EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
In regards to their daily expenses especially those outlined under 7-13, have you asked the communities if their estimates are accurate or do they see the number of dollars that they’re going to be getting and they see like today, they may have to make a decision like we do within the Nunavut Government.
Chairperson (interpretation): Ms. Thompson
I’ll get Shawn to respond to your question.
If I understand the question correctly, the way in which we fund municipalities, this page basically, other than community development funds the last time, basically makes up our core funding for hamlets.
And other than water and sewer, the MOAP, Municipal Operating Assistance Program provides a base of funding which municipalities decide on how they’re going to spend that.
We program the dollars based on a formula that takes into account each of the facets of hamlet operations.
But we fund it as a block fund so the municipalities can create priorities of their own and they can spend the money that way.
The money in the water and sewer block fund is more restrictive because our mandate is to provide water at a cheap and affordable non-profit rate for our community members.
So that’s more restrictive.
The transfers from other government departments also known as CTI dollars, this we don’t have control of.
Normally other departments will make the rules.
We simply act as a funding and accounting agency.
An example of this is the municipal liaison officers.
We fund the money through our department for the municipalities to have a MLO officer.
This amount, the 3.861 million dollars is becoming more flexible.
Other departments are not putting as many restrictions on those dollars.
So, to answer his question, the priorities for spending are for the most part, set by the municipality and we fund them in accordance to that.
Mr. Arvaluk: Have these, especially the water and sewage block funding and the MOAP, been reviewed by the department lately and is it sufficient according to your community consultation?
Under the finance review, we have noted that they need more money for water and sewage and we have to address that.
We have noticed that during our review, finance review, the MOAP funding that we give to the hamlets we need more money for water and sewage services and this is something that we have to address as a department.
Mr. Arvaluk: Is this included in the program review or are you planning to overhaul the funding criteria to those municipalities especially in the water and sewage block funding and municipal operating assistance program to reflect the real cost needs of the community?
Sometimes, this Government of Nunavut sometime in the future will have to look at the overall expenditures of 500 or 600 million dollars by slowly divorcing ourselves from the GNWT through our leadership and initiatives that will reflect more of the Nunavummiut needs, including reviewing the top heavy administration costs, handing it more to the communities in terms of operations and maintenance and capital.
Will this be part of the overall review to reflect real costs needs?
We have reviewed all hamlet operations under the finance review and we looked at the real cost needs because this has not been reviewed since ’95.
We, in Nunavut, I guess I can say, we didn’t like the way the GNWT did it.
So we’re going to make some improvements.
Those recommendations will be going into the Financial Management Board, the real cost needs of Nunavummiut.
So it’s something we have looked at already under our finance review, everything that is required to operate a hamlet in the community.
We are now on 7-8, which, I don’t have anybody else on my list.
We are now dealing with Community Government and Transportation and we have to ensure we pass them properly.
When we’re approving the main estimates we have to have a quorum so, let the bell ring for five minutes.
We are now on 7-8.
Total operations and Maintenance 45 million 298 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): This page goes on to 7-15.
So we’ll move to 7-15.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Transportation.
Travel and transportation.
There’s been an increase.
What’s the reason for this increase?
The license department, under transportation the motor vehicles department is in Gjoa Haven and because this is being decentralized there’s more travelling involved.
With that we need to make an increase.
Are you done Mr. Nutarak?
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): Just make a comment.
Just to get some clarification.
Transportation Department headquarters, I don’t understand how the licensing is in Gjoa Haven.
My comment Mr. Chairman, I have stated before and will continue to state that the cost of travel is very expensive in Nunavut and it’s also very costly for medical travel and I’m wondering if this department can work with Sustainable Development and the Nunavut Development Corporation.
I wonder if the Nunavut Development Corporation could purchase a plane or loan, rent the airline and this is something I’ve brought up at an earlier date where Sustainable Development can organize different wildlife to be transferred to other communities such as from Igloolik to Rankin Inlet to bring in fermented walrus meat or if Nunavut Development Corporation was to purchase an airline or an airplane, I think it would be cost efficient and it would be used quite frequently by the Department of Sustainable Development and transportation.
There are also products that are sold to the south from Coral Harbour, Chesterfield, Cambridge Bay, and Rankin Inlet and this plane can be used to bring these products south.
I used to think that when you cut the lettuce it was supposed to be brown inside, but that’s not the case because when I went south they’re all green and the reason why the inner part is brown is because the lettuce had frozen.
I think if the Development Corporation was to purchase an airplane they could bring in fresh products to communities and they’d probably need more than one airplane because there’s a lot of demand, a big demand to bring fresh products and other things to communities.
The consumers in communities would also be able to bring in equipment through that airline.
And this is something I’m wondering if this is something that your department can look at so that we could bring in fresh products or other equipment at a cheaper rate.
So, under 7-16, under transportation, I would like to encourage Sustainable Development and transportation to work together and bring in products through their own plane.
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): His comments are very clear and the review on the Nunavut Air Services Study, this could also be included in that study and we could work with the Department of Sustainable Development as to how we could work on this.
It’s a very interesting suggestion and I know that the Department of Sustainable Development would be interested, or have programs where they could bring in caribou meat into communities that don’t have enough caribou meat and other wildlife.
This is something that we could include into that study under Transportation.
Mr. Chairman, I’d like to thank the minister for her response.
This is something I think that needs to be done.
We are able to bring in food through mail but I’m wondering if the Federal Government would support something like this.
My other question is how soon will this review be complete so that we’re not putting down the airlines, we’re just trying to make suggestions as to how to correct some of the problems that arise.
A lot of the times the airlines are full and some communities aren’t able to receive wildlife or country foods.
In Coral Harbour there’s 35 hundred caribou in Coral Harbour that could be sent to other communities.
There’s fish in Pangnirtung and Cambridge Bay that could be sent to other communities.
In Nunavut there’s a high cost of living so I’m just wondering when this study will begin and when it would be completed?
This study that we’re talking about, the proposal will be closed on May 15 but it would go on up to eight months.
So it will take time.
The other things we talked about under transportation concerns will be in this study.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): This is my concern.
I would like to raise a question on third party funding.
I’ve always brought this up regarding docking facilities.
In 2001/2002 it was approved by the federal government and in the 2002/2003 main estimates, as you know, the hamlets rely on you and many times they have been turned down by the federal government.
So, 1.2 million dollars hasn’t been used.
It seems like it’s not going to be used. The Fisheries and Oceans, will it be carried over to another year on the docking facilities?
As you know, I just want to get clarification from you so I can pass it onto the hamlets.
The funding is not going to be used for something else so we will use all that money. (interpretation ends) Mr. Chairman, we will be completing that process with this money and we will make sure this money is dedicated to that project in Kugluktuk.
I don’t have any more names. Back to Community Government and Transportation.
Total operations and maintenance 14 million 193 thousand dollars.
Do you have any comments on this?
Chairperson (interpretation): Information item page 7-17.
Page 7-18.
Next, page 7-19. Any questions?
Just one quick question on 7-19 the Canada/Nunavut Infrastructure Program. The Canada/Nunavut Infrastructure Agreement funds environmentally sustainable green municipal infrastructure projects.
Can the minister explain who is eligible for these projects and does there have to be any funding coming from a municipality or is it 100 percent project funding?
As we understand it, there are no funds coming from the municipality.
Could the minister clarify what these projects would be so municipalities can apply for them?
That was a question that was asked by the mayors too and I answered that by saying anything that turns green from either sewage or water.
I think that’s why it’s called Green Municipal Infrastructure Projects.
It’s for municipal projects, Green Municipal Infrastructure Projects.
Mr. McLean: No, it’s just I’m a little confused on it and I guess they have to be environmentally friendly projects.
Can the minister just explain what projects the municipalities could bring forward?
Like, I know they’re green projects, but could you be a little bit more specific?
We have not made a formal announcement yet on this but we’re saying projects such as water treatment, sewage treatment, and solid waste management, Green Infrastructure.
As you know for the last couple of years I’ve been raising the issue of sewage sites crossing a bridge trying to get the Department of Sustainable Development in partnership with your department to do with the bridging across that sewage lagoon.
Where we come in to our community from going hunting back and forth it cuts right through the sewage areas.
So, I’ve been raising this but I haven’t been able to get an update.
I’m just wondering if that would qualify under this line. Koanaqutit, Itsivautaq.
We probably might not be able to do it with this fund.
But maybe there is another way of doing it using the new program that we’re promoting in the near future, access roads; that is if the hamlet wants to use that money to put a little bridge over the sewage lagoon in Kugluktuk or the sewage area in Kugluktuk.
If they want to put a bridge or go around the lake as they’ve been doing.
We could probably find funds somewhere else under another program that we’re looking at right now.
Mr. Arvaluk: Qujannamiik, Chairman.
I have a very good idea for that one.
Like, mosquito populated enhancement project or something Green.
Mr. Chairman, my question is, in some communities like Coral Harbour that had extremely careless population when they’re gone that filled the islands with litters of barrels everywhere and in some instances they have created garbage dumps that were not designed by nature to be garbage dumps.
Does clean up of those areas fall under that funding?
This does not include those clean-ups.
That would have to come under a different program.
Environment Canada is working with those programs.
We would also like to see those places cleaned up but it does not come under this.
This is for municipal infrastructure.
A lot of our municipal infrastructure has been there for years and years and unattended.
This is more for those priorities right now.
I guess the proposal will have to be written.
For example in Coral Harbour we have homemade community initiatives.
Free money made access roads to our spring camps.
Does that include building an access trail to some of those cabins that we have?
I guess what I’m asking here Mr. Chairman, is that open to things that are green for example.
Most popular pastime now besides hockey, is golf.
Does that include creating a golf course or something like that, that is considered green?
If that’s not possible, when you make up your criteria to qualify under that program, will you be able to list some of these items that could be included for the purposes accessing this funding?
I have a hard enough time trying to figure out why they put green on there.
I can only say that sewage makes things green when it flows down the valley.
We’re not making any golf courses.
We could probably do that under another program, under Canada’s Golf Course Program which I haven’t found yet.
This is for infrastructure in our municipalities that are outdated and need to be updated right now; the relocation of our garbage dumps and sewage lines and sewage dumps, and water equipment.
This is more for that because a lot of our municipalities have been in existence, and I guess you can say we have not looked after those infrastructure very well as a government.
We’re just attending to them now through this fund.
If I get off track here, let me know.
But we’re talking about garbage dumps and the green plans and things like that.
I was just reading on the Ottawa Hansard that the federal government is negotiating with the U.S. government for 100 million dollars over the next ten years to clean up DEW Line sites.
We are the Government of Nunavut and the federal government is another jurisdiction.
I guess they’re the Federal Government of Canada.
Do we have a role to play or is our government notified about these clean-ups and do we have any role to play in them?
As a government we should be involved in that and I think the department that deals with environmental clean up is DSD and I know that NTI has a role in that too Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.  Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Thompson.
I’ll probably talk to the DSD Minister and his department but the point I want to get here is that as a government, Community Government and Transportation, because there are concerns in my community that there’s an old navy site out at Gary Lake that’s being cleaned up and nobody’s aware of it.
I’m sure NTI is probably aware of it and the federal government are aware of it and I made probably 10 phone calls to try to get aware of it in terms of who’s doing it and who’s responsibility is it and stuff because down the road if they do clean up that site and they don’t do a proper job, or they do something that’s not right, then eventually, we are held liable for it.
The Government of Nunavut will be on the hook for it down the road later.
Because, today, I know for a fact today, that the federal government in my community had a large presence for a number of years and they left a lot of waste behind and my colleague, Mr. Arvaluk was commenting, and I lived in Coral Harbour briefly in 1975 and I seen what they left down in Snafu.
And they also did the same thing in Baker Lake.
In the municipal boundary there is a large number of drums, old buildings, asbestos laden, you know, just in the vicinity there’s a lot of old federal government junk and they won’t clean it up because they say it’s not their responsibility anymore.
And, you know, it’s eventually going to get down to where it’s going to be a municipal responsibility.
The municipality is going to make your responsibility that eventually these things are going to be cleaned up.
So I know Sustainable Development is probably involved in it but, I don’t know if that is really their mandate because I think Community Government and Transportation are closer to the situation than maybe Sustainable Development are on these issues.
So, I just thought I’d bring it up.
It’s just more statement than anything else and it should be watched a lot more closely because there is a lot of junk laying around from the old federal government.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: I think that was more of a statement but Department of Sustainable Development is actually under my department.
We will work closely with the clean up crew.
We were on 7-19.
Any more questions on 7-19?
Chairperson (interpretation): Page 7-20.
Chairperson (interpretation): And we’ll get back to page 7-5.
Community Government and Transportation. Program summary.
Total operations and maintenance 69 million 709 thousand dollars.
It was a very large amount of O and M and Capital equalling 86 million, 759 thousand dollars.
Why is the directorate so high at 15%?
We have quite a lot of divisions under this department.
We have EMO, we have transportation, and we have quite a few directors for this department that’s why it’s that big.
We need those divisions in the headquarters level.
Just for the department to have as consideration.
There’s a huge amount of money on Community Government and Transportation and Directorate, 15%, 21% for transportation.
I just wanted to say that this should be reduced a little bit.
We can certainly review that.
Just another brief comment on the budget of Community Government and Transportation; Community Government and Transportation indirectly employs a lot of people, a tremendous amount of people at the hamlet level, which they fund through their transfers.
Travelling around last summer and meeting at most hamlet offices and seeing that there is a lot of Inuit staff in these offices. It’s high.
It must be up around 75, 80, 90% mark.
That’s Inuit staff in all the hamlet offices around Nunavut and a lot of them have been there for a long, long time.
Now, it’s a challenging career, it’s a hard job, but they are challenging jobs in these municipalities and my community of Baker Lake has over 90 full-time and part-time staff working.
A lot of them like working for the municipality.
They have a good working relationship with Community Government and Transportation.
The thing that I noticed that’s lacking in the last couple of years, they were very good at it when you were a minister in the NWT, was training local people to assume more responsibility.
Under Community Empowerment, and at the time, when you were the minister, you made funding available for the municipalities to train more local people to assume more responsibility in the administration process in the municipalities.
There was lots of training going on and it seems to have fallen by the way side. I know there’s been a tremendous push for decentralization in our communities and a lot of our employees moved into government jobs but it’s just my feeling, being involved in hamlet councils over the last 15-20 years, that Community Government and Transportation is one of the lead departments in training local people for the government.
I can’t say that HR will be able to do that.
I think that if you look around in the Kitikmeot, the Kivalliq and maybe over here, where you’ve got long term people, it’s in Community Government and Transportation.
They’re dedicated people and they’re good at training local people.
I wish that you as the minister would make an extra effort to initiate more training of local people at the administration and support levels at the municipalities so that we don’t have to rely on too many outsiders because outsiders working at the municipal level really don’t understand and that’s where your Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit comes in.
So I’m hoping that the next time that you’re doing your operations and maintenance on your department, that you’ll ask for additional dollars to do more training at the municipal level because the end result will mean that if we get more younger people trained at the municipal level, they’ll be sitting at your left and right hand side ten years from now.
I’m not taking anything away from the two individuals that you have.
They’re long term northerners and they’re very good and dedicated at training local people now and they’re exemplary.
So that’s all I’m saying to you.
If you can get back into that old mode of training local people to ascend into the ranks of Community Government and Transportation, it will be a very successful department.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that’s all I have to say.
It was a statement.
I know that was a statement.
We have allocated 404 thousand dollars within this budget for community training, SAO training.
We’re going to start on those.
This is something that I had told the department to start putting their energies into and we will review the Community Empowerment Initiatives again and see where we can make improvements with that.
We’re on page 7-5, Community Government and Transportation.
Any more questions on that page?
If not, total operations and maintenance 69 million 709 thousand dollars.
I would like to thank the Minister of Community Government and Transportation.
If you have any last comments to make Ms. Thompson.
Thank you, very much to the Committee of the Whole and you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Iqaqrialu.
Chairperson (interpretation): I would also like to thank your officials, Mr. Maley and I would also like to ask Ms. Williams, what the wish of the committee is?
We would like to continue with the Department of Justice.
Chairperson (interpretation): We will now begin with the minister responsible for Justice.
I am the Chairperson of Ajauqtiit, so I will have Mr. Nutarak come and Chair the meeting for a little bit.
Chairperson (Mr. Nutarak) (interpretation): Minister Okalik, you can begin with your opening remarks.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to appear before the committee to present the Department of Justice 2002-2003 Main Estimates.
The department has been allocated a total operating budget of 44 million 199 thousand dollars, which represents an increase of 6.7 million over last year’s budget.
The new money in the department’s budget will help us enhance our programs to make sure we reflect the priorities of the Bathurst Mandate and to integrate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into our department.
The largest allocation of new funding is for additional expenditures for RCMP services.
The largest proportion of the new resources will cover new positions to bring all detachments up to a minimum level of two officers and to provide additional floaters so that there can always be two officers in each community.
This new funding has allowed for the re-opening of the detachments in Kugaaruk, Grise Fiord and Kimmirut, and it also includes the resources for the opening of a new RCMP in Repulse Bay.
Mr. Chairman, in increasing our level of police services, we also need to reflect Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
Early in April, 15 Nunavummiut departed for the RCMP Academy in Regina to begin their recruit training.
Simon Awa, Assistant Deputy Minister returned recently from visiting that academy and he advises me that all the trainees are doing very well.
In addition to our current 12 Inuit RCMP Officers, the graduates of the Police Academy will allow us to better serve Nunavummiut in their first language.
Through active Inuit recruitment programs, we can only improve and integrate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in law enforcement services.
I am also pleased to let you know the RCMP were able to swear in and hire bilingual telecom operators last month.
We are also bringing two individuals from Hall Beach and Arctic Bay later this month for their telecom operator orientation.
We are hoping those two individuals will do well and will then accept full time positions as telecom operators.
(interpretation ends) Some of the new money allocated to the Department of Justice responds to the chronic pattern of under funding related to the costs of providing regular court services to court circuits in communities.