EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
These are important, versatile trades in machine operation, maintenance, electrical, carpentry, and accounting.
In the years ahead, these skilled tradespeople and professionals are sure to do their part in building and improving Nunavut’s growing communities.
Agnico-Eagle continues to build a long-term relationship and legacy with Baker Lake and throughout the Kivalliq region.
By the end of this month, Agnico-Eagle is expected to complete its acquisition of the Meliadine gold project near Rankin Inlet.
This has a start-up target date of 2015.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this time to thank Agnico-Eagle for demonstrating their confidence in Nunavut and recognize them as a welcomed positive presence in the Kivalliq and Nunavut for a long time to come. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister’s Statement 171 – 3(2): Child and Family Services Review (Curley)
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to announce that the review of Nunavut’s child and family services legislation, programming, and current service delivery has been identified in Tamapta as a top priority during this government’s mandate.
The goal of this extensive review is to work collaboratively with Nunavutmiut to create a better vision for the future of children and their families and to find common agreement on an approach that will improve the Child and Family Service Act, enhance child protection services, and provide greater support for families.
My department has been moving forward and I would like to take the opportunity today to provide a brief update.
Later today, I will also be tabling a report from the Knowledge Sharing Forum that was held in December last fall.
Mr. Speaker, an advisory committee with extensive membership from outside my department, including Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and regional Inuit associations, has been established.
This oversight committee will guide the review process and will advise on the most useful and appropriate ways to gather information from Nunavutmiut.
We continue to meet with the Knowledge Sharing Forum participants in their regions and communities to begin moving forward on strategic recommendations and action items that came out of that meeting.
Over the coming months, we will begin asking Nunavutmiut for their views, experiences, and hopes for the future.
We need to ensure that we hear from individuals, groups, and organizations throughout the territory who are concerned with the well-being of children and families.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services is committed to ensuring that this review is undertaken using an approach that is informed and guided by Inuit knowledge and Inuit family values.
Meaningful change will only occur through the development of a collaborative working relationship between government and communities.
Minister’s Statement 172 – 3(2): Teacher Education Program in Gjoa Haven (Tapardjuk)
I am pleased to announce that beginning this fall, the Department of Education and the Nunavut Arctic College will be offering the Nunavut Teacher Education Program (NTEP) in the community of Gjoa Haven.
With the Education Act and the Inuit Language Protection Act now in force, the role of teachers in our schools is more important than ever.
The most important element in ensuring we produce graduates is to have well-trained and supported teachers in our schools.
Mr. Speaker, we received applications of interest for NTEP from five other communities as well - Hall Beach, Repulse Bay, Arviat, Sanikiluaq, and Taloyoak.
This is the evidence that Nunavummiut are interested and compelled to make sure our education system is founded in our strong culture, language, and innovation.
Mr. Speaker, this means NTEP is now offered in 10 communities, allowing students to stay closer to home while they study to become our future teachers.
Programs are also offered in Iqaluit, Cape Dorset, Qikiqtarjuaq, Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet, Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, and Kugluktuk.
Mr. Speaker, between 1981 and 2009, there has been 180 Bachelor of Education graduates from NTEP.
I cannot stress enough how crucial Inuit teachers are to our schools and the success of our students.
I encourage all students considering post-secondary education to think about NTEP and the benefits of leading through teaching.
Good luck to the new students in Gjoa Haven.
Minister’s Statement 173 – 3(2): Kitikmeot Tour (Taptuna)
Last month, I had the opportunity to accompany some of my cabinet colleagues on a visit to the Kitikmeot region as part of the government’s commitment under the Tamapta document to visit each community.
I am happy to say that we were able to visit the communities of Kugaaruk, Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay, and my own home community of Kugluktuk.
We had the privilege to meet and talk with hamlet councils and with the people of these communities, and I feel that the trip provided us with the opportunity to listen to community concerns first-hand and to respond to those concerns in person.
Mr. Speaker, it is always encouraging to speak with Nunavummiut and this trip was no different.
The hamlet councils and the people we spoke with shared our government’s desire to improve service delivery, strengthen economic development programs, and to provide a unified voice on the need for infrastructure investment in our Nunavut communities.
I would like to conclude by thanking the people of the Kitikmeot for their great welcome and support that we received in each of these communities and I look forward to the next visit again to the region.
Member’s Statement 266 – 3(2): Community Concerns Regarding Seismic Testing in Lancaster Sound (Elliott)
I rise today to again address the issue of the proposed federal project to undertake seismic testing in Lancaster Sound.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this House, the Member for Rankin Inlet North spoke passionately and eloquently on the history and legacy of the relocation of Inuit from Northern Québec to the High Arctic in the 1950s.
He reminded us very clearly of how this program was intended to assert Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic and he reminded us of the fact that Inuit were not asked if that was what they wanted.
Mr. Speaker, almost half a century later, communities in the High Arctic are feeling that nothing has really changed.
They are feeling that although they participate in so-called consultations with federal representatives, their concerns are not genuinely being taken into account.
Mr. Speaker, I again call on the federal government and the Government of Nunavut to take the concerns of High Arctic communities and residents into account on the issue of the proposed seismic testing in Lancaster Sound.
Question 402 – 3(2): Support to Municipalities to Hire Summer Students (Ningark)
Yesterday, I asked the Minister of Human Resources about establishing programs that provide wage subsidies to non-GN employers to hire and train summer students in our smaller communities without decentralized GN departments.
As we are all aware, smaller communities do not have many jobs to offer students.
The Minister of Human Resources responded to an earlier question that the Department of CGS has a program in place that provides wage subsidies to hamlet offices to hire students.
My question to the Hon. Lorne Kusugak, the Minister of Community and Government Services, is: can the minister clarify what programs his department has in place to provide funding to municipalities to hire summer students?
Perhaps the minister could further elaborate on that.
Hon. Lorne Kusugak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also thank Mr. Ningark for asking that question.
I can respond to his question by saying that the Department of Community and Government Services doesn’t set aside any specific funding to be allocated to the hamlet councils to provide summer student employment.
I thank the Hon. Minister Lorne Kusugak.
I would like to get some clarification. So you do not provide any funding to the hamlets to hire summer students.
As I responded earlier, in our department, the Department of CGS, we don’t allocate funding to the municipalities to be used for a summer student program.
However, I also know as I have been a mayor previously that there are a few organizations that provide funding to be used for a summer student program, whether it’s a municipality or a private business.
They can apply for funding from these organizations and I know that many municipalities apply for funding to hire summer students.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Mr. Ningark. (interpretation ends) Oral Questions.
Question 403 – 3(2): Status of Polar Bear Co-Management Agreements (Rumbolt)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Environment, the Hon. Daniel Shewchuk.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Environment’s 2009-2010 business plan indicated that it had been working to complete polar bear co-management agreements with other Canadian jurisdictions.
However, the department has indicated that “… a lack of response from other jurisdictions, particularly Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador is causing delays in finalizing this initiative.”
Can the minister update us today on the status of negotiating co-management agreements with the Province of Québec and other jurisdictions?
He raises a very good point.
The member is absolutely right that we have been in touch and in consultation with Newfoundland, Québec, and other jurisdictions on co-management agreements.
We share three polar bear populations with Québec and Newfoundland, that being the Foxe Basin, the southern Hudson Bay, and the Davis Strait populations.
We have ongoing consultation with them. We are meeting with their jurisdictions on an annual basis to inform them of how important polar bear management is.
We do our collaborating and lobbying with the federal government to ensure that Québec is willing and able to work with us.
Mr. Speaker, we are also working with Inuit associations and entities in both jurisdictions.
As the minister indicated, we have a shared population with Nunavik in Northern Québec.
This impacts activities of hunting in Sanikiluaq.
Can the minister clarify how his department monitors the number of bears taken in the shared populations that we have with Nunavik?
Across Canada, there is a group called the Polar Bear Technical Advisory Committee. All jurisdictions report their harvests to this committee from all jurisdictions that manage polar bears.
Those are the numbers that we use to analyze and know what other jurisdictions take in polar bears.
It is my understanding that the Government of Nunavut has regulations in place in order to protect female polar bears with cubs and polar bears in dens.
However, the Province of Québec has no such regulations in place.
I believe these regulations are a key component in polar bear management.
Can the minister indicate when he last met or spoke with his counterpart in Québec and can he indicate how our governments are cooperating in terms of polar bear management?
The member brings up a very good point on polar bear management.
We, too, agree that the harvesting of cubs and females, and that is your productive group of your population, is very important.
The last collaboration that we had was with representations of my government, and people that my staff met with, I believe, the polar bear technical committee in January, and that was the last meeting that we had with them.
However, Makivik, who is setting up a similar Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in Québec, under Makivik, is doing that right now with the involvement of Nunavut.
We do have representatives on that board that are appointed by our government and once that is established, it will lead to better polar bear management for Northern Québec.
Question 404 – 3(2): Status of Gjoa Haven High School Renovations (Ugyuk)
I would like to direct my question to the minister of Education.
Mr. Speaker, the Gjoa Haven High School Renovation project has been long-term and ongoing.
There is still a lot of work to be done. However, no funding was allocated to this project for the current 2010-11 fiscal year.
Can the minister provide an update on the status of the Gjoa Haven High School Renovation project?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my colleague for asking that question.
We know that the high school in Gjoa Haven requires intensive renovation and a lot of work still needs to be completed.
Our department along with the Department of Community and Government Services are responsible for working on the capital estimates.
We are now working on that issue and we are now planning the 2012-13 fiscal year as to what kinds of plans we need to complete, including the overall cost for this project.
This project was deferred and as a government, Mr. Speaker, we have made that decision as such.
Ms. Ugyuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) The community of Gjoa Haven has expected the renovations to the high school to be continued and completed for some time now.
Will the minister commit to providing a written update to the Gjoa Haven District Education Authority on the status of this project?
I thank the member for her question. I can commit to the request.
We want to update the Gjoa Haven District Education Authority on the status of this project.
Mr. Speaker, if we compare the high school in Gjoa Haven to other schools in Nunavut, it is a top priority.
Due to this assessment, the Minister of the Department of Community and Government Services and I are working together on this project.
We will continue to work on the plan and will provide information for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
With regard to your request and your question, we will write up an update report on this project.
I know that this has been ongoing for a very long time, but due to everything not being readily available, we want to work with you closely so that the high school renovations can be completed, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Your second supplementary, Ms. Ugyuk.
I understand that some materials for the continuing of the high school renovation project are already in the community waiting to be used.
Can the minister clarify why the project was deferred for this current year?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank my colleague for the question.
As the member is aware, our funding resources are limited and the government has had to make cutbacks.
We apologize for that, but I wish to provide an adequate response to the member.
We will continue the planning stages and attempt to complete this project.
I can tell the member, Mr. Speaker that the Gjoa Haven High School is a priority and we will work hard to complete the project.
I will explain that in our correspondence that we will provide to the member, Mr. Speaker.
Your final supplementary, Ms. Ugyuk.
Will the minister commit to including funding for the Gjoa Haven High School Renovation project in the next capital plan for 2011-12 so that this project can proceed?
With regard to the question posed, I cannot commit to the request for the fiscal year 2011-12, but I can commit to working closely with the Department of Community and Government Services to ensure that we provide an update to the DEA on what we are trying to accomplish.
However, I want it known that we will try our best to complete it.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot commit to including the funding for the next capital plan for 2011-12.
We do want to provide support and to work closely with them because we have recognized the fact that the Gjoa Haven High School is a priority.
Question 405 – 3(2): Nunavut Housing Trust Audit (Ningeongan)
I would like to direct my questions to the Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, on June 1, 2010, the minister stated that the firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP has been engaged to conduct an audit of the Nunavut Housing Trust.
As I noted in my Member’s Statement yesterday, it is very important that the results of this audit be released to all Members of the Legislative Assembly as soon as it has been completed.
The terms of reference for the Nunavut Housing Trust audit indicates that there is a final delivery date of August 15, 2010 for the audit.
Will the minister now commit, for the record and for the benefit of the listening public, to providing full copies of the audit of the Nunavut Housing Trust to all Members of the Legislative Assembly before we reconvene in October?
I would like to thank the member for that question to be able to put the response on the public record here in the House.
Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, I think the directive that the corporation was given was to provide that audit by August 15 to the Minister of Finance.
I’ve already had discussions with him about that. We would have no problem providing the results of that audit to all members once it has been received. The Minister of Finance has indicated that he would not have an issue providing that to all members.
Mr. Speaker, I think that this is one thing I could say on this issue, as the member pointed out in his statement yesterday, that his constituents and all constituents across Nunavut expect us to be open and honest about things. I believe this government has done that with this situation. As soon as we found out about it, a decision was made on what we were going to do with it.
We did provide all of the information to all of the Members of the Assembly, and we look forward to continuing to do that to ensure that all members are kept up to date and informed with any developments in regard to this issue.
Question 406 – 3(2): Akitsiraq Law Program Funding (Okalik)
The Qanukkanniq Report Card was published by the government.
It stated that there would be further legal training provided in the future to the people of Nunavut. It was very interesting to hear about the model of the law program and that they wanted to continue this program.
Now we hear from the minister that this law program will not be continued and that the government was not going to provide any further funding.
I would like to first ask the Premier: what are her plans in regard to this program?
Education is very important to this government in all of its categories and we recognize that legal training is also very important.
However, with financial restraints at this time, we can’t provide funding to all of the programs that we wish to fund.
We also know that we have to be well prepared if we’re going to provide training or programs to the people of Nunavut, such as the Teacher Education Program and those who graduated from that program in July.
There were quite a number of graduates who got their masters degrees and we’re starting to see more nursing graduates.
Students going on to higher education, universities and colleges, is a priority of this government. We’re going to look at how we can provide these services to the people who would like to further their education.
Looking at what’s happening today with the Inuit language, we have to implement the two Language Acts and start using Inuktitut. Yet, we still cannot finalize the Inuktitut version of our legislation. We have not made Inuktitut a legal language and yet, this government needs to implement the legislation.
Our shortcomings are rather glaring in this aspect.
With the current situation, we need lawyers to draft pieces of legislation and I am very sorry that the law program will not be funded anymore based on the statements of the minister.
I am wondering if the Premier is aware that they are not seeking funding this fiscal year.
They are seeking funding for the near future.
They know that if they don’t receive funding this year, it is okay with them but only in the future.
That is my follow-up question.
I understand exactly where you are coming from and of course, we deal with financial issues and in particular, the priorities identified by our government, especially at this time.
We are looking at educational issues, training programs, and apprenticeship programs as to how we can further these programs and we try to plan so that they are carried out properly.
There is approximately $207 million that is geared for education from kindergarten to grade 12 and beyond to higher levels education.
That is a large amount of funding that we provide for education.
I would like to state further, Mr. Speaker, that furthering your education is very important to many residents and there are different types of education, including the legal program.
We also have to look at delivering programs, such as accountants, nurses, and doctors.
We definitely need these essential positions, including workers in the field of social services.
Today, when you look at our current lifestyle and when you look at our needs for further education, there is a need to provide education on social issues and in financial matters.
There are a lot of priorities identified by this government.
Included in that is the court system, including lawyers and we have not forgotten them.
We are in the process of preparing our students for universities in order to have a good preparation base in schooling so that the students will be ready and capable to move on.
When you look at the schooling system, especially the higher levels, such as colleges and universities, we really do need a university.
If you look at the three territories, there is no university above the 60th parallel.
There is a real need for a university and I envision one in the future.
We need to prepare so that we will be able to meet the challenges and be ready for a university.
I very much support the Premier’s rhetoric. However, I am looking at what was prepared by the Qanukkanniq Report Card and the goals and objectives that were identified for this government when we were creating Nunavut and what was sought and needed by Nunavummiut.
These are questions raised by Nunavummiut.
These were only four-year objectives, not in the long term.
Many students would graduate and it is not too expensive.
It is only around $650,000 in projected annual costs to have this legal training program.
They have a board that will ensure that the funds are spent properly. I don’t see any other boards that will ensure that what is projected is implemented, nor have I been shown any other examples.
I am very happy about the students who are taking the teacher education and the nursing programs, but we hope to see the legal training program reinstated some time in the near future.
I didn’t hear a question, but I would like to reiterate that post-secondary education is essential.
There is no question that anyone who seeks higher education, such as university programs, and whenever they are available, many courses are there for the choosing and many applicants apply for them.
It is obvious now that those who want higher education up here in Nunavut are quite numerous.
It’s for that reason that university programs and other programs, such as through the college, should be available and that is why we want to be prepared in the future.
Question 407 – 3(2): Training Options under Nunavut Housing Corporation (Komoartok)
Construction in Nunavut seems to be well organized as we have successful apprenticeship programs provided through the Nunavut Housing Corporation and graduates are being produced.
I would like to talk about long-time construction workers who are now considered elders.
They have acquired the skills to build houses from the ground up and quite often, they form the small contractors in the communities.
However, with the establishment of apprenticeship programs, long-time workers and small contractors have been left out in the cold.
I would like to ask the minister if it is possible to set aside a certain number of positions for the apprenticeship program workers and also set aside a certain number of positions that would be filled by local construction workers this coming construction season.