EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Will the minister commit to undertaking a study to determine the best possible solution for dust suppression in Baker Lake?
As I noted earlier, dust is a problem everywhere. Whatever solution we come with will probably be applied across the board in Nunavut. Whether you’re inland or on the shore, when it hasn’t rained, you’re just as dry, I believe.
Baker Lake does get warm, but so does Kugluktuk.
I hear it’s 16 degrees there today. There are other communities that get really warm too.
We are looking at options.
I don’t want to preach the same broken record that calcium is there and that’s what we’re going to use.
We are looking at other options. We know that dust is a problem. As the member pointed out, we can’t pave all the roads; we just don’t have the finances available to us.
If we cancelled all infrastructure projects in Nunavut for two years, then maybe we can pave all of Nunavut, but that’s the kind of money we’re talking and we are looking at options.
No, I will not commit to doing a study just for Baker Lake on the best options, but we’re looking at other options.
We’re hopeful that we will be able to come up with a good, cost-effective solution because it is a problem and I’m committed to trying to solve the problem.
Member for South Baffin, Mr. David Joanasie
Question 364 – 4(3): Power Capacity Issues in Cape Dorset (Joanasie)
I have some questions that I would like to direct to the Minister responsible for the Qulliq Energy Corporation. It is based on some of the lines of questions we heard earlier regarding power capacity issues in Cape Dorset.
First of all, I would like to ask him what QEC will do if there are power capacity issues for Cape Dorset. As we know, there are a number of capital plans for the community that are lined up.
If there is an issue, what will QEC do on that matter?
Hon. George Hickes: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the member for that question.
With the backup generator that we brought into service in Cape Dorset in 2013, it is meeting the needs and the immediate projected growth of the community.
We don’t anticipate having to bring in additional power at this time until the plant is completed.
If that need ever did arise, we would have to go through different options that could be available to us, potentially even including like what we did.
We had a mobile unit brought into the community. At such time if that is needed, we would have to go over different options that would be available to us.
Also in relation to that, are any other communities in a similar situation where they have or require a backup generator in case their capacity is peaked and they go over their capacity?
As we’re continuing with our own capital plan, we’re working towards addressing community needs.
We’ve got plants coming online very near it. Taloyoak is going through some work, sampling to see when the plant can be fully turned over there. I’m not going to go through community by community, but we work to make sure we’ve got the need addressed.
In cases where we are running very tight, we do look at options of bringing in temporary measures if need be. At the same time, we’ve got 17 of our 25 communities with plants that are beyond their expected lifespan.
We are working very diligently to leverage the dollars we have to make sure we work within our capital plan, to make sure we can accommodate the needs of the communities on an ongoing basis and we will continue to do so.
If the member wishes, I can talk to him maybe after the sitting to go through a community-by-community analysis, but I would not want to take up that much time in the legislature today.
That won’t be necessary, but what I would ask is that maybe if he would be willing to commit to tabling the community-by-community breakdown that shows the peak levels or the demand of each community in relation to the capacity that they have.
I wanted to address that for those communities that are in need of new infrastructure, especially housing.
We don’t want to see them get set back and fall through the cracks, so to speak.
I would like to see some of that, if you could commit to that.
Hon. George Hickes: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the member for that suggestion.
I will speak to my officials at Qulliq Energy and get some documentation forward and I will bring it to my cabinet colleagues to look at tabling it at the next sitting.
Question 365 – 4(3): Swan River Bridge (Akoak)
My question is to Economic Development and Transportation and it has to do with the Swan River Bridge that the community has been asking for, for the last few years.
They said that it would be installed this summer.
My question to the minister is: will the minister be coming to Gjoa Haven to help cut the ribbon to open the bridge this summer?
I will anticipate getting the invitation from the MLA requesting that I visit his community to attend to the ceremony.
I will deliberate with my colleague when I see the actual invitation.
I was just asking if she knows if the bridge will be completed this summer.
Minister of Economic Development and Transportation, Ms. Ell-Kanayuk
Hon. Monica Ell-Kanayuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also thank my colleague for asking about that project.
At this time, the project was set up for a two-year period based on the capital expenditures. We expect that since the work commenced last year, the bridge should be completed by this summer.
The time for question period has expired. Let us move on to Item 7.
Tabled Document 145 – 4(3): 2016-2019 Nunavut Marine Tourism Management Plan (Ell-Kanayuk)
Tabled Document 146 – 4(3): FPT Report from the Northern Development Ministers Forum, Whitehorse, Yukon, June 23 to 25, 2015 (Ell-Kanayuk)
Tabled Document 147 – 4(3): FPT Report – Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety – January 28, 2016 Ottawa, Ontario (Ell-Kanayuk)
I am pleased to table the 2016-19 Nunavut Marine Tourism Management Plan.
Mr. Speaker, I am also pleased to table the FPT Report from the Northern Development Ministers Forum in Whitehorse, Yukon, June 23 to 25, 2015.
Mr. Speaker, I am also pleased to table the FPT Report on the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, Ottawa, Ontario January 28, 2016.
The Hon. Minister responsible for the Qulliq Energy Corporation, Mr. George Hickes.
Tabled Document 148 – 4(3): Qulliq Energy Corporation Corporate Plan 2016-2020 (Hickes)
I am pleased to table the 2016-2020 Corporate Plan for the Qulliq Energy Corporation.
Motion 028 – 4(3): Extended Adjournment – Notice (Mikkungwak)
I give notice that on Wednesday, June 8, 2016, I will move the following motion:
I move, seconded by the Hon. Member for Aggu, that pursuant to the provisions of Rule 3, that when the House concludes this present sitting, it shall adjourned until October 19, 2016.
Hon. Minister of Economic Development and Transportation, Ms. Monica Ell-Kanayuk.
Bill 16 – An Act to Amend the Travel and Tourism Act – Notice
I give notice that on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Travel and Tourism Act, be read for the first time.
The Hon. Minister of Justice, Mr. Keith Peterson.
Bill 19 – Unlawful Property Forfeiture Act – Notice
Hon. Keith Peterson: Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, that Bill 19, Unlawful Property Forfeiture Act, be read for the first time.
Motion 028 – 4(3): Extended Adjournment (Mikkungwak)
I move, seconded by the Hon. Member for Aggu, that pursuant to the provisions of Rule 3, that when the House concludes its present sitting, it shall be adjourned until October 19, 2016.
Bills 17 and 18 and Tabled Documents 73 – 4(2), 116 – 4(2), 140 – 4(2), and 70 – 4(3) with Mr. Mikkungwak in the Chair.
>>House recessed at 15:56 and Committee resumed at 16:25
In Committee of the Whole, we have the following items to deal with: Tabled Documents 73 – 4(2), 116 – 4(2), 140 – 4(2), and 70 – 4(3) and Bills 17 and 18.
Mr. Chairman, we wish to continue with the discussion on Tabled Documents 73 – 4(2), 116 – 4(2), 140 – 4(2), and 70 – 4(3).
Chairman: Are we in agreement that we continue with Tabled Documents 73 – 4(2), 116 – 4(2), 140 – 4(2), and 70 – 4(3)?
I would now like to ask Minister Peterson if he has officials that he would like to appear before the committee.
I have two witnesses I would like to appear with me.
Does the committee agree to bring in the minister’s officials to the witness table?
For the record, Mr. Minister, please introduce your officials.
Chairman (interpretation): Welcome to the Legislative Assembly.
The first name on my list for questions is Mr. Joanasie.
I would first like to ask why the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs is not represented to speak to Inuit employment. When members have raised questions to clarify the issue, we have not been able to get a response. I would like to know why a representative from that division or even the minister representing them is not even here.
Why is there no official from that division? If he can answer that question, why there is no one from EIA.
Mr. Chairman, the tabled documents that we are dealing with were tabled by the Department of Finance.
Even though that’s the case, human resources are held by another government department.
When we ask questions specifically about Inuit employment while the Minister of EIA is not here and we can’t redirect the question, what do we do?
Will we not get a response to our questions?
I seek your guidance on this issue.
Chairman (interpretation): We are dealing with human resources and the tabled documents, so if you have any questions on the tabled documents, Mr. Joanasie.
On page 29 of the public service annual report for 2014-15, it indicates that there were 337 jobs for that year.
What I really noticed was the beneficiary who applied for jobs were 2,157 and the non-beneficiaries who applied were 10,558.
Looking at those figures and to use an example, if one Inuk applies, then five other non-beneficiaries will go after that same job.
In that case, will Human Resources support a person who is trying to get a job if they don’t have the same level of education and they can be trained on the job instead if they don’t really meet the qualifications?
Do they do that in the government?
Mr. Chairman, 100 percent of the jobs that are advertised by the Government of Nunavut have indicated that they are priority hire.
We will look at piles 1, 2, and 3. The beneficiaries are in pile 1 and we don’t even look at the other piles until pile 1 has been fully analyzed.
If people are screened in from pile 1 and they’re successful, then they would have to have a minimum of 60 points on an interview to pass it to be eligible to be considered for a job offer.
There could be 12,750 job applications in the 2014-15 fiscal year.
It indicates that there’s quite a bit of interest in working for the Government of Nunavut, but you’re not considered until you screen in.
Under the Public Service Act, section 9(1) and (2), you’re hired on merit and you’re promoted on merit.
I would like to ask on competitions for beneficiaries only.
In his opening comments, he identified that they established new directives on this. How many positions have you filled through this new directive?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you very much. Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Chairman, Directive 518 has only recently come into effect in the last several months.
There have not been that many competitions on it. We have seen a fair amount of interest from the communities where it has been used, but we do not have any stats on it at the moment.
I look forward to the stats when they become available. I would like to ask on succession planning.
As we know, we are striving for representative levels. Looking at the TRPS, towards a representative level statistics, I note that there are 331 administrative support positions that are sitting vacant.
These are entry-level positions.
However, Inuit employment is not budging, not even 1 percent within the year.
The plan is by next year, it will be 51 percent.
I will use an example. Last week, Minister Kuksuk announced the G.R.E.A.T. program (Getting Ready for Education and Training).
How does the finance department work with the other different employment program initiatives that the Department of Family Services or Education or Nunavut Arctic College do to plan out succession plans in the public sector?
Mr. Chairman, last week, I mentioned the GN’s Human Resource Strategy 2014-18, which all the government departments and territorial corporations have endorsed.
It is their responsibility to ensure within their departments and territorial corporations to identify individuals who are capable or willing to take training to move up.
I think EIA has a leadership development series where they are training employees to be in management type positions.
Internally within the government, we have the Building Capacity Committee where all deputy heads work together to discuss how we can provide training and support to all our employees in the Government of Nunavut. There are people working on it.
We’re also looking at, as I mentioned last week, the settlement with NTI and the Government of Canada.
We have the training group that the Minister of Education and the Premier sit on with NTI. We are identifying funds through that source of funding to train people in the Government of Nunavut for positions to allow them to progress up the departments into higher-level jobs.
Going back to the TRPS report, out of all the occupational categories, all the staff to vacancies by executive, senior management, middle management, and professionals, as of December 31, 2015, there are 2 executive vacancies, 29 senior management vacancies, 126 middle management, 472 professionals, and 352 paraprofessionals.
These vacancies are a lot.
Yes, there are different ways that the government is trying to address this, but I think both the Department of Finance and its colleagues in the cabinet can be a little more progressive in trying to get these positions filled and meeting Article 23.
I also note that this is not one of the documents being considered, but Family Services tabled this In-Demand Career Options in Nunavut. Looking at page 8 of it, it says that the hourly wage for senior government managers and officials is $71.70.
Perhaps he can give us an idea of how much people are earning.
On that note, can I get some kind of commitment or can the minister say that if he can work with his department and look at these vacancies and match some of the programs or initiatives that they offer to Nunavummiut and maybe look at filling these vacant positions? Can he commit to looking at that?
Mr. Joanasie raises many good points.
As I indicated the other day, this isn’t an issue that just arose in the last year or two or three.
It has been a longstanding issue, probably pre-Nunavut.
If the training funds had been available at the time or people had a bit more foresight, they would have been putting on training programs to train people to take these positions once the new government was established or certainly, in the early going, identified people within the government that could take training to move up to the higher levels.
Again, as I mentioned, Berger, in his 2006 report, clearly identified it was a problem. The OAG, in her 2010 report, identified it was a problem. We do need to keep our kids in high school, get them to graduate grade 12, have the qualification and education to go to college, university, or trade school, and then they will have those opportunities to go after the jobs.
Again, as I said in earlier comments, the Human Resource Strategy 2014-18 identified that departments and territorial corporations work together to identify individuals who are willing or able to take the training to move up into the higher-level positions.
Where we can, we’re removing barriers to employment. We’re looking at job descriptions and identifying the skills that people need.
I think, in due course, we will start seeing the results that we’re looking to achieve.
Chairman: Thank you. Before I move on to my next name, I would like to remind members that we are dealing with the Department of Finance’s tabled documents.
If we are going to conclude these documents today, when the clock nears, there will have to be a motion made if we are going to conclude this department.
Moving on to my list of names, Mr. A. Sammurtok.
At the beginning, the minister indicated that there were workshops given or anti-harassment awareness seminars to the communities of Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet, and Igloolik.
Since the staff has taken that seminar, what is your forecast of that?
Was there a benefit in regard to this anti-harassment awareness seminar?
Yes, there have been workshops in the Kitikmeot, in the Kivalliq, and in the Baffin.
I believe there were workshops last week to train people on the workplace harassment policy to clearly identify the difference between what is workplace harassment and what would be performance management, and clearly explain the processes to report workplace harassment or to deal with workplace harassment.
We do provide materials on the finance website and through Help Desk. There are materials available.
There is increased awareness of the entire workplace harassment issue. People will know where to go now.
Of course, the deputy heads and supervisors of all the departments are aware that when it’s reported, they have to deal with it and they can’t ignore it.
The reason I’m asking that is because, after the anti-harassment awareness seminars were taken in those communities, we’re still getting complaints from the staff.
Who is policing this now?
I’m not sure if I understand his question. Under the Code of Values and Ethics, workplace behaviour is clearly identified for employees, that workplace harassment and bullying is not to be tolerated.
That’s not just supervisors and managers; it’s employees as well, so it could be in the workplace.
In the collective agreement with NEU and NTA, there are workplace harassment and bullying clauses.
The ethics officer deals with workplace harassment allegations.
As I said earlier, awareness is increasing. We’re hoping that people will understand what’s the difference between workplace harassment and performance management.
In many cases, people who are displaying inappropriate work behaviour, for example, not showing up for work until 9:30 or ten o’clock, when your supervisor sits you down in their office and explains you’re supposed to be at work at 8:30, that’s a performance-related issue, not a workplace harassment issue. We get a number of those.
As far as who is policing, the government polices.
When individuals report workplace harassment, it is to be treated with the urgency that it requires. It’s not to be ignored.
Deputy heads of all departments and territorial corporations are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the workplace is a safe, productive, and enjoyable place to work.
According to your 2013-14 annual report on page 12 regarding the Summer Student Employment and Equity Program, this program is “designed to provide opportunities for all Nunavummiut students, beneficiary or non-beneficiary, to gain meaningful work experience or training within the public service.”
To that statement, when a summer student applies for a summer job, they do the screening at the HR portion of the finance department.
A lot of the students are told that the reason they are not being selected is because they don’t have the work experience.
According to your annual report, they are trying to get work experience.
Mr. Chairman, if they can identify casual positions in their departments or territorial corporations, either early April or the beginning of April to the middle of August, they try to place summer students from grades 10, 11, and 12 and then university into positions that meet their skills.
It’s not simply the case of just putting an individual into a job that they’re not qualified for because then we would have other difficulties.
The 2013 annual report, as Mr. Sammurtok says, there were 154 students that participated in the summer student program. In 2015, we have increased that to 208 students in 21 communities; 164 were beneficiaries.
In 2015, there were 391 applications and 208 were hired.
There is good uptake.
We are encouraging all territorial corporations and departments to hire summer students so that they can gain experience, hopefully have a good experience working in the government, and have jobs that are closely related to the training they might be taking at college or university or trade school.
After they graduate, they would have the experience to qualify for the indeterminate jobs they might apply on.
We’re having good success. There is a lot of interest in that program.
Mr. Sammurtok (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) It indicates here that it’s for all Nunavummiut.
There were some incidents where a department would hire a summer student that is from a different province.
I find it weird when it indicates that it is for all Nunavummiut. They never, ever lived in Nunavut.
What do you do in a case like this?
I believe, at least for the parents, there is a one-year residency requirement to qualify for that program.
Mr. A. Sammurtok
That is what I am trying to get at. They have never lived in Nunavut before.
All of a sudden, they’re having a summer student job.
That’s why I’m trying to find out: in cases like that, what are we supposed to do as Nunavummiut?
Hon. Keith Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It appears that Mr. A. Sammurtok has information that I am not aware of.
Perhaps he could share it with me or come to my office and we can discuss it. Unless I have facts, I really can’t address it.
All I know is that we had 391 applications in 2015 and 208 successful applicants. The programs are rolling out well again this year from what I understand, so there is a lot of interest right across Nunavut.
In regard to your 2014-15 annual report, internship, one of my colleagues asked the question a couple of days ago.
There was a response indicating that it is difficult to fill those positions, which I find kind of hard to believe.
There are some Inuit beneficiaries who have, let’s say in the case of the Department of Community and Government Services, Red Seal certification in plumbing, carpentry, and so forth.
Why would it be hard to find these positions if they want to get into the management-level positions, such as director, management, or supervisory positions?
I will ask Mr. D’Arcy to respond to Mr. A. Sammurtok’s question.
When the original internship program was rolled out, we discovered that there was a systemic barrier to the program in that the intern had to guaranteed the job that they were interning for, which meant that the incumbent who was training them had to leave government service or at least transfer somewhere else.
That created some difficulties in having the internship program move forward the way we would have liked it. That has been readjusted now.
As I think we may have mentioned previously, there is very good take-up in that internship program at this point in time. In fact, it might be oversubscribed.
There may be more people wanting to take the available positions than exist.
For 2016, we are very hopeful that that is going to be a successful program and we look forward to seeing the results.
When you are advertising a job, is it the responsibility of individual departments or is the advertisement being looked after by Finance’s HR department?
The Department of Finance’s HR does that, except for QEC, teachers, and nurses.
How are these job advertisements being advertised?
In Nunatsiaq News?
Are they on a website?
How are they advertised?
Mr. Chown.
Our job advertisements are all posted on the Government of Nunavut’s jobs posting website. In addition, we post our ads in the local newspapers. Depending on the positions and possible requests from departments for some of our more technical or complex positions to fill, we may also post in specialty sites, such as accounting institutes or engineering organization type websites.
Mr. Sammurtok: Thank you for your response.