EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
But what I noticed a lack of and I have brought this up three years in a row, in Standing Committee meetings, that there are people out there that are always at the arena.
The volunteers in Nunavut, and this department I think should be the lead department in recognizing volunteers in sport and recreation.
There are always the clinics out there and the coaches that give up all their free time on the weekends and we really don’t do much for them.
There’s also the search and rescue volunteers that go our and risk their lives to save people.
We don’t do anything for them.
We don’t recognise them.
And just a simple recognition of these individuals that go out and do these types of things would really, really mean something to them.
I also want to bring up one other organisation, it’s the Fire Brigade.
The fire fighters that volunteer, I think they get 10 dollars a meeting once every three months.
I’m hoping that your department will some day, and I know you’ve only been in this department a short time; someday I hope, Community Government and Transportation will recognise them before the end of my term, whenever that is, will recognise sport volunteers, search and rescue volunteers and fire brigade volunteers.
Will your department work on doing this for us sometime?
Actually, my husband did 12 years of volunteering as a referee.
That was 12 years of time he spent at the arena instead of home and he just retired the last game.
And that’s what he’s saying and I think I can officially say that now.
He’s never been recognised for that, so I should recognise him now for that.
We will do certificates, volunteer certificates for all those categories.
We will start on it right away and the hamlets can tell us who needs to be recognised in their communities and actually we will be recognising search and rescue volunteers in Baker Lake in the very near future.
So this is a good start and we’ll improve upon it and recognise those people that deserve it.
There’s a lot of volunteers that we need to recognise in Nunavut so this is something that you have to be aware of.
I now have Ms. Williams.
Under 7-8, there is a Nunavut Consumer Complaint Bureau under Community Government and Transportation.
I would like to know how well the people know this.
How many people have approached you about this Consumer’s Complaint Bureau in the past?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Thank you. I say hello to my husband.
When we first started we were working on this one, the Consumer Complaint Bureau and sometimes there are people purchasing items from the south and these people need help.
The Nunavut Consumer Complaint Bureau has to be more open to the public so the public will know more about it.
Due to its infancy, I could not even begin to tell you how many people have taken advantage of this office.
This office is located in Baker Lake.
Chairperson (interpretation): I smile at you Ms. Williams.
On the same, on Community Government and Transportation, under the contracts, First Air flies to Nanisivik, there are jets that are a 726, slightly larger than a 737, flying up there.
And there is food served on board.
There are sandwiches and salad served for meals.
These meals are usually frozen.
Now that the weather is getting warmer, sometimes there are people, older people without teeth, they are served potato chips, or other cold snacks so they don’t know what else is available from those airlines. Canadian Airlines used to serve hot meals in the past and they were flying up there and back to Ottawa.
They were serving hot meals on the flights.
It says in here that we can complain about service provided by companies.
My question is, can we complain about this to this office?
Where are you exactly, I cannot catch where you are.
On the same page. 7-8.
About the airline meals, the complaints should go directly to the airlines.
I want to clarify this so that it is understood.
Sometimes we have to be careful because there are telemarketers from the south trying to sell things like vacuum cleaners for example, when we might not be aware about giving important personal information to these sales people.
We have to be very careful about these advertisements to make sure that this does not happen.
There are more people selling everything, trying to make money from us.
So this is all under the Consumer Complaint Bureau.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): On this page it states they provide information and assistance.
This is in relation to my previous question, it’s under service, is that part of services?
Services means, in English, the meaning can be different things.
This is not serving food.
It’s trying to state for the workers so that’s what it means.
I’m not clear what the question is.
To my understanding, the services, my department works with the RCMP, like the people trying to sell vacuum cleaners or different things to make sure they are not trying to take your money or something like that.
Too many Inuit people are ignorant of the things going on like this from the south.
I would like to ask a question. (interpretation ends) The department’s goal is to develop a model and conduct an assessment of funding needs in communities.
What stage is the department on with the needs assessment right now?
Hon. Manitok Thompson: I can only say that the division, a lot of our divisions are starting up in our department and we’re trying to improve and trying to tailor to the needs of Nunavummiut.
In a lot of cases we are at the starting stages which is good, to make sure that we’re delivering services according to the wishes of our Nunavut communities and some of the numbers that are being asked of us, we can’t say right now because we’re developing our divisions.
But, Mr. Chair, what the member was asking, I didn’t catch the tail end of her question.
Can she clarify what she was asking?
Under Community Government, you are working on the Municipal Finance Review.
What stage are you at with this right now?
We are at the recommendation stage now.
After the recommendations are approved, the standing committee would be involved in this, and then they would be implemented.
That’s where we’re at right now.
On the same page, 7-8.
The funding was planned for 2001/2002, under Grants and Contributions, where are we now?
When will it come into effect?
Are you talking about the funding or research?
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): You were going to visit the communities and hear their concerns in relation to community development.
For example, Community Government and Transportation was going to hear concerns of the communities and there was money available for 2001/2002 for that.
The government stated that they were going to get into the communities and hear their concerns.
I want to know if this is already in place?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Excuse me.
The funding review from the communities that we were going to do, not myself, but under my department, we were going to review the policies of Community Government.
The communities have this information.
We have information available for the communities and the motions and the motions that have been made have to go through this House and under Capital Plans, we’ll have to go through communities and find out what they think of them and to find out their concerns.
We’re working on that to make sure the motions are carried out.
I’m starting to get my voice back but the mayors of the hamlets just had a meeting in Ottawa.
The resolutions that they provided, will the resolutions be part of the information from the communities that we will be receiving?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Sometimes I get mixed-up.
Mr. Chairman, the resolutions that were brought up by the NAM meeting, they have not been provided to us yet but we will provide some information to all the communities on any informational items that they might want to get.
I would like to be able to visit the communities rather than just writing them correspondence or talking to them by phone.
So, we will be providing information to the communities whenever we can.
Under 7-8 and under 7-10.
It is part of 7-8, but it’s in 7-10.
It’s the municipal extraordinary grant.
It was 33 thousand dollars in 2001 – 2002, now it is 113 thousand dollars.
What kind of grant is that and how come it’s increased so much?
Is there something the department is expecting?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): The amount of money that we got for the senior citizens’ grants was 100 thousand dollars and it is 20 thousand dollars now.
These are for the property tax rebates for the senior citizens.
From there we moved it to municipal extraordinary grants.
I’ll just use this as an example.
There was a vehicle that was broken in Coral Harbour; it is geared for vehicles that break down so there wasn’t much of it so we increased it to that amount.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Minister.
Mr. Arvaluk: I understand, however, your budget for 2001 – 2002 was 33 thousand dollars and in the revised estimates for 2001 – 2002 it is still 33 thousand dollars.
Why is this not reflected in your statement, that 33 thousand dollars was too small?
In the revised estimates it was 33 thousand dollars.
What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to stay within our budget and just transfer from one area to another, as long as there is no extra funding taken away or from any other sections.
Mr. Arvaluk: Mr. Chairman, does that require a Financial Management Board decision to spend over and above 33 thousand dollars, for example, breakdown of the Qimmuksiugurak in Salluq?
If so, does it not reflect in your revised estimates?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Mr. Chair, we could have put 100 thousand in senior citizens grants this year and not use 80 thousand dollars of that.
So we re-profiled it, which is within our mandate if we are inside, that it doesn’t require a Financial Management Board submission to change from one grant to another grant and it was noted that there were some emergencies in some communities in terms of equipment that we have to attend to and 33 thousand dollars was not enough to tend to those emergencies so we did that within our mandate.
Mr. Arvaluk: That’s not my question though.
I’m okay with this re-profiling, if it’s not needed in one area and, especially within the same department division, or different division within the same department, you can re-profile that.
What I’m trying to understand here is, if, I don’t know maybe I’m not qualified to be a Community Government and Transportation Minister, but if I had an estimate of 33 thousand dollars and something goes wrong in some communities that requires an extraordinary grant, wouldn’t that be reflected in your revised estimates.
So that you need more than 33 thousand dollars, you print the revised estimate to reflect that.
That’s the only question I have Mr. Chairman.
I will get Shawn Maley to respond to that question, he can answer it better than I can in a clear way.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Maley.
The answer to the question and it’s a good question, the answer to the question is that the municipalities we’ve noted in the last couple of years have experienced a number of equipment failures and that’s largely due to our inability to keep up with capital expenditures in the municipal equipment area and this has certainly been a result of the past government before Nunavut began.
So, we’ve encouraged municipalities to start their own municipal equipment reserves which they use to cover off costs.
So what we’ve found and we’ve certainly heard this from the mayors and senior administrative officers; they cannot keep up with the repairs on aging equipment.
So the department we are doing two things.
We’ve tried to listen to their concerns and profile new equipment in our capital plan and also, by profiling more money into our extraordinary grant, we were better able to respond to equipment repairs rather than putting that pressure on the municipalities.
We tried to share that cost burden with municipalities and that’s reflected in a smaller amount of money than previous years but in addressing their concerns, we’ve recognised that we have to profile more money now.
And that’s why we’re seeing this difference.
Mr. Arvaluk: I am not arguing that as 113 thousand dollars is probably still very small.
I think it’s still too small.
What I’m simply trying to understand in the accounting system, in the main estimates, I should say, if they needed more in 2001/2002, why is it not reflected in the revised estimates of 2001/2002.
Why is it still the same as the main estimates when you needed more during 2001/2002?
When you needed more in 2001/2002, then it’s reflected in 2002/2003 with 113 thousand dollars.
It’s probably still too small but could we as regular MLAs see some justification by adjusting your 2001/2002 revised estimates?
Last year when you approved this, the senior citizens’ grant and municipal extraordinary grant were blended together and in regards to the question of the member I will have my finance guy, Mike Rafter, answer that but these two were together.
We’re separating them this year.
Mr. Rafter.
In the previous three years’ main estimates, when you refer to them, you’ll note that the senior citizen grants were combined with extraordinary grants.
This year we’ve proceeded to separate the two components.
So now you see that total of 113 thousand dollars.
I guess I could comment further that 113 thousand dollars likely isn’t enough either.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Rafter.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Referring to 7-8 you said in your, actually it’s on 7-9, on the fuel price adjustments I guess.
I know last year, or the year before, in the price increase, I know municipalities needed some extra funding to offset the costs of the increase in the fuel, on the petroleum.
When I look at this, I guess the paragraph that says associated with the fuel price increase.
Is it because some of the invoices come in late from the previous year that you are paying this year?
I’m just trying to get a picture where there was no price increase this year.
Are you projecting increase on the fuel prices?
I don’t know. I’m just trying to get why we need this cost associated to the increase?
Perhaps I will not make myself clear.
What we do is offset the incremental operating costs associated with the fuel price increases.
But now, looking at the amount of money that is allotted for that section, I think it was about half of the price of the fuel.
Right now there hasn’t been an increase to the fuel price.
I guess I was, it was that earlier but I just wanted to make sure.
You know it seems to me, when I look at it that it seems like we’re projecting some increase on the fuel that’s why I asked that so thank you for your answer on that.
I want to go to 7-13.
When we were talking about municipal services put together like for water, sewage and garbage and so on.
I’m not sure if it’s the same anymore.
But how often do you provide the payments to the municipalities?
I’m not sure if it’s quarterly or once a year, or as soon as they make invoices and as soon as you receive them.
Another part of the question would be, as soon as you get an invoice from the community or they put in a claim on grants, how soon can the hamlet get their repayment on the municipal services?
We used to do it by invoice but now we just automatically give it to them on a quarterly basis.
Mr. Havioyak: Okay, the reason I asked this question, I know it happened last year and I’m sure it’s going to be the same this year that the administration at the hamlet were saying they were receiving payments late and it sort of gave them a hard time to, you know, they didn’t have enough money to pay some of the invoices that they have outside of municipal services because they’re using it for that services sometimes and they’re receiving it late.
They’re taking a position where they say they don’t have enough cash flow.
I’m not sure, I haven’t checked this but I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future that their payments are on a very regular basis, like you said, quarterly.
Like if you say July, then get it on July 1.
Make sure they’re getting their payments on a regular basis.
I know you said quarterly but I’m just letting you now that they do receive some payments late even though we say quarterly.
Our department has always been on time, because as our mandate for the municipalities, I cannot say for the other departments, every department has different dates, that they give out their payments to hamlets but our department cuts the cheques on time and have given them out on those days that they said they would.
The other departments I cannot speak for.
For the record, it’s good to hear.
I just want to go on to another area, on the Northern Games contribution, 103 thousand dollars annually.
Each community from what I can see, each region, holds their own Inuit games.
If you divide this into three regions, approximately about 33 thousand dollars per region and I know, in our region the cost is going to be higher than that.
If they say, a real number, for example, for that region would be 33 thousand dollars, but if the real costs were about 40-50 thousand dollars to the games in the region itself, is there some flexibility from somewhere that you can assist that region to raise that cost to hold the games in that region.
We can improve where we need to improve in this area.
This in not divided into regions because it’s by community.
If a community needs help and assistance, my staff is available to help them but if there’s a problem with specific communities with this funding, then we can try to help them find some funds from other sources or give them ideas in this area.
There has not been to date, major problems concerning this program.
Thank you, for the answer.
I hear you but the Northern Games, as you know they’re Inuit traditional games and they’re also played in the Arctic Winter Games.
Does this department have plans in the future, where they can have northern games from all the communities of Nunavut; something different from the Arctic Winter Games, but rather Inuit games across Nunavut?
Yes, we are getting together with our regional communities, but they’re not really meeting as Nunavut communities.
They’re just representatives from one region.
What I’m saying is maybe in the future, we need to have one big Nunavut, northern games rather than just by community, maybe that is a thing that you need to look at, in the very near future rather than in the Arctic Winter Games, which is good, I’m happy with that but we need one big one just for Nunavut.
I think that’s another thing that we need to look at, if I can compete with Peter somehow, a muskox fight or something.
That’s what I’ve been asked to look at and hopefully the department will be able to look at something like that.
That’s something we can look at in our division for one whole Nunavut games.
The other thing that we need to improve upon is dog team races and this is something that we can also put in our business plan for the northern games section.
We need to tailor our programs to Nunavut and this is what we’re trying to pursue in our recreation department.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for his idea.
In reference to 7-15, in terms of the Recreation Facility Operators’ Program, there’s nothing in the 2001/2002 main estimates.
But now we have our 2002/2003 main estimates.
Perhaps it was in another area but I just want to find out as to how it got into the 2002/2003 main estimates.
We used to do this in the NWT and it’s something that we’re starting up again.
That’s why it’s not showing in those areas.
We have a very good program in this area for ice making technology, ice maintenance, and equipment operation including zamboni training, just taking care of our assets in the communities and managing people at work, facility management, purchasing, and supplying those facilities.
We have a new program now.
It used to be done under GNWT.
We are starting our own in Nunavut.
On page 7-10, 113 thousand dollars for the municipal extraordinary grant.
This is one question that I brought up before.
It seems like the hamlet councils do not have translators and it’s usually the English language that is used for writing documents and we can’t help them as Members of the Legislative Assembly.
They are an existing organization and there are hamlets in each of the Nunavut communities.
Is it possible to provide funds for translating documents and to provide those monies to the hamlet councils?
Is it possible to use some of this 113 thousand dollars to do translation work at the hamlet level?
We can look for other funds to be used by the hamlet.
We can possibly use some of the funds from the O and M and we could also include that money and identify it from other line items.
This is specifically for extraordinary circumstances and for one time funding.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): And also you mentioned something about dog team racing and including it in the Nunavut games.
I think that will please everybody in the whole of Nunavut and especially to the ones that organize the dog team races.
I’m moving on to 7-11, recreation association development.
In here, it says, there is the Nunavut Recreation and Parks Association; how is that divvied up between those two when there’s only 40 thousand dollars allotted for this particular thing?
If we establish an entity called an association or some kind of entity we can get funds from outside sources.
This is not specifically for the parks but we’re trying to establish an association with this 40 thousand dollars.
This association would be outside of the Nunavut Government and if it’s set up like that we can start looking for outside sources of funds that could be used for recreational purposes.
We would use funds from outside of the Nunavut Government and because it would be a stand alone association we can then access other funds from out there.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): It says Nunavut Recreation and Parks Association.
Would Parks Canada be able to contribute funds to the hamlet councils to put money in here?
This is written in the English concept.
If we went to southern Canada for example, they have parks established right in the middle of a rural area but in the Inuk’s minds eye it’s a totally different concept.
It’s just the English wording that makes you think that it’s for parks purposes.
I’ll ask the question anyway.
As you know, I’ve trying to promote our language dialect in my community and I have asked the hamlet to do the same trying to promote it and the writing system and so on and they came back to me and said they just don’t have funds to do that at this point.
So, I thought I heard this.
Additional money can come out from the operations if they need that service.
Translating their documents like for example, minutes.
Especially the minutes I guess.
I though I heard that part.
Translation can come out from O and M additional funds I am hoping, to that hamlet.
As I said, a community that wants to access funds under the community development fund from the regional office, to do translations they can do that.
It’s up to the hamlet how they use the community development fund.
If it’s for the development of a community in terms of recreation or training they can use that fund so, these communities can ask for that fund if they want to do more translation at their hamlet level through the regional office and it’s an area that we can also address through the finance review that we’re doing already because it has come up with the MLAs and also hamlets.
But, right now you have funds available to you for that program in your hamlet through the regional office under the community development fund.
Mr. Arvaluk: In 7-13. (interpretation) In regards to the entire page especially the water and sewage services block funding has slightly decreased which I’m not overly concerned about, but my question when we’re talking when we’re doing our capital planning we usually ask the hamlets about what their priorities are and we have them identify their priorities.