EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I was also very pleased when the Premier wrote in his letter to the Mayor of Baker Lake on February 11, 2000, that one of the important benefits of decentralization for communities is the training that will be provided for Nunavummiut.
I applaud his commitment.
So I am very pleased that 4 out of the 6 jobs of Sport Nunavut are held by local residents of Baker Lake and that the information technology position established by the Department of Public Works in Baker Lake has been filled by Brian Putnak following completion of his training in a specialised field.
I have been working hard to ensure that there will be movement of government positions to Baker Lake once the new government office building is completed sometime in the year 2000.
Sport Nunavut is already established in Baker Lake, and is here to stay I might add.
I am very pleased that 4 of those 6 positions have been filled, like I said, by long-term residents of Baker Lake.
The development division of the Department of Community Government & Transportation will be moving 6 positions into Baker Lake in the near future as well.
I am also very pleased that Baker Lake will be the headquarters of the Nunavut library system and will acquire at least 5 positions along with support staff.
I would like to express my opinion that Nunavut should make careful plans to establish its own Workers’ Compensation Board.
This should be done in full consultation with those affected representatives of employers and workers who contribute to the Workers' Compensation Board and who benefit most from its existence.
Making a transition from the present joint NWT and Nunavut Workers' Compensation Board will also undoubtedly require a period of intense negotiations.
Outpost camps, alternatives to jail and another important issue I spoke about in my campaign was the strong concern of my constituents that young and first time offenders who are in jail are not being helped to get better so they do not get into trouble again.
The elders in Baker Lake believe strongly that on the land programs at outpost camps can provide effective rehabilitation for certain offenders, young and first offenders and those serving the last part of their terms.
Early in my term I approached the Hon. Jack Anawak, Minister of Justice, with this idea and was very pleased to receive his support and encouragement and as a result, the Nunavut Department of Justice has been actively working with respect to community leaders in Baker Lake in establishing outpost camps as alternatives to jail.
I am expecting to see this program in operation this coming fall.
I would like to acknowledge the key role of the Baker Lake Justice Committee.
I know that this program when it is implemented will not only prove to be a less costly alternative to warehousing our young people and putting offenders in costly jails far away from their homes, but even more important it will restore and enhance their self-esteem and pride.
The outpost camp program also will recognize traditional knowledge and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit by taking advantage of the wisdom and knowledge and compassion of our respected elders.
These outpost camps will support and teach our young people their traditional economy and way of life.
I give my whole-hearted endorsement to this initiative.
I am convinced that more communities like this one, in more communities will reduce crime.
Replacing the decrepit old, falling down, rotten Jonah Amitnaaq School.
Another issue is the deteriorating condition of the Jonah Amitnaaq School.
This school was built in 1957.
It is currently the oldest in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
This school is in bad shape and in fact it has started to literally fall apart.
The situation was well described in a headline in Kivalliq News on November 24, 1999 entitled, “Flirting with Disaster”.
The story described how a light fixture fell from the deteriorating ceiling of a classroom of the junior high wing and crashed to the student’s desk below.
Fortunately, this happened just after the students were dismissed for lunch.
This frightening incident resulted in the Baker Lake Education Council closing that wing for two months while temporary repairs were made.
In the course of investigating the building, evidence of asbestos was found.
Asbestos is not allowed in modern schools or any other buildings today, because it is very dangerous to human beings.
Tests were done on various sections of hallway pipes in the school and they were found to have between 10 and 30% of serpentine asbestos fibres.
Mr. Speaker, it is completely unacceptable that our school children should be exposed to such dangerous materials.
I have been deeply concerned about this issue not only for the very obvious and serious health reasons, but also because these concerns are a serious distraction to the students from their studies.
I would like to thank the Minister of Education, the Hon. James Arvaluk for his concern and support about this issue from the first moment I approached him about it.
I believe that addressing this serious and urgent problem is a priority for the Minister and his department, and I am looking forward seeing concrete plans to deal with this issue.
Community based health and social initiatives.
My community also has pressing health and social needs.
I believe that the most effective health and social programs must be community based, and taking advantage of our people who have been taking good care of each other for thousands of years.
A perfect example of this principle is the Baker Lake pre-natal program run by Betty Houston and Laura Pruver, two long-term local residents.
These dedicated women secured funding from the federal government to teach pregnant women and young mothers how to cook and use country food in a nutritious manner, so that their babies will be healthier.
The program is so successful I understand other communities are adopting it.
It has also been incorporated into a health promotion campaign on CBC television.
I want to commend these two residents for their hard work to make this program what it is.
We know that one of the worrying trends is the health status of northern peoples and its premature and low birth weight babies.
This program is working very well against this trend in Baker Lake, and it makes very good use of one of our abundant natural resources, country food.
In my campaign it was also very clear that constituents want to see social issues addressed.
One very strong concern was the need to hire and train an Inuit mental health worker.
People need counselling for depression, sexual abuse and family violence.
They have told me how difficult it was to talk about themselves and these very sensitive issues unless the counsellor can understand the language and culture.
This knowledge is not something which can be learned in a southern university or school of social work.
This is an example of the residents’ desire to take advantage of traditional knowledge about traditional healing.
So since the election I have been trying to gain support from the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Keewatin Social Services board for a simple request that I would like to establish a training position for a local mental health worker.
It seems so obvious to me that the people providing counselling and support must understand the language and culture of those seeking help.
I am still waiting for results for this important request.
I know that the Minister and his department have been working very hard on the transition from health boards to the department of health and getting the department up to capacity.
I will continue to push to deal with this need.
On another matter, I would like to thank the Minister of Health and Social Services for a speedy response to the Hamlet and myself following our request to get the Baker Lake Health Centre up to full capacity of 5 nurses from its low level of 2 nurses a year ago.
I want to also make particular mention of Donna Brown, the nurse in charge who has worked under trying circumstances in our community and I am very pleased she has recently committed to a new term in Baker Lake.
We are very grateful to Donna and her colleagues for their commitment to us, especially as we know it is a time of nursing shortages in many parts of Canada.
Supporting the traditional economy.
Another serious issue in my election campaign was giving more support to all aspects of what I call the traditional economy.
I told carvers that I would try to find ways for them to get soapstone.
I am therefore very pleased to note that this year, through the Community Initiatives Program of the Department of Sustainable Development, the Hamlet of Baker Lake was allocated 10 thousand dollars to retrieve soapstone from Jigging Point.
I am also pleased that a local man, Mark Toongwak has been contracted to carry and deliver the stone to the new carving room just opened in the Jessie Oonark Centre.
This carving room was funded by the Nunavut Development Corporation, which is ultimately accountable to the Minister of Sustainable Development.
I'd like to thank and acknowledge the Hon. Peter Kilabuk also for the generous contribution from his department for the Baker Lake prospector program which is chaired by my constituent Andy.
I hope this will an ongoing program because I know mining has great potential in that area.
It is great to be in my office in the Jessie Oonark building in Baker Lake alongside the print makers who have now been funded four years in a row by the Community Initiatives Program, as well as the lady seamstresses who have been funded for the second year as well.
So Mr, Speaker, the traditional economy is alive and well.
I am optimistic that with the continued support of Mr. Kilabuk and his officials, these programs will continue to thrive and flourish for the well being of all my constituents.
I am particularly pleased to see support for these programs because the beneficiaries of these programs usually have large extended families.
While I am very pleased about the support of what I call the traditional economy since I was elected, there is still much, much more to do.
Baker Lake is known for its arts and crafts but we have other areas that rely on our own human resources as well.
To create a solid economic base for our community we also need to support tourism.
Tourists that want to view nature, the so-called eco-tourists as well as those who will come for sport fishing and hunting.
Unlike tourists in other parts of Canada, who can drive in campers and largely look after themselves, tourists coming into Nunavut will support our airlines and stay in our hotels and rely on our guides and outfitters to take them out on the land.
Handled carefully, they will not only preserve the natural wonders, but they will also support our traditional way of life, the Inuit language and culture.
The world now knows about Nunavut since the creation of the new territory.
Now we have to capitalise on this by getting the world to visit Nunavut, to buy our arts and crafts, to view nature, to hunt and fish.
More of our people need to be trained as guides and supported as outfitters.
Our new Nunavut government must develop stronger new strategies to take advantage of our natural resources and our strong traditional economy.
I would like to see more support for tourism than is now in place in Nunavut.
Tourism could be much stronger in all Nunavut communities.
I must say that I am not convinced we are spending our money as effectively as we could on tourism in Nunavut.
I would like to see more direct benefits to communities, I would wonder if we are spending too much money on staff and travel, and not on product development and promotion.
Is the department measuring the effectiveness of our spending in this area, should our priority not be more community based initiatives, more community tourism officers, and local training programs.
Where we have potential for economic benefits in our community let's train people locally.
Isn't it better that we bring one instructor into a community to train 20 local people instead of sending one person out to a far away training program.
If the Meadowbank gold project goes ahead, I will be urging our government to support community based training in areas like heavy equipment operators so Baker Lake residents will have first chance at these new jobs.
I will have something more to say about the draft business incentive policy once it is tabled in this house, but I will want to simply say today that I think the best incentive for northern businesses to provide northern benefits is for the Government of Nunavut and NTI to provide incentives based on training and employment of northern residents.
Northern benefits mean local jobs and training.
Community based training and creating new jobs are the key to achieving the Bathurst Inlet goal of putting people first.
Creating new jobs and the potential for mining.
For my constituency realizing my campaign promise to look at ways of creating new jobs in my community requires that I look at the mining sector.
With rich mineral deposits near Baker Lake I can see the potential for long-term job opportunities and mining.
I understand that Mr. Kilabuk's department has just completed a mining policy for Nunavut.
I wish to congratulate the minister and his department for this.
Clearly there must be a careful and orderly approach taken to examine every potential mining development and achieving maximum benefits for our residents.
Many of my constituents are optimistic about the Meadowbank gold project of Cumberland Resources, which is located close to Baker, about 70 kilometres north.
Mr. Speaker, although the deposit is not huge, this find is apparently the richest concentration of gold in North America.
I have been in constant touch with the senior executives of the company expressing my very strong concerns about maximising local benefits to my community if this project goes ahead.
If the mine is approved, following the regulatory and environmental review process, which we all agree must be done thoroughly and rigorously, I will be pushing hard that full infrastructure and support for this mine must be based in Baker Lake.
This is the only way to maximise business and employment opportunities.
So far the company has been respectful of the fact that their find is located on Inuit lands and that they must therefore work within the Nunavut land claim agreement to achieve a fair and mutual beneficial Inuit impacts and benefits agreement which will reflect my community's desire to benefit from their own natural resources.
Achieving self-reliance.
Mr. Speaker, one of the main objectives of the Bathurst Mandate of the Government of Nunavut is self-reliance.
Let's look at the enormous challenges this poses.
How do we create 10 thousand jobs in Nunavut.
I think our government must take a realistic look at the potential of jobs in mining.
I know that we must look at each project carefully.
The NLCA and the mandate of our Nunavut and Federal government give us the tools to …
I challenge our Premier and his entire cabinet and our minister of DSD to take a closer look at opportunities at mining.
If this Meadowbank project goes ahead my community will be looking at about 120 jobs in the construction phase including maintenance of a road, hauling fuel and supplies once the mine is built.
We are looking at 70-80 jobs at the mine itself.
This could have a profound and positive effect in Baker Lake, which has suffered far, far too long from at least half the people being without full time employment.
I don’t have to look far before I see other, bigger opportunities in this region.
I don’t want to tread on my fellow MLAs turf but I do know that not far from Rankin Inlet is a potential mine, the Meladine project which is twice as big as the one I have spoken about in Baker Lake.
People from all over the Keewatin, if they get trained, should have access to these jobs.
I would urge our new government, to become more aware and supportive of the potential from the mining sector and once the mining developments have received approval, following careful environmental and economic review, the Inuit will also benefit through their land claim from royalties which must be paid for minerals taken out of the lands.
I believe we must press the Federal Government to give us their share of royalties from these resources.
If our Nunavut Government is serious about self-reliance, we must pay careful attention to any opportunity to create jobs for Nunavummiut which will generate income tax revenues.
We know how much we need sources of revenue in Nunavut.
Almost every day in this Assembly we hear calls for money, more money to provide subsidies for fuel, power, transportation costs, to build more houses, to provide more medical travel, more nurses, more teachers, but without new sources of revenue we are going to be harder pressed to do more with less.
How else are we going to provide housing, power subsidies, better health care, better education for a rapidly growing population.
We cannot rely on the Federal Government for money.
We must look for every opportunity to create our own sources of revenue.
When I ran for this office in this Assembly, I hoped I could work with the new Nunavut Government to make life better for the little people in Nunavut.
The long term residents, people who don’t always have a lot of formal education, these are the people who make up more than 50% of the unemployed people in constituencies like mine.
Let us work together to make sure we don’t lose an opportunity to create even one more job.
Congratulations on your first reply to an opening address.
Tabled Document 29 - 1(3): Churchill to Kivalliq Region Transmission Pre-Feasibility Study
Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a document entitled, “Churchill to Kivalliq Region Transmission Pre-Feasibility Study”.
Tabled Document 30 - 1(3): Increase in Gasoline Prices Effect to Inuit and Traditional Lifestyle
Hon. Manitok Thompson: I would like to table the letter that was written to me and Mr. Peter Kilabuk from Paul Quassa, President of NTI, “Increase in Gasoline Prices Effect to Inuit and Traditional Lifestyle”.
Item 14: Notices of Motion
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 25, 2000, I will move the following motion.
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member from Arviat that tabled document 27 - 1(3) on the Business Incentive Policy be moved into committee of the whole for discussion.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be seeking unanimous consent to move my motion today.
The member is requesting unanimous consent to deal with his motion today.
Motion 12 - 1(3): TD 27 - 1(3) to Committee of the Whole
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Arviat that tabled document 27 - 1(3) on the Business Incentive Policy be moved into the committee of the whole for discussion.
Tabled Document 27 - 1(3) is referred to the committee of the whole.
Item 17, First Reading of Bills. First Reading of Bills. Item 18, Second Reading of Bills.
Second Reading of Bills. Item 19, Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters.
Minister’s Statement 45 - 1(3), Minister’s Statement 50 - 1(3), Minister’s Statement 51 - 1(3), Tabled Document 20 - 1(3) and 27 - 1(3) with Deputy Speaker, Mr. Puqiqnak in the Chair.
We will break for five minutes before we proceed.
Five minute break.
>>Committee recessed at 4:50 p.m. and resumed at 5:05 p.m.
Chairperson (interpretation): Do you agree to begin with general comments.
Does anybody have any comments.
I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation to come in front of the committee.
Do you have another comment Mr. Akesuk.
Mr. Akesuk (interpretation): Yes, I apologize, but I would like the Power Corporation Minister to sit before the committee.
Ikuma Report
Chairperson (interpretation): The Minister of the Power Corporation sat in his chair yesterday and if he could come up and sit in front of the committee with his officials.
Minister Picco could you introduce your officials.
Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you Mr. Chairman and good afternoon to the Committee.
With me today I have Laura Gauthier, who is the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Executive who has worked very hard on helping to compile the Ikuma Report and indeed, was the Chairperson I guess of the Ikuma Committee.
Sitting behind us is Mr. Peter Scott, who has been attached to this file from the Department of the Executive.
Chairperson (interpretation): Welcome to the Legislative Assembly.
We will be dealing with tabled document 45 - 1(3) and 20 - 1(3).
We will be dealing with those two items together.
If the members have any comments or questions regarding the tabled document and the Minister’s Statement.
Any comments or questions from the committee members regarding the Power Corporation.
I will be reading our recommendations on the Ikuma Report.
That the Government of Nunavut established the Power Corporation as an independent Crown Corporation.
Number 2, that all energy delivery services, electricity and oil be eventually consolidated in one corporation but not now.
Three, that the Government of Nunavut consider an alternative to the independent Public Utilities Board form of regulation currently required by legislation.
Four, that the Government of Nunavut continue some form of rates subsidy for the short-term future, but only the short-term future.
Chairperson (interpretation): Minister Picco.
Yes we think that the recommendations read by the member fall in line with the report and some of the recommendations, indeed, are from the report.
This report was put together and is in use by the Nunavut Government.
I have a question, will these regulations be used by the Nunavut Government, will those regulations be put in place for the Nunavut Government.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Picco.
Mr. Chairman, the recommendations that you found in the report will be followed by the Government.
Those are the recommendations that were brought to Cabinet and confirmed there.
We don’t fully understand the report and the recommendations and because I am not too clear about the report I am not sure if I would be able to support the recommendations.
I feel that I should be able to understand it clearly in order to support it.
So as a Government, if we pass the motion without being too clear about the motion we would look bad later and start to regret our lack of understanding.
So, with that, I wonder if we could deal with this at the next sitting so that we could have time to look through the report in more detail and have a better understanding of it.
If you would rather deal with this in Iqaluit, if you would like to defer this item, you could make a motion to defer this item to the next sitting of the Legislative Assembly in Iqaluit.
Perhaps I should ask this question first before I make a motion.
The documents that we have are a motion and if we approve it will we be following the recommendations.
Will we be implementing it as soon as it’s approved.
Chairperson: Mr. Picco.
Mr. Chairman, going back to November and in consultation with the members and appraising the members over the past several months about what we were doing with the Ikuma Report and what we were trying to do with the Power Corporation coming from the transition agreement, a decision was brought forward because of the transition agreement that we had signed, with the creation of Nunavut, and with the agreement of the NWT Government, and the Office of the Interim Commissioner.
There is a long history there and I am not going to get into that.
Mr. Chairman, the member is making a good point, the Ikuma Report is over a hundred pages long and over the last couple of days, many people have asked me about some of the points in the report itself.
When we made this report public, and to the members, maybe more people need a chance to study it and debate some of the recommendations in it, but we are not here today to accept the report.
We are here to debate the report and to talk about it and to have debate about the actualities itself.
The recommendations have been accepted and we’re moving forward.
As the members know I appeared before the committee, the committee recommended that I advertise for the Nunavut Power Corporation President, because we didn’t do that in the south or in the north.