EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
In most cases people travelling and come back they will phone and say is it possible to stay there.
There are several homes in Iqaluit that are licensed and inspected to be boarding homes.
So I hope that answers the member's question.
I am glad the Minister is able to clarify that.
In the case if someone was staying at a hotel or the boarding home. What if none of these home were available.
For unknown reason may not be acceptable to a patient. Maybe unwilling to stay at these Houses that the Minister talked about for whatever reason.
Would they be able to stay at a hotel if there is nothing else available.
Is that an option that are available to people.
Chairperson: Mr. Picco.  Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
Mr. Chairperson as the Member knows this situation in Nunavut is quite unique when we compare it to other jurisdictions. As the Member knows we operate boarding homes in Yellowknife, Churchill, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, Iqaluit.
So we are represented with boarding homes in four or five other jurisdiction including Iqaluit in Nunavut and in the Western Arctic and the boarding homes which are available in Rankin Inlet.
It depends on how the medical travel was set up to begin with.
In most cases if you’re a government employee Mr. Chairperson you have to come to Iqaluit for hospital under you government employee health benefits you have the option to stay in a hotel.
Many government employees do that, they stay at a hotel.
Then if they were travelling back to Clyde and they could not get to Clyde they come back. So they have the option to go back to the hotel.
It would be covered under their insurance plan.
For those people that are being flown down using the Nunavut health benefit card program. Then they are allocated if they have no place to stay in Iqaluit when they come here. They stay at the boarding home.
Some people come down here, they want to stay with family or one of their relatives, and they stay there.
Those people that do not choose to use that option can stay at the boarding home.
Then if on returning home then they were not able to get in those family boarding homes are available.
On the cases if they were here for example Mr. Chairperson if there was no space available at the boarding home. Which by the way has happened quite a lot in the recent several weeks.
I know e had some people staying at our place because Tarmartivik was full.
They also have that option of going to someone’s unit.
At that time the boarding homes through the health board and now under the department of health and social services pay. I believe it is 39 dollars a day for a person to stay at their home.
I think everybody is getting fatigued right now so will take a fifteen minute break.
>>Committee recessed at 2:33 and resumed at 2:55 p.m.
Chairperson (interpretation): We will continue.
I am going to let Mr. Alakannuark make his general comments.
In yesterday’s opening comments, I do not know if this is going to be a good question, but I would like to get clarification.
I do not quite understand what this is going to be used for, smoking cessation.
I know that he talked about the funding allotted for smoking cessation.
Is it going to be used for Inuit people.
How are you going to be using this funding to service the people.
I would like to get further clarification on that.
Mr. Chairman, as I stated yesterday in my opening comments, smoking is very prevalent in Nunavut.
Based on the stats and the figures yesterday Mr. Chairman. We should point out that the illnesses caused by smoking are preventable.
What we would like to do as a Department of Health and Social Services in Nunavut is move forward on a smoking cessation program.
I appreciate the member’s question.
In this program we have budgeted approximately 2 million dollars for a smoking cessation program.
This will include awareness programs, and educating our youth to the dangers of smoking, preventing access to tobacco by minors, making access to cigarettes more difficult, promotion of other diversions for youth other than smoking, and offering to smokers to try to quit.
Mr. Chairman, several other jurisdictions in Canada have moved forward on this initiative and we have found Mr. Chairman, as you know when you start smoking and you are smoking from the ages of 16 to 25, trying to quit is very, very difficult.
What we would like to do Mr. Chairman, is try to put the emphasis on stopping youth, our children from smoking in the beginning.
The Federal Government just came out with a program a couple of months ago and many of us have seen the pictures of lungs that are blackened by tar from smoke and the effects of second hand smoke.
Mr. Chairman, let’s be clear, let’s point out one of the good things that we have noticed here in Nunavut, especially over the last few years.
Five years ago, Mr. Chairman as you and I know, the members of this House know and the public at large know, it was not a highly irregular event to go to somebody’s House and see children, babies, infants, in Houses where people would be smoking.
Today Mr. Chairman, I would challenge you to find very few families, very few Houses, in any community in Nunavut where people actually still smoke in their Houses.
Most people go outside to smoke.
For example, this building is smoke free, I just came in on the step and some of our colleagues were out there having a cigarette and enjoying themselves.
But that is the way of Nunavut.
So those are minds that have changed.
Five years ago people smoked in houses and today they don’t do that.
That’s why it is important Mr. Chairman to bring that education forward to our young people.
Unfortunately today Mr. Chairman, 78% of our young people smoke between the ages of 15 to 24.
In total 2 million plus an extra 1.8 million dollars in total about 3.8 million dollars over the next 12 to 14 months we intend as a department to put into a cessation program for smoking to stop this program.
And it is as the member asked for the Inuit in Nunavut, and for all the residents of Nunavut.
I thank the member for his first question.
Mr. Alakannuark (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman, for that explanation.
I do not know if I got the response that I was looking for.
I was asking how this funding was going to be used or what the funding was going to be used for.
Are you going to be using it for to educate the people by way of using videos, and to make the people aware.
My question is, what do you plan to use the funding for.
You were not clear in your response as to what this funding was going to be used for.
Before I go to Mr. Picco, I would like to recognize my friend Ms. Natsiq Kanguk in the gallery.
Mr. Chairman, I too would like to welcome Natsiq Kanguk to the gallery.
Mr. Chairman, we are going to be working on several different aspects of smoking and anti-smoking.
I will give some of them out right now we have quite a list.
We are going to be incorporating smoking cessation in community wellness plans, we are looking at the continual expansion of the CHR’s and their role in smoking cessation.
We are going to mount a strong promotional campaign in January, which is tobacco awareness month.
We are working with national organizations to have resources for communities.
We are going to work with our media colleagues to help promote messages on anti-smoking and some of the dangers of smoking.
We are working with nurses and doctors who can help us suggest methods to quit and making those tools available at the community level.
We are going to be working with Pauktuutit on tobacco cessation training in June of this year.
We are working, Mr. Chairman, with the Department of Education and especially in July on a wellness curriculum to include smoking which will be used in the schools.
We are encouraging Mr. Chairman, high profile Nunavummiut to share in their successful quitting programs.
We are working on a national level to enhance the regulation of tobacco companies and illegal sales of tobacco to minors.
Right now, Mr. Chairman, tobacco seems to be readily available to many youth and we want to work with retailers and everything to keep the tobacco out of their hands.
Mr. Chairman, working with the committees of Council that we have set up in each of your communities, in most of our communities, to work on cessation programs and maybe help them in funding.
So that’s what the money will be dedicated for.
Some of the work that we are planning on doing, and again Mr. Chairman, a suggestion from this House on some of the proactive work that the members would like to see us bring forward and indeed, to the general public in Nunavut.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I think it is very important to point out that a lot of the diseases that we are experiencing, cancers, lung cancers, RSV’s and so on, are highly preventable if we could stop them and slow down the use of tobacco in Nunavut.
Next is Mr. Iqaqrialu.
Maybe today our questions will eventually run out.
For smoking cessation programs targeted at only certain groups of people considering the low number of people employed, I don’t think listening to the qualities of the program it is as vital as it could be used for other things.
I don’t know if it’s worthwhile spending 2 million dollars on smoking cessation programs in Nunavut when you consider there are low employment rates and so on.
I understand the figure to be 3 million dollars.
It would seem to me that we could use this funding for different things that could benefit the people more.
I think we have to look for other areas to use this type of funding and not just in smoking cessation programs, because it will target just the smoking population and we have to think about that.
Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I strongly disagree with the member.
Mr. Chairman, we have seen cancer rates increase, we have seen problems with diseases and Mr. Chairman, just this week the Federal Government released stats showing that the Nunavut population was experiencing some of the highest rates of diseases and indeed that our life expectancy in Nunavut was the lowest in Canada.
One of the most preventable causes of disease in Nunavut is tobacco related diseases.
If I had four million dollars to put into this fund that’s what I would put into it.
We have to stop our young people right now Mr. Chairman, from smoking.
That means a re-investment and an investment of dollars at the front end so we can receive some return on the back end.
If we can stop 15, 20, 30 or more young people at 15, 16, 17 years of age from smoking they won’t be hooked like some of us in this room.
So I think Mr. Chairman, it’s a good investment of money, I think all the statistics, all the medical professionals and indeed, our communities, our Mayors, our community health committees are asking for this type of program to be put in place.
I would ask for the support of this House in bringing this type of initiative forward and hopefully run it over a multi-year program.
This amount of money I am referring to I will not support.
It’s already evident to me, my reasons being this.
The Federal Government already has programs in effect.
It seems to me that they should be responsible for providing smoking cessation programs and delivery.
As for those of us who have received funding which is already very small as it is, I think we can use 3 million dollars towards other things that are more beneficial to our people.
I think we have to look at it in that light.
If there is going to be promotion to stop smoking then it should be the Federal Government’s responsibility.
Chairperson (interpretation): General comment.
Before I go to the next name on the list, I would also like to recognize my old friend from Iqaluit, Sammy and his wife, welcome.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Picco did you wish to respond to that.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to say hello Sam, Sammy always has a great smile on his face and he looks happy again today.
Mr. Chairman, you know the work around tobacco cessation in Nunavut should have started ten years ago.
The Federal Government does have a role to play, but we as elected members of this Assembly and the Government of Nunavut has a role to play.
The money that the Department of Health and Social Services puts in to treating people with lung diseases, cancers, RSV, other respiratory problems far outweighs the initial 2 million dollars that we are trying to put into a smoking cessation program.
So again, I would ask the member that, you know, I know that there are other needs out there and like I said before, if I had more money to put into this program I would.
The problem with smoking Mr. Chairman, as you know, is you don’t see it when you are 20 or 30 or 40 but when you get 50, 60 or 70 the impacts are there over a long period of time from smoking.
We need to move forward on this and as I said earlier the Nunavut people, very few people now smoke in their House, most people smoke outside, most of our public buildings you are not allowed to smoke in.
I think that awareness is happening and we want to help that happen, we want to move forward with some proactive work ourselves in Nunavut.
I don’t want to wait around for the Federal Government to decide programs for Canada, I think we should be designing specific Nunavut programs for Nunavummiut.
That’s what this budget item is, and that’s what this program would help us do.
Again it’s one of the things that we have heard from the committees.
So I would like to thank the member for his comments and his concern and thank the Chairman for the direction of the question.
I am afraid I am not quite awake yet.
Next we have on the list Mr. Akesuk.
This has been an ongoing concern from my constituency, especially when there are numerous relatives that are living in other communities and that need to fly on urgent matters.
When they are waiting for bodies of people that may have passed away, the bodies in the meantime start to deteriorate.
I was wondering if we can have a morgue for the Nunavut region or if they can provide some morgues in the communities, especially when people are spread out everywhere at this time.
Mr. Chairman, when I was talking about this earlier, the proposed medical travel policy that we have in place, one of the things that we did look at and the member will be pleased to know, we are hoping to incorporate it and we will bring that policy to this House and to the members, once we finalize it.
It includes the cost of shipping patients that have gone south for embalming and so on, back to their home communities. That’s one of the proposals that we have in the travel policy that we have in place.
There is a morgue Mr. Chairman, as you know here in Iqaluit, at the Baffin Regional Hospital, but there is some concern with the size of that morgue, there are some ideas being floated looking at should there be an expansion.
The process of putting a morgue in each community may warrant further discussion.
That’s something that my senior staff are here with me today, we have just taken note of that to see if exactly what the proposal could be, what the cost of locating them would be and how we could facilitate that.
I was wondering maybe it’s obvious to the population of the Inuit whereby they can set up some temporary arrangement that is best fitted for their needs while the department does a review of what should be done next.
I think maybe we can use the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in the interim concerning provision of morgues.
Mr. Chairman, I was just saying that under the Department of Health and Social Services if we are going to bring in a policy or a program for morgues and if we looked at it we have to make sure that it is standardized across Nunavut.
Each community has different needs and each community has different infrastructure available on the ground.
I just said for example, that we do have a morgue available here but that is specifically attached to the hospital.
At the community level if we were going to for example, allocate funds into that we would have to study it first, you would have to put money into the budget and we know that’s not available right now in this budget.
What I did say is that we could look at the issue here in Nunavut, working with our partners, Community Government & Transportation, Mr. Anawak’s department, to see what type of proposals might be there, because this concern has come up in the past and we will review it.
I will give that commitment to the member.
Further to a question that was asked earlier concerning patients travelling.
This has been asked a number of times concerning patients who should have escorts when they travel down south and why the elders don’t have escorts when they have to travel to medical facilities.
This has been in the newspaper even, whereby a patient was lost down south because he had no escort to take him where he needed to go.
Being unilingual, it just so happened that someone came across him who was not related to the hospital staff and so he was able to get assistance from a fellow Inuk that came across him.
At the same time our Premier has indicated that he would be able to look at this again in April concerning patients and escorts, especially the elders.
I am wondering what the result has been to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
For the elders are they going to have escorts from now on.
Mr. Chairman, I think we should point out some of the history here.
When we started our Nunavut Government last year, many of the policies that had been in place in the Government of the NWT, we brought them forward.
In regards to the medical travel policy, the medical escort policy, in the three different regions of Nunavut, the Baffin, the Keewatin and the Kitikmeot, the policies were being implemented at varying stages of similarity.
Which means that in some cases they were being used exactly the same and in some cases they weren’t.
What we have done under the Department of Health and Social Services and me as minister is brought forward a proposed travel policy which includes medical travel, escorts, costs and so on.
I was reviewing that policy this morning before I came into the House.
I reviewed the policy again with my senior staff, two of which are with me right now, and the next step is to take that proposed policy forward to cabinet after some more work and some recommendations made after our meetings this morning.
Then we will bring it to the members of this House and indeed, to Mr. Nutarak who is the Chairman of the Health Committee of this House.
I don’t want to say specifically what is in that policy before it has gone to cabinet but I can say that the concerns that have been identified by the member and by other members in this House have been addressed, I think, to their satisfaction.
I have another question on another subject.
Mr. Chairman, my question to the minister is this.
Mr. Chairman, I have raised on a number of occasions in the House and in writing the needs of the Pond Inlet Health Centre.
The minister has acknowledge that the centre is very old and in need of renovation or replacement.
There are times when it has had to be closed because of maintenance problems.
I have asked for the support of the regular members to make the following request.
I would like to ask the minister to find internally the necessary funds to initiate a planning study in the 2000/2001 fiscal year for a new health centre in Pond Inlet.
I recognize that the actual centre itself will need to be built in future years, but would like to see the needs assessment and the planning begin this year.
Chairperson (interpretation): At this time I have been asked to take an emergency call.
If Mr. Puqiqnak could take over the chair.
Chairperson (Mr. Puqiqnak) (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Nutarak.
Mr. Chairman, yes I would agree with the recommendation being brought forth by the member from Pond Inlet.
I have seen the centre and I do realize the condition and I will endeavour to find some money to look at the situation with possible renovation or replacement of the facility in Pond Inlet this year.
I am very grateful to the minister for his proper response and I will be waiting.
I will continue to wait for this until it happens.
I have no other names on the list for general comments and I am not allowed to speak as Chairman.
Do you want to take a break.
>>Committee recessed at 3:22 and resumed at 3:40 p.m.
Chairperson (interpretation): I do not have anyone on my list.
I would like to ask the committee to go line by line.
It is on 10-5, Department of Health and Social Services branch summery.
Do you have the page in front of you it is on page 9-5 or 10-5 I am sorry.
So on page 10-5 I am sorry.
Capital 2000-2001.
We are on page 10-5.
Directorate 100 thousand total.
Baffin 1 million 695 thousand dollars.
Keewatin total, 499 thousand dollars.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
I would like to go back to the Baffin region because I have a question Mr. Chairperson.
If it is okay with the committee.
Chairperson (interpretation): He is making a request to go back to the Baffin region.
Under the Iqaluit heading are you just going to be renovating just the Baffin regional hospital.
This amount of money is just going to be used just for the renovation of the Baffin regional hospital.
It is 1 million 695 thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): The Member would like to get clarification on the Baffin regional hospital renovations.
There is question on the floor Mr. Minister.
If you would respond please.
Good afternoon to the committee.
Joining me at the desk right now is Don Maychuck, Don is the finance director for corporate and financial control procedures under the department of health and social services.
Thank you very much Mr. Iqaqrialu for your question on Iqaluit.
As the Member has pointed out there are four programs listed under Iqaluit capital projects.
Specifically on the Baffin regional hospital renovations.
Renovations may be Mr. Chairperson a little misnomer here.
In that actuality the major part of the work is for the incinerator.
The current incinerator is extremely old and does not Mr. Chairperson comply with standards for disposal.
For the disposal of bio-medical waste.
Now it does not maintain the temperatures that are required to meet emission standards and it does not have adequate mechanism to matter the emissions.
Maintenance on the old incinerator can not insure it’s continue operation for beyond one year and this Mr. Chairperson is the only incinerator in Nunavut and it is the only way Nunavut to safely dispose of bio-medical waste.
And therefore and thus Mr. Chairperson the money in the budget for the incinerator which is under Iqaluit Baffin regional hospital renovations.
It is not for the building itself.
Hon. Ed Picco: Mr. Chairperson the scope of the work is yet to be determined and the Members remember last year we had 25 thousand dollars in the budget to actually give us some idea exactly what scope of work we should carry out.
For this fiscal year we got 1.25 million and I think there is going to be 75 thousand.
The idea would be to look at replacing the existing incinerator at its present location or include in the proposed new facility.
That is the one we were talking about.
That could be three to five years down the road.
At the end of the day Mr. Chairperson, we need the incinerator in place at the Baffin regional hospital.
Because it is the only mechanism we have place to get rid of the bio-medical waste that we just talked about earlier.
So hope that answers the question of the Member.
I am not well versed on what bio-medical waste is.
I have a feeling it is not very nice stuff.
In the minister's release this week in regards to the new hospital in Iqaluit will be on the boards between 18-24 months.
He just said 3-5 years.
Can the Minister when that new facility is going to be ready for occupation.
As I said earlier in a statement from Member Tootoo concerning the timelines timeframes.
A bit of a historical anecdote on the history on the Baffin regional hospital project.
I indicated at that time given the current time frames I want to make it perfectly clear if everything fell into place tomorrow after the work that is going to be done over the next couple of months after the reimbursement agreement on done on the lot itself than after the design.