EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Since 2004, since I have been elected to this House as your MLA from Rankin Inlet South and Whale Cove and then as Cabinet Minister, I find that...
Mr. Speaker, could I please continue on with my speech?
Indeed, I wish to express my gratitude to many people. Although I wasn’t going to make a statement initially, I became envious of all of the statements and so I rose.
As I stated earlier, prior to my election to this position, my hair was nice and dark, but now it’s chockfull of grey hairs. They used to be nice and black, just kidding. I’m only joking, but to set the record straight, I already had grey hair when I got here.
This isn’t shameful, it’s just the way people age and it’s something that most of you here will also undergo.
Additionally, to those members who believed in me and my abilities as a potential minister, I thank you profusely as there were 19 members at that time.
I have learned a lot ever since that time. I also have to thank the Premier because he always supported me, especially when I was going through difficult times.
A lot of times in our Cabinet meetings or FMBs, we didn’t always agree, but we still managed to deal with the issues.
It’s quite taxing at times, but even with all of these issues, it’s also part of our mandate and most of our responsibilities are not light matters.
When my husband and I first came here, we were pretty bored because Iqaluit is now a city, the capital of our territory, and it’s quite large now. We didn’t know many people and we didn’t visit other people as much, but the residents are very hospitable...
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): … and we talk to them anytime as they are very welcoming.
When we first got here, I was always waiting for Hunter Tootoo at the Capital Suites.
I would look out the window and my husband would ask me, “Are you waiting for your son again?”
I would answer, “Yes, I am looking for Hunter.”
I would like to thank Hunter for his company.
Additionally, I wish to mention that when we moved into our house, our neighbours, Lena and Lodi Ipeelie, were very welcoming and kept visiting to ensure that we were okay.
Ed Picco and his wife’s doors were always open for us and they have been to this today, and I thank them for that.
I want all of you to know that Ed is a tremendous asset and really helps out. He helps the same way as you do, just so you will know.
I would like to thank my staff in Rankin Inlet as well.
First of all, I thank my previous assistant, Rita Nata, my CA, who helped me, thank you.
As well, Annanow Thomas Tiktaq, who is still my CA, thank you very much. Also in Whale Cove, Pat Enuapik, who was my previous CA, and Mary Kanayuk-Voisey, who is now my CA, I thank you both.
We occasionally go through hard times as human beings. We encounter hardships as MLAs or members of a legislature, but the fact that we overcome those situations shows that we persevered.
I am very proud of how you all treat everybody the same and I try to emulate that.
We first came here in May 2004 and I would like to thank the government copiously for providing our family with housing.
In order not to be so bored and homesick, my daughter, Maani, followed to Iqaluit and I would like to thank her.
She met a person who is now her partner, Chris Henderson, and they had a child.
There was Foxy, Pan. Rosemary is called Pan and her younger sister, Pasha, and the youngest is Levinia Igalaaq. She went to kindergarten and decided to quit the same day.
Her mother asked her, “Why did you quit?” She said, “The teacher kept saying Levinia,” but she grew up being called Nuka. She thought her name was Nuka, so she decided to quit, but she ended up returning.
As I stated, all things come to pass.
They just recently added two more children and I was proud that they had a son whose name is Uqaqti.
People call him “Mr. Speaker.”
His younger sister was named after my mother, Qiliqti. The namesakes of my parents are now together and I am proud of that.
I am proud of everyone here as well and keep on trying even when it might seem difficult. I, too, will be going to run again and I want everyone to know this. It doesn’t feel like I am finished and just as I am getting comfortable, I have to leave my seat and that’s my only regret.
I will be putting my name in the hat and I am announcing it here since I have received questions from the residents of Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove.
I thank each and every one of you.
Member’s Statement 563 – 2(4): Thanks to Constituents and the People of Nunavut (Okalik)
I envy some members and I don’t envy others.
I rise today to acknowledge those people who are not running for re-election; they know what their future holds and their plans.
For those of us who are running again, we are unsure exactly what our future holds as it is up to our bosses, the voters, to determine our fate.
That’s how parliamentary systems operate and I have no problem with that.
We have to keep following our constituents’ wishes and voice any issues they want as their representatives and try to implement their requirements both here at the House and outside.
I am very happy to represent my riding and I am confident to announce my intention to run again as I feel that my work is unfinished at this point.
When I first ran as a candidate, I stated that I wasn’t running just for planning purposes. I wanted to retain my seat until I had finished the items I feel are necessary and only then would I feel compelled to leave, so I wish to continue on this journey.
There are some issues that have largely been resolved, such as the number of Inuit employees in our government. With respect to our lovely language, we passed the legislation to protect it and now, it will become stronger. I was extremely proud that this draft bill was passed and my heart was pounding, luckily no one could see it, as we started to vote on the bill.
I was brought up by my loving parents and I am thankful for their hard work.
Even now, I try and abide by their advice and I am always happy to follow them.
My parents underwent hard times and they taught me how to deal with them, and I still use their advice to date. I am extremely grateful to my parents for passing along their traditional social skills and knowledge.
All over Nunavut, from all parts of our territory, I am continually advised of issues, problems, items requiring resolution, and anything else pertinent to their interests. I can always feel their support. Sometimes when I feel down in the dumps, people continually pull me back on my feet.
I am so grateful to my constituents in Iqaluit West for their continual advice, for their non-aggressive behaviour and hospitality. Even though I am not originally from Iqaluit, many of the constituents in Iqaluit West treat me as an adopted son. I didn’t grow up here, but they support me unconditionally and I am extremely happy that Iqalummiut are so hospitable.
I am concluding my statement by thanking all of you. For those people who are running again, good luck and we will see you again.
If there are no more, going to the Orders of the Day.
These individuals aren’t in the Gallery because they’re in Cambridge Bay today. I have long said that it’s very difficult for people from the Kitikmeot to come here, so I will send a message to them.
I would like to recognize Irene Amagonalak, Jean Anne Haniliak, and Eva Otokiak.
These three ladies have been my constituency assistants for the last four and a half years, and I would like to tell them that I appreciate their support and hard work on my behalf. They keep me informed about what’s happening back in Cambridge Bay when I’m over here.
As always, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize someone that’s no stranger to the Members of this House, that’s here in the Gallery, and that’s Ms. Eva Onalik with Canadian Airlines… Canadian North, I’m sorry. I’m going back too far, aging myself.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity to recognize three young constituents of mine that are here in the Gallery, two of whom participated in the Youth Parliament, and they are here as pages today.
The first one is Mr. Keegan Mackey, sitting over here. I welcome him to the Gallery.
The other two are probably out getting water for members or delivering messages somewhere, and that’s Duncan MacKay and he also participated in the Youth Parliament.
The other young individual that’s here paging is a constituent of mine. I know he’s probably no stranger to a lot of members here. His mother works upstairs on the second floor and that’s young Mr. Jayko Akavak.
I know it was a surprise that I didn’t do a Member’s Statement earlier and I believe that’s one of the rare occasions that I didn’t join with the members. But I would like to make up for it right now by welcoming to the Gallery and indeed in the House, Mr. Thomas Ford-Rogers.
Thomas is a resident of Apex, a constituent of mine. His mom works for Mr. Tootoo and does an excellent job on behalf and for the Member for Iqaluit Centre.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Thomas to the Gallery. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
On behalf of Ms. Tupik, I would like to recognize all of our staff here at the Assembly.
I would like to recognize our Sergeant-at-Arms as this is our last day.
Simanek Kilabuk, thank you for doing a great job acting as our Sergeant-at-Arms, sitting in your seat and protecting us in the House. You have kept us from getting worried.
Further, I would like to acknowledge our technician who works very hard in ensuring that our audio and video feeds are running smoothly. His office is up there and he happens to be one of my constituents, George Metuq.
We remember and acknowledge your hard work.  I thank all those who have been keeping our constituents informed and up-to-date on our sessions, both on our televised proceedings and audio feeds.
I also thank all of our interpreters as well.
Question 684 – 2(4): New Funding to Attract Immigrants to Nunavut (Peterson)
My question is for the Minister responsible for Immigration.
Mr. Speaker, I heard in the radio news earlier this month that Nunavut received a significant block of federal funding to attract immigrants to our territory. I was a bit surprised that the Government of Nunavut has not issued a press release announcing this good news.
My question for the minister: would the minister inform the House specifically how the $600,000 in new funding will be spent?
Minister responsible for Multiculturalism, Homelessness and Immigration, Minister Picco.
The immigration money that we signed off has been a long time coming and indeed, Mr. Speaker, we have been working on this for the last couple of years and I am very pleased to say that the federal government has agreed to transfer about $600,000 in total for immigration issues for Nunavut.
That money will be used to develop a portal, which is a web portal on the Internet, so people can see what Nunavut is all about and we would like to begin to target professionals to come to Nunavut. We want to see more doctors and nurses, and so on, those types of professions.
Some of the money will also be used, Mr. Speaker, to help, for example, with acclimatization of Nunavut, familiarity with our culture in Nunavut, and indeed the culture of Canada, and so those monies will be multifaceted.
There was an announcement, Mr. Speaker, and indeed we actually announced it with the press release from our federal partner as well as from the Immigration Secretariat of the Government of Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, indeed I had heard that the $600,000 would be used for advertising and an Internet web portal. I thought that was rather expensive for a web portal, a very lucrative business indeed. I also understand, Mr. Speaker, that there is already Internet advertising for health professionals like doctors to come to Nunavut.
My question for the minister: would the minister clarify what other types of professionals will be actively recruited through the new program and whether any new positions will be specifically assigned to review applications and assist applicants through the hiring and immigration process to come to Nunavut?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Peterson. (interpretation ends) Minister responsible for Immigration, Minister Picco.
Just to back up a little bit on the clarification of the answer I gave and again, for the listening public and indeed for the House, when I say the development of a portal on the Internet, I didn’t mean to intend or imply that $600,000 was just going to that.
I think if the Hansard is read tomorrow, you will see that I added in, there are also monies for settlements and when I say settlements, that’s the acclimatization for new immigrants to Canada and indeed, for example, you need to have some language training. Some of the people who might be interested in coming to Canada may need some other social or cultural help to integrate into the Canadian fabric and indeed the Nunavut fabric, our culture and our situation here.
So those monies would be used for that.
The money wouldn’t come directly to the Government of Nunavut and we wouldn’t be spending all of that money as a government. What we would look at is if there’s an NGO on site, or a non-government operation, that would be able to look at facilitating some of this money for us expeditiously and be able to get that money out to the immigrant base.
Again, Mr. Speaker, this has been a couple of years in negotiation and we’re quite pleased to join with the rest of the provinces and territories in Canada to access this money on behalf and for Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, I support the minister’s initiatives and applaud him for the work he has done on that initiative. I know many immigrants in Nunavut who are contributing greatly to our territory.
Mr. Speaker, years ago, professionals from specific countries were targeted for recruitment in the North. For example, British-trained nurses were highly sought after due to the skills they had particularly in obstetrics and midwifery that were very helpful in rural outpost settings.
My question for the minister: would the minister update the House on whether any specific countries will be targeted for attracting immigrants to Nunavut?
We have had some success in looking at accessing, for example, health care professionals from outside of Canada and indeed as we all know in the House here, you read on a regular basis and see on television, that there is a worldwide shortage of nurses as an example.
So we have targeted, for example, the Philippines; we have actually been to Australia and recruited outback nurses from Australia, as the members are familiar with.
When the portal is set up and in place and the linkage is there for Nunavut, because it is the World Wide Web, Mr. Speaker, you will have an opportunity to have people from around the world looking at opportunities to come to Nunavut specifically.
In the past, when people wanted to come to Canada, they would necessarily go to Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
We feel, as the smallest jurisdiction in the country, here is an opportunity with these new dollars to be able to attract some of these professionals to Nunavut.
What a great place to come and live, Mr. Speaker.
We have a unique culture, we have a unique lifestyle, Mr. Speaker, and we are a small community, and I think there are a lot of people around the world who would like to enjoy that. So that’s what the monies would be used for.
Also, Mr. Speaker, we do have some immigrants that are on the ground right now in Canada that are willing to come to Nunavut.
We can use some of these monies also to help bring forward culture and be able to cultivate some of their needs on the ground in Nunavut, whether that’s in Iqaluit, or Cambridge Bay, or what have you.
I thank the minister for that information and some background on where the Government of Nunavut has been recruiting nurses.
Mr. Speaker, there have been a number of initiatives to recruit professionals over the years, especially nurses, to Nunavut from overseas.
I recall a few years ago, Australian nurses were recruited. I also recall, when I was a mayor in Cambridge Bay, there was an Australian nurse who was treated very poorly by the Government of Nunavut. She came to my office in tears and she went home, and I’m sure she spread the bad news about how she was treated.
More recently, Mr. Speaker, we’ve had nurses from India and the Philippines who were encouraged to come to Nunavut to work.
I have heard also that some of these nurses have experienced some bad times.
Some are telling me that they have been unsupported by the Government of Nunavut and in fact, I’m aware of many nurses who have left Nunavut.
So my question for the minister: can the minister inform the House if he has any initiatives that he’s considering that would make the recruiting process more supportive and welcoming to Nunavut immigrants, particularly nurses?
Let me say for the record and be very clear on this, if there are concerns raised by employees, we do have mechanisms in place to be able to deal with those concerns and indeed we have a collective agreement in place, and so on.
Mr. Speaker, this government has just put forward probably one of the most lucrative salary and compensation package ever in the history of Canada for nurses and indeed it has been recognized across Canada as such.
Indeed, Mr. Speaker, we are very aggressively trying to recruit nurses and I know the member has had some concerns with staffing in his community. So let me say again for the record, that anyone, when they have issues like that, they should bring them forward so we can review them.
I am familiar with a couple of those cases, and in that context, I know they have been rectified.
Mr. Speaker, quickly to answer the member’s main question and again I appreciate the member raising the issue, these monies and the program under the Immigration Secretariat, which consists of myself and the ADM of EIA in Ottawa, is to be able to put forward monies to be able to help acclimatize and provide programs and training. For example, maybe it’s language programming training; maybe we would be able to help assist them so that they can pass their exams.
When a person is in the Philippines and would like to come to Canada, they think about going to Ontario, Alberta, or British Columbia and now, their opportunity is that we would be able to introduce and bring forward an opportunity to bring them here to Nunavut, and I think that’s quite exciting.
So we do have some plans in place and we are working. I know, for example, we do have a meeting this week. We’ve had an NGO to be able to help facilitate this.
We are not trying to take jobs, for example, Mr. Speaker, from Nunavummiut. We’re trying to bring in these positions that we need, especially in the professional area, and to help our communities.
Question 685 – 2(4): Landfill Sites in Nunavut (Curley)
This question has been raised previously in this House and I would like to direct it to the Minister of Community and Government Services.
What kinds of plans does our government have with respect to the waste management of our numerous junk piles and garbage dump? Has a plan been drafted to resolve this issue that causes concerns to many Nunavummiut?
I thank the member for asking an excellent question.
We occasionally hold discussions with the Departments of Economic Development and Environment on the removal of garbage from the North.
There have been previous plans in place to transport scrap metal and old vehicles down south.
They are starting to plan the details, but it’s not a simple matter.
It seems that we have not progressed much since we first began, but it’s still ongoing.
During the Youth Parliament, a question was posed in this House to a fellow Rankin Inlet representative, the Honourable Appolina Manilak, about this very issue.
Her response was, “... I am considering a recycling plant for all of Nunavut to ensure the safety of the environment.” I wonder if the minister can respond to that as well because the Youth Parliamentarians wanted a recycling plant and even stated that they would propose legislation to address this issue in the future.
I’m wondering if the minister can also commit to drafting legislation designed to deal with waste, such as old batteries, old tires, and all sorts of plastic, that just end up on our land.
I would like to know if the minister would look into drafting legislation to deal with the garbage issue here in Nunavut as per the statements of the Youth Parliament Minister of Community and Government Services. (interpretation ends) Thank you.
I don’t want to take away the role of the environment or the economic development ministers, but this is becoming a priority to the government.
We now have a compactor the size of a sea can here in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet that crushes metal for compacting for shipment.
These compactors crush the metal, compact it, and transport it out by ship, so we are moving forward in dealing with this issue.
As well, I stated earlier that we are working on a plan and we have held discussions between departments that I alluded to.
The staff we have in those discussions include officials of those departments, along with deputy ministers and our department, CG&S.
I feel that this issue highlighted by the member is an important matter for Nunavut and we will continue to develop our plans to combat it.
Question 686 – 2(4): Iqaluit Airport Master Plan (Tootoo)
Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to hear his Minister’s Statement yesterday in regard to the airport master plan.
It is something that I have asked about even way back into the First Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, the minister indicated in his statement that the master plan that he tabled was done in 1999. It was also indicated that what was pointed out in that master plan, as far as predictions on the growth and how busy the airport has been, is something that has actually happened.
He also indicated that as a result of this growth, it raises a number of concerns regarding safety and security.
I know we’ve had a number of unfortunate incidents here over the last five or six years and so I’m glad that that’s moving forward.
But, Mr. Speaker, in the report, one of the short-term development programs outlined there that were supposed to happen between 1999 and 2001, that’s seven years ago, was the construction of a new air terminal building.
I’m just wondering if the minister can give an indication of when that will happen.
Hon. Patterk Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) The Iqaluit Airport Master Plan recommends moving operations to Apron 1 to ensure regulatory compliance. As to when it will be implemented, it will be up to the new government and obviously, the federal government will have to come into play in terms of dollars assistance.
In the Minister’s Statement, he indicates that they’re going to be using that new apron that was paved last summer to offload many of the passengers and that they will be required to take a bus and go from over there all the way to the existing terminal to get their luggage and they have to check-in at the new terminal, then get on the bus, and then go down to get on their plane.
It’s the same thing I said when the doors didn’t work, I said, “Why don’t they just fix this and build a terminal?”
The minister indicated that it would be up to the federal government to come through with some dollars, but has he had discussions with his federal counterpart as to where this is on the radar with the federal government and is it a priority?
He had indicated that there are new regulatory issues related to it and it is an international airport. Could he indicate how much of a priority and what input that he’s received or any information that he’s received from his federal counterpart?
With respect to the issue of the terminal building here in Iqaluit, it is overcrowded practically everyday and I believe there are about 80 landings daily.
So it’s becoming a priority to deal with the terminal building in Iqaluit.
We need to look at constructing a larger building and this is a matter that we are constantly in communication with the federal government and Transport Canada.
Is it on their radar?
Is it a priority for them to ensure that our airport meets the current regulations?