EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Perhaps some of these perspective employees will work on a casual basis at the current correctional facility, learn some of the basic skills needed and get hands on experience.
That is what we are looking at right now and as soon as a plan is finalized, then I will forward the information to the Members.
At times employment is forthcoming, will there be training in November or December geared to the young people or to those potential employees?
When will the information be available?
When will it commence, in November or December?
Now I believe that we are in the process of hiring a project manager for the facility.
So that is the priority at this time.
Once that is completed, and then the manager will then go through the process of hiring or identifying individuals in the community to be trained, and work out the training program for this facility.
Question 585 – 1(6): Price Increase in the Kivalliq Region
Mr. Speaker, late last year, there was a decision made by this Government not to award the fuel contract to NTCL, or the dry cargo to NTCL.
We were assured by the Minister at that time that the same level of service would be provided to the Kivalliq region.
To date, I do not know if this is true or not.
Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister today is that, the major reason that the contract was not awarded to them was price.
My question to the Minister today is can the Minister tell us in this House that he is going to ask if there is going to be a price increase in gasoline, or home heating products?
Speaker: The Minister responsible for Public Works, Minister Kattuk.
Regarding his question, to this date it is still hard to say whether the price of gasoline will rise, and we have not announced anything in that regard.
As for the dry goods and fuel contract, NTCL was able to service other communities quite adequately and there has not been any decision made to raise the rates for gasoline or dry goods.
I know the shipping season in Nunavut is a long season, and I know it is a decision that the Minister does not make on his own and it has to come from whatever they are called over there.
Does the Minister know, or can he tell us if there is going to be a price increase in home heating fuel or gasoline by the end of this Session?
Hon. Peter Kattuk: No.
I want to thank the Minister for saying “no”.
There is not going to be a price increase in gasoline or home heating fuel this year and I am sure all of our Constituents in our communities will find it as welcome news.
I have no more questions on that issue.
Question 586 – 1(6): Community Nurses Mandate
My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the community nurses across Nunavut.
How many years are they mandated to be nurses in the communities?
Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me say that the flower arrangement that you have adjacent to you and next to you looks very nice, it is nice to see the warm colours of fall being displayed next to yourself.
The roses here look very good; I mean that in all seriousness.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, the nurses that we have in our communities, what we are finding with right now, Mr. Speaker, we have about 80 percent termed and indeterminate nurses, which means that there on the longer period, where they would be in for at least two to three years.
Indeterminate status means, Mr. Speaker, that they are full-time employees of the Department of Health and Social Services.
The nurses that we have working in our communities are all white nurses.
They hold various degrees and so on from various universities that are recognized throughout Canada and internationally.
So, I hope that helps answer the Member’s question.
The reason I asked this question is that we have some nurses who are very dedicated and committed in the North and there are some that are different.
Although they work hard, they cannot seem to accomplish their job as well as others.
Could there be improvements in the healthcare system in that regard through the performance of nurses?
Thank you.  Speaker: Minister Picco.
Mr. Speaker, I preference my answer by saying that at the beginning the Member made an excellent point and it is that our nurses are dedicated people working under tremendous amount of stress, dealing with life and death situations on a regular basis.
Indeed, Mr. Speaker, in most of our communities, the nurses are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As with any other employee of the public service, Mr. Speaker, there are ongoing performance appraisals that are done on the employees, the Nurses falls into that Public Service Act that fall into that category.
Ongoing evaluations, indeed monitoring of the work that is being performed by the nurses are also carried out by direct supervisors of the nurses.
So, there are checks and balances to ensure the work that is being done by the nurses.
However, Mr. Speaker, if there is a concern specific to work being carried out by a particular nurse or a Member or staff of the Department of Health and Social Services, then Mr. Speaker, I would very much entertain that type of thing in writing from the Member if there is a specific issue or a problem that the community has experienced and in a letter form would help me indeed, Mr. Speaker, be able to look into the matter for them.
Question 587 – 1(6): Lowering Percentage of Interest Rates for Land Lease
Iqaluit is a tax based community.
They generate revenue through property taxes and things of that nature, which is unique to Iqaluit.
Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay are in discussions for gearing towards that.
I'm not against leasing of land property, however, the leasing, when they are late with their payments, the interest builds on the arrears and in the Act it states, that we have just found out recently, that I should have caught this earlier on that it states in the Act that the communities, once they lease land then interest rate cannot go over twenty four percent and I believe this was devised in the late 1980’s.
The interest is quite high, twenty two percent I think is the interest rate for past due arrears for land leasing.
It’s up to each tax based community.
Don’t you think this twenty four percent should be decreased at this time, this interest rate that has to be paid on top of the arrears; it’s only seven percent interest rate for the Federal Government, perhaps five percent if you are in good standing.
Do you think the interest rate of twenty four percent should be lowered to follow with the status quo?
Perhaps we can look into the matter.
The interest rate for land leasing, twenty four percent is the ceiling.
We can certainly look into the matter.
I can’t really say anything else at this time without having to look into this matter further.
The City if Iqaluit is using that rate at this point and they’re the only tax based community that can set that rate at this point.
If there is a call to look into this matter, than we can look at the issue of the rate of interest.
Mr. Anawak: Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for his response.
Mr. Speaker, what I'm looking for is a very small change to the Municipal Act.
Section eighty three of the Act, subsection c says, “Respecting the imposition of interest on amounts outstanding that the rate of interest must not exceed twenty four percent per year.”
That’s one little section of the whole Act that needs to be changed.
I ask the Minister to take a serious look at whether the limit of interest rate charged should be changed looking at the fact the interest rates have been lowered for quite some time in Canada and obviously charging twenty percent or eighteen percent, is the same thing as charging the same amount as a credit card, and should we be looking at lowering that interest rate at this time for tax paying residents.
Again the City of Iqaluit sets its own interest rates for arrears.
If there is a request or concern of the Member, and some Members, or the residents of Iqaluit, this is an issue that for taxpayers, this is a section that they can consider looking at possible changes in the Act.
Question 588 – 1(6): Completion Date of New Hospital in Iqaluit
Just a few days ago, when the sun was shining, all the Members went up to where the new hospital will be built.
What is the completion date for the new hospital in Iqaluit?
Hon. Ed Picco: Mr. Speaker. I would like to be able to give a categorical date, but Mr. Speaker, over the past several years now that I have been involved in this file, something always seems to occur.
Last year it was the remediation of environmental damage on the lot.
The facility should be completed, Mr. Speaker, with patients being able to move into it in late 2006-07.
Mr. Speaker, the site workers are on their way right now, with access roads and so on.
Mr. Speaker, after sealift next summer, the piles and so on will be put in place, and then it will be two years after that.
So then by the Fall in late 2006, early 2007, the facility should be ready to receive its first patients.
I have been visiting some of my relatives at the hospital.
Not too many beds are open, and every time I spoke to the health professionals up there, the beds available are for very short periods and the nurses work twelve hour shifts, and the hospital has to be open twenty four hours a day.
Can the Minister respond to me now by way of correspondence what has been planned for the patients’ rooms?
Since the hospital is going to be larger than the current hospital here, will they be able to hire doctors, and other health professionals that are required?
Mr. Speaker, indeed one of the questions or concerns that keeps coming up and has been raised by the public at large is: will we be able to fill the positions that will become available, not only in Iqaluit, but the Cambridge Bay facility, and the Rankin Inlet facility.
We suggest, Mr. Speaker, that we will be able to do that.
Having a better facility in place, having the expertise, Mr. Speaker, should not be a problem.
Right now in the three regional centres and including at the hospital here, we are at one of the highest levels we have had with staffing.
We also have an additional $4.5 million dollars for the primary healthcare functions that the Federal Government will be opening in the coming weeks, the primary healthcare medical service for the first time in Nunavut.
We do not believe, Mr. Speaker, that there will be an issue around the staffing of the new facility once it comes on stream in 2006.
I would further ask that is anything in place to make sure it is going to be fully staffed in three years with the crew and nurses and the doctors he is speaking about. This is a good hospital; I worked in that hospital before and they are saying that this is a good hospital.
Now they are trying to make a new one and they know that they are saying that they are not going to be able to stop it.
Maybe the Minister could tell, reassure this staff and Nunavummiut; that there will be staff in this hospital.
Mr. Speaker, let me say categorically that the Baffin Regional Health Facility was built in 1960; it only had one substantial renovation that was in 1977.
Mr. Speaker, the population of Iqaluit was 1,530 people when that hospital was put in place in 1960.
The population of the Baffin was about 3,200 people.
Today, Mr. Speaker, we almost have 20,000 people in the Region and we are still using the same hospital.
Our hospital is 43 years old; it is still one of the oldest pieces of infrastructure in Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, having a newer facility, so that people actually have a good facility to work in means that you would be able to attract people.
Right now, Mr. Speaker, when people are offered a job, although that facility is nice and it is solid, it is not up to date.
If I had to bring it up to code, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about $15 million dollars. Having a better facility with new technologies and so on, Mr. Speaker, will give us an opportunity to recruit, because you would be recruiting to work in a better facility.
That in itself, Mr. Speaker, should help us recruit.
However, Mr. Speaker, I cannot tell the future, I cannot tell that in 2006, yes, it will be at 100 percent.
What I can say is that we are working right now on the ground work to do what the Member is asking for, that at the end of the day, we will have the facility, we will have the expertise and we will have the professionals to run the facility like we are doing right now, Mr. Speaker, in Rankin Inlet, as well as in Cambridge Bay with those facilities.
So, Mr. Speaker, we are working towards that and we do have a plan in place.
We need that facility.
I used to work in that hospital before and I know exactly what I am talking about.
There are probably close to six thousand people in Iqaluit.
There are only about four beds, four rooms open and most of the rooms are closed in that hospital.
We have a hospital that is almost empty, but some of the elders downstairs have to wait 12 hours to get a bed upstairs when there are always beds up there, but they are saying that there are no beds because there are no spots.
We need to be assured that this new hospital will have staff, if we do not have already a staff in this one, how are we going to get a new staff?
Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to be at the hospital the past weekend also, visiting a patient.
I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that depending on the nature of care that is needed in the hospital, for example, if it is intensive care and so on, more staff are needed for, let us say one patient or two patients and the Member is correct, some beds have been closed, but that is not unique just to this hospital.
One of the problems we have, Mr. Speaker, is attracting the professionals to work in that building, try to get medical professionals to go in there.
Mr. Speaker, just recently in the Nunatsiaq News, there was a letter about the cleanliness in the hospital.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot even buy the proper hospital gurneys because they will not fit through the hallways.
So, Mr. Speaker, I am suggesting to you that if we had a better facility, you would have a better opportunity to recruit people to work in a better facility.
We believe that will be the case and all evidence points to that.
However, I am prepared, Mr. Speaker, to update the House, as the Member has said and I am not trying to say it is not correct, because the Member is correct, that beds have been closed because of shortages in some areas of staffing, not necessarily all of the staffing, it depends on the chronic care case load that needs to be taken care of at a certain or given time.
That is one of the reasons for that.
So, that’s something that we could update the House on and actually provide that information to the Members.
Question 589 – 1(6): Guidelines to Follow to Get a School Bus
Mr. Speaker, I would like to direct my question to the Minister for Education.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask about school buses.
According to the size of the community, are there criteria in place depending on the size of a community where they can be eligible for school buses?
Are there criteria that we have to follow or is there a guideline that we have to follow when a community requests a school bus this year?
We don’t purchase school buses through the Department of Education; however, there is O & M funding available for school buses.
Mr. Speaker, I have not seen any guideline or criteria such as that but I could say that I have met with the District Education Authority of Gjoa Haven, and I have been informed about or rather in Taloyoak about their request and they were asking questions about guidelines or criteria in order to get a school bus.
Yes, we kind of assumed that there would be a guideline or criteria if the roads in the community are one mile long, I thought they would be eligible for a school bus and I thought that was the old criteria from Government of the Northwest Territories.
I have two constituencies; the community of Taloyoak is one of them.
The parents at school time have to transport their children to school and after school everyday.
When I was visiting that community, my constituents were requesting a school bus and they were wondering what kind of process they have to follow in order to try to get a school bus in their community.
That’s my question to the Minister.
If there’s a vehicle in the community, there is funding available for operation and maintenance of this vehicle.
I have heard this request while I was in Taloyoak.
Currently there is no school bus in that community.
They transport their children. I have told the community that I would work with the community and I have already informed my officials about this issue.
Yes, we are looking into the issue regarding Mr. Puqiqnak’s constituency.
If there is any type of buggy in that community whether it is qamutik with a shelter or other modes of transport, I will ask my staff to look into that.
We would like to give them more support as to how we can improve the transportation of the children to and from the schools.
Thank you for acknowledging that Taloyoak is in need of a means for transporting the children in that community to school.
Thank you for looking into that matter.
It is extremely important that we acquire a school bus for that community.
The people of Taloyoak and the Education Authority and your department worked together to prepare for the plan.
My questions is, are we going to be able acquire that bus in 2003?
When are we going to be able to get that school bus?
Speaker: The Minister responsible for Education.
I will have a discussion with our department, and inform the Member.
Of course we do not directly allocate money for vehicles.
This concern from Taloyoak was brought to my attention and I would like to let the Member know once I’ve had a chance to discuss this matter with our department.
On our second round.
Question 590 – 1(6): Lessons Learned Following Joamie School Fire
Mr. Speaker, as the Minister knows, I am sure, that there was yet another fire related incident that hit Iqaluit earlier today.
Although the damage was not significant and the fact that it occurred is a cause for serious concern, especially given the recent tragedy that hit Joamie School.
My question for the Minister is, Mr. Speaker, what lessons has the Department learned from the incidents at Joamie School and Cambridge Bay?
Hon. Manitok Thompson: Mr. Speaker, the lesson for all of us is that when a building burns down it costs a lot of money to build one.
That is the biggest lesson for the territory, where we have to start scrambling around for money to build a new building.
That is a lesson for everybody.
I think that one of the areas that we have to also do is fire prevention workshops, or training manuals, or colouring books for the students, which we should be doing anyway.
Also, having the Fire Department go and visit the schools making sure that the safety measures are put in place.
Mr. Speaker, I can certainly agree with the Minister that the money or costs to replace a piece of infrastructure like that is money that we can ill afford to spend.
We have many other uses where we can put that money.
Given that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if the Department has come up with any type of strategy developed to try to fight these incidents, whether it be arson, or any other related causes, within the schools, whether it be, as she had mentioned earlier, having the Fire Department going in or any design changes that they may be looking at in future and existing infrastructure.
Under the curriculum for Education in our schools, we have our Fire Prevention Week that we do each year as one of the strategies, and Mr. Speaker, we would encourage that all the Fire Departments in the communities visit the schools and educate our students that we have to prevent fires, which is one of the strategies.
I know that all the teachers are aware that this is a very important lesson for all the students across Nunavut and we’ve taken it very seriously.
I have my staff finding ways of preventing fires in our schools.
Mr. Speaker, if there are any other ideas I would be open to them, but I think we are doing everything that we can to educate our young population that we have to prevent fires.
Mr. Speaker, I think lessons learned can be taken from things that have happened in the past, and I know that there was an investigation into the incident at Joamie School when it burned, and I know, not only myself, there could be lessons learned there, but I know that a lot of people here in the community of Iqaluit have questions and are wondering what happened as well.
I’d like to ask the Minister, when will the investigation into the fire be concluded and the results made public?
That’s up to the Fire Marshall who is doing the report.
He doesn’t work for me, but as soon as there is a report I will be giving it to the Members and to the public, the information that is needed.
Question 591 – 1(6): Number of Nurses Employed with the Government of Nunavut
I’d also like to complement you on your flower arrangement today.
Very beautiful, it reminds me of the east coast in October.
I was in Winnipeg earlier this week and I’m a frequent reader of the Winnipeg Free Press; one of the ads was an ad for Agency Nurses. Can the Minister tell me today, or the House today, how many Agency Nurses are currently in the employ of the Government of Nunavut?
Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to see that the Member is able to pick up the Winnipeg Free Press; it’s a very good paper.
Mr. Speaker, seventy eight percent of our current staffing of nurses Nunavut wide are term and indeterminate.
This means that Mr. Speaker, that twenty two percent or two out of every ten nurses would be on a casual basis, which may be filled by an Agency Nurse.
I think, Mr. Speaker, that speaks for itself, I think that is a pretty good number; actually, it’s one of the highest numbers we’ve been at in the last three years.
I’d like to compliment the Minister with his hard work and acquiring full time nursing positions for Nunavut.
Can the Minister advise me of when we’re going to have a nurse in charge in Baker Lake?
Mr. Speaker, we have continued our aggressive recruitment campaign.
The Members are aware that we went to Australia, recruited nurses; we are also now actively engaged in the United Kingdom.
We will be bringing three nurses from the United Kingdom, as the Minister of Immigration also, Mr. Speaker, we are able to now facilitate that.
Mr. Speaker, the situation in Baker Lake with the head nurse, I don’t have, Mr. Speaker with me, any information to tell me that the position would be filled within the next two or four weeks.
That is something Mr. Speaker that I will be able to get and provide to the Member.
You should also note that, it was actually Mr. Picco who made the arrangements regarding these flowers at one of his fortes and hobbies.
Thanks again Mr. Picco.
Question 592 – 1(6): First Air and Canadian North Interchange
In July of this summer when I was returning from Ottawa to Iqaluit, I flew on Canadian North of course, and Canadian North and First Air usually leave at approximately the same time from the southern destination to Iqaluit.
First Air, for some reason cancelled their flight and there were a couple of women who were trying to head back home with First Air and then I asked them why didn’t they switch flights to Canadian and the two ladies were told that they had to take First Air.
I believe that there was an agreement between the two airlines where they can interchange patients who need transportation to either destination but Canadian North are not happy with their 40 percent.
My question is, if they’re reaching the 40 percent ceiling?
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to just very quickly give an overview of the contract and explain it because a letter writing campaign on behalf and for Canadian North had taken place; it has been in the media, and I just wanted to explain very it quickly.
Mr. Speaker, about 7 months ago, Canadian North Airline were getting basically very little of the airline business with medical travel because we had a contract in place, signed-off by the previous Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board for First Air.