EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
With the excess costs that are being incurred by shipping this country food to Baffin Island, it’s just not feasible or viable for a lot of people.
What is the Department of Environment doing right now or are they exploring any options to assist with the freight subsidy for country food?
With respect to caribou management in the Baffin region, I want to explain something further. There have been more and more concerns about the caribou and the changes in population have been felt in Nunavut and other places.
We don’t really work with freight for food a whole lot, but there was a review of the harvester support programs in an effort to see how we can help hunters further. That has been the intention.
There are certain aspects of it that the Department of Environment can’t handle. For the handling of country food, some of it is not under my department. However, with fisheries and other things, they do fall under our department.
We mainly deal with commercialized foods. That’s why I can’t really respond to some of his questions, Mr. Speaker.
Question 045 – 4(3): Foster Parenting in Nunavut (Angnakak)
Once again I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Family Services.
Mr. Speaker, this week is National Foster Family Week. I, too, would like to extend my appreciation and admiration to those families and individuals who provide safe, secure, and caring homes for children in need.
Mr. Speaker, as you will recall, last year, I raised concerns about the number of children who are sent out of territory, not just to facilities or institutions but also to foster homes.
Can the minister provide an update on how many children are still in facilities or homes outside of the territory and what efforts are being made to bring them home?
Yes, it is National Foster Family Week. In appreciation of those families who take in foster children and in my community, we have foster parents who have been doing it for many years.
I really feel for them with my work.
This past summer in Winnipeg, we went to see institutions where children are kept. I am very proud of those people who take care of our Inuit children outside of Nunavut.
They can’t be handled in Nunavut because of physical disabilities, certain illnesses, other reasons, or if they have cancer.
They find spaces for them outside of Nunavut, fortunately.
The Department of Family Services has a plan to bring back the children who are able to be brought back. I would like to assure my colleague about that.
Like my colleague, I would like to say “thank you” for the response but not the answer.
I asked how many children are still in facilities down south.
For my second question, I appreciate that some children face additional challenges due to physical or behavioural difficulties.
Can the minister clarify what kinds of resources are provided to Nunavut foster parents to help them provide the necessary support to foster children and to keep them here at home?
I also thank my colleague for asking those questions.
Sometimes there are two or three questions. Please pose your questions one at a time so that I can answer them properly.
There are 59 children who are being held outside of Nunavut right now.
Your other question, for people with mental disabilities who don’t really have a place to go back to, we meet to make sure they are properly taken care of and if they need additional help, we find additional help for them.
Social workers are trained on methods of how to help these children. We look for new ways to help these people.
That’s how I can respond to that.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that there are a limited number of foster homes in Nunavut. Can the minister describe what kinds of efforts are made by the department to recruit more foster parents?
I also thank my colleague for requesting more information on that.
Social workers in Nunavut are always requesting for people who want to become foster parents. If anyone is interested in becoming a foster parent, they’re given information on how they can apply.
I personally know that they’re more interested in taking care of the younger children.
As they get into their teenage years, it becomes harder to place them in foster homes. We try to get help for them outside of Nunavut in those circumstances.
Question 046 – 4(3): GLOs to Receive ASIST Training (Mikkungwak)
My question will be to the Hon. Premier of Nunavut regarding the Minister’s Statement this morning about government liaison officers to receive ASIST training.
I myself have taken this Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, or ASIST for short, in the past.
My first question will be, in the past when we were with the GNWT, at the time before we became Nunavut, there used to be a health directory. Will this also be established so that residents of Nunavut can know who has taken the applied suicide intervention skills training, a help directory in Nunavut?
Speaker: Thank you. (interpretation) Premier of Nunavut, (interpretation ends) Premier Taptuna.
Mr. Speaker, it’s one of our efforts or action items where we want more of our employees taking the ASIST training so that they, in turn, can assist and help family members that request help out there in identifying, through various programs we have throughout the government, especially the one in Education with RespectEd, and other various forms that help identify and intervene before a situation gets any worse.
At the end of the day, our intention is to help people out there through intervention to ensure that we take more time and effort in identifying how we could lessen the impact of suicide in our territory.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, suicide has a major impact on all families and all communities, and with this effort in training our GLOs, we will be able to assist communities in intervening before such things happen.
I wholeheartedly agree with the Premier that applied suicide intervention skills training needs to occur more within our territory, as some of us have been impacted and it really touches the lives of people from Nunavut.
My next question to this would be, I’m fully aware from my previous career before I became an MLA. I used to oversee this program within our territory also in the Kivalliq region.
My question will be, aside from the GLOs that will be taking the ASIST training, there have been individuals and professionals who work for the Government of Nunavut who have taken the ASIST training.
Will they also be considered for a refresher program?
We encourage all our employees to take that and I don’t have the specific numbers in front of me, but I’ll certainly be consulting with my colleagues on a possible directory of who is taking the training.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the fact that he has been involved in this in the past.
Of course, any kind of advice or ideas, we will certainly take and listen to because at the end of the day, we’ve got to include everybody. We’ve got to involve everybody, the MLAs, our community members, and our hamlets.
This is one way of tackling this very serious issue together. If we don’t do it together, it will continue on and we do have to make an effort to make that impact to prevent more suicides in Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, I’ll certainly speak with my colleagues on a possible directory on who is taking this ASIST program and for certainty, we will try and accommodate what the member has said on whether individuals will need refresher courses.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for his response.
It’s reassuring to the viewing audience, to me, and no doubt, to my colleagues that we are taking action.
At the same time, we are making a movement on this aspect.
My final supplementary question would be, as we are tackling this issue as a territory, I believe we are making a strategy and I believe there is a strategy in place.
My colleague, Mr. Shooyook, also indicated this morning Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and the elders within our territory need to also have some influence and some capability of helping with this issue that we face as a territory.
My question here would be: will there be a strategy established or is it being worked on to also take Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into consideration?
Speaker: Mr. Mikkungwak, thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, we have set this special committee up at the top level with the Minister of Health chairing the committee.
It includes myself and other ministers from other departments; education, family services, and of course, housing.
Mr. Speaker, it is a very serious issue and together, we intend to tackle that. There are 37 recommendations that were made by the inquiry and 26 pertain specifically to the Government of Nunavut.
We will certainly be led by our chair here. Through coordination of an associate deputy minister, we will certainly look at all recommendations made by the inquiry.
I’ve got to thank the participants who contributed to the inquest.
We know it’s heart-wrenching to talk about all the tragedies that they have faced.
Mr. Speaker, with this effort, the special committee will certainly look at the recommendations made. Of course, I have said and I’ll say again that we want to include everybody and every organization to help us deal with this very serious issue in Nunavut.
We will move on with the orders of the day. Item 7.
Bill 06 – Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016 – Notice
I give notice that on Tuesday, October 28, 2015, that Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016, be read for the first time.
I request consent of this Assembly to waive the two-day notice requirement to allow for the first reading of Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016.
Speaker (interpretation): The minister is seeking consent to waive the two-day waiting rule so that Bill 6 can be read today for the first time.
There is agreement. Minister Peterson, please proceed.
Bill 06 – Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016 – First Reading
I move, seconded by the Hon. Member for Pangnirtung, that Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016, be read for the first time.
Moving on, Item 18.
Bill 06 – Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016 – Second Reading
I move, seconded by the Hon. Member for Pangnirtung, that Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act, No. 3, 2015-2016, be read for the second time.
Bill 6 will now be referred to the Committee of the Whole.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters. Bills 1, 2, 3, and 6 and Tabled Documents 107 – 4(2) and 149 – 4(2) with Mr. Mikkungwak in the Chair.
Chairman (Mr. Mikkungwak) (interpretation): I would like to call the committee meeting to order, people of Baker Lake and Nunavut.
We are dealing with the Nunavut Housing Corporation. (interpretation ends) Branch Summary.
Nunavut Housing Corporation. (interpretation) Firstly, I ask my colleagues if they agree to bring in the minister’s officials to the (interpretation ends) witness table.
For the record, Hon. Minister of the Nunavut Housing Corporation, Mr. Kuksuk, could you please introduce your officials.
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, my fellow Nunavummiut and Arviarmiut, as well as the residents of Whale Cove.
With me this morning (interpretation ends) to my left is Stephen Hooey, Chief Operating Officer, and to my right, Lori Kimball, President (interpretation) of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
We will continue from where we left off yesterday with the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Following my list of names, Mr. Hickes.
I believe Ms. Kimball was going to be supplementing the minister’s response from yesterday.
Just for everyone’s benefit, I’ll reiterate what I was asking very briefly.
I was looking at the document that was provided yesterday that showed the 72 percent. I can’t remember the title of the critical need situation of housing here in Iqaluit.
I had touched on, I am aware of the land availability issues.
Like I said, I appreciate that, but I was also getting into the reallocation of housing units to make sure that people are adequately housed, especially in the cases where people are over-housed, which could free up units for families.
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I also thank the member. For his question from yesterday, Ms. Kimball was going to supplement my response, so I would like her to do so.
With the implementation of the new rent scale software back in February of 2014, we now have regular reporting on clients that are over-accommodated and under-accommodated. We have produced a report regularly and are encouraging our district office to work with our local housing organizations in reallocating existing housing to make sure that the inventory of housing we have is used to the best of its ability.
We have actually been able to reduce the needs in some of the communities through simple reallocation of the existing stock.
I’m just going over the opening comments from the Chair of the Standing Committee on Community and Economic Development.
On page 3, it speaks that the delivery of the final blueprint for action is to be delivered by the end of fiscal 2015-16.
I have been asking for an action plan for some time and I know the corporation has been working towards it. Is this the same action plan just with the title of blueprint for action?
I would like to get that confirmation first, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, that’s the same one that we have been having discussions on.
Mr. Hickes: Thank you for that confirmation, Mr. Kuksuk.
Within the blueprint for action, as it’s being worked on right now, it has been spoken to yesterday.
There are a lot of communities with land availability issues.
It seems to be one of overarching issues that the Nunavut Housing Corporation deals with to build housing in communities or like in my colleague Mr. Joanasie’s case, it is power limitations, maybe in addition to land availability, I’m not sure.
What type of impact is land availability going to have on your action plan? If you’re having an action plan to categorize and put a plan in place on alleviating some of the housing issues in Nunavut, there are other factors that are going to play in. I’m just wondering: how fluid is that document going to be with regard to land availability?
That’s a good question and I thank him for asking it.
Mr. Chairman, the lack of land availability for housing in Nunavut impacts our ability to move forward with constructing our housing units or other homes that are owned as well as staff housing for government employees.
I’ll use as an example. Whether we’re trying to build a ten-plex or five-plex, if we have no land available, it causes us to delay our projects.
In short, I can answer that the lack of land availability is a hindrance to our projects. (interpretation ends) Thank you.
I do thank the minister for that response, but I guess what I was trying to get to is with regard to the blueprint for action that’s going to set our guidelines and standards of eligibility and what type of action is going to take place.
Studying from the blueprint for the housing strategy and with the volatility of land availability, how much of an impact is that assumed or proposed to have on the action plan?
To me, it’s going to be very difficult to implement an action plan if there are all these variables across the territory to have a consistent plan across the territory.
It’s not seriously impacting us right now in the short term, but we are looking at the bigger picture and not only us, but there are other stakeholders outside of the government, for example, Inuit organizations are involved.
With our action plan, the lack of land availability will impact it. Maybe Ms. Kimball can supplement that.
Definitely, the land issue is a focal point within the blueprint for action. The development of the blueprint for action is a GN-wide initiative. It’s being overseen by an ADM committee.
For that reason, the fundamental point that we have been trying to make is that Housing can’t solve housing alone. Land is definitely a critical path item. We can develop all the homeownership programs, we can have money for public housing, but if we don’t have land, we can’t move forward.
We are actively engaged. Even though the development of the blueprint for action is ongoing, we are actively working on these issues behind the scenes to resolve them at the same time.
We’re not waiting for the action plan to come out to move forward. We have been meeting with CGS. We have been talking to communities in preparation for the 2016-17 proposed construction.
We’re looking at all the communities that have needs of 35 percent and above and trying to make sure we can be proactive in addressing those land concerns.
Mr. Hickes: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank Ms. Kimball for that response.
That was leading right into my next phase of questioning on this.
With the Department of Community and Government Services being responsible for municipalities and lands, what type of solutions are being offered?
It’s a complicated process. In some communities, there are geographic limitations to land availability. In some communities, it’s the development costs.
Recently a subdivision here in Iqaluit was delayed by the City of Iqaluit. What type of work is being discussed with Community and Government Services to alleviate some of these challenges?
We can set up our priorities on land availability.
For example, here in Iqaluit, we are constantly working with the housing corporation and the Department of Community and Government Services, the City of Iqaluit and the lands department, and other organizations outside of our responsibility.
We will be looking into that too to see if there is land available within the community, then we can have discussions outside of the government, even outside of the city, on what the details of our plans are and rectify these issues.
It’s obvious that this is not a new issue; this is not a new concern. To use Iqaluit as an example, in the past months, it has been worked on and I don’t think I responded to part of the question.
Ms. Kimball can respond to that properly on the details of the work we have done.
On June 26, we did hold an interdepartmental consultation on all the issues outlined in the blueprint for action.
The goal of that meeting was to make sure we captured all of the known issues that are out there to make sure that it’s a part of this issue. As part of that, we identified all the key stakeholders that we need to work with to resolve these issues.
We are in the preliminary stages in investigating all of the facts and the processes around land development.
As you know, each of the communities has their sustainable community development plans. Most of them have satellite images outlining the planned use for new development. The missing link is how to get from that plan to actually start taking pieces of the community and start executing that plan.
There are challenges with funding and cash flow. There are numerous challenges as we roll that forward.
That’s what we’re now working on, getting the players at the table and scheduling some additional consultation hopefully later this fall and, if not, definitely in the winter months coming so that we can start a path forward.
I thank the minister and Ms. Kimball for those responses.
I appreciate the work you guys are doing and I know it’s not an easy task ahead of you.
I believe I just have one final question. When we’re talking about homeownership programs, it was mentioned also in the chair’s opening comments on the residency requirements.
While I very much appreciate the amendment to change the financial limitations with regard to eligibility for homeownership programs to recognize reality, I also do have a concern with people being automatically eligible upon landing to some of these programs where a lot of these things are on a first-come, first-served type basis regarding applications.
There are many Nunavummiut that have been here for a long time that are working towards homeownership.
I would not like to see applications being denied because the funds are gone in the first three months of the program and half of those people are brand-new to Nunavut.
We need people coming to Nunavut to fill the capacity issues that seems every department has in delivering some of their programming.
At the same time, I think there is a component in there where a, I think, 12-month eligibility is still a realistic one to keep. I would like the minister’s position [to see] if that’s something they’re looking at changing in the homeownership program.
In response to the first question as to which applications were denied due to a lack of funding through the homeownership programs, there has not been one applicant that has been denied due to that.
For the latter part of your question, for example, if a person coming to Nunavut from outside the territory wants to purchase their own home, we have a policy on the residency requirement.
If an applicant gets their own home through the NDAP program after receiving funding, they have to live in their home for the first five years according to the policy.
If they will not be residing in their home for the first five years, they have to pay back 100 percent of it.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you very much. (interpretation ends) We’re on the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Branch Summary. Nunavut Housing Corporation. L-3. (interpretation) Following the list of names, Mr. Akoak.
Good morning, Uqhuqtuurmiut and all of Nunavut.
Welcome, Mr. Minister and your staff.
In your opening statement, this was brought up yesterday on page 5 where it shows the disabilities home options program.
Just for clarity for people who own their home and have been looking after their building as they’re trying to become homeowners, this will be up to them to transfer the house on their own or are they being forced to give it to a relative?
Hon. George Hickes (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I also would like to thank my colleague for his good question.
This is open to the homeowners. If they no longer want to have the responsibility of the unit, if they would like to give the house to a family member, this is totally open and up to the discretion of the homeowner.
Mr. Akoak: Thank you for the response.
Going on to the chair’s opening statement on page 2, it says, “In communities where there is no access to local skilled labour to do repairs…” We have labourers in town that can do the repairs.
If they get approved to do the contract to do the repairs, sometimes they’re waiting for the funds to come in to do the repairs.
Is there a procedure that they can do it before they get the funds to do the repair?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to thank him again for his good question.
Mr. Chairman, in some communities, we lack maintenance workers for the home repair and maintenance programs. If there is no contractor in the community to do repair work due to a lack of maintenance workers, we have identified that we can send in a repair worker to the community through an RFP.
Once the contractor has won the bid, they can be sent to the community.
I can’t really remember the latter part of the question. (interpretation ends) I’m sorry I didn’t quite get the second part of your question.
Can you repeat the other part of the question, please.
Just to give you an example, we have a person that is on disability who is able to walk, but he has to use crutches.
A contractor was given a contract to build a ramp at his home.
Now he was given a contract, but now he’s waiting for funds to start the contract.
If that’s any clearer.
I’ll have Ms. Kimball respond to that to explain the policy as to what procedure is used while they’re waiting for the funding to start the maintenance work. I don’t have that information in front of me, so I’ll have Ms. Kimball respond to that.
As part of the tendering process for the contractors to do the work, there is usually a schedule of payments as to when the contractors would be eligible to submit their claims.