EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Now, therefore, I move Seconded by the honourable Member of Iqaluit Centre that Jack Anawak, Member of Rankin Inlet North be appointed to the Standing Committee on Health and Education and Community Empowerment, Sustainable Development.
That Peter Kilabuk, Member of the Pangnirtung be appointed to the Special Committee to review the Official Language Act to replace Jack Anawak and further that Peter Kattuk, Member for Hudson Bay be appointed to the and alternate to the Special Committee to review the Official Language Act.
The Motion is in Order to the Motion.
All those opposed. The Motion is carried.
Motion 024 – 1(6): Extended Adjournment
I am moved Seconded by the Honourable Member for Cambridge Bay that not withstanding Rule 4 for when the House concludes its sitting in Baker Lake it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, October 21st, 2003 in Iqaluit.
And further that at any time prior to October 21, 2003, if the speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Member of the Legislative Assembly that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during an adjournment, the speaker may give notice and thereupon., the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact it’s business as it has been duly adjourned to at that time.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters, Minister’s Statements 126-1 (6) and 164-1(6), Tabled documents 117-1(6), 118-1(6), Bill 34, Bill 38 and Bill 39 with Mr. Irqittuq in the chair.
Before we proceed to Committee of the Whole we will take a 20 minute break and I would like to meet with all the members in the Teacher’s Lounge.
>>House recessed at 4:12 p.m. and resumed at 4:42 p.m.
Chairperson (Mr. Irqittuq)(interpretation): Thank you for returning.
Can we begin?
Committee will now come to order.
We will be dealing with in Committee of the Whole, Bill 34, 38, Minister’s statements 126-1(6) and 164-1(6) and 167-1(6) and 117-1(6) and 118-8(6) and Table Documents 117-1(6) and 118-1(6).
The committee would like to continue with the discussion on the Minister’s Statement 126-1(6) and from there we would like do Bill 34, Bill 38 and Bill 39 and continue on with Ministers Statement 164-1(6) and Tabled Document 117-1(6) and Tabled Document 118-1(6).
Is the Minister bringing her officials?
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, the minister and her officials.
If you could please introduce your officials.
My official is Regina Aupaluktuq from the Kivalliq region from the Department of Human Resources.
Chairperson (interpretation): Welcome minister and Ms. Aupaluktuq.
We finished off with general comments, at this time you can begin with the questions.
I have heard this from our colleague yesterday and the day before and it is good to hear.
I like to hear those kinds of things.
I can understand it may take some time.
(interpretation end) The Minister stated there’s about 800 job descriptions which needed to be reviewed.
That was on March 13th.
I can understand that it’s going to take some time to do those job descriptions.
Can you update us on that?
I know you’re new as a Minister on this but just for my information as to where they are today.
We have hired two staff to review all the job descriptions.
They did 800 job descriptions and it’s still ongoing.
It’s been three months.
Could you give us an idea?
Is half of it done.
Could you give us an idea how they’re doing.
What progress have they made since then by having to hire two individuals to do this for the department?
This project will probably take two years to complete.
I can tell you that there has been some progress in reviewing the job description and that’s to look at any artificial barriers.
It’s a long process and I can’t tell you right now where we are with that.
We just know that it’s a process and that it’s ongoing.
Maybe I could go another way.
I’ll give you an example where the artificial barriers were there.
When we have an example again, an administrative position, or a junior management positions for example, where the job descriptions say they need to have the university degree to work in that community in the area of administrative work.
I had two very qualified workers, like I have said in the passed that couldn’t get the job because they didn’t the university degree but they could have done the job as administrative support workers or maybe administrative officers, maybe financial officers.
How, I guess the question would be, the skills that are put on the job description, I know that it’s new but it’s, like I hear you say it’s ongoing.
Do we have some kind of plan where we could say yes, we will change the job description in certain positions because they only require certain skills to do that job which don’t need a university degree.
Let us say for example, in Public Works, they needed a carpenter that, again they are going to say, they need a Journeymen Certificate.
Those types of things that can be looked at very seriously; say, no, maybe they do not have the requirement, maybe the Inuinnaqtun have the skills to do that work.
So, that is what I am trying to get at this.
How do we get rid of those papers off the way so we could have Inuinnaq people working in those places where they have the skills.
In the Land Claims Agreement, it requires us to design or remove systematic discrimination of Inuit trying to get into jobs and the two staff that we have hired with the help of my other staff are going to look at all of the job descriptions to make sure that there is removal of artificially inflated education requirements, which the Member is talking about and also removal of experience requirement not based on essential consideration of efficiency and skills.
So, we are starting to use skills and abilities that the Members were talking about yesterday in their statements.
That is where we are heading in this one.
We will use more of the skills, experience and abilities for the jobs.
Like I say, this review is going to take several years, a couple of years.
In the meantime though, we are going to be running into some applicants that have the skills.
Can you waive some of those job descriptions where they say university degrees needed just to get administrative people, because like you said, it is going to take two years.
So, meantime, let us look at this, how we can get those Inuinnaqtun working between now and two years from now.
So, it is regard look at those people now to, so we can get them working from that community.
We are already using the skills and abilities and the use of competence is for the jobs with the new positions that are coming out now, we are doing that already and all of the vacant positions.
So, we have changed our methods.
Mr. Chairman, while we are talking about employment that are available or job descriptions, while we are talking about job descriptions, perhaps it might not be included in here, but I touched upon it a little bit in regards to health.
The employment that is available for the Inuit people, for instance, social workers or counsellors, RCMP and court workers or teachers, maybe if they are going to go into the job descriptions, then they would have to be rewritten to be directed at the Inuit, employing Inuit and to train them once they get in the position.
Because of the fact that they are employees of the Nunavut Government and they live in Nunavut so that we don’t get people from southern centres coming off the plane and based on their education working in Nunavut communities and not really knowing the culture.
In regards to Mr. Anawak’s comments it’s very understandable to me because some teachers are that way.
What we’re going to do is deal with those under Human Resources.
Marion Love knows about those kinds of things and that’s part of her job and she’s been doing some job descriptions and we will amend them, change them, especially when it come to social workers or councillors that have to know the Inuit.
So, when they come into a community we can give them orientation and information.
That’s part of what we’re going to be doing.
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, if we can make some changes to the job descriptions for those positions that I mentioned because of lot of people like.
Its been said that the Qallunaaq comes up here to the north and they can write after being here one day they could write some information and then if they’ve been here a short time they can write a book.
They only think about their jobs and the guidelines or the manual that they have to follow but they don’t even bother with the people that are more important to their job such as they have to work with the hamlet and with other people in the community.
They just focus on their work following the guidelines of the education that they have received and not thinking about the culture of the people that they’re working for.
Just this spring I heard about an individual that had a child taken away, I'm not saying that they shouldn’t be taking children away from the parents but they have to be able to understand the culture of the Inuit before they decide that they have to take a child away from their home.
And when we’re talking about counselling, some elders even though they only speak Inuktitut could be utilized to be advisers and the Pond Inlet MLA keeps on sayings that there are no Inuit family counsellors.
If we’re going to start that, to employ Inuit they have to be able to have respect if you’re a non resident of Nunavut, they have to be able to start respecting the culture and the values and the morals of the Inuit people in the communities.
Yes, its’ self explanatory here.
Yes, and I will give direction to my officials.
Also, in regards to my statement made yesterday, and I know that we can’t complete it during oral questions but listening to the Minister’s statement, they were clearly pointed out but part of the issue here, should focus more on long time northerners even though they’re not Inuit beneficiaries.
I almost forgot what to call you so I apologise.
Since you are the chairman I would like to thank you.
We’ve been discussing this matter and there are many long time non-beneficiary residents, whether they are your daughter-in-laws or son-in-laws.
At times, through job opportunities, rather than being interviewed, they are appointed.
Once they know that they are capable, they can be appointed.
According to Article 23, Inuit have the priority to be hired and that the majority of the staff of Government of Nunavut has to be Inuit beneficiaries.
In spite of that, there are long time residents of Nunavut who are not beneficiaries and they have been appointed to their positions.
And according to the experience and skills and this, as a government, we understand that we have to be aware of that.
Mr. Anawak: Yes, it’s nice to say that you recognise the need but the fact remains that those time northerners have absolutely no guarantee that they’ll be considered any better than somebody getting off the plane from Toronto in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet or else where.
I don’t think anybody here objects to the utilization of Article 23 to get more Inuit.
Granted, that’s basically all we’re pushing for.
But, I still think that there has to be some special consideration given to long time northerners who are either inter-married or just happen to have live up here for the last 25 years.
There is absolutely nothing, it’s nice to be nice and say directly appoint that person because he’s been around for a long time, but those long time northerners have absolutely no recognition of their longevity in the north.
Surely there’s has to be something we can do to put them in, at least, in a spot in between the person getting off the plane from Toronto and an Inuk, on paper because we have an awful lot of those people out there.
I know the Minister, she’s married to one, and I’m married to one, long time northerners.
But would our spouses be considered, under the present system, our spouses would be considered the same as anybody, getting fresh off from Toronto.
I don’t think nice words are enough to give some protection to those people that have committed a long time to, in most cases help us out up here in Nunavut.
One of the items that we’re working on to make changes is that the applicant have some traditional customary laws and community dynamics, family dynamics, the language, the kinship in terms of extended families that will be put into the job qualifications.
We’re now basing more on skills knowledge and abilities and responsibilities.
So, of course if a person is just coming out of Toronto and a long time northerner were interviewed, based on this, the long time northerner would be preferred if they had the skills to do the job.
That’s one of the changes we’re doing in this new method of job description.
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): Last one.
I appreciate the fact that the long time northerner would be preferred but that still does not give any guarantee that he or she will be preferred if the person getting of the plane happens to have some knowledge of the north, knowledge of the culture and tradition of the people up here.
So based on ability, that person having lived up here for 30 years, would stand no better chance than a person getting off the plane unless it’s on paper that long time northerners would be given preference over short or people getting off the plane.
So, I still feel there is a need to put something down on paper in order to protect people like our Minister of Health and Social Services, our Minister of Finance, so that they can get jobs better than somebody getting off the plane from Toronto.
I understand the member is concerned and I think our obligation is to the land claims agreement and that’s Article 23 or whatever.
We have to have Inuit working in the jobs, but what we’re doing is, the job descriptions are going to be based more on merit and abilities and skills and also with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit incorporated.
I think the long time northerners would have a better chance at getting the jobs than a person just coming off the plane.
Human Resources, while they’re changing the job descriptions, are they making notes which jobs require use of the Inuktitut language.
For example, there aren’t too many government employees who can speak Inuktitut.
I know Lucien Ukalianuq from Justice, who is unilingual, Mark Aluaq from Education, they have a very important job that have been recognised.
They don’t necessarily need to be bilingual to do their job.
Are you collecting that kind of information, for example, jobs that don’t require too much writing, for example, George Metuk’s job.
Although if you are a unilingual Inuktitut speaking person, you can do that job.
And also, my aunts who are unilingual Inuktitut speaking people. Like Japanese people they work on Sony mechanics even though they can’t speak any English. They work on vehicles, such as Toyota.
I was wondering if the department could start considering if there was a position open, for example, for Public Works, Human Resources Department, if you see the job description, are you making any plans that this job could be taken on by a unilingual speaking person?
The Departments, each Department write their own job descriptions when there is a job opportunity and we look at their skill level and qualification.
The Department of Human Resources do not write the job descriptions and the requirements, but we are able to give assistance to the Departments.
But in regards to the question, yes, we can look into that because there are eight hundred job descriptions.
During the review of those job descriptions which positions do not require bilingual people and which job descriptions could be taken on by unilingual speaking people.
Yes, we can look into that, Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): I forgot to shut off my microphone.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): Yes, that is what I am saying, that is my question.
That is what I have asked.
Can your Department, for example, if the Public Works or the Department of Sustainable Development, if they wanted to get a Renewable Resource Officer in Igloolik and that they need to go through the training of Environmental Technologies, I do not know what that is, I do not know what a technology ism, and they need the Environmental Technology and they should have university level.
The Department of Human Resources, would they be able to say: You, the Department of Sustainable Development, why do you not look into this so that they can write the job description?
Even though they may be unilingual Inuktitut speaking people, but providing that they have the experience in the Renewable Resource Officer, whether it be the Department of Sustainable, whether it be the Department of Public Works, whether it be Department of Community Government and Transportation.
If they are going to require a university level for all of the job descriptions because their grandchildren are in Vancouver, they want to bring them to Nunavut, so, they have this kind of idea and especially in Iqaluit, there are quite a few people moving into Iqaluit like when they come from different Provinces and they work in Nunavut and they invite their friends from other Provinces to work.
I was wondering if you can start diverting job descriptions so that we can allow the unilingual speaking Inuktitut people in the workforce.
For example, the Department of Public Works, if they wanted to hire an employee, whether it be the Department of Public Works or Sustainable Department, if they wanted to hire a person, they would write the job qualifications and the description, which is outside of our jurisdiction within our Department.
But the Department of Human Resources can give advice to the Department and that is our mandate.
As a Minister, I would like to see a strong Government Mandate given to the Human Resources and remove and like, we can take such recommendations, like take this off and replace it with the current rule or law.
The Department managers have more authority to write job qualifications and descriptions when there is a job opportunity.
We are just advisors as and usually Human Resources just consults and we’re just advisors to the departments and we have less authority then the managers or staff.
If we can be given the mandate and the jurisdiction to work on these, we would able to do that.
That’s part of the problems we experience.
In your government you have executive and intergovernmental affairs.
This department’s function is to have a central control of the government to ensure that all the departments within this government abide by the policies, policy directives.
For example, to make sure that they’re utilizing Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
When any department is still helping a policy or a program, education program for example, or legislative proposals that the bills that are before us, the EIA reviews them and determines that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is follow.
Make sure it doesn’t affect Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit adversely or negatively.
When you have in your department some kind of authority like EIA from the cabinet directing all the departments so that Human Resources department can determine whether the job description requires Inuktitut speakers only for some particular jobs.
I mentioned for example the Justice department had Lucien Ukaliannuk to look through to make sure the justice papers reflects the custom laws, traditional knowledge, etc. etc.
Mark Qalluaq from Arviat is working on the curriculum development for the Department of Education do not require English speaking or university degree in Cambridge Bay or elsewhere.
These are the necessities of the jobs that they’re holding.
I wonder if other, how many other jobs in the government are in a similar situation can we have a watch like your department like EIA, you don’t need a university for that job.
Rewrite it and keep rewriting it until we the Department of Human Resources like it.
Reflect the goal or policy or direction of this government.
My department needs to be given authority over other departments for making changes in a job description because right now we have trained staff within the department of Human Resources for reviewing the job descriptions but however, the department manager of the division or the department that have written the job description has the authority to change anything in that job description.
I don’t have any authority as the Minister of Human Resources or my staff.
We can only advise to make changes in those job descriptions that are written by the departments.
If I were given the authority to tell the departments and given the authority to do it to make job changes, the job description changes, I can do it.
We can do it in the department.
Right now, the other problem we’re having is that the departments are hiring their own casuals.
We don’t have any control over that.
So, of course, non-beneficiaries are getting into reception jobs because Human Resources doesn’t have authority over that either.
Sometimes, non-beneficiaries are in those jobs, through a casual appointment for four months, then extended for a year and then get trained that way.
If we can get control over job descriptions, not just as an adviser and also have more authority and control of casual hires, mainly in headquarters in Iqaluit, we can get more beneficiaries in.
Mr. Arvaluk: In this Committee of the Whole, we can ask any minister.
Maybe I should be asking the premier of this government if he is open to suggestion to review as to how to enhance opportunities for unilingual Inuit.
Through that suggestion, Human Resources become a, I don’t know what you would call them, a watch dog, kind of, responsibility to reflect the article 23 of the land claims agreement.
Chairperson (interpretation): Are you asking the question to the premier.
We do try to help each other to get more Inuit beneficiaries.
Some times we do appoint Inuit beneficiaries.
We’re just following these procedures.
We’re trying to abide with Article 23 and to give the other departments more money in order to abide with Article 23 because we’re going to have to try and catch up with Article 23 to have more beneficiaries in the work force within the government.
I don’t think we’re half ways yet.
We still have a very small percentage of beneficiaries working under the Government of Nunavut.
Chairperson (interpretation): Anything else. We have one minute.
I think we’re talking about job descriptions and job opportunities.
Regardless, if Inuit don’t have a university degree or they are unilingual, I’m asking, this is what we’re talking about right now.
As Members of the Legislative Assembly, the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is trying to be used Government of Nunavut and they do have an Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs making sure, I’m asking the premier, can you consider if you can if you can have a watch dog, making sure that within each departments either Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs or Human Resources, I don’t which department, regardless, if he or she doesn’t have a university degree, because there are a lot simple jobs that require university degrees.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is pleasant to hear.
We are trying to look for the best way to find employment for the beneficiaries, the Inuit, the Elders, because the Elders know a lot more, although they are not educated formally because they do know and they are good advisors to us although they do not have certificates or diplomas.
But in accordance to the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and Inuit Traditional Knowledge, they are very useful.
Chairperson (interpretation): It should not be for pleasure, but it is necessary that we use it. Ms. Williams.
First of all, I would like to say, I think that it seems that we are talking about people that have not been formally educated I would like to, I can sew, I can make jackets, I can make socks and I can work with beads very well, but I am not a teacher, but as long as a person can sew very well, that person can be teaching at the school.
If a man is a good hunter and be able to make good qamutiks, he or may be not a teacher, but he can teach his own children and grandchildren and Mr. Chairman, this is what we are using today.
We all have grandchildren in schools because they are being taught in Inuktitut at schools.