EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
But as we speak they are working on it.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister for being very sensitive and clear with her responses.
I am sure, as I have stated before, the two communities that I represent, the local contractors will try to put in a bid.
However, if there were any problems, for example if they were not registered at the BIP level they should be told if they are not eligible to put in a bid on a contract.
Therefore, I would like you to inform the local contractors why they would not be able to put in a bid for contracts.
I would like a document that states that and explains that.
The businesspeople if they are not awarded a contract they are given the reasons.
I am sure that I will consult with the member if his local companies are not awarded a contract.
I do not even know if those local companies that he is talking about have put in a bid.
I never know who puts in a bid or not.
According to the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti policy, those criteria are used.
It is my responsibility to make sure the departments are following the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti policy, I will inform the member, and I am sure my staff will inform communities as to who was awarded a contract and who was not.
I know, Mr. Speaker, that we want to be sensitive to the communities and we want to develop the local companies.
In the new policy it states that we have to develop and train the local contractors.
Under Article 24 we have to use this article under the land claims agreement to help develop Nunavut companies and we are still working on that now.
Mr. Speaker, I know that you want me to rush but unintentionally I talk so fast that the interpreters cannot keep up with me.
So today I am trying to speak slower so that the interpreters can keep up with me.
So I will inform you and consult with you.
Motion 25 – 1(3): Official Emblems
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Canadian Inuit Dog (Canis familiaris borealis) be adopted as the Official Animal of Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the motion.
I would also like to thank the Honourable Manitok Thompson for seconding the motion.
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to speak today to this motion to designate new official symbols of Nunavut to accompany our Flag and Coat of Arms.
I am also very pleased that these are being announced in the early Spring, when the colours of our land begin to return.
As Members of the Legislative Assembly know, our Flag and Coat of Arms were unveiled on April 1, 1999.
Since then, there has been significant public interest -- both from within Canada and abroad -- as to what are other official symbols of our new territory.
Prior to the creation of Nunavut, the Floral Emblem Act of the NWT was not duplicated for Nunavut, leaving us free to designate a flower of our choice to represent Nunavut.
And to date, no animals or birds have been officially designated.
Last year, Mr. Speaker, over 249 suggestions were received from Nunavut residents as to what would be appropriate symbols for Nunavut.
A wide variety of birds, flowers and animals were nominated from people across the Territory.
Mr. Speaker, all Members of the Legislative Assembly participated in discussing what official symbols should be designated at this time.
As you know, Mr. Speaker, legislatures across Canada designate new symbols for their jurisdiction from time to time.
I am certain that during the years to come, additional symbols will be designated by this House.
Mr. Speaker, the Purple Saxifrage is one of the three species of wild flowers depicted in Nunavut's Coat of Arms.
This beautiful flower begins to bloom in June.
Its hardiness, usefulness and ability to grow successfully in extreme climates makes it a fitting symbol for Nunavut.
In the past, the saxifrage was used for tea, giving sustenance and comfort to families and communities.
Mr. Speaker, there are many variants in English for the name of the Canadian Inuit Dog.
In Inuktitut, we know it as the qimmiq.
The Inuit Dog has been essential to the survival of the Inuit for as long as there have been people inhabiting this land.
The qimmiq, the Inuit Dog is as much a part of the lives of Nunavummiut today as it was for our ancestors.
Mr. Speaker, the Rock Ptarmigan is the most boreal of the ptarmigan family.
Its range extends from the Baffin to the Kitikmeot; from the Belcher Islands to the High Arctic.
It is a bird for all of Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for permitting me to speak to the motion.
I am confident that these official symbols we are designating today will be seen in the eyes of all Canadians as appropriate and unique reflections of our home.
To the motion, a question has been called.
Against. Motion is carried.
Motions. Mr. Puqiqnak.
Motion 26 – 1(3): Members’ Obligations
Speaker: The motion is in order, to the motion.
Contraire.
Motions, in reference to these motions, there will be signing ceremony tomorrow, and we will provide more details later in the day.
Motions, Mr. Havioyak.
Motion 27 – 1(3): Review of the Rules of the Legislative Assembly
The motion is in order, to the motion, a question has been asked, all those in favour, contrary, motion is carried.
First Reading of Bills. Item 18. Second Reading of Bills.
Bill 13 and Tabled Documents 41-1(3), 61-1(3), 93-1(3), 95-1(3), 96-1(3) and 97-1(3).
According to the authority vested in me by Motion 3-1(3), the Committee of the Whole will stay in session until it reports itself out with Mr. Puqiqnak as Chairperson.
Before commencement of the Committee of the Whole we will break for lunch and ask members to prepare to come back to the chambers by 1:15 p.m. Sergeant-At-Arms.
>>House recessed at 11.40 a.m. and resumed at 1.19 p.m.
We have before us Bill 13 and Tabled Documents 41-1(3), 61-1(3), 93-1(3), 95-1(3), 96-1(3) and 97-1(3).
On Friday, we were under Finance and Administration.
The Regular Caucus met and we want start with the Department of Finance and Administration with the Minister at the witness table.
Chairperson (interpretation): Minister would you like to bring in your staff to the witness table.
Today being Monday I would like to take the opportunity to welcome the Members back to the House.
We will deal with the Department of Finance and Administration.
Welcome Mr. Minister and your staff.
We are under general comments and questions to the Department of Finance and Administration.
Under general comments I will want to get some clarification on the Department of Finance.
Whenever they do the budget for the year, I want to know exactly how they go about dealing with planning the budget.
Chairperson (interpretation): Did you get the question Mr. Minister.
First Mr. Chairman if I may introduce my witnesses here with me.
To my right is Mr. Bob Vardy the Deputy Minister and to my left Mr. Victor Tootoo my Assistant Deputy Minister, both are from Finance and Administration.
To answer to the Honourable Member’s question, what happens is the Department puts together for the Financial Management Board, a fiscal outlook on what to expect to generate and receive revenues.
Then we at the same time, review what each department’s requests are for funding from the past year and for the current year and try to put together based on those revenues and expected revenues and expected expenditures.
I am sorry I did not ask you to introduce your staff first.
Thank you, Mr. Minister for introducing your staff.
I would like to thank the Minister for the information.
If there is no request from the communities and one of my communities has hardly anything allocated to it, I think there is about 25 thousand dollars for one of my communities.
If there is no request from any other communities in Nunavut, you do not even put it in the budget.
You do not even plan it in the budget for a community or something for the community to spend.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Ng.
Mr. Chairman as I indicated each department of the Government is responsible for putting forward their needs for their department.
Part of those needs would be what they feel is required throughout the communities of Nunavut, address the programs and responsibilities within the department.
The Department of Finance and Administration co-ordinates all the compilation or compiling of that information in developing the budget that comes before the House.
Therefore, if there is a situation during the course of the year where there is an extraordinary need out there in the community then that can be taken into consideration either during the course of the year or the future years planning for budgetary requirements.
Sometimes the budget that is prepared has been changed with the course of the year say for instance to be used for something else that came up.
I will just use this as an example, there was a budget for 400 thousand for the design of a building.
Perhaps that 400 thousand was not enough for the design of the building.
When ever the budget that has been prepared is going to change how come the regular members do not get informed of a change that is going to occur.
Mr. Chairman, sometimes as Member know we bring Supplementary Appropriations to the House after the budget is set.
That is to reflect any changes that are required.
If money that is approved in the Assembly for specific projects are requested to move to other projects for whatever reasons, that is where it would come back to the House.
All members would be able to see what is being proposed and be part of the decision making process, have input into that.
In regards to the budget preparation, when we became elected as MLAs we figured that the Department of Education had the funding for my community would have gone ahead.
Now it has been deferred because it has not had a design put in. We were not informed why that was during this session.
On April 11 there was a change made and it did not seem to come from the ministers.
I just wondered whether the Financial Management Board has the authority to defer an item that was to go ahead.
Mr. Chairman, normally no we would not defer anything.
There might be circumstances surrounding specific projects for whatever reason they could not be delivered in the current year.
It is really up to the Minister responsible for that to try to follow up and deal with an issue.
If it requires financial changes whether if it is additional money or whether it be moving dollars within the department then that particular Minister have to come back to the Financial Management Board for that approval.
As I indicated earlier it would be part of the Supplementary Appropriation process, which would come back to the House after that Financial Management Board decision.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Minister Ng. Mr. Iqaqrialu do you have any further comments or questions.
How can you inform us right away because in this example we were not informed right away and it gets frustrating when we do not get information right away because that what happened after you made your decision.
They by-passed me.
I was wondering if your department is going to be doing the same thing, the same process in the future.
Mr. Chairman as I indicated our Department of Finance and Administration is co-ordinating for all of the government.
I would suggest that certainly from that perspective that we could advise the minister.
I am sure most of them take that into consideration of trying to update members as expediently as possible if there are any significant changes to programs that are planned for their communities.
Mr. Chairman I know the department is co-ordinating the budget development for all the departments.
Is there any mechanism or something in place for evaluating what is brought forward by the departments just to ensure that everything is in place.
I will ask that first in the budget development process and get a response before I move on.
Mr. Chairman we do have an analytical section within the Department of Finance and Administration.
It does analyse specific submissions that come from different departments.
I guess in trying to perceive where the Member is going with his questioning because it was brought up in the House about departmental programs that were brought forward.
I know that the Department of Finance and Administration in developing the first budget and quite frankly the second budget that was before us of the Nunavut Government have had I would say, some involvement but not an extensive involvement in analysing the programs that we assumed first of all from the GNWT and programs that were brought forward again for funding for this current year.
It was for new submissions for new programs versus existing ones.
I can appreciate the Minister for trying to I guess, speculate as to trying to get at with the.
What I guess was trying not so much that type of look at things.
But I know one of the words that we heard by many of the departments during this past year has been capacity, the lack of capacity and that being the reason why we are not getting stuff in this timely manner as we would have liked.
I looked at some of the budgets that are presented, some of them have it right down to the dollar.
The same numbers that were there last year.
There are some ways to telling if some departments were having problems or not, and trying to identify and assist those department.
Would you like to respond Mr. Ng.
Hon. Kelvin Ng: Yeah.
Yes, it was apparent I think, trying to meet some of the timelines that the FMBS tried to set out in trying to develop the budget for this current fiscal year.
It became quite apparent that some departments were not on an even keel given there was different stages of recruitment for the financing or corporate staffing.
In some departments quite frankly, needed additional assistance and finance and administration staff did give additional assistance to those departments that required it.
Mr. Chairman another question in light of the fact there has been tremendous demand and effort put on the under staff public service that we have in just getting the work done.
I am wondering under the GNWT there was a role that the department played in the way of monitoring and evaluating government departments to ensure that they are following procedures that are set out by the government, the financial administration act.
I wondering if that is something I do not see and I do not believe I saw that function appear in the work chart anywhere.
I am wondering if they plan to still pursue that or is that going to be a function that is no longer necessary.
Yes, it is a function that is required and we have had it.
What we are doing is outlined in the current organizational structure.
There is a section for corporate controls in there, that is where this type of service in assistance will be provided.
Mr. Chairman is that going to be a function at the regional or district, local level.
Is that going to be a headquarter function.
Mr. Chairman it is at the headquarters level.
However, there are close consultations in the works with the three regional superintendents in the regions.
As a headquarter function I guess the role of those people is more of an external.
Are they going to be doing reviews on just headquarters or will they be going to the regional offices throughout the regional government offices throughout Nunavut and conducting those reviews or will it just be something that is done at a headquarters level.
Mr. Chairman although it is based at headquarters it does have the responsibilities and the resources that is to assist the outside of headquarters within the regions.
In fact it is not available and we do contract out accounting companies with specific work that is required.
This is an area that I am familiar with.
I think it is an important function played by the government.
I know a lot of the concerns or issues that usually come to the members of this House’s attention or where people the policies and programs of the government were not being followed by the department.
So I think this an important thing that we keep track of.
I know that there is the audit bureau is also a function under there.
It is more of an internal mechanism that will help.
Again as I said earlier departments do not have the capacity. Most of the public service out there is going crazy just trying to keep their desks clear and they do not always have free opportunities. Many staff are out there doing more than one job.
Therefore, I think again it is an important function that we need to follow.
Going on to completely something different, I guess if no one has any questions.
I know based on past experience that the department’s do provide quarterly variance reports.
I am wondering if those variance reports are something our government plans on making available to the public or to the Members on a quarterly bases to see we are not caught off guard at the end of the year with either a huge surplus or deficit.
Mr. Chairman yes, the plan is to do a quarterly variance reports and make them available to the public at large and to members at large, to anybody that is interested.
I would just want to note that it is all relative I guess on perception but if you look at percentages of the surplus that we anticipate is roughly 5 percent of total government expenditures.
Going back into something else.
I was reading the paper the other day and it talked about the Public Service Alliance of Canada is about going broke over the pay equity issue.
I was wondering how that has any bearing as far as how it is going to affect us as a government.
Mr. Chairman, as you know we are continuing to work with the GNWT as a partner in this pay equity that has been on-going.
I do not think there is anything new to report in the perspective of there was approximately I think it was 80 percent individual offers to individual employees that have been taken up in signing off on what GNWT proposes settlements to the pay equity dispute and for the remaining 20 percent or so continues to be a process that is on-going.
I just know another issue that has been on-going for over a year now.
The members have raised concerns of the division of assets and liabilities.
I was wondering if the Minister can provide us with an up date on where things at with that.
I will ask Mr. Vardy to answer that.
Mr. Vardy: Mr. Chairman the work on the division of assets and liability with the GNWT is just about complete.
The analysis will show that there is a net gain to Nunavut from that exercise.
Most of the benefits are in the form of non-liquid assets.
It is receivables from sales of petroleum products to a large extent the Power Corporation.
There is a large quantity of petroleum products that are in the storage tanks throughout the Territory.
There are some other assets in the form of public buildings.
That is quite small.
So we will have a positive balance but on the cash side the other assets will result us having to make a payment to the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Vardy.
Mr. Chairman if I could apologise to Mr. Vardy, could he repeat that last part of the question. I did not quite get his answer.
Chairperson (interpretation): I will allow you to state the last part again.
Mr. Vardy: What I indicated is the total value of assets will exceed the value of liabilities throughout that process but the large part of the assets are in the form of non cash assets.
It is to a large extent petroleum products and receivables from Power Corporation for petroleum products that are purchased by the Government of Nunavut.
It is quite likely we will have to make a cash payment to the Government of the Northwest Territories to settle the account.
Any idea that cash settlement will be or a rough ballpark figure.
Mr. Vardy.
Mr. Vardy: Mr. Chairman the value of the settlement could be in the 25-35 million dollar range.
I was wondering that is a lot of money.
Or a lot of fuel.
I am just wondering where those funds would come from.
Mr. Vardy: Mr. Chairman the funds would come from the consolidated revenue fund of the Government of Nunavut but it would not be reflected in the surplus or deficit in any given year.
It will affect the balance sheet but not operating or the capital surplus or deficit.
If it just affects the opening.
I guess the bottom line the money has to come from somewhere.
If it is not going to affect our operating and capital budget where is the money going to actually come from.
Chairperson: Mr. Vardy.
Mr. Vardy: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
It's like the Health Board deficits or any other factor that will effect the finances of Nunavut that is not part of the budget within a given time period.
We have a cash surplus right now.
The net financial position of the government at any given point in time can be different from the expenditures within a given time frame.
We have a fairly substantial cash surplus right now because of timing of payments.
For example of lot of the transfers from the Government of Canada are front end loaded.
If we weren't in a cash surplus position we would be forced to borrow those funds but we don't see in the foreseeable future any need for borrowing on the part of the Government of Nunavut.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Vardy.
I guess then the money that we have to pay is going to come out of the funding that we get from the formula funding agreement with the Federal Government.
I don't know if that 25 or 35 million dollars whatever it turns out to be will have at some point in the future a negative impact on the budgets that we develop.
Because if we only get so much money then that money has to come from somewhere.
If that's where the money is coming from then I could see that money that is coming from the Federal Government, how will that effect our budgets and is it something that will be done all at once or spread out over a number of years.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Deputy Minister Vardy.
Mr. Vardy: Mr. Chairman, as I have indicated at the beginning of the questioning on this issue, we have assets that will more than offset the amount of cash that we will have to spend.
Some of those, there are probably an equal amount, roughly 30 million or so in receivables from the Power Corporation on Bills for Petroleum Products that we have already made that will eventually come into our coffers.
There is also the value of all the Petroleum Products that was sitting in the storage tanks at that point in time.
So the net impact on the Treasury won't be the value of the cheque that will have to be written to the Government of the Northwest Territories.
It should over time be more than offset by the value of those other assets as the benefits flow into the Government of Nunavut.
My question, we are negotiating with the Nunavut Employees' Union.
How much more is it going to take.
Mr. Chairman, we can't really say right now because there is not collective agreement in principle that has to go out to the employees for ratification and to the Financial Management Board for final approval.
They are still in the collective bargaining stages of trying to finalize a new collective agreement.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Ng. I don't have any other names on my list.
My first question is, as the Finance Department you talk with the Federal Government and you lobby the Federal Government to supplement funds for the Nunavut Government.
Mr. Chairman, we have responsibility for the formula financing agreement which is the main source of funding for the Government of Nunavut.
From that perspective at the official level, there are always ongoing discussions.
Each department, each minister of our government also has relationships with their federal counterparts in whatever areas and usually there are opportunities to receive federal funds on programs that will help the Government of Nunavut in delivering programs and services for our constituents.
Depending on what is available at the federal level.
The Federal Government has made reductions to the money that is coming in to us every year.
Is it because their financial resources are being depleted every year.
Mr. Chairman, in fact the revenues from the Government of Canada have been, for this year compared to last year, have actually gone up.