EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I think it’s important for us to make sure that we respect both sides of the research, from Inuit traditional knowledge and also from the Western knowledge that we’ve been using for the last 30 years as a government or as the previous Northwest Territories.
I think it’s important for us that we continue to monitor the polar bears in our territory.
Once we get the results of the population from each of the boundaries, it’s going to be a decision that we will make with the communities involved and also with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.
It’s important that we concentrate to make sure that we work closely with the communities.
With the recent increase of 115 polar bears, we will stick with that, and if we think that there is a decrease from one of the populations, we will always consider decreasing the quota or keeping it the same.
Question 135 – 2(2): Kugluktuk Men’s Healing Facility Opening
When will the Kugluktuk men’s healing facility have its official opening? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The latest that I have is mid-March.
I don’t know if that date has been set yet.
Work is still continuing on upgrading the current facility and making sure it meets standards. That is what has been happening so far.
All the employees are waiting, but the facility needs to be in a good condition before it is utilized for inmates.
Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Evyagotailak
During my time in Kugluktuk, I held a constituency meeting.
Community residents expressed concerns about their safety and noticed that the facility has no fence around it.
What specific measures are being taken to ensure the security of the community?
All the employees were trained for their work at the current correctional facility here, so that they know what to expect.
That was the foremost in our consideration that the community and all the inmates of the facility will be screened, and if there is a threat they will not be held in that facility.
We are quite satisfied with what is going on so far.
We also make sure that there are enough RCMP officers on the ground to make sure that in any event where there has to be support at that level, then the support will be there.
So, that is why we have chosen Kugluktuk, to ensure sufficient support at the community level.
Speaker: Mr. Evyagotailak.
Will the minister direct his officials to have an open house for the community so that the people of Kugluktuk will see the facility and have an opportunity to ask questions.
I look forward to the opening in mid-March and I look forward to going to the community, along with the member, and hosting a wonderful event celebrating the opening of the facility.
Mr. Alagalak
Question 136 – 2(2): Update on Drivers’ Licences
I am sure our colleague, Mr. Kattuk, is watching these proceedings: I wish him well and we miss you in the House.
Last year, we were going to revamp drivers’ licenses in Kivalliq, especially in Arviat.
I’ve learned that many residents are still holding short term licenses or temporary licenses.
Some have been using these temporary licenses for over a year.
Those who travel south are experiencing problems renting vehicles as a result.
Could you give us an update on what is happening with this?
We had directed our staff in Rankin Inlet and Gjoa Haven to resolve this issue, and we were told that is in the works.
This is the first time that I hear that it has not been resolved.
I will look into the matter, but I had directed my staff to resolve this issue.
Speaker (interpretation): Supplementary, Mr. Alagalak.
I was just following last year’s rules.
I would like to urge the minister, because we were told that they were going to resolve this issue and that an individual or an employee was going to be coming to Arviat with new licenses, and I think he brought two.
I figured that the department, I figured that there was nobody else left with temporary licenses.
Its kind of embarrassing when you go into a community and you have a temporary license and you want to rent a vehicle.
Hon. David Simailak (interpretation): Yes, I understand exactly where you are coming from.
We had a meeting in Arviat and I had a meeting with the hamlet and I told the hamlet council that I would look into the matter right away.
I will make sure that some direction is taken if they can.
Speaker: Oral questions. Mr. Netser
Question 137 – 2(2): Decriminalizing Marijuana Possession
I have a question to the Minister of Justice.
(interpretation ends) Just recently, he attended a national meeting with the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of justice.
According to the official announcement from this meeting, some minister of justice, and I quote, “expressed concerns about de-criminalization for the possession of small amounts of marijuana.”
My question to the minister is this: Did our Minister of Justice support or oppose the federal government’s plan to de-criminalize dope possession?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister of Justice, Minister Okalik.
Hon. Paul Okalik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Our position is that it is not being de-criminalized.
The level of possession is the focus on this issue, so the federal government doesn’t plan on de-criminalizing marijuana possession for larger amounts.
So, we are in support of the federal government that the focus should be on the traffickers of marijuana.
That’s where we should be pooling our resources.
Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Netser
Do we understand that we can now carry drugs in our pockets, drugs that are destructive to people?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister Okalik
They will still be expected to pay or we can go through court, but they will not get a criminal record.
They will have to pay an amount for possession of small amounts, but we are mainly targeting the traffickers.
We are aiming at those traffickers.
If I were to buy a small amount, they wouldn’t be able to do much to me, but the person who is trafficking, how are they going to be dealt with?
I fail to understand, when they can’t do much to the other one who possesses a small amount.
Either they will still have to go to court, or if the person possesses a small amount they will still have to pay a fine.
For those traffickers, drug dealers, they will be concentrated on; they will have a criminal record whether it’s a small amount or a big amount.
Speaker: Your last supplementary, Mr. Netser.
Mr. Netser (interpretation): When will the Nunavummiut be able to see how long they will be incarcerated?
I think that most of the time they just seem to tease the authorities like the RCMP.
When are they going to set a specific time for those drug traffickers to be incarcerated?
This is still in the planning stage and we have not completed it yet.
Once it’s enacted, it should specify how long they will have to stay in prison, for those criminals.
It should not be a light sentence, but a heavy one.
Question 138 – 2(2): Tabling of KPMG Report
It’s a question that I have asked the minister quite often concerning the KPMG medical transportation report.
I asked for it in May of 2004, but she said was that it wasn’t translated then.
And then when I asked again in November of 2004; I had to go into the access to information, through that process.
I consider that report important to the business of the House, particularly when we are discussing main estimates.
So, I ask the minister: will the minister commit to tabling that report this week before we get into Committee of the Whole, yes or no?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister of health, Ms. Brown.
A little heavy on the yes or no.
That KPMG report, I checked up on it.
It’s quite lengthy, 100 and-some pages long, and it has to be translated. To date, it has not been translated yet.
So, I can’t promise you that it will be revealed this week, but when it is ready it will be revealed.
I can’t say when, that is for sure, because we had a problem with the translators.
They are very, very in demand, the interpreters and the translators, but we did find somebody to do it.
Once that is done, it will be tabled here at the Legislature.
Speaker: Mr. Peterson.
I wonder if the minister could just table it in English with the promise to table it in Inuinnaqtun or Inuktitut when it’s complete.
I think that it’s very important that we receive this document before we go into the Committee of the Whole.
Speaker: Minister Brown.
I can’t say yes at this time because I want to table it both in English and Inuktitut.
I thought we had a rule where if we table a document that we have to do it in both languages, and we have to abide by that rule if it’s the case.
I have done some checking on my own on this and consulted with some of the officials of the Legislature.
I don’t believe there is a rule that prevents the minister from tabling that document.
In fact, a precedent was established last year by the minister of the housing corporation when he tabled some lease inspection reports in English with a promise that the documents would be translated for the House later on.
It worked quite fine.
So I will ask the minister again: will she be able the report KPMG report in English with the promise for the translated documents to follow?
If that is the rule, I have to, no problem, but I was just concerned about the unilingual people who might want to read in Inuktitut.
Yes, I believe I can agree to that, if it is possible.
It is possible to table a document only in English, as long as you promise to table it in Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun once they are available.
Mr. Peterson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can I get a commitment from the minister?
I ask her again: will she table that document this week before we get into the Committee of the Whole on health and social services?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister Brown
Hon. Levinia Brown. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Peterson, that was your last supplementary.
Question 139 – 2(2): Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Group and Researchers
I’d like to address the minister responsible for economic development.
He responded to some of it, but my concern is that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is not a scientific knowledge, so it is not categorized as such.
To me, the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and the scientists cannot seem to connect.
Why are they like that?
I wonder if they can work hand-in-hand.
Speaker (interpretation): You were addressing the minister of economic development and it seems to be directed to the Minister of Environment.
Which one are you referring it to?
Mr. Curley (interpretation): I was trying to say the Minister of Environment.
It’s not Economic Development.
Within the last five years we have tried to reveal the research of how we can incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, because it has been around for a long time.
But before that it wasn’t recognized, but nowadays it seems to be more recognized.
As the government, and you, the members of the Legislative Assembly, maybe we can promote to the international community Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, and work maybe to incorporate it with scientific knowledge.
Because they do research wildlife, for example, in the McClintock Channel, when they use scientific knowledge to decide not to hunt polar bear.
We were able to get three more, so I wonder how this will be able to improve in Nunavut?
The Greenpeace people… Especially if it is going to affect us, I wonder how it is going to be looked at by the global community.
We’ll try, along with NTI and other organizations, to work closely together on how we can work on this.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): The same question to the Minister of Environment.
The reason I asked is that Inuit who know the wildlife… The wildlife in Canada, that is quite new in Canada, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, it is not even 100 years.
They say that even when the Inuit say when the population of different species has increased.
But scientific knowledge indicates that they might be at risk.
They may not be true because we don’t see them.
A lot of them have not seen polar bears, only in a zoo, and they have not stepped foot on the snow, and yet they are saying that Inuit traditional knowledge is misleading and that is not true.
Can the minister concentrate on where the Inuit know about wildlife, so they know when they say that the population of the polar bear is increasing.
According to me, I believe that.
Do you believe that, Minister Akesuk?
Yes, I do believe in the knowledge of Inuit and that traditional knowledge has to be recognized, because Inuit have been managing their wildlife all their lives.
Also, in regards to Western science, we do have our own polar bear biologist.
Along with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board we do receive polar bear biologists, and we do want to work together with them to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, because they are the holders of the knowledge of our wildlife.
I personally, as the minister, would like to recognize Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
I would like to thank the minister, because we need to close the gap between our government and wildlife management.
We say we want to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, the knowledge of Inuit.
The lawyers and the biologists don’t believe in these facts because they are not scientific knowledge, because they are Inuit knowledge.
When scientists don’t believe Inuit knowledge it means that we don’t have to ask questions to Inuit people.
Perhaps your partners should work together to recognize the bearers of Inuit knowledge.
We should pinpoint the individuals who have the traditional knowledge and identify them.
Yes, Inuit knowledge.
We are now dealing with this a lot more than our first Legislative Assembly.
As I have stated, in McClintock Channel, there was a polar bear moratorium.
At that time we started recognizing Inuit traditional knowledge, because they were telling us their knowledge.
That is why we want to use the knowledge of the Inuit, especially when we are doing a wildlife survey, because they are holders of the knowledge.
According to my knowledge, I believe and trust their knowledge of the wildlife.
We have directed our staff to work closely with the communities, especially when they are going to have an impact in the community with the wildlife survey, no matter what the species is.
I would like to thank the minister for his response, and I’m sure that his response is very well taken by the Inuit people.
My question is they don’t identify down in the United States… . I’m sure at CNN.com on February 17, they said that the polar bear population in the states… . They wanted to put polar bears under the Endangered Species Act.
Would that put our polar bears under the Endangered Species Act?
The species that are put under the endangered list are written down by people from outside of Nunavut.
As a government minister, I’m going to protect Nunavut to protect our wildlife.
If they want to put them on a special or endangered list, I will continue to protect our wildlife and not to put them on such a list and to utilize the traditional knowledge of Inuit.
Because the Inuit have lived in this homeland for thousands of years and they are very knowledgeable about their wildlife and their environment.
So, I’m going to continue to work hard to protect our wildlife on behalf of Inuit.
I would like to work closely with the federal government, especially when the Americans start considering that polar bears be put on their endangered list.
Question 140 – 2(2): Providing Accurate Information
My question, again, is for the minister responsible for Power Corporation, and it relates to something I’m sure he vividly remembers from our last sitting.
That was the revelation that there was inaccurate information put out by the corporation in their General Rate Application.
I know that the minister was surprised by that information at the time.
He’s had quite a bit of time now to probably figure out what happened.
I would like to ask the minister if he could update the members of this House and the public on exactly why that information was not provided to public prior to their consultations taking place?
Minister Responsible for the Nunavut Power Corporation, Mr. Picco.
The member is correct, this occurred during the GRA process during the month of November 2004.
Indeed, at that time, I rose here in the House and apologized to the public at large because of the information on the street lights, which was the amount of revenue throughout Nunavut that was missing in the information.
There were some logistic as well as administrative problems with the information compiled, and that was the reason.
However, Mr. Speaker, the Utility Rates Review Council was able to bring forward all the information available to them and indeed next week, on Monday, I believe it’s the 28th of February, we’ll table that in the House. All will become clear at that time.
I’d like to ask the minister: it is not so much on the details of the information, but I guess what surprised me, and I’m sure it surprised the minister himself, is that he wasn’t even aware of that information.
So, my question is, has he determined why?
Was it a logistical or technical reason why he wasn’t aware of that information when it happened and not until it came out publicly that he became aware of it?
So, I would like to ask the minister if he could explain exactly how or why it was that he was not made aware, as the minister responsible, of that error?
In the process for the General Rate Application, in this case, there is something called interrogatory.
What the interrogatory has done is this: the information is brought forward by the GRA and then the people who are trying to ask questions of the Power Corporation through that GRA process, they write a letter and they say, for example, “What is the amount of revenue on street lights?”
in this case.
The Power Corporation would write back to the interrogatory through the funnel of the Utility Rates Review Council committee, and they provide that information.
In this case, the funnel, being me as the minister, that information did not come down through the funnel.
Indeed, the information was provided but it wasn’t included in the package that was given to the public.
It was an error in judgment on behalf of the Power Corporation.
It did not reflect the work that had to go forward by the Utility Rates Review Council in determining what the rate structure was; again, I apologized back in November for that.
The reason why I didn’t find out was because the information had been put in the book.
I don’t think that there was any secretive, clandestine, hidden agenda, paranoia on my part or the members’ part or the people of Nunavut’s part, that they didn’t provide that information.
I think that they just missed it.
So, I take it at face value. We move on from there.
I am not in the process of blaming, or saying this should have been done, that should have been done.
Let us be proactive.
Let us move forward.
I believe that that is what is occurring here now.
The minister makes reference to a funnel, but some might consider it is something that you need a plunger for.
As the minister had indicated, that was a poor judgment call by the Power Corporation not to inform him of that information.
Has the minister given any directives to make sure that he is kept informed, as the minister responsible, and that the buck stops with him, as with any other minister, that any and all information is provided to his office?
In this case the plunger was expunged.
The member will remember on the expunging of that plunger that I actually said, when the member raised a question in the House, I will bring the CEO of the Power Corporation in immediately and we will discuss at the break, and that is what occurred that day.
Question period was over.
The CEO came over and went to my office.
I asked the questions.
We went through the funnel analogy.
We went through the expunction of the plunger.
At the end of the day it really did not impact on the report of the Utility Rates Review Council.
An apology was put in place.
In all seriousness to the people of Nunavut, the Utility Rates Review Council report will be made public and known on Monday.
The logistic and administrative issues were dealt with by the minister in November.
We moved forward from that with, I think, some of the announcements that have been made over the last couple of days by the Power Corporation.
When the people of Nunavut see the Utility Rates Review Council recommendations they are going to be quite pleased.
There is no hidden, as that wonderful movie that just was released a few weeks ago, there are no hidden boogeymen out there on the power rates.
I think that that is something that the people of Nunavut should feel safe and secure on.
And I thank the minister for all his boogeying tunes that he like to sing on this.
I know that the minister still gave a very nice, eloquent reply but it was definitely not an answer to my question.
My question was, has he given any directives or taken any corrective action to ensure that appropriate information and all the information is conveyed to the minister, so that it is the minister’s call to determine whether it is in the public’s interest and the members’ interest to decide whether to release that information or not.
I am not arguing the fact that it impeded the work of the Utility Rates Review Council.
What it did publicly was jeopardize the integrity, in the public’s view, of the information and the process that happened.
What I am looking for is, in the press release that he put out yesterday, it says the Energy Corporation enhances accountability: how are the people going to be able to trust the information if we know in the past that we haven’t got that information before?
So, again, I would like to ask the minister: has any directive been given to ensure that all information will be provided to him, and it would be his call as a minister to decide whether the public has a right to know or not?
Speaker (interpretation): That was the last supplementary, Mr. Tootoo.
On that November afternoon of 2004, a couple of months ago, when I brought the CEO in here to the Legislative Assembly and into my office, and the revelation came out about the information that the member is talking about… . Yes, the minister did say, “Look, I need to have access to information.”
The announcement that I made yesterday or today concerning the Power Corporation, the appointment of Cecilia White to the internal audit division of the corporation, the appointment of Mr. Philip Clark, who will be working for the corporation in the audit service, a long-time Northerner, 12 years in the North, a certified accountant, this will be part of that accountability process.
So, the answer is yes.
Question 141 – 2(2): Training Needs in Mining
I will be brief and I will probably make a further supplementary at a later date.
I am not sure exactly who I should be directing this to, but I would like to direct it to the Minister of Economic Development and Transportation.
We know that there are a lot of mining developments going on in the Keewatin Region and also development works.
We can see their working and not just hearing about it.
We know that with mivviujait, my father would not call them sisters, but they are ants, (interpretation ends) every one of them is trying to do a certain job in their colony (interpretation) and they are extremely hard workers, like little ants, and they know exactly what to do when it comes to their specialized field.
We don’t even have one specialized or trained person in Nunavut.
I know that there are going to be over 300 people employed by these mining companies. I think it’s something that we have to talk about.
It’s becoming very urgent to train people who would work in the mining sector.
It’s up to the government departments to work together to make sure that we have qualified people who can find employment in the mining sector.
We have been working on it on an ongoing basis, and I have the Minister of Education spearheading the training of these individuals who will work in the mining sector.
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