EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Yes, if he could look into it. In a way, I can see what the minister is trying to avoid is a commitment that might cost too much. I’m hopeful in wording my question and the commitment so that there is not a huge commitment of dollars.
We spent a lot of money as a territory and a lot of time and energy on the Suicide Prevention Strategy.
As Mr. Curley had pointed out in my questions to him in the House and yesterday during Committee of the Whole, we don’t want to rush into this and we want to make sure that the implementation plan is set up in a way that it lowers the suicide rate in our communities.
Again this is something that I really appreciate about what the Government of Nunavut is doing, but at the same time, it causes me frustration is the fact that there is inter-government departmental assistance where you can rely on different departments to work together to solve a huge issue within our territory.
It’s not that I’m trying to catch the minister on anything. What I’m trying to get him to do is have his department sit back and say, “We recognize this as a serious issue.”
There was money spent on, I think it was talked about at the time, “Nunavutizing” the ASIST workshop so it could be delivered in the Inuit language and promoted across the territory.
I’m just looking for a commitment from him through his department to look at the possibility of a policy of providing it to every instructor in our schools, not a commitment to do it but a commitment to look at it and see how feasible it is and see if the dollars are there.
Again I realize, with the potential deficit coming up, that we need to watch every dollar that we have.
So I’m just looking for a commitment from his department to look into the possibility of some type of policy like that. Whether it filters out into a partnership with the teachers association or with another group, the Embrace Life Council or other funding sources to help promote it, I’ll leave that up to it being rolled out.
I’m just looking for a commitment today to looking into that policy and see if it’s something that’s feasible to provide to our instructors.
I would just like to assure you and Mr. Elliott that this is an issue that we do take seriously in the Department of Education.
I think the department has taken a lot of steps over the last few years to try, as I indicated earlier, creating a positive school environment.
The development of the Aulajaaqtut curriculum includes topics related values, self-esteem, advocacy, leadership, responsibility of themselves and others.
That’s something that is now mandatory in grades 10, 11, and 12.
Through programs like this, that’s where we see a lot of the statistics in suicide coming from.
So here, we developed a curriculum to help individuals in that age group learn more about that stuff and provide them with the tools that they need to be able to discuss things like that.
As I indicated, I listed off all of the ASIST training that has happened.
Any time that we have a request for ASIST training, we have never said no to it.
I can make the commitment that if the community, the school, and the district education authority ask and the staff wanted to take that training, there’s an opportunity, just like any time we have a conference or a get-together with the educators, training is provided and the option to take it is there, and we will continue to do that.
Branch Summary. Education. Policy and Planning.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $1,154,000.
Education. Branch Summary. Corporate Services.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $2,739,000.
I would like to welcome the minister back.
Considering the shortage of HR employment targets in Nunavut, there is also a concern as well in the number and quality of education being obtained to better prepare our youth to further education and to become contributors to society.
Nunavut encourages higher standards for Nunavummiut to obtain higher education, but we must keep in mind that we have many birthright Nunavut beneficiaries living in the south for various reasons, whether it is to access better heath care, marriage or common-law relationships, housing, or employment, for example.
I would like to remind my colleagues here that under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms section for mobility, it states that if your province or territory is below that of the national average in terms of program delivery and services, one has the right to seek quality of life elsewhere without systematic prejudice.
Has the department considered amending the FANS residency policy to include every beneficiary regardless of where they live?
I ask this, Mr. Chairman, because it might be a better avenue to increase the potential of having more Nunavummiut access education.
I think the member answered his own question when he said, “to make sure that all Nunavummiut have access to it,” and that’s exactly what the program does.
The Financial Assistance for Nunavut Students program is for Nunavut residents.
As he indicated, if someone has moved to another jurisdiction, they would be eligible for programs within that jurisdiction.
I think the only exception to them, Mr. Chairman, is if someone is going to school outside of the territory.
They are still considered a Nunavut student and would be eligible for FANS.
If someone has gone to a southern jurisdiction and they are taking a multi-year program, they’re still considered Nunavut students because they are down there for number of years for educational purposes.
Mr. Chairman, right now, our policy on our financial assistance is for Nunavut students.
Just because someone is a beneficiary doesn’t entitle them for FANS funding; they have to be a resident of Nunavut in order to qualify.
I know that if they had gone down south for education, obviously they have accessed FANS.
My question was in regard to people who have travelled down to better access health services, shortage of housing in Nunavut, whether they’re in common-law relationships with non-Inuit living in the south.
I’m sure they voted and would like to consider themselves still Inuit and still Nunavummiut.
I think they feel like all Nunavummiut and I believe as well that all Nunavummiut beneficiaries, whether they are living here or not, I think there should be a clause here that should also consider these people who are living down there.
If we have high cost of travel and bills, if these people of Nunavut living down south for various reasons are there, they have access to post-secondary, they just need assistance with tuition and living allowance, we can encourage these people to obtain an education while they are down south.
Nine times out of ten, most of our people come back.
I know various many people and I’m not shy to say because I would like to say from personal experience that I had this difficulty in the past.
I just want to ask and the question again is: would the department of FANS consider amending the residency clause to include every Nunavummiuq?
We don’t have any plans.
I think our policy is every Nunavut resident is eligible for FANS.
I know that there are other organizations, whether it would be NTI or NITC, and things like that, that do have scholarship programs available for beneficiaries regardless of where they reside.
Mr. Chairman, another thing I’m also aware of is if someone leaves the territory, there are certain criteria or things that you can apply for, for whatever reason, to still be considered a Nunavut resident.
I don’t have that information with me and I’m not sure who would have it, but I have seen it in the past.
If you leave the territory for different reasons, whether it would be for health reasons or something like that, you can still apply for something to still be considered a Nunavut resident even though you have left the territory for, I think, up to a year.
After that year, if you don’t fill out and apply for these exceptions, then you would no longer be considered a resident.
I believe when people believed in the spirit of Nunavut, all of the people who were here and are here and are from Nunavut had voted for it on the belief that we were promised a better quality of life, and one such thing is a right to an education.
As well, I believe the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement also falls under the Canadian Constitution whereas an education is a right and the Charter of Rights and Freedom under mobility specifically states that if your province or territory is below that of the national average… .
We have all of these numbers and we have all of these facts that have been presented in the House numerous times.
We need more money to enhance quality of service and quality of life.
Unfortunately we don’t have all of that and we are working towards it.
I think one of the things that we have to fundamentally focus on is enhancing access to education.
I think it’s very important to remember there are higher entities that ensure that every Canadian citizen, that includes Nunavummiut, have access to a quality of life.
I just wanted to make a comment on that matter, but to follow up, Mr. Chairman, I want to ask. Following the Auditor General of Canada’s 2000 report on the review of the Financial Assistance for Nunavut Students program, the department initiated a work plan to address recommendations to improve the program.
What is the current status of that plan and what specific work still needs to be done?
First to the member’s comments, I think the Government of Nunavut and the Department of Education’s responsibility is to Nunavut residents, so we have jurisdictional responsibility there.
I would say that there are organizations like Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated that don’t have boundaries; their beneficiaries are beneficiaries of that land claims organization regardless of where they live.
Our mandate and our responsibility is to ensure that Nunavut residents have access to quality education and I must say that I think our Financial Assistance for Nunavut Students program is probably one of the most generous ones across the country.
I think it’s clear that we feel it’s important that we provide as much assistance as we can to help Nunavummiut be successful in post-secondary education and have those options open to them.
As far as the rest of the question, I’ll ask Ms. Okpik to respond to that.
This department was the first department to be reviewed by the Auditor General in regard to program services.
There were three themes contained in the review of the Auditor General: legislation and regulations to ensure that they comply with this legislation; ensure that we are providing adequate programs and services, especially with respect to the contribution funding, and ensure that the funds are used for their intended purpose; thirdly, working towards the completion of the future plans for the department.
Those are the three themes that were reviewed.
Since then, we have implemented many recommendations to improve the program. For example, we send all correspondence to our schools and we review every one of those documents and determine how we can improve or amend them.
We have formed a committee comprised of the staff of NAC and our department in order to have a bureaucracy that is effective and efficient.
We are currently reviewing all of the application forms for availability on our website and to allow for the filling of these forms online.
That’s what we’re working on right now.
Last year, we initiated the work on the website as to how we can improve or our IT so that they can deal with finance.
Next year, they will be able to use the website, such as filling out applications through the website.
Those are our future plans.
We have also collected all of the information on loans. We will have to deal with them to figure out how we are going to move on with them.
For example, if a student borrowed some money under FANS, if they pass away, what are we going to do with the money that the individual owed?
So with the assistance of the Department of Justice, we are reviewing and working on all of those.
We’re now reviewing our regulations for providing contributions on day-to-day activities to make sure that they coincide.
We’re now reviewing the regulations along with the Department of Justice.
So those are just some of the items that we’re dealing with and we have provided communication as to how they can fill these forms out.
We can also provide a status report as to what has been completed and what has not been completed.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Can the minister provide an update on the status of the new student information system that will be used in all schools across Nunavut?
Just a second, I’ll just find the right page.
The new student information system, as I had indicated in the past, will be used to “gatherize.”
Will be used to “gatherize”? It must be Funny Friday. The new student information system will be used to gather and summarize it.
That’s a new acronym.
Across our schools, it will be able to look at, school by school, age of the students, whether they are male or female, attendance, graduation rates, course marks, and report card marks.
Once this is up and running, this information will be kept on students from when the first time they register in the school to when they leave the school or graduate. It will be very easily accessible to be able to transfer that information on a student from one school to another.
Right now, the department and the Department Community and Government Services have held a request for proposals process and awarded the contract for the new system to a company called Maplewood.
The department does have two staff positions to be able to help implement and provide training for the new system.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Attendance is a critical issue across all of Nunavut.
When will attendance and lateness data be collected on a consistent basis across all schools in the territory?
When the system is done and implemented, we will be able to get that on a daily basis.
I think one of the problems in the past is there was a requirement for that and what’s happening now with the requirement for that information to be provided quarterly in the past is, right now, it’s being done on a monthly basis, so we’re going to get it more up to date than what we were before.
Once this new system is implemented, we would be able to get it on a daily basis.
I think one of the things that will help with this system is part of the work that we’re doing with the district education authorities is to develop policies around attendance.
The problem that we’ve had in the past was if someone comes in 10 minutes late, they could be marked absent for the day because attendance is taken in the morning and in the afternoon.
So if they don’t make it for the attendance thing, then it’s not rectified.
There have been inconsistencies in the way that it has been reported in the past.
We’re hoping that with this new system and the guidelines, we will be able to get some consistency on how this information is collected and reported to be able to better help us identify what the issues are around attendance. As I indicated, there is also a requirement for these reports to be done monthly as part of the principals’ report.
I’m watching the time now.
I don’t fully understand as to when this will be implemented or started.
As I indicated, the request for proposals has gone out and we have selected a company.
We’re hoping to have this system implemented and in place for the 2012-13 school year.
I would like to make a motion to report progress, recognizing the clock also.
(interpretation) Sergeant-at-Arms, if you can escort the minister and his officials out, please.
Mr. Ningeongan: Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 1 and the main estimates and would like to report progress.
The Member for Pangnirtung seconds the motion.
Looking at our orders of the day, Item 22.
I would like to ask for unanimous consent to return to Item 5.
The Member for Baker Lake is asking for unanimous consent to return to Item 5.
It gives me great pleasure to have some relations and people from the Kivalliq here very briefly.
I would like to recognize the son of the late Samo Tookoomee, a world-renowned artist and master whip.
As everybody knows in Nunavut, Mr. Tookoomee has contributed a lot to the recognition and history of Nunavut. So I would like to welcome to the Gallery his son, Robert Tookoomee.
(interpretation) Furthermore, my sister, Jane, happens to be here and I’m really grateful because she taught me to play guitar when I was five or six.
All the way up to date, she has assisted me in various capacities and she’s working for Nunavut Tunngavik.
We’re on (interpretation ends) Item 22. (interpretation) Third Reading of Bills.
Our Orders of the Day must be read out once again.
A reminder of a couple of meetings; at half past one today in the Tuktu Room, a meeting of the Standing Committee on Legislation and a reminder for Monday, March 7, at 9:00 a.m. in the Tuktu Room, a meeting of the Management and Services Board.
This House stands adjourned until Monday, March 7, at 1:30 p.m. Thank you.
>>House adjourned at 12:05
Monday, March 7, 2011
Pages 275 – 343
Opening Prayer 275
Ministers’ Statements 275
Members’ Statements 278
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery 285
Oral Questions 285
Tabling of Documents 298
Notices of Motions 299
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters 299
Report of the Committee of the Whole 342
Monday, March 7, 2011 275
019 – 3(3): Uranium Public Forums (Aariak) 275
020 – 3(3): Leave and Attendance Management (Tootoo) 276
021 – 3(3): Fur Sales and Fur Handling Workshops (Shewchuk) 277
028 – 3(3): Happy Birthday to Wife Lucie (Tapardjuk) 278
029 – 3(3): Nutrition North Canada (Elliott) 278
030 – 3(3): Avataq First Air Cup (Kusugak) 280
031 – 3(3): Looking Out for Our Elders (Ugyuk) 280
032 – 3(3): Addressing Health Concerns (Ningark) 281
033 – 3(3): Iqaluit Hockey Tournament (Aariak) 283
034 – 3(3): Capital Planning Priorities (Schell) 283
Return to Oral Question 009 – 3(3): Transformers on Apex Road (Kusugak) 284
059 – 3(3): Addressing Health Concerns (Ningark) 285
060 – 3(3): Preventing Viral Illness (Elliott) 287
061 – 3(3): EU Ban on Seal Products (Tapardjuk) 289
062 – 3(3): Public Tender - Medical Travel (Elliott) 291
063 – 3(3): Feasibility Study for New Airport in Kimmirut (Schell) 293
064 – 3(3): Assistance for Victims in Igloolik (Tapardjuk) 293
065 – 3(3): Single Entrance/Exit Dwelling Units (Ningark) 295
066 – 3(3): Upgrading of Energy Generator Program (Elliott) 296
067 – 3(3): $3 Million Outfitter Liability Fund (Elliott) 297
020 – 3(3): Department of Fisheries and Oceans Total Allowable Harvest Recommendations for Nunavut Narwhal and Beluga Populations (Elliott) 298
002 – 3(3): Referral of Tabled Documents 248 – 3(2), 249 – 3(2), 251 – 3(2), 274 – 3(2), 275 – 3(2) – Notice (Elliott) 299
Bill 01 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2011-2012 – Consideration in Committee – Education 300
Bill 01 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2011-2012 – Consideration in Committee – Community and Government Services 327
Honourable Eva Aariak, Honourable James Arreak, Honourable Tagak Curley, Mr. Ron Elliott, Honourable Lorne Kusugak, Mr. John Ningark, Mr. Johnny Ningeongan, Honourable Paul Okalik, Honourable Keith Peterson, Mr. Allan Rumbolt, Mr. Fred Schell, Honourable Daniel Shewchuk, Mr. Louis Tapardjuk, Honourable Peter Taptuna, Honourable Hunter Tootoo, Ms. Jeannie Ugyuk.
The first item in our orders of the day is Ministers’ Statements.
Minister’s Statement 019 – 3(3): Uranium Public Forums (Aariak)
I say “good afternoon” to the people of Iqaluit East.
(interpretation ends) Uqaqtittijii, many Nunavummiut have strong opinions about uranium mining in our territory and others may want to have the opportunity to receive more information to form an opinion.
Guided by the principles of Aajiiqatigiinniq and Ikajuqtigiinniq, the Government of Nunavut will be hosting public forums during the next two months.
These forums are intended to inform our government in moving forward from the six principles on uranium development to develop a position and policy on uranium in our territory.
Mr. Speaker, we want to give Nunavummiut an opportunity to express their views before deciding what our government’s position is on uranium.
The public forums will be held on March 16 to 17 in Iqaluit, on March 30 to 31 in Baker Lake, and on April 12 to 13 in Cambridge Bay.
Each public forum will include an open house where the public can gather information; a presentation by experts and representative panellists; and a public meeting where the public can voice their views and opinions and ask questions of the panellists.
I thank the organizations that are coming together despite their differing viewpoints to help create an effective public dialogue about this important issue.
The panellists will include Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, Nunavut Makitagunarningit, the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and Golder Associates.
Uqaqtittijii, to ensure that every community is represented, I have extended an invitation to each mayor to nominate one individual who will have their travel costs to a regional forum paid by our government.
For those people not able to attend the public meetings, today we are launching a website: www.uranium.gov.nu.ca.
Our website provides relevant information and an opportunity for public input.
Everyone is encouraged to learn about uranium by reading the information on the website, then to participate in the process by telling us what they think about uranium in Nunavut.
In addition to the website, feedback will also be received by phone, email, fax, and by letters, as well as cable ads and spots on community radio.
Posters in every community will explain how to provide your input.
Uqaqtittijii, I encourage all Nunavummiut to take this opportunity to voice their thoughts and opinions to assist our government as it forms its position on uranium. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister’s Statement 020 – 3(3): Leave and Attendance Management (Tootoo)
This government and our human resources department have long recognized the need to effectively manage leave and attendance. This need is a well established and a well understood best business practice.
Best practice for managing leave and attendance must include three basic elements which also help define the work that is now taking place and will be taking place in the future:
First, that a management system and its program elements need to ensure that our work environment is one that enables and encourages our employees to do the best possible job, to attend work regularly, and to encourage their co-workers to do the same.
Secondly, that any program or procedure is applied consistently and fairly across the organization, recognizing that there are many circumstances that require special attention.
This is driven by human rights legislation, labour arbitration decisions, collective agreements, and human resources policies, directives, and procedures.
The key here is a well-defined, written, and effective process understood and supported by process owners and stakeholders.
And thirdly, an effective and versatile human resources information management system, as any leave and attendance program requires absolutely accurate and timely data, in order to define what is happening in the organization, defining our risk exposures and loss. The key is good data used to set standards and define operational performance.
The Government of Nunavut is a caring and compassionate employer.
Our management systems and programs all focus on ensuring that we are a center of excellence and an organization that people seek to be a part of. To be a centre of excellence, our management systems must be transparent and effective, targeting quality processes and continuous improvement.
We also have a solemn duty in managing the public trust and ensuring that our employees, our clients, and our customers understand what we are doing, how we are doing it, and the costs involved.