another PY. I would also like to say that they are now working on what the policies should contain after consulting with the people of Nunavut.
The Member for Quttiktuq had stated earlier on that the children need a representative.
When we talk about children, we have to have a clear understanding of Inuit societal values and we have to incorporate those values and Inuit culture into that office.
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Yes, we usually have legislation going for that advocacy office and they are looking for ways to make it better.
There is no legislation for this office.
Where does anyone who makes a complaint to the advocacy office go after that? What’s the next step?
Is that the only place for them to make their complaints when there’s no legislation to provide support to the people? So what’s the status of it or how will it be done?
That’s what I’m talking about.
That’s what we’re going to be working on, but we haven’t set up the legislation yet and we are going to start working on the policies, and the Members of the Legislative Assembly will have to approve all those.
I don’t have a problem if she fully discloses what is involved with the legislation, which will allow us to make the appropriate preparations.
Just setting up an office is not enough by itself.
So I would appreciate it if she can give a full report on the proposed office and what kinds of plans are being prepared.
There will be four PYs in the beginning.
As I stated earlier on, we will be working out the details.
It’s not complete yet.
However, all of us Nunavummiut know that we need to provide additional support and we need to have special focus on the ones that I mentioned.
The office could be set up at arms length with the government.
We have to plan on various contents and we need to do more consultation with Nunavummiut in regard to that.
The report card is going to be very beneficial to the function of the social advocacy office.
There were some questions asked and my colleague was talking about the marketing of sealskins. That market is very important to Nunavummiut.
I had asked the Premier before the session to start planning to go to the European Union and to have a good representative when they were going to discuss the ban on sealskins.
I would like to ask now: did we send any elected members to the European Union?
That’s a very good comment.
Since we have been elected, we have been working on that issue even prior to the general election in 2006. With respect to sealskin marketing in the European Union, they have been talking about the ban since then and they have been working on this issue for quite some time.
All levels of government, the federal government, as well as the Department of Environment and various departments, are working very hard and they made sure that we communicate with each other.
We continue to work with federal government officials.
Minister Canon had supported us when they went to the European Union during the banning of sealskins. Minister Canon, his officials, as well as Minister Shea have stated, as Minister Daniel Shewchuk had stated, that they have provided support to us and that we are all working very closely together.
This will not stop.
We will continue to work on it because we truly believe that it’s very crucial and the sealskin is very important to Nunavummiut.
We will look for other avenues to market sealskin.
As we had heard earlier on when Minister Shewchuk made his statement, by working hard together along with our partnership with federal government counterparts, we hear that there’s good support on that in Nunavut.
She didn’t respond to my question. As an elected person, did we have a representative for Members of the Legislative Assembly when they went to the European Union?
I had asked during the last session to please go over there as soon as possible.
So I would like to ask the Premier: did we have a representative from this legislature?
As I stated earlier, I went to Norway just prior to the EU Parliament’s vote on the seal ban. We were representing Nunavummiut and Minister Canon made a statement.
We’re not going to stop looking to market the skins and the market is still open.
Just prior to the vote, we had heard that they already knew what the results of the votes were. We had an individual from Iqaluit going over to Europe as well. So we will use various ways to support this.
Sometimes after we learn something new, we can make changes and we have to try new things.
What we had experienced, I’m sorry that we didn’t get a representative from the Legislative Assembly to change the minds of the Europeans.
I was called by them that they had not heard what the plans are of the government. A person called to tell me that they didn’t hear anything about the European Union and I know that they were facing some difficult challenges.
I don’t want to see that again in the future because we have to show our strength and we need good representation.
If there’s going to be something like that occurring, I want the government to learn from past experiences because I don’t want to see this occur again.
Hon. Eva Aariak (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I want to state again that Nunavummiut are working very hard on that because we truly believe that. We even have a department that takes care of that and that’s the Department of Environment.
I am very appreciative that they are working very hard and I know that they will continue to work at the Department of Environment.
Chairman: Qujannamiik, Madam Premier. (interpretation) Thank you.
I have no more names on my list. We will move on to page B-4. (interpretation ends) Branch Summary.
Directorate. Total Operations and Maintenance. $2,306,000.
I’m going back to what Mr. Okalik was asking about - the social advocate office - and your answer in terms of studying it or trying to do more research on it.
I know the civil service has been studying this since 2001. In the research that I have been going through, I have seen legislative proposals, briefing notes, policy outlines, Members’ Statements, and letters from organizations like NAM. What happened to all of this work that was done?
There’s a lot of good work that’s been done since 2001 and like Mr. Okalik keeps saying, they have been busy building up a government and moving on and getting a lot of other priorities dealt with. What happened to all of this information? Why do we need to reinvent the wheel and go over it again?
Hon. Eva Aariak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) As I said earlier, because the government is making plans to improve life in Nunavut, this is one of the little initiatives that we are trying to implement to address the social needs of our citizens in Nunavut.
There are too many people experiencing personal pain and hardships without enough assurance that they can be helped.
I guess when I mentioned the word study, I meant that how the policies can be changed, how programs can be implemented, and structure for better advocacy and better action on behalf of those who are disadvantaged is what I was getting at earlier.
Maybe I didn’t make myself too clear at the time. (interpretation) Thank you.
I have questions dealing with another issue, so I don’t know if other people want to... but can I continue?
In the business plan on page B-13, for the priorities for the government for 2008-09, it talked about assisting in the coordination of a business plan and marketing strategy for the 2010 Olympic Games.
In terms of the status of that, ED&T has led the participation in the Olympics with the help from CLEY and EIA, and this will continue until March 2010.
Is it possible to have a copy of the business plan and the marketing strategy for this?
Madam Primer.
We can look into it and we can provide a copy.
To supplement, ED&T is responsible for that and we can provide more information on that.
I do have a couple of questions for Madam Premier, Ms. Eva Aariak, or guests at the witness stand.
On page B-4 under the title Directorate, your department’s business plan also indicates that “Four deputy-level interdepartmental committees will be created with goals of furthering the priorities of government: Quality of Life Committee, Central Accountability Committee… and Building Capacity Committee.”
What are the roles and priorities of each of these committees?
I will have Markus respond.
The deputy ministers’ committees that are to be created have, in fact, now already been created and are actively meeting. There’s always a large amount of interdepartmental work that needs to happen within the government. We can’t work within individual departments and because of that, there are many.
The ones we specifically deal with daily are probably 30 to 40 interdepartmental committees.
It was felt that we needed to put some structure to that and to have some directed work that can look specifically at implementing mandate priorities, that can also look at aggregating several departments and having them work closely together when they commonly deal with the same issues.
One of those, for example, is the Quality of Life Committee.
That committee will have the departments that have traditionally been considered social envelopes that deal with social issues like health, education, justice, culture, language, elders, and youth to coordinate the work. That committee, for example, will likely play a role in steering the work of the social advocacy office that members are very interested in.
The other committees, the Building Capacity Committee is specifically about building capacity of staff within the Government of Nunavut and also building capacity within the private sector amongst other Nunavummiut to build the capacity to take on new jobs.
That committee has been meeting quite actively on a monthly basis and has started some work specifically around the Training and Development Fund as well that’s in this current budget that you’re considering.
The other committee that you reference is the Central Accountability Committee. That committee has many of the central agencies from government on it. It’s the Department of Finance, Community and Government Services, EIA, the Department of HR, and the Department of Justice.
The Central Accountability Committee is chaired by Finance and ensures that issues around accountability particularly are dealt with regularly.
The issues around public agencies can be dealt with through a committee structure.
I hope that answers the question.
I also thank the guest for that response. I do have a final question under B-4. The issue of lobbyist registration has been raised in prior years by MLAs and in reports of the Integrity Commissioner.
Do you support the creation of a public registry of individuals who are paid by private companies to lobby the Government of Nunavut on different issues?
I have Mr. Okalik.
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) My question is on… (interpretation) I know that it’s very difficult to start working on an amendment.
I know that in the past, we have faced many challenges in trying to obtain what the needs of the public are and to make sure that these problems are reduced.
We wanted to respond adequately to: when we are within the three years coming up, will we feel the impact as Nunavummiut?
Sometimes it’s very difficult to know where to start.
They said that they will want to start planning this coming fall. During that time, I want you to perhaps consider shortening the response and to have an impact on Nunavummiut.
I would like the member to clarify his question because I didn’t understand his question.
Perhaps if I elaborate further.
In the first government, as members, we kind of argued as to which one would be our priority to reduce problems, such as housing and education.
Those were our missions and then later on, social issues and economic development became our priorities.
I know that we resolved some of the problems by working hard and setting up our goals. We kept them at a minimum because it was very difficult to have so much on your plate.
In order to have an impact on the ten, where are we going to start on the wish list?
There are ten on wish list, how can we reduce the number on the wish list?
I personally would like to thank Mr. Okalik for being a Premier from the first legislature to the last general election. He guided us as the Premier and he received support from the elected members.
It’s true that we have many priorities in Nunavut and we face many challenges, but we will have to work confidently on the ten items on the wish list that he mentioned. If we lack confidence, we will not be able to move forward.
We have to look far into the future in Nunavut as a government.
During the last session in October, the cabinet went to Cape Dorset to start planning on the mission statement, what our priorities are during this term and what we would like to achieve during this term as well as in the future.
We have many tasks ahead of us and new tasks will keep appearing while we start improving on the others. There will be more that will be coming out that we will need to address.
During that retreat, we created the Tamapta mission statement and there are various things included in there such as education.
For all Members of the Legislative Assembly, education is our priority and to move on to healthy lifestyles. There are various priorities like economic development. How could we make sure that it could help us?
So we had identified many missions and we have to work on the contents of some of the statements.
We will want to see the report card of the Nunavut government and I know you’re expecting it as Members of the Legislative Assembly. Also, I’m sure that Nunavummiut will want to see the results of the report card exercise.
The results of the report card are going to be very beneficial for Nunavummiut and to the governmental departments.
We are interested in hearing from them because they are the staff of the government and they have ideas as to how we can provide more support.
I just wanted to state again that his question is a very good one because we need to develop a long-term plan.
This is the initiation of this report card within our government and it will be completed during the summer.