EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I don’t think seasonal jobs should be put in Nunavut to make us look like we have low unemployment rate and I’m telling you this now, anywhere else in this country called Canada that we’re suppose to be very proud to live in, if they had an unemployment rate 50% in any jurisdiction in Canada it would be called a national disaster.
And like I say, I don’t know who’s responsible for bringing these unemployment rates but they’re totally incorrect as far as I’m concerned.
A few years ago we had some kind of plan in place, that outside of a regional centre, in a community with a higher unemployment rate, but wasn’t designated as a regional centre there is a little bit more emphasis on economic development.
I think we’re getting to a point in Nunavut now that we probably have 3 categories of communities.
We have the large regional centres that are scrambling, scrambling, and I walk around this community and I see people working in jobs and stuff and it's probably hard to attract people to the other two regional centres to work in the government.
And then we have decentralization coming which is going to help communities like mine, that have an unemployment rate of 60 or 70% full-time that going to help.
But what about smaller communities.
What about Grise Fiords or Chester Field Inlets, the Whale Coves, the Clyde Rivers, in places like that, that don’t have decentralization directly affecting them, 40 or 50 jobs moving into the community.
They should be treated a bit differently.
They should be given a little bit more care and funding when it comes to economic development.
In regards to economic development there is one thing that I want you to remember. The largest employer, the second largest employer of people in Nunavut is the private sector.
And sometimes we don’t recognize as a private sector enough for their commitment into investing money, into their own community and into Nunavut. So I want you to remember that the private sector is the second largest support business for people support of employees in Nunavut.
The BIP, the Business Incentive Policy, I’m kind of confused who’s responsible and who’s not responsible.
Like think its Public Works that’s responsible and then I hear, I know that you guys do the registrations, but you have to call Public Works to see who has BIP.
So if its confusing for me, and I’ve been in business up here for 15, 20 odd years I’m trying to figure out how the small person starting up a business in Nunavut trying to get all these regulations so he can bid on a contract or she can bid on a contract on how to put it together.
I know we have EDO’s in all our community and most of them are local and bilingual and they can explain this process.
I wish there was an easier way to deal with the BIP process and I just went through it in the spring they had something like 100 categories of types of BIPs that are in the Northwest Territories that you have to apply for.
That’s okay if you’re in an area of 600 thousand people.
If you got some person that wants to BIP because they need it, they’ve got these massive amounts of forms.
And the other thing I want to know, its been puzzling me a lot in the last year or two, is how this BIP and Article 24 mesh together to benefit everybody.
Like Article 24 is something else.
But in the region that I come from Article 24 is a big deal.
How does the BIP in the Article 24 fit together where its going to be simple for most of us to understand because at this point I don’t think there is any clearer understanding of how Article 24 and BIP work together in contracts?
And it’s going to come up in the future how this meshes together.
That’s it for me, thank you Mr. Minister.
Your comments are understandable and clear.
Care to respond.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you.
I know that you made some comments but no questions, but I’ll go ahead and answer.
Anyhow, I’ll give you a good example on how Nunavut Government enter into negotiations in terms of trade and selling traditional products.
There are quotas for Pangnirtung, Southern Baffin, and Greenland.
There is 500 hundred metric tons are traded and 15 hundred metric tons is given to Canada to the fishing industry and 24% of that amount is given to Nunavut but 75% of that amount is sent or traded to overseas, outside of Canada .
I concur with your concerns that we have to look at all these measures, their agreements and our programs within my department and the Business Incentive Policy are confusing and not quite clear.
I know that's because it’s being controlled and managed by two bodies, but this fall this Incentive Policy will be reviewed.
I would like to thank you for your comments and thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mr. McLean’s supplementary.
Perhaps we can take a break. A 15 minute break.
>>Committee recessed at 3:04 and resumed at 3:23pm
Chairperson (interpretation): There is only 8 we need 10.
There is only 8 members.
Mr. Irqittuq was the next one to ask questions.
Before I ask my question, I’d like to make a statement.
The Minister of Sustainable Development in his opening remarks mentioned fisheries.
And I’m very happy to hear that but in our community, in my riding in Igloolik and Hall Beach and I’m sure it’s the same with the other communities, that during the summer, we have a lot of fish that come down river and we try and catch as much as we can for commercial purposes.
But at this time in our communities it is kind of hard to sell fish at this time and I know that we have commercial fisheries.
I’d like to see some kind of research done or a marketing promotion done to do commercial fishing to sell our fish to certain southern markets.
I was down south a little while back, some of the hotels or businesses that I asked whether they would like to buy some fish and they were very encouraged and eager to buy our Arctic Char.
I’m wondering what the red tape is in selling our fish to the southern markets.
I’d like to get clarification whether we can have an open market for our fish from the sea because there is some regulation states that we can only do commercial fishing in lakes that have been studied as to where they, if the can sustain the commercial fisheries.
They can only provide so much quota according to the research being done, the lakes in our communities.
Economic development in our communities is something you have to really work for.
We haven’t really found anything that is worthwhile to sell from our communities.
There is very low market for Inuit carvings, arts and crafts and the Arctic Co-ops were buying and selling carvings but that when we down because due to the lack of poor carvings.
They weren’t satisfied with the quality of the carvings so they stopped selling.
Buying and selling our carvings had really destroyed our economy in our communities.
I wanted to mention that first. Its more of a comment and not a question.
I have question. Few questions.
First of all, the allocation of these main estimates.
The hamlet Economic Development officers in Nunavut have been allocated 2 million, eight hundred, thirty-five dollars.
How are you going to distribute those allocations?
Per capita? How is the formula financed?
We're going to be getting into the financial departments or financial main estimates but perhaps the Minister of Sustainable Development or the Deputy Minister would like to respond.
You mentioned the fisheries and its nothing new to me.
I’ve really experienced the red tape and road blocks that we encountered in Pangnirtung.
I’m going to answer your question first.
I’d really like to talk about fish but I’ll answer your question
We have reports on fisheries if you’re interested.
The allocation of funds that’s going to be distributed to the hamlets for Community Economic Development Officers.
For example, the larger communities follow the person year. Full-time person year.
The smaller communities will be given a half time person year.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Irqittuq anything else.
So I won’t be talking about anything to do with finances right now but I’ll ask later.
Mostly a comment I’d like to make.
Some problems that we encountered when we were under the Government of the Northwest Territories and I’m sure it’s going to be amended by this present government.
I mentioned this before, I’ve talked about it a lot since it’s got to do with business.
The GNWT’s Business Incentive Policy stated earlier. We were using GNWT Business Incentive Policy and now we’re the Nunavut Government.
The policy is not compatible to Nunavut.
There had been a lot of problems encountered with those Business Incentive Policy.
If I’m going to be using Nunavut Government’s money. If I wanted to buy something, we would have to apply.
I would have to make an application using the GNWT application forms if I wanted to buy a vehicle.
I’m sure we’re going to have to use the GNWT forms before we buy anything from outside the Government of Nunavut.
For example, the Kingland Ford vehicles that the government purchases.
If we had to buy construction materials or things like that for Nunavut Government according to BIP of the GNWT we have to use those certain private businesses.
If and when the Government of Nunavut looks into amending the BIP, I think that we should look for companies who are cheapest or who have cheaper estimates or budgets, materials.
I think we should be able to purchase materials or do contracts with the cheapest company.
We have to think about Article 24 as well.
I’d really like to encourage you to work really hard in trying to make this easier for Nunavut.
This was just a comment.
Mr. Chairman, when we go to main estimates I’ll have some more questions.
Minister of Sustainable Development, would you like to respond?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk: Thank you.
You stated that it was a comment.
Just to clarify a bit.
What we’ve found out to date in the whole of the NWT the different private businesses in the NWT are in the area of 2,100.
There are 381 private sector businesses in Nunavut.
This Business Incentive Policy is being used in Nunavut at this time that was used in the previous government.
We’re going to be reviewing it this summer.
I don’t have anything else from the floor.
Anybody else from the floor?
Mr. Irqittuq would you like to take the Chair.
Chairperson - (Mr. Irqittuq) (interpretation): Mr. Akesuk.
Mr. Chairman, my question is, in Cape Dorset last October carvers and private business, our museums, there was an arts and crafts council established by these organizations and I’m wondering whether the Nunavut Government will be supporting this organization.
There were going to be board members comprising this organization who would be reviewing any arts and crafts policies.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Kilabuk
During my opening remarks the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Council we mentioned that we wanted to work with this Inuit Art Foundation.
We’ve been helping them with Grants and Contributions.
They made an official proposal and we’ve been able to provide them with grants.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Akesuk
Mr. Akesuk (interpretation): This Art Foundation that is in place as an official board.
Have you talked with them recently?
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Kilabuk.
Sorry Mr. Chairman.
They haven’t set up a date yet to hold a meeting but they’re working on the business plans right now.
I have a very important question to ask concerning mining.
Yesterday there was a letter read stating concerning different contracts in Nunavut Government.
As residents of Nunavut we don’t have any mining companies or exploration companies that are placed in Nunavut.
These exploration and mining construction companies come from down south and they’re not from Nunavut.
These contracts are huge especially in the mining field.
These contracts will be directed to Nunavut and I’m sure were going to encounter some problems.
Have you had discussions about this?
Speaker, sorry, chairman.
I can’t say very much right now about this.
I know there is no mining company here in Nunavut.
These mining companies or exploration companies use their own funds to do prospecting or do geological surveys.
Those exploration companies who like do to some mining in our communities or exploration make a request to do so if its going to be under 5,000 dollars.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): I do not like hearing that there isn't going to be any mining companies established in Nunavut.
My ears don't like that.
It’s just as an organization and as Inuit people we can become one of, we can establish our own mining company and be a competitive company in the world.
I’m sure were going to have to look towards building our own mining companies.
Mining exploration generates a lot of money.
As a Nunavut resident we’d like to be able to benefit economically from mining because there is a lot of iron ore, in our resources in our lands.
It can be very economically viable for us.
If we’re just going to be receiving royalties from that we’re going to have to think about, as MLAs, we’re going to have to be thinking about how we can improve our economy.
By establishing a company or a corporation that will be situated and placed in Nunavut, there is a lot of money to be made.
It’s just a comment I’d like to make.
I’ll have something else to say after.
Chairperson (interpretation): Would you like to respond?
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, that you mentioned about contracts that we don’t have mining companies here.
We don’t have any mining companies as yet.
As I mentioned, these private sectors, mining companies use their own funds to do exploring.
If and when we can establish our own mining company then we can do the developing.
That’s all I can say for now.
It’s very interesting.
I like your response.
I use to think that of the GNWT; how come as residents of Nunavut we can’t get a mining company of our own?
I use to think that.
I think, its our land.
We should be the ones exploring our lands.
We can make a lot of money through mining.
That could generate a lot of money for Nunavut and that’s a very important thing for the people of Nunavut.
I’m going to have another question.
I just understood this , you were talking about having our own mining company, I was thinking more like a government official.
I was thinking about that the Department’s Economic Development, so I apologize for that first.
For those people wishing to develop or establish a mining company I would definitely encourage people to start up their own companies to do mining like in Kitikmeot.
There has already been development plans in running your own business for mining business.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): remind me when my time is up.
Concerning different contracts that will be coming out of your department for economic development because that’s always the case when there is economic development and you’ll be granting contracts in Nunavut.
There are a lot of potential businesses that could be established.
Those contracts that you grant to businesses, I’m sure it’s obvious that you’ll have to allocate these contracts for businesses outside of Nunavut.
Have you thought about this as well, encouraging small businesses.
Yes within our department’s operations I know that there is a huge contract allotted in my department.
They will continue with the existing contracts that were inherited with the existing companies.
Some of the contracts, so that some of the contracts that were in place with the GNWT so that they could continue.
I know, we know where the situation is.
We know where it is going also.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Chairman.
We would like to encourage private businesses to be established. Since your department is the supporter of initiating businesses with the previous government.
It was pretty hard to initiate your own private businesses with all the bureaucracy that you had to go through when applying for fund to start your own business.
If I stated that there was an Inuktitut unilingual speaking people will you allow them to apply in your system?
Will you make your system accessible so that the Inuktitut unilingual speaking people can apply to your department for business support.
If we are going to treat everybody equally that will have to come up within your system which is evident. I was wondering if you had those kinds of plans in your department.
In regard to the public making applications. I know it was pretty hard for some Inuit people to apply for funding and sometimes it had discouraged potential applicants from applying for incentive dollars.
We are now accumulating and collecting and reviewing the system.
The residents of the communities from the public, if they’re going to be applying for funds they will go through the Economic Development Officer in the communities.
Some will be free of charge.
Some will be just grants and some will be loan.
In regards to getting staff members who are bilingual people. The Community Economic Development Officers in the communities are 85% Inuit and 15% are non-Inuit.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman for your appropriate answer.
I’m smiling away here now.
However, I would like to ask another question, as a Nunavut resident.
Somebody had asked that question in regards to finances about the co-ops wanting to establish credit unions.
I want you to know that not all the communities in Nunavut have co-ops established so we will not be able to reach all the communities with your proposal.
Perhaps we should find a better means or other ways of means for those communities that don’t have co-ops.
At this time, for the communities that have requested a credit union they go through the co-op I know it’s entirely true that not all the communities in Nunavut have co-ops.
If this can go ahead before it does go ahead we will review it as to how we can find other means for the communities that don’t have co-ops.
When we go to the main estimates I know that I’ll be asking many more questions but I have no further questions.
I would like to ask this question.
I don’t know how many people deal with wildlife issues.
Nunavut Government wildlife department, there are many wildlife departments, there is the NWMB, there are regional wildlife boards and there is a wildlife function in your department.
So I am afraid there might be confusion.
I would like to get clarification as to how that relationship works.
Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, for this entity, members are appointed by the communities and regional associations, the Minster of the Federal Government, DIAND, appoints a person to sit on NWMB and they get nominations from various entities and agencies, and then they are appointed to NWMB.
For the department of Sustainable Development, the wildlife officers are the enforcers of the law and they also work on environmental issues to protect the environment.
The wildlife officers also work on conservation areas.
Mr. Kattuk (interpretation): The reason I asked this question is because of the regulations.
For example the polar bear regulations are the responsibility of the NWMB, which I am sure that they have set the guidelines and regulations for polar bears.
If the community had any concerns in regards to that, when they ask your department will you just pass the buck? …to them?
. Thank you.
Chairperson: Mr. Kilabuk.
At this point in regards to polar bear research it is still the responsibility of the department of Sustainable Development, and we are still seeking direction from the NWMB and we advise the NWMB.
I have a few questions after hearing some comments.
Mining was mentioned as one of the things that is important to look at and also the development, prior to mining coming in the exploration phase.
I am not an expert on exploration but I would venture to guess that it is a rather specialized area.
I know that there had previously been some training and development in the Kivalliq region and in this area.
I am just wondering if there are any plans to continue with training in this area in Nunavut.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): We do have a budget for Nunavut exploration.
We have set aside some funds, 102 thousand dollars for exploration use.
Another thing with mining as the Minister made quite clear in his statement is that it effects our land.
The land is one of the most important resources and once it is used up it is something that never comes back.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister, I know that in his statements he talks about a balance between the protection of the land and economic development.
I know and I have seen cases where one can go in with the best intentions of working out a compromise when it comes to this type of development.
I am just wondering Mr. Chairman, does the department or the Minister have a mechanism in place or even just the Ministers' feeling, about what they would do in a situation where there was a gridlock between development and a company looking to do some development, and say a community which is going to be effected by that.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Yes. Thank you.
The Nunavut Impact Review Board has been established and implemented.
The applications go to the impact review board from the companies.
I don't totally understand this.
Pardon my ignorance.
Are you saying that it goes through the Board and they approve the development or not.
If there is a segment of the population or the community effected that says absolutely no that they didn't want anything to do with this, and everyone else is saying yes, will it go ahead or is there a dispute resolution mechanism in place to deal with that.
Chairperson: Mr. Arvaluk , you have a point of order.
Hon. James Arvaluk: Pardon me if I am wrong.
I think the question is more to do with the legislation or regulation issues, not in the budget rather maybe in October, maybe in the legislation session.
Chairperson (interpretation): At this point we don't know if his comments are in line with the department system or what you are saying.
But you may go ahead.
I don't need a response to that right now but it is just something that I had thought about as the discussion went along with mining.
I wouldn't mind if I could get a reply to that in the future.
Going on to the BIP policy that a member talked about earlier.
Along with that there was a policy called a northern manufactured goods policy.
I am just wondering if that has also been brought over from the GNWT to the Government of Nunavut.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Yes, thank you.
I apologize Mr. Tootoo, this was cut off as only one firm was covered.
Mr. Chairman, throughout the Ministers' statement it talks about the need to try and retain dollars in Nunavut, and that is something that I firmly believe in as well.
I think that if the government can commit to some type of incentive for someone to manufacture products in Nunavut, that would mean you are only bringing in raw materials into Nunavut, you would be using local employment to turn those raw materials to turn those into products that could be used in construction, in anything.
I know for example, here in Iqaluit, there is a firm that makes things like sewer tanks, windows, cabinets, those type of opportunities, if someone was to invest in the equipment to produce those types of goods in Nunavut, and shows a commitment to creating employment, stimulating the economy of Nunavut;
I think the department should take a look at providing some sort of commitment or subsidy to those types of manufacturing companies in Nunavut, otherwise what incentive for someone to manufacture goods up here where you have the higher overhead costs in doing that.
It just wouldn't put them on the same level playing field with someone manufacturing these products in the south.
I am just wondering if that is something that the department will look at.
At this time we still won't get any legislation geared toward individuals things.
But I also want to assure you that we will be looking into and reviewing this issue this coming fall.
If I could go back to the Ministers' comments on the fact that the manufactured goods policy was a one-time thing.
If that is the case, I thought it was a policy, along with part and parcel with the business incentive policy.
I was getting whispered to by my Deputy Minister from what the interpreters were saying.
We can't make legislation that deals with only one person.