EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
There’s many elders that will never have an opportunity to happen to come here to Iqaluit to visit an archives here or to go to Yellowknife, where the archives located now.
So how do you see this fitting in to the communities needs, the smaller communities that is.
Minister of Culture, Language Elders and Youth, Mr. Havioyak
I wonder if the Member assumes that’s it’s going to be in Iqaluit, I have never suggested that there would be a museum or an archive centre here in Iqaluit.
I would just like to clarify that we do have a heritage trust through out Nunavut Land Claims, we have this in place and if we do have a small centre in Kugluktuk in my home community and this is beginning, like for example that if you have something like this in Arviat, we are still looking into this but the we have not set a place for where we would be putting a museum for an archive centre, this is in still process.
Mr. Speaker I believe in the capital plan it does indicate that the large sum of money for an archival centre and I believe it did indicate Iqaluit, but that’s really not the issue.
Whether it’s Iqaluit or somewhere else the issue is how do the small communities benefit, how they will benefit they would like to have access to this archives rather to these artifacts and my final question would be, I would like the Minister to make commitment to look in to this issue where some of the smaller communities for example the Arviat historical society have been trying to get their artifacts back to their community, tapes and audio tapes and so on .
There having difficulties doing this and they’d like to get them back before some of the elders pass away, so they can review these tapes and so on.
So I’d like the Minister look in to this to see if he can help us assist facilitate these artifacts coming back to the community in the very near future.
Hon. Donald Havioyak: Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Yes, we will be looking to those where we going to put those in which smaller community can have those things in your community as well, but we are planning these at this time.
Oral question Mr. Tootoo
Question 177 - 1 (2): Increased Power Rate Effects on Communities
Mr. Speaker my question is directed to the Minister responsible for Public Utilities board.
Yesterday there was quite a discussion on hourly rates and how there going to be passed on to the consumer, as a result of the infrastructure being put in to the community.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister if there is some type of mechanism or something in place that would take a look at the ramification of such a thing on the community own businesses and also on the decisions that would impact on government budgets like it was mention yesterday that the client wouldn’t pay that the increase and the rate that it would be pass on to who ever is subsidizing it.
In that case you know in housing situation, social housing the impact would be on to the LHO and also on to the Municipalities and the Hamlets is there anything in place that would review the impacts on the different government department budgets as result of this.
Well, the public utilities board is an independent body and when they're assessing rates for a given community, they're required to hold hearings and hear presentations from affected groups and it’s in independent from governments and on that basis they decide on what rates is applicable for given community.
Oral question, Mr. Tootoo
Mr. Speaker I don’t know if I asked to the wrong person.
Maybe I should ask the minister of finance is there something in way that these decisions on infrastructure in communities say like the power corporation, will go in and then build a new power plant in the community.
That community is going to have to pay for it and if the results of that mean that the rates are going to increase in that community.
The average person is going to fall on somebody and what I want to ensure is that decision will have impacts on the budgets that were talking about here today.
So I just want to make sure Mr. Speaker is there a process to monitor that in plan for that so we don’t run in to situations where hamlets or housing organizations are running into deficit problem as a result of these things.
Just a reminder, when you're asking a question you have to ask the same Minister .If you have different question you can direct it to different minister.
Mr. Tootoo would you rephrase your … or which minister are you directing it to.
I’d like to direct it to which ever minister, I don’t know who can appropriately answer the question.
Minister responsible for Human Resources & Finance Mr. Ng
Mr. Speaker as my a honourable colleague Mr. Picco would say, indeed the member raises a good point.
I think , Mr. Speaker , if there is an application before the public utility board and the Premier is correct, it is an independent board that evaluates any rate adjustments that the power corporations would bring forward.
If there’s a major impact on the community and on government as a whole because obviously there are funding to municipalities and to the housing authorities.
We have a significant investments and significant impact in respect of the cost.
So that we would as a government put together position and intervene and put forward our concerns or our issues in respect to any propose rate increase that might be coming forward with the public utility board.
Speaker: Thank you Mr. Ng. Oral questions, item 7 written questions, returns to written questions, item 9 replies to opening address, item 10 petitions, item 11 reports of standing and special committees, item 12 reports of committee on the review of bills, item 13 tabling of documents, item 14 notice of motions, item 15 notice of motion for first reading of bills, item 16 motions, item 17 first reading of bills, item 18 second reading of bills, item 19 consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matter.
Bill 1 appropriation act 1999/2000
Bill 2 boards of dissolution act
Bill 3 divisional education councils dissolution act
Committee reports 1-1 (2), 2-1 (2), 3-1 (2), 4-1 (2) with Mr. Irqittuq in the chair.
Item 19: Consideration in Committee of the Whole on Bills and Other Matters
Chairperson (Mr. Irqittuq) (interpretation): Thank you what would you like to do now, would you like to go for lunch.
Yes, we will be back at 1:30.
>>Committee Recessed for lunch at 11:57am
>>Committee resumed at 1:30 pm
Chairperson (Mr. Irqittuq) (interpretation): Thank you for coming back.
Yesterday when we adjourned we were just getting into the department of Education.
The Committee made their report as well as the Ministers’ opening remarks.
Do you agree that he should go back to the witness table?
Mr. Arvaluk, if you could take your officials and go to the witness table.
Hon. James Arvaluk (interpretation): Yes, they are here and ready to go to the witness table.
Chairperson (interpretation): The Minister will go to the witness and get his officials to join him.
Minister Arvaluk, perhaps you can introduce your officials.
Hon. James Arvaluk (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman.
To my immediate right is Bob Moody and my left is Carmen Levi, ADM , she also is in charge of Income Support.
After her is Ian Rose who is Director of Policy. They are all with the Department of Education.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Just before we begin to go into detail, we need to clarify the rules in which to conduct our business during the Committee of the Whole.
Please confine your general comments to ten minutes and when you go into questions please try to make them concise because we don’t have much time left to deal with the budget.
Members have agreed that they would like to conclude by Thursday, so try to keep track of the time that you are taking.
We are now into general comments and questions.
Mr. Chairman, the question I would like to ask as a general question for the department is that currently the schools are funded based on a student ratio and the student population per capita basis.
I am wondering Mr. Chairman, is the department looking at other options such as program funding for any possible solutions to some of the problems that we currently face in the current education system.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Arvaluk.
Hon. James Arvaluk (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) We are going to review all of the formula funding methods and practices etc., for the next year and we will start proceeding with that.
As I stated this morning everything is up for review and this is one of them.
Mr. Chairman, another question I have is in the Minister’s opening address he mentioned the highlights in this year’s budget being 17 new teaching positions across Nunavut.
Mr. Chairperson, I would like to ask the Minister if this is indeed 17 new teachers over this years current staffing levels.
Chairperson: Mr. Arvaluk.
Hon. James Arvaluk: Yes.
Mr. Chairman I am really pleased to hear that and I am wondering if the department could let us know where those positions will be so that the Boards in their respective regions can move on filling these positions.
Hon. James Arvaluk: No we don’t, but next week we probably will be determining that better by communicating with other regions where the pressure points are, where the greatest needs are with the Divisional Boards.
Right now we don’t.
I am sorry if I am trying to jam these through but I am on a tight time frame here.
As I discussed earlier this morning, I don’t know if the Minister has had a chance to get updated on the bussing here in Iqaluit.
In his general comments, in his opening statement he mentioned that the middle school, there is an increase in capital spending in the middle school to have it ready sooner rather than later.
I am just wondering Mr. Chairperson whether you could enlighten us as whether this is an increase as to what the total project costs were projected to be or is this just something that is a carry over from the previous government.
Hon. James Arvaluk: Mr. Chairman, for that detail I would like to have my Deputy Minister answer that.
Chairperson: Mr. Moody, I hope that I said your name properly
Mr. Moody: Thank you.
Yes it is an additional amount to the original capital project.
I believe the amount approximates 50 thousand dollars and that allows us to, in co-operation with the DEC to open that school, I believe four and a half months earlier which will relieve significant crowding issues here in Iqaluit.
Chairperson: Mr. Tootoo, any additional comments.
Again in trying to go through his opening statements quickly, the Minister indicated that the Income Support program is 19% of the departments’ budget. I am just wondering is the functional delivery still going to be within the department or are they going to be going over to Sustainable Development.
Hon. James Arvaluk: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
The original idea was to eventually transfer them over to Sustainable Development for the delivery.
We are now in discussions because I am told that some of the computers that are used in the communities are not Y2K compatible.
It is a little bit more complicated than we thought it would be so we are in a discussion right now with Sustainable Development about the time frame of the transfer and the direction of the government with that plan.
Just a couple more questions regarding the Ministers’ opening statement.
He had also indicated in there that the department uses publicly funded day care centres.
I am just wondering Mr. Chairman are the day cares under this departments’ jurisdiction or would they fall under a different department.
I am not completely up to date because it was a federal program before.
For those details I would like to ask my ADM to answer that.
Chairperson: Go ahead, Assistant Deputy Minister Levi.
Ms. Levi (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman.
The child care program which we adopted from the GNWT, we are administering that at the moment as part of the Department of Education.
This is a year to year program and we are administering it up to date.
Some of the funding for start-up costs comes from the federal government, and we are responsible for administering the licensing of these facilities.
If you have questions or general comments, you should indicate now because I only have two names listed.
There is one more question and then a brief comment and I will be done on the opening address.
In there the Minister indicated that Arctic College will be moving to Rankin Inlet in the fall pending budget.
I am just wondering if the Minister could maybe clarify what he meant by that.
Chairperson: Which one of you will be responding.
We have not been able to find funding to do the transfer.
We are still in the process, I would like to have the Deputy Minister explain further.
Chairperson: Mr. Moody.
There is an expense associated with the move to Rankin Inlet.
The exact number of people that Arctic College wish to move is being solidified , I understand in the next few weeks, from recent conversations with the President.
Then we will look within our budget to see if there are funds to assist the College with that.
In the normal grant that we provide to the College there is no monies for that, it is a special one-time item.
We have to attempt to find that.
The first step will be to solidify the numbers, which we are advised will be in the next couple of weeks, and then we will look for the dollar amount.
So I think it is fair to say at this time that we can’t say for sure when that move date might be.
Just a final comment before I pass the torch on to whoever else is next.
Mr. Chairman, I learned that Nunavut has the highest pupil teacher ratio in Canada, Mr. Chairman.
I really sincerely hope that throughout our questions, our concerns and towards this education of our youth over this afternoon and while the department’s here before the committee can help identify ways and issues to help resolve that and I look forward to further question with the department staff and the Minister , Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson: That was just a comment.
First of all, my question regarding Education will be that when the GNWT was still in place I seem to recall that there used to be a program that enabled older students to go out on the land to be trained in traditional land skills.
The older students were able to go out on the land with funding from the Department of Education.
These funds were for gasoline etc, but that program was phased out.
I wonder what the position of the Government of Nunavut is about reinstating these programs.
I wonder what is happening with that program, I saw it before and it was very beneficial, Mr. Chairman.
The students were able to get hands on training through that program and I think it was valuable for the long term education of the young people.
We are always experiencing a shortage of funding in traditional programs.
We tried to divide up the funds for in school instruction and also for traditional land skills and traditional clothing education.
We tried to divide funds which were already short and we have continued with these programs in spite of the cuts.
We tried to consult with the Inuit to see if that should be part of the program.
I think this is one of the areas that we will have to review and revisit as a new government.
Looking at what has been adopted from the GNWT whether this should be part of the in class instruction.
We will have to look at the funding for these types of programs again, but right now we have been turning the funds over to the Divisional Boards and it has been up to them to decide how to use those funds.
Another question. Mr. Puqiqnak
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Thank you for the Ministers’ response.
I feel personally that these types of programs are very valuable to the well being of the young people.
We also have these people at the local level who are able to instruct the younger people.
They are able to provide proper instruction in the community and for whoever is out on the land.
Being from the north sometimes we have 24 hour darkness and it is only when we have longer days that the young people are able to take advantage of these programs.
We have a unique situation in the north where we experience 24 hour darkness and our children have to experience many hours in the class rooms.
That erodes the ability of the young people to survive out on the land.
This is just a general comment Mr. Chairman, I have another question that I would like to ask.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Puqiqnak go ahead.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): In Nunavut, we see that being a parent with children who are still going to school, that is so in all of Nunavut, in legislation when you become sixteen, their situation changes and once they start going to school late they can be expelled from the school.
This seems to be the legislation and the Department of Education.
These did not come from any of the Divisional Boards or school boards but as you know, Mr. Chairman, we consider our children even if they are sixteen or over, we still care for them as we do younger children.
Once our child is sixteen there is much more flexibility before they are sixteen but after that they are treated differently.
There is a requirement that they go to school until they are sixteen and then after they turn sixteen they don’t care any more and they are no longer required to be in school.
It is no longer mandatory.
I wonder if your department can look into this some time in the near future in the new government.
The school and administration of Education cannot be running the lives of our younger people and our children, but it is only up to the parents if they want to take advantage of the education programs, in order for the children to get a free education.
There is legislation administering that which requires mandatory education up to the age of sixteen because these young people are not yet able to make decisions as to exactly they want to be doing and what kind of careers they want to have.
In Inuit society, even when they are older we treat them as children, and that is why our department is trying to prepare to work with parents on what their requirements are.
We want to work with the parents.
The Department of Education is not a parent on its’ own and should not be working on its’ own.
As parents we have a responsibility towards our children, to provide for them, not just in education.
I think that is always going to be our focus and I hope that at some point in the future, and as I have already said I hope that the Department of Education and our local education councils and parents will work together to prevent their children from just dropping out.
When we decide that stay in school programs are going to be our first priority, parents will have to know what their responsibilities are towards their school age children and that there be programs available that address all areas of Inuit society.
As I said I want to work with my fellow MLA’s, community’s, local education councils, so that we can address those concerns about stay in school programs and how important education is.
Chairperson (interpretation): Go ahead, Mr. Puqiqnak any further questions.
Mr. Chairman one of the concerns that I have and I am sure most of the people around the table also share, is the fact that we have such limited capital dollars to deal with.
I believe that the numbers for this year are 6.4 million dollars in the capital budget.
Most cases that would just barely build a new school.
In my home community of Arviat we have probably one of the fastest growing communities in Nunavut, with approximately 80 – 90 babies being born each year, a population of approximately 1800 people, we have an additional 62 jobs that are associated with the decentralized model that are coming into our community and 27 of those jobs are in Education.
Given this growth in this community, and of course in a lot of the other smaller communities, can you speak briefly to how we are going to deal with the capital needs over the next few years, not only for my community but for the other communities also.
Chairperson: Which one of you will be responding to that.
Which of the witnesses.
Hon. James Arvaluk (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Yes that recognition is a very, very difficult one to come to right now, but the department, in my opening address also has stated that there will be a requirement for capital plans beyond five years.
We will have to make capital plans that reflect the growing population of Nunavummiut, for example, Arviat.
I think after this year, after the initial decentralization program that we will have a better handle on exactly what the population growth of the children will be.
I think that will stabilize and it will be better for predicting or forecasting capital requirements for different communities.
We also have to note that the competing capital requirements are housing, this is important, schools are one of the other infrastructure that are required for running this government and the Nunavut Territory, so school is one of those priorities that the government has but we what we will have to do, is when we are prioritising as the Nunavut Government or this Legislative Assembly, we will have to recognize what will benefit the future the most.
How do we reduce dependency on the government in the long run.
These will have to be looked at.
I don’t think this government can afford to do a long term band aid of the problems, I don't think we can afford that.
We tried that with the GNWT and it didn’t work very well.
We will have to have a better handle on forecasting what the population growth, especially of the children are.
Mr. O'Brien: Thank you Mr. Chairperson, does the Minister have any idea at this point time , as to roughly what they'd be looking at in Capital Dollars even next year, one year away from now.
Hon. James Arvaluk: Mr. Chairman, looking at the history of the requested or required capital dollars for education in the past; it has been approximately fifteen million dollars.
But that does not mean that this is a total requirement.
Because since the high school introduction in the communities the requirement also have increased and there may be other requirements in the education field , for example;
If the Legislative Assembly and subsequently the people of Nunavut are given additional funding to do Cultural inclusion program there were some comments from other members that the desire to certify those cultural instructors as regular teachers teaching regular hours like any other teacher.
If that is adapted by this Legislative Assembly then the requirement will jump significantly.
So it's not, until such time Legislative Assembly directs the Government and ultimately the Department of Education then we will have to use the status quo for next year.
Just a brief question.
I would like the Minister or one of the staff to tell me of the 27 jobs that are ,I guess , they're going to be in place for my community.
When can we expect those jobs to be in place fully filled in my community.
Hon. James Arvaluk: We're still filling them now and although some are still working at home because there is no office space but for the completion we'd like to fill them all during this fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman is it fair to say that the tie-up with these jobs been filled is the fact that the office building is not available at this point and time?
If that the major factor for the delay?
Hon. James Arvaluk: Mr. Chairman , that's a little bit of detail but I'd like to have my Deputy Minister to answer that.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Moody.
Mr. Moody: Mr. Chairman. We have been progressing to fill those position regardless of the fact that the office building has not been finished.
The initial hold-up was the fact that there was limited funds to hire new staff in the fiscal year that we just ended.
But we have now hired and we have four people in the Arviat operation here place today and in fact three of the individuals are here on in-service in Iqaluit this week.
They are currently either working from home or have just acquired with the co-operation of our department, Department of Public Works a housing unit which was vacant for temporarily using that as office space.
We are currently recruiting for additional positions for Arviat.