EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We will be reviewing this to see how we can best address the high cost of airfares and because we do not deal with air carriers we will have to do a review on that first before I can respond to the member properly.
I will do a review as to why they charge so much for airfare.
We will be doing this review and I feel that this is an urgent matter and I will give a reply to the member as soon as I can.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Barnabas.
Can the minister commit to communicate with the airline as to why discount fares are not offered to people living in the smaller communities.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Barnabas.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): Yes.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Barnabas.
Can the minister keep the members up to date by providing us with copies of all the correspondence.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Your last and final question, Mr. Barnabas.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the minister responsible, the regular members and the ministers are allowed to go home 23 times.
Is it true that the new minister would probably use 90 thousand dollars for 23 flights.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Member your question is different from your first question.
Your supplementary is different from your first question. Going back to the orders of the day.
Question 493 – 1(3): Clyde River School Addition Deferral
This morning you announced in the media that due to a lack of staff, the school addition in Clyde River had been deferred.
Perhaps this fiscal year, will you find enough staff members this fiscal year.
No it will go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Oral Questions.
Question 494 – 1(3): Gjoa Haven Fuel Situation
The Member for Nattilik had asked a question about petroleum products problem in Gjoa Haven.
There has been bad gasoline for the past winter.
What are you doing now about the bad fuel situation.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Nutarak.
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank you Mr. Speaker, you have been very good in dealing with the concerns of your constituents and you kept them informed about the gas situation and approaching me to resolve the problems you have encountered in Gjoa Haven.
To answer the question and to thank the Member for Tunnuniq, I can say that this coming weekend we will be bringing gas to Gjoa Haven for the use of skidoos and they will be provided with gas year around for skidoos and other vehicles.
Therefore, the concern of the Tunnuniq MLA will be resolved.
I would like to wish all the people of Gjoa Haven a good Easter and First Air will be bringing gas to Gjoa Haven right away for the use of skidoos because they have run out of gas at this time.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): On the same question about the Gjoa Haven gasoline.
As you have stated that this gasoline is going to be used for the snowmobiles, what about the outboard motors.
Is that gas safe to use on outboard motors.
Minister for Public Works, Ms. Thompson.
Yes, the fuel that we will be delivering is going to be good enough to be used for outboard motors.
We are working to resolve the concern of that community and I would also like to thank my staff for working on this. Every time I ask them to work, especially the Superintendent Brent Boddy, who lives in Cambridge Bay and went to Gjoa Haven to review the gasoline situation every time they start experiencing that, he is always there ready and available to go to the community.
I would also like to thank the Mayor.
The gasoline or the fuel will be good enough to use for outboard motors.
Question 495 – 1(3): Cost of Flying in Fuel
The minister just indicated that the department will be flying in fuel to Gjoa Haven and I am glad that is happening.
Maybe just wondering is, I can imagine, can I ask the minister what the costs are going to be as a result of having to fly in that fuel.
The bottom line was that the community needed fuel and we had to address the situation.
I don't have the dollar figures for this.
I know it is going to cost money but the community needed the fuel and we had to do it with this strategy of bringing it in by First Air.
I can get that information for the member and give it to him or through you as the member for that riding, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the minister said that it's as a result of bad gas that is there that is not good.
The costs that the department is going to have to incur to fly in good gas, will there be any way of recouping that cost.
Is there any way of going back on the supplier of the gasoline and finding out at some point where and who is responsible for providing bad gasoline to the government.
If there is a supplier, is there some type of warranty or guarantee on the quality of product and a way of recouping some of those costs.
We have never said as a department that the gas was bad gas.
That fuel is on spec and can be consumed during the warmer months, but the community has said that it is not on spec. According to their knowledge their skidoos seem to be having problems and so we are trying to address it as best we can because that's what the community has asked us to do.
However, according to our tests we have never said that it was bad gas, because according to our tests it is on spec.
We are using the fuel for trucks and Hondas that old gas, but the community has said that they wanted better fuel for their skidoos.
That is why we are addressing this problem.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, based on what the minister is saying, if any community is not satisfied with the petroleum products that they get, then they could do the same thing.
I think that just on spec if the fuel isn't good I would hope that the government wouldn't incur those extra costs for no reason.
I think by sending in better fuel it is an indication that there is something wrong with the fuel that is there.
I am just wondering if the plans are to provide and have that fuel tested to see if there is actually something wrong with it.
I would think that any fuel should be able to be used at any time of the year, not just fuel for the summer and fuel for the winter.
My understanding of gas is that gas is gas and you use it whenever.
Is there going to be some kind of a test to see if there is a quality problem for the fuel or not.
We spent over, I couldn't tell you exactly how much but I am pretty sure it was over 50 thousand, to test that fuel.
According to our spec list the fuel is on spec.
I have tabled all those documents here, but we are listening to the people of Gjoa Haven.
We are listening to the people and to the community, they want gas for their skidoos, separately and we are doing the best we can to address that situation.
I have already tabled all the tests on that fuel.
This is what the community wished us to do and according to their Inuit knowledge that's what they said they would want us to do.
So we are doing the best we can and we have been talking to the community and also to the MLA, yourself Mr. Speaker, and if the member wants me to dig out all that information again, I could show them.
But I have already done what I can to test the fuel in Gjoa Haven.
We have concluded that if the community wants that for that specific reason then we have done the best we can to address the situation.
That doesn't mean that we are doing that for everybody else in the territory.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work that the department has done to accommodate the needs of the community.
Again, I would just ask, the minister indicated it is something that they will not be doing for all the communities.
If another community runs into this type of a situation, would the department be willing to look at the concerns if they happen to be raised by another community as well.
The process for Gjoa Haven to get to this situation took about a year of testing of going back to the community, going back and forth.
So if there were a problem with somebody's gas we would have to go through the whole process again, which would probably take sometimes over a year, to do some testing.
This was a problem raised by the community, a concern raised by a community since the last government.
So this is the solution we have come up with for Gjoa Haven.
Before I recognize a member for another oral question, I would like to go back to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
From Grise Fiord Aimo Akeagok and Kisak Alikatuktuk from Qikiqtarjuaq there they are.
Question 496 – 1(3): Health Positions to Kugluktuk
As I stated, the Kugluktuk people are awaiting ten positions that will be relocated to Kugluktuk for health.
I would like to ask, first, when are the jobs going to be moving to Kugluktuk.
You have already asked this question before therefore I will not allow you to ask that question again.
There is a point of order.
This is a different question that I am asking.
I am asking the question to the Minister of Health.
This is a different question from before.
Mr. Speaker, first I would like to take this opportunity to thank the member for the question and also for the good work that he has done on behalf of the community of Kugluktuk as an advocate.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health & Social Services has decentralized offices from headquarters in Rankin Inlet.
We are also Mr. Speaker, in the midst of finalizing the numbers for the decentralization of the regional offices into Pang. Mr. Speaker, also the decentralization of headquarters positions into Kugluktuk.
The delay over the past few months the member has been asking these questions to me privately and so on, has been the number of jobs and what positions we relocate.
Working with the member and I still make that commitment Mr. Speaker, as the Premier has, that we are committed to decentralization and we will be moving the ten positions to Kugluktuk and we are hoping to be able to do it as soon as possible.
We are identifying hopefully over the next couple of weeks, firming up the number of positions and what those positions are.
Mr. Speaker, we are trying to make sure that those positions are positions that can be filled within the community of Kugluktuk.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Minister Picco.
I understand that it is a couple of weeks.
I would like to know exactly what you mean by a couple of weeks, I feel that a couple of weeks become a couple of months.
I would like to seek an answer because Kugluktuk would like to know.
What do you mean by a couple of weeks.
Minister for Health & Social Services, Mr. Picco.
Mr. Speaker, indeed I am not able to say if it is two weeks or three weeks.
Of course as the member knows if we are trying to hire in that community we would have to advertise the positions.
We would have to have that information before we would actually be able to hire.
We would have to go out and we would have to recruit.
What I am hoping to do Mr. Speaker, is the actual hiring of people from Kugluktuk.
I don't necessarily want to just move people and bodies from headquarters to Kugluktuk.
I would rather have positions that are not filled at the present time and fill them with people from Kugluktuk, which is what the member and indeed, when I was in Kugluktuk last summer, what the people of Kugluktuk had indicated.
So that's why the delay Mr. Speaker, on the actual when the jobs will be in place.
I can commit to the member that over the next couple of days, while the member is in town or when he comes back next week we will sit down with my officials from the Department of Health & Social Services to iron out an exact time that we will be able to move forward on the hiring of the positions.
But it will be over the next several weeks, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Also thank you to the minister.
I have been saying this many times that we are getting tired of waiting. Also, for the jobs that will be filled I would like to know exactly here in the House, exactly when you are going to put out the advertisements to fill the jobs in Kugluktuk.
I would like to know exactly when you will be putting them out.
Mr. Speaker, over the past 12 months in the Department of Health & Social Services, we have been trying to ascertain what positions we would move to Kugluktuk and Mr. Speaker, there have been some suggestions that have come forward that I have talked to the member about.
For example the repatriation of patients in the south, would I put a facility in Kugluktuk to accommodate that.
Mr. Speaker, we were looking at other positions within headquarters.
Would I move for example, epidemiology to Kugluktuk and an epidemiologist.
Those positions may not be able to be filled in Kugluktuk.
Earlier this week Mr. Speaker, I mentioned in this House that we had a briefing on the new travel policy that I am hoping to bring forward to the Cabinet and then Mr. Speaker, to the government.
In that travel policy there is an opportunity where I would be looking at setting up a decentralized office which would give me the positions in Kugluktuk.
That is the direction that we are moving in right now Mr. Speaker, so I can't say exactly when to the member.
As the Premier has said, as this government has said, as I have said as the Minister for the Department of Health & Social Services, we will move positions to Kugluktuk and I am trying to move positions where I can fill those positions in Kugluktuk.
I would rather do that than put people into Kugluktuk as the member had stated.
So because of that I cannot say when that will happen.
What I can say is that it will be over the next couple of weeks.
We will be able to come back to the member, give him a firm date, and give him the positions so that the people in Kugluktuk will have an opportunity to apply for those positions, Mr. Speaker.
Because that is the whole idea of decentralization of this government is to bring jobs into communities, not necessarily to transplant people into communities.
That's what we are trying to accomplish and that may take a little bit more time, but Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day that would be a better plan I think not only for the people of Kugluktuk but for the people of Nunavut.
Because that's the whole principle behind decentralization.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much for your answer.
I am sure that there will be many people that will be interested.
As you stated that you would like to get people from Kugluktuk to take over the jobs, this is very good to hear and I am sure that there will be training.
I am sure that there will be people that will be willing to train.
Are you going to be having any kind of training for these people.
Mr. Speaker, under the auspices of the good offices of the Premier, he has set up as the member knows, the decentralization secretariat that is looking at the aspects of logistics and the administrative aspects of decentralization.
One of the things that I would commit to the members is that if we are going to move jobs from the Department of Health & Social Services into Kugluktuk we are going to hire people in Kugluktuk.
That may mean giving on the job training and providing that type of assistance.
Mr. Speaker, I make that commitment to the member that we will as a department put that type of training in place.
Whether it be a formalised, academic training program or I think Mr. Speaker, probably it would be some kind of OJT or on the job training so that at the end of the day people in Kugluktuk benefit from the decentralization of jobs to Nunavut.
Something similar to what we are trying to accomplish with the Power Corporation in Baker Lake.
Question 497 – 1(3): Kimmirut Social Worker
My question is directed to the Health & Social Services Minister about Kimmirut.
Kimmirut has been requesting a social worker for quite some time and the minister informed me that he would be getting a social worker as soon as they can and I want to find out when that will happen.
Just before the minister responds I would like to recognize a resident of Pond Inlet, Elijah Erkloo.
I would like to welcome him to the House.
Minister for Health & Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I think in all honesty one of the frustrating things of being a minister and indeed, I think for all the Government of Nunavut has been some of the concerns that we have had in recruitment.
Mr. Speaker, as I have tried to relate in this house over the past few months, and give credit where credit is due Mr. Speaker, the member of Kimmirut and Cape Dorset has repeatedly brought up the concern of Kimmirut for a social worker.
I have had several conversations with the Mayor of Kimmirut.
We had thought earlier about six weeks ago that we had a person.
We had gone through the interview process, we had made the job offer, and at the last moment the person turned down the offer of social work for Kimmirut.
One of the problems with Kimmirut as the member knows is housing.
We have now secured housing so we have gone back out to re-advertise the position to get the social worker position in Kimmirut.
Mr. Speaker this not a unique case.
We are short social workers in other communities and we are trying to recruit for those communities.
We do know that we have the benefit of several people who are now graduating from social work in Igloolik who may want to take on a position in one of our communities.
That may be a opportunity and in the mean time all I can tell the member is that I have requested and I know that my department is working very hard to try and fill the position of social worker in Kimmirut.
Again after the session today I will make inquiries at the Department of Health & Social Services to see where we are in staffing the position in Kimmirut.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Minister.
Member for the High Arctic.
Question 498 – 1(3): Changes to Minimum Wage
I will be directing my question to the Minister of Finance. (interpretation ends) The poverty line translates into a minimum wage of 10 dollars an hour.
Minimum wage is way bellow that in Nunavut and the cost of living is much higher than in the rest of Canada.
When will the changes be made to the minimum wage rate in Nunavut to more accurately reflect the living costs in Nunavut.
I apologise I did not hear the full extent of the question but in response to a question by one of the members last week I undertook to look at the minimum wage issue.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Anawak.
Going back to the orders of the day. Oral Questions.
Question 499 – 1(3): Regional Superintendent Spending Authority
My question today is for the Minister of Finance.
I wonder if the Minister of Finance could answer me this question.
The regional offices in the Baffin, Kivalliq and the Kitikmeot, the regional directors I think they are still called, or superintendents.
What is their maximum spending authority.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister of Finance.
The honourable member is good at asking me questions that I do not have the full details on.
I will have to get back on this specific matter and report.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, your question is taken as notice.
The reason that I wanted to ask the question, and I'm sure that he will get back to me because he is really good at it.
There are communities that have initiated community empowerment so when they take on added responsibility then comes the financial requirements to run the municipalities that were set years and years and years ago by the old territorial government of 150 thousand per superintendent.
I'm sure with the cost of living and community empowerment and additional pressures put on the superintendent or directors that they shouldn't have to go to the deputy minister every time they need to buy a case of toilet paper or Javex or various other things like rubber boots.
Could the honourable minister re-evaluate what the spending authority is for superintendents and let me know.
Mr. Speaker I thought the member was speaking directly about the Regional Superintendents of Finance in respect to his question.
But he is obviously referring to superintendents of different departments and I don't have the specifics.
That is a very detailed question and maybe more properly addressed as a written question.
I will undertake to provide that information.
However, I will say that each department is different.
It depends on the departmental structure and what each deputy minister authorises for their directors and on down.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Ng. Going back to the orders of the day.
Question 500 – 1(3): Motorised Wheelchair Status
I will direct my question to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Last year when we were first elected I had asked a question in regards to disabled persons in the community about a motorised wheelchair.
We have been anticipating that motorised wheelchair for the longest time.
We have been waiting to receive that wheelchair for over a month.
So my question is, when are you going to be providing that motorised wheelchair.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his question.
As the member knows I have met with the individual here in Iqaluit and helped him arrange a wheelchair for him while he was in Iqaluit, while he was attending the Council for the Disabled.
At that time Mr. Speaker, the regional health board through the hospital had ordered a motorised wheelchair as the member had stated.
They had said at that time it would be 3-6 months.
I don't have the current briefing note or the current information provided to me to suggest otherwise.
What I will have to do Mr. Speaker, is at the end of this question period today is get the information for the member for when the motorised wheelchair will be arriving for the individual in question in Clyde River.
Question 501 – 1(3): Social Services Vacant Positions
Mr. Irqittuq (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker I will direct in my question to the Minister of Finance.
I have been seeing a problem in my colleague Mr. Akesuk's riding and also it occurred in Clyde River, when they could not fill the positions for some time but my colleague's social service worker position has been vacant for well over a year.
I had asked a question when we first elected about the job opportunities being advertised and how you would be hiring people who are fully qualified for social services.
The staff we are hiring must be all certified, is that always going to be the case.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Minister.
It depends on the program and what that employee has.
The responsibility for the situation of a social worker, there are some statutory requirements and proper procedures and protocol that require a certain level of certification.
When you are dealing with issues that involve courts and families within communities, there are certain levels of experience and expertise required.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Minister Ng. Mr. Irqittuq.
Although you replied to me before your response was if an Inuk person is capable of doing that job they will be hired.
Elders are very capable counsellors and even more so than the qualified people although even if you are educated you need experience so you will really know.
We have very certified counsellors although they are not certified and they should be hired.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Irqittuq.
Mr. Speaker, I recognise what the honourable member is saying and counselling is one aspect of what a social worker's duties are.
There is a multitude of other factors as well.
We are trying to address this more on a longer-term basis through Nunavut Arctic College, through the social worker programs that we are providing.
We need enough of a broad base for individuals to enter that profession.
In the long term of course we will cultivate our own people to occupy those positions.
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you Minister.
The employment policy that we currently have, will you be reviewing them to make sure that the Inuit that are not certified could work as social workers.
The job evaluations are always being evaluated on an ongoing basis and trying to reflect or accommodate as many people as possible providing that we can provide the duties that the position JD outlines to carry out.