EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the 2002 Arctic Winter Games Iqaluit host society and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for reaching an agreement that will see CBC North serve as the official Broadcaster in the 2002 Arctic Winter Games.
Mr. Speaker, as members know the Chef’s de Mission of a number of participating countries are in Iqaluit this week to review the facilities and infrastructure that are in place for the games.
The extensive broadcast schedule for the games will promote and provide a tremendous opportunity to showcase Nunavut and the circumpolar world to the rest of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see that CBC North will be broadcasting games coverage in a number of northern languages, including Inuktitut and Dene languages.
This is a welcome commitment on the part of our national broadcaster to provide services that reflect the languages of our communities and demonstrate our diversity to the rest of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I am confident that all members will join me in congratulating the host society and the CBC for their teamwork.
Member’s Statement 115 - 1(5): National Post Editorial on Nunavut
I was not completely finished with my statement about people wanting us not to eat meat.
I just wondered what kinds of food those people figured animals eat.
I was also disappointed when I was reading the National Post.
The editorial in the National Post asked why the Inuit people got the Nunavut Government, that it was just too expensive.
It said that we are in a dream world, that is what was in the National Post.
To me it was a shortsighted thing to say.
I thought about it and as we all know that there are diamonds here in the north, there are also gold and other minerals.
It will not take a lot of mines for us to start raising our own revenues and we will become more independent in terms of the funding we get from the federal government.
Once that happens will they recognize that and start saying we are giving too many royalties to the federal government.
Are they going to tell us to keep our money up here.
I wanted to say that was not very smart of them and I am not pleased with that particular editorial.
Member's Statement 116 - 1(5): Recognition of Miali Coley
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you and this House about an amazing young person from Iqaluit, Miali Coley.
Miali is taking part in the Canada World Youth Program, which is a non-government organization that helps young people develop important jobs and life skills, while living and working in communities in Canada and around the world.
Mr. Speaker, Miali had to raise 1,500 dollars to go toward Canada World Youth plus another five hundred dollars for the registration fee as well as monies for her trip to Edmonton, Alberta for her orientation.
Mr. Speaker, this industrious young person was successful in her fundraising and in this past August began her placement in the country of Ecuador.
Mr. Speaker, in Ecuador Miali was billeted with a host family and right away began to immerse herself in the Spanish language and her daily chores.
Miali taught English, helped plough fields, herd cattle, and plant seeds.
As part of the group, she helped build greenhouses and helped out wherever she could.
Mr. Speaker, after her experiences in Ecuador the next step on Miali’s adventure was to Brockville, Ontario where she spent Christmas with another host family.
In Brockville, Miali had a chance to work with in the local nursing home and an elementary school.
Miali has also developed a capacity for learning languages.
Along with her Inuktitut and English she can add Spanish and pretty soon French.
Mr. Speaker, Miali Coley demonstrates the best qualities of our Nunavut youth.
She told me by e-mail that the support of her mother, Elisapee Davidee, has been instrumental in her success and she thanks the many residents of Iqaluit who sponsored her for this experience.
Last year, Mr. Speaker, Miali worked with me to help get a youth centre for Iqaluit and when she comes back to town, I'm sure that she will once again be there not only as a role model but also as a volunteer for Iqaluit and Nunavut youth.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that you will join with me to congratulate Miali to support her success and the support of her mother, Elisapee Davidee, and her ambassadorship on behalf and for all of Nunavut youth.
There are no further Members' Statements.
Return to WQ 001 - 1(5): Progress on Manitoba/Nunavut Road Link
Hon. Jack Anawak: Qujannamiik, Mr. Speaker.
This is in response to a written question from the Member for Baker Lake.
On February 2, 2001 the Honourable Steve Ashton, Manitoba Minister of Highways and Services, and I had meetings with the Federal Minister of Transport, the Honourable David Collenette and the Honourable Ron Duhamel, Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification, to solicit support and funding for additional studies on the Kivalliq to Manitoba road link and initial winter road construction.
Following these meetings, on February 13, 2001, I met with the Honourable Bob Nault, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
As a result my officials are now working on a funding proposal to access federal monies to pay for a route selection study and other required parallel studies, including all-weather road design standards, among others.
The route selection study will look at socio-economic and environmental impact and provide more accurate cost estimates to assist in selecting a road corridor between the Manitoba and Kivalliq areas.
Our officials estimate that these studies will cost on the order of one million dollars.
Further information on our funding request and the status of proposed studies will be provided to the Assembly as soon as it is available.
Just to let you know that reply should have come under item 8, Returns to Written Questions, not Returns to Oral Questions, as it was a written question from the Member for Baker Lake.
But we will let you go on this one.
I would like to recognize a person from Pond Inlet, our Sergeant-At-Arms.
I would like to congratulate him on being the Sergeant-At-Arms, Joanisie Pijamini Arreak.
He is our Sergeant-At-Arms today, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker: Welcome to the Chamber.
I would like to recognize the person who is standing up and walking, one of our pages, his name is Alloolook, from our community.
I am very proud that he is from Clyde River and has come to be a page here in our Legislative Assembly.
Speaker: Welcome to the Chambers.
I would like to recognize also Joanisie Arreak as I have known him personally for many years.
I know he is a very good person. (interpretation ends) Also, I wanted to recognize one of the pages, my son and umatik, Halley.
Question 114 – 1(5): Nunavut’s Own Firearms Law
I will be directing my question to the Minister of Justice in regards to a serious matter.
In the last year our Premier has been dealing with the Firearms Legislation.
We tried to have it postponed to suit our needs.
Even today, it still seems that it does not suit us here in Nunavut.
We would like to make this legislation more suitable to Nunavut and to our lifestyle.
We know there are some problems implementing it in our region because of the fact that we are sustenance hunters.
I think we need to fix this legislation to suit our needs in Nunavut.
I would like to ask the Premier if we could ask the federal government to amend this legislation to suit the needs of the people of Nunavut.
Speaker: Thank you. Mr. Premier.
This federal legislation deals with the criminal code.
It was taken to the Supreme Court, which was asked directly to make a ruling on this legislation.
We cannot deal directly with this legislation since it is Federal legislation.
We can only deal with it through the federal government.
We have said, however, that there have to be certain limitations to this legislation as it has to meet constitutional requirements and its direct impact on constitutional rights, so we're supporting Nunavut Tunngavik's attempts to have this legislation nullified.
I understand his answer exactly.
However, we from Nunavut have to face this legislation directly so that it is suitable for the people of Nunavut because we live off the land and some parts of the legislation deal with the criminal code.
There should be separate sections to this legislation to meet subsistence needs in addition to the criminal aspects of the legislation.
Perhaps we can ask the federal government to make amendments to accommodate our needs in the legislation.
This is a question that I would like to ask the Premier.
Speaker: Mr. Premier, please proceed.
This legislation came into force January 1.
Even if we try to deal with it then we would be breaking the law so we have to be careful as to how we deal with the legislation.
We asked to have this postponed and the federal government has refused.
We are not the only party to this legislation.
The federal government does not have to agree with our particular wishes.
As a result, there is no way that we can deal with this particular legislation at this time, Mr. Speaker.
I understand his explanation clearly.
I am just trying to ask if we couldn't try to work with the federal government on this legislation.
Nothing has been left open to us in any way.
We have worked closely with Nunavut Tunngavik and we will be working with them an agreement that deals with the rights of Inuit.
We have to work with Nunavut Tunngavik to deal with this legislation.
Question 115 - 1(5): Action on Medical Patient Letter from Chesterfield Inlet
I have been getting copies of the letters that have been forwarded to the minister and this was one that was directed to Ms. Supliss from the Rankin Inlet Health Centre.
(interpretation ends) Once in Rankin Inlet the doctors and the nurses gave her blood tests and x-rays all day.
At first they suspected gallstones but further testing…
Speaker: Mr. Arvaluk, as per the rules of this House, any document that has not been tabled is not before the House and cannot be referred to or commented on.
If you wish to ask some general questions without using names or diagnosis and so on, you may proceed.
I will not be reading excerpts from the letter but this person asked if the minister can deal with this issue and this particular person was told that the minister would take action on this issue.
Are you going to be doing that according to the response that you gave.
Again before the minister answers also keep in mind that we should not be discussing confidential matters that are not before the House.
I guess in general, especially if they were documents that are out there but not before the House, we should not be referring to them.
Mr. Speaker, any time a written complaint is brought forward to the Department of Health & Social Services there is an administrative process that is put in place to review any accusations or allegations that have been made.
That has been the case in the past several months and days.
Mr. Arvaluk: Mr. Speaker, I was trying to be very clear in terms of general questions about has he done what he said he would do for the person who, the same person who informed me of this request to the minister.
I am not asking any more about the history of what the department does but my question is has he done something on that.
Speaker: Mr. Arvaluk just to be fair to yourself so that you don't use up your supplementary questions before getting a reasonable answer.
I'd ask that you clarify your question again and be a little bit more concise and precise so the minister can give you a reasonable answer.
The documents are not in the House except the conversation that has been between the family in Chesterfield, the minister's office and myself and his regional office.
So we know what we are talking about.
He has assured them that he will do something about that.
My question is has he done something about what he said he was going to do something about.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not trying to be evasive Mr. Speaker.
As we know, this is a public forum here.
Without the consent of the parties in writing saying that yes you can discuss this in a public forum, then I'm not prepared to discuss a case like this.
What I have said is that when allegations are raised, in this case I have received a letter, I have responded, actually on Tuesday I received an emailed letter.
I responded that we will be reviewing the case, which we are doing right now, Mr. Speaker, as is the process administratively for these types of enquiries, allegations or whatever, that come forward in an official capacity that the department would respond in.
So we're doing that Mr. Speaker.
Question 116 – 1(5): Increased Insurance Premiums for Municipalities
Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister responsible for Community Government & Transportation.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, the minister made a statement announcing some additional funding for the municipalities throughout Nunavut, for things like fuel prices, and things like that.
We've all been aware since then that all the municipalities of Nunavut are looking at substantial increases in their insurance premiums.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the minister responsible if he has met with the members of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities to discuss a solution to try and assist them with this immediate need that they face.
As a matter of fact my Assistant Deputy Minister within the Department has met with, is currently meeting with risk management, and Municipal & Community Affairs officials to come up with some options.
Realizing that at present communities pay a premium of 7 thousand dollars and have a 5 thousand dollar deductible for any claims they make.
One of the options being considered would be that the premium would remain at 7 thousand but the deductible would increase to 50 thousand in which the communities would continue to pay the first 5 thousand and the Department would recover the remaining 45 to try and do this.
For this we would need approximately 1.2 million dollars.
So Mr. Speaker, we are presently in discussions to try and see what we can do to alleviate the extra costs that will result as of the high costs of premiums.
Mr. Speaker, the program I was referring to was the group program that the Association of Municipalities has for all of the communities and under the understanding that for the 2000-2001 year they pay approximately 1.8 million dollars in premiums for all the communities in Nunavut that pay for it.
They’re looking at for this coming year an additional approximately, about 35- 36 percent increase overall across the board for every municipality.
I'm just wondering if the minister's indicating that they are no longer going to have a group liability program for the municipalities and hamlets to fall under and if there is going to be something he's indicated that the government is going to provide that for them.
That's not what I am saying but what I am saying is that officials are currently having a meeting with the parties to find out what kinds of options they might have and the least expensive options.
They are looking at ways and means of how they can decrease the price.
I'm not saying this is exactly what they are going to be doing but the Nunavut Association of Municipalities are, we're going to be talking with them to see which avenue would be the best for us to use.
We are not going to say we’re going to be doing this but we are looking at options.
Mr. Speaker, my understanding that the municipalities, the press release that they made had sent out requests for proposals for insurance coverage from 20 different companies.
Because of the unfortunate incident that happened in Walkerton, a lot of insurance companies have just dropped that type of coverage.
So they are very limited in the places that will be able to provide them with the type of coverage that they currently have.
If they are able to maintain the same amount of coverage, it is going to cost them that much more.
I'm not sure if those are the numbers that are on the table that they're looking at, that 35% increase, which roughly I think is close to 500 thousand dollars, will it be something that's covered off.
Will the department assist the municipalities in being able to come up with those funds, to enable them to continue to have the same level of insurance that they have right now.
I would not want to presume, ahead of time, what the agreement will be.
But what I'm saying is that whatever the outcome of the discussion on how best to deal with this insurance premium increase will be an agreement between the parties involved and the most cost effective way of getting that done.
So, again, I say I would not want to prejudge what the municipalities would want to do but we will work in conjunction with them.
Mr. Speaker, I understand also that one of the numbers that I was talking about, that the association has to provide a commitment prior to March 25th, and I was just wondering if the minister could commit to coming up with a solution with the Nunavut Association Municipalities on that, prior to that date.
I want to make sure that we'll try and do what we can to address the issue, making sure that there is no way that we would allow the municipalities to get into a situation that they wouldn't be able to pay their insurance premium increase.
It's just a matter of looking for innovative ways so that no municipal councils would be left out in the cold to pay the increase in prices.
Question 117 - 1(5): Inuinnaqtun Language Training
I want to direct a question to the Minister of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth.
The Inuinnaqtut language, spoken or written, is very different from the other dialects.
For some it is difficult to understand and translate.
When can we begin to look at ways of improving the expertise of our translators to ensure we understand each other better, while using our elders in the process.
It needs to be clearer so that our interpreters and translators can begin to learn more of the proper use of the language from the elders.
This is my question to the minister.
I would like to thank the member for posing that question.
The development of the Inuinnaqtuun language is being worked on by our department right now.
They are looking at how we could improve the writing of the Inuinnaqtuun dialect. We are using the elders and asking them questions about how we can improve the written Inuinnaqtut, and how we can improve the written correspondence that we put out to the public.
I want to make sure that our Inuinnaqtut dialect in Kugluktuk is maintained and that the youth continue to try and speak in Inuinnaqtut.
Even myself, I have to pick out the correct wording to use.
For instance, here “qagitaujaq” means computer.
But in our dialect we do not have those terms.
In the future these types of terminology are going to be used more and our language will improve.
The youth want to learn.
When will this process that you have mentioned begin.
Using the elders, and in which communities will you be beginning this process.
The Inuit of Nunavut use different dialects, such as Inuinnaqtut, and we want to see that flourish in the whole territory.
However, it has been very slow to date, but to your question, I cannot give you a time as to when this program will be finished.
But we are trying to use our elders in the future as per your comments.
The youth question me as to when we will begin this process of improving the use of our language.
The youth have been approaching me and that is why I am pushing for an answer.
This needs to be resolved soon while the youth are ready and want to speak and write their language.
The question was not fully answered as to Inuinnaqtut terminology. In Inuinnaqtut for instance when you say computers they say qagitaujaq, we do not have a word such as that and for instance kiinaujarmik, money, money is what we say.
Those words should be more precise.
If, for example, you are going to Kugluktuk or Cambridge Bay or Bathurst Inlet these terms should be clarified.
In January I went to Kugluktuk and this was one of the concerns that was raised.
The elders said that they could not read any of the new releases or documents that were released from the government because they were not written in Inuinnaqtuun.
However, I would like to work closely with the member so that we can start working on those issues that you just raised, perhaps outside of this chamber.
But at this time I cannot tell you exactly what is going to be happen but I would like to assure the minister, the member, that I would like to have a close working relationship with you in order to get the whole process going on the issue of the Inuinnaqtuun language within the Nunavut Government.
When can we expect to hear about working with you on this issue.
Any time, we are waiting for you.
Question 118 - 1(5): Causes of Inadequate Health Care
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): My question is directed to the Minister of Health & Social Services.
In Nunavut we hear about people that have been inadequately tended to by the nurses in Nunavut and we recently heard one incident that happened on the radio.
My question to the minister is, are we having a shortage of nurses or can it be blamed on the flu season or is the lack money responsible for inadequate nursing.
Minister Responsible for Health & Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his question.
Mr. Speaker, in general I cannot speak to a specific incident that may have been in the media or so on.
But on average, Mr. Speaker, when any department including the Department of Health & Social Services, receives a complaint about services or diagnoses and so on, when we receive those complaints in writing we follow them up, a review is done, the families are contacted and so on.
Mr. Speaker, those types of complaints are not necessarily based on staffing requirements, if there's a shortage of nurses at any given or particular time or at the health centre or indeed in the hospital.
Mr. Speaker, you can see, for example yesterday in some of the newspapers that are available here in town, of cases of problems in health care system investigations in the south.
So that is not unique to Nunavut and indeed, it is not unique to this jurisdiction.
It is not unique or a cause of a situation at the health centres, specifically.
The question that I had was, how can we improve the health system.
There used to be health boards, perhaps when we get the health board back, maybe this will improve.
I was just wondering how this could be improved.
Speaker: Mr. Picco. Minister.
Mr. Speaker, if we, for example, if we look at our health centres on any given day in the member’s community, in the smaller communities like Repulse Bay, Mr. Speaker, any community in Nunavut.
On average, let’s say there were 20 visits to the health centre, and we know there are a lot more.
Let’s take 20 visits a day by patients. By five days that’s 100 visits, multiplied by 52 weeks in a year, that is over 5 thousand in one community multiplied by 26 communities, multiplied by the hospital here.
You are looking at tens of thousands of patients being seen in our health centres on a yearly basis, Mr. Speaker.
If there are cases, Mr. Speaker, of diagnoses problems and so on, then they are addressed usually in written form, they are brought to the attention of the department.
In the past they were brought to the attention of the respective health boards and then to the Minister of Health.
Ultimately the Minister of Health and the Department of Health, and in this case Mr. Speaker, the Government of Nunavut is responsible.
So I guess the short answer is, there have not been more cases or more instances since the demise of the health boards.
Mr. Speaker, what we are seeing is more and more patients actually coming to the health centres and as members have said in this House, they would actually like to see more staff at the local level, at the community level in their health centres and that’s something that we are trying to accomplish Mr. Speaker.
The problem that we have with health services in Nunavut, we have heard that there have been shortages of nurses in some communities, while other communities have adequate nursing.
There are some communities that are larger that have four nurses, and there are others that have three nurses in the community.