EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
There are some new councillors and new council members so their requirements and their desires for priorities in the process have changed in the meantime.
Some of the community offices are too small but looking through the standards and criteria for office requirements depends on the capital, per capita grants.
To formulate their funding for office requirements even though some of the communities seem to require more space, so these are the minimal requirements that we usually implement.
The last one that I mentioned earlier on the funding process, 13 million dollars is all the funding that we received for this year.
So our priorities for the Government of Nunavut are the Department of Education and Housing.
We’ll keep on looking for more funding for access roads and also maybe garbage dump and harbours.
We'll keep looking for further funding from the federal government.
I'll be meeting with Bob Nault from the federal government maybe on April 1st, the Minister of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
They will be providing some of the funding for harbour development and access roads to these harbours.
Sorry, I have gone a little bit further than I had thought.
I'm trying to answer some of the questions that were placed to me earlier.
It's okay for you to have a long-winded answer and question.
Mr. Chairman, I can sympathize with the department when they say they have new people and new priorities.
I know that's always a struggle that we have to work with.
What the minister indicated, I believe, is that the capital plan or the five-year plan that's developed was developed based on three areas and that was the ongoing commitment to statutory or legal requirements and health and safety concerns.
Out of the 13 million dollars that the minister mentioned they have this year for capital, out of the total 13 million dollars, does it all fall under those three categories.
Maybe Mr. Sitland could respond to that.
I wonder if the minister and his staff could try not to shuffle their paper around it hurts the ears.
So could you be a little careful of that.
Mr. Sitland.
Mr. Sitland: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I did a calculation this morning and roughly 70% of the capital projects that we are undertaking in 01-02 are related to water, sewage and solid waste, health and safety type concerns, or concerns related to airports.
We also have a number of other sort of statutory requirements, things like being able to provide a sufficient mobile equipment fleet for a community and of that I would say approximately another 10% is allocated to that.
In general for 01-02 approximately 26% of the funding that we have is allocated to projects which wouldn’t normally be considered a priority for the government.
So for example, we have some funding in there for arenas.
Normally when we were looking at statutory requirements we would like to fund those more than arenas.
However, there are arenas in there and we have recreation facility programs in there.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Sitland.
Mr. Chairman, I know the minister indicated that they had only 13 million dollars to work with and I assume it would probably be a lot more than that to meet all those health and safety, statutory and ongoing community requirements.
In that 26%, I guess the remaining portion of that, does that cover off all of the department’s commitments in those areas, or are there still other projects within the department’s, within the communities that aren’t able to be done that are either ongoing commitments or have statutory or legal requirements or health and safety concerns.
Mr. Ferris: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just to give you a quick overview, if we take the list that came in initially from communities, as their priority projects for this fiscal year that we are looking at, the list was in the neighbourhood of 30 million.
We had in the past had roughly 20 – 21 million for allocations.
So we started to work with communities on reducing the initial list downwards and then when the priorities were set for Education and Health and we got the target of 13 million, obviously a number of community priority projects couldn’t be addressed within that 13 million.
So we have tried to use an allocation and there is still ongoing consultation with communities and we are prepared where the dollars are similar to where if a community has a higher priority project, say in year two or three, to look at moving that ahead and the one that we had in back.
But as the minister has indicated the government has set priorities on Health and Education and we are doing the best we can in carrying out consultation with the communities, to make the 13 million that we have do as much as possible related to that.
But it is not doing everything that is on the list for sure that should be probably undertaken in this coming fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that there must be less out there and I appreciate the minister's comments on working with communities on similar type projects with similar dollar figure amounts within the community.
I'm just wondering if all of the projects that are ongoing or previously started, have previous commitments to them, are all those projects that, were all those ones next.
I guess what I'm getting at, I remember, in our first year of capital, we had zero wiggle room, everything that was on there was basically carried over from the previous year. I'm just wondering if all the carryover has been addressed within the department's jurisdiction, I guess with the community governments, with the hamlets and municipalities and the transportation area have those been met, or are there any projects that have previously started that aren't finished, or completed or have any resources allocated this year.
Hon. Jack Anawak: Thank you, I think I'll get Doug to explain about the capital commitments that are being met.
So if Doug could explain.
Unfortunately the numbers in the main estimates or the Capital Estimates don't show it and I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but I think approximately half of the capital plan is for projects that are of a continuing nature where there is a contract awarded.
So that, for example in Grise Fjord we have a project to build a new water tank and you'll see that there is around a million dollars in the capital plan for that Grise Fjord water tank.
What happened was that we tendered that this past year and the prices came in much, much higher than we thought.
So that's what we did, we moved up the tank and we're going to build it this coming year.
So it's a carryover project and the total amount of funding that is available, that being material from this year plus the capital from this coming year should be sufficient to do that.
I think projects of that nature, I think it would amount to approximately half of our capital budget.
Mr. Chairman, I guess I was just wondering if all the projects that were previously started or received any previous allocations for prior to this year.
Have all of those been addressed I guess are there any projects that received prior funding that haven't finished and aren't receiving any funding this year.
In answer to your question, it's no, all those that were started or had contracts in place, have been picked up.
But what Mr. Sitland is reporting is that to do that, about half of what we have in capital this year is gone to those types of projects.
Mr. Chairman, that's what I wanted to hear, I'm glad to hear that.
Another question, and I'll just ask, I was just wondering, and if other members have general capital questions, I'll let them ask.
The minister indicated that they've received input from communities on what their priorities are.
Was that input used in the development of this plan.
Because as I indicated earlier and it's been in the media that communities felt that they never had an opportunity to provide input.
So, I'm just wondering, if they were given an opportunity, when that was and if it was after like in December, the minister indicated, I wasn't sure when the capital plan was put out by the department, by the government.
Have they received any feedback from the communities since then.
Hon. Jack Anawak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In going back to the figure of 13 million dollars, the 13 million dollars doesn't go very far.
It doesn't go very far at all.
We have to meet the minimum requirement for the safety and health and statutory and legal requirements or on-going commitments.
Of course, we have to do those things and the communities may not necessarily agree or be the priority of that community. But at the same time, as I mentioned earlier, we have an on-going dialogue with the communities to ensure that if there is a disagreement between the community and the Community Government and Transportation, we make sure they understand where we are doing it.
I think in some cases as was mentioned earlier by one of the members, would there be an opportunity to say if they have 150 thousand dollars for a loader and they wanted a dump truck instead for basically the same amount, in which that's tied to the issue of safety or health, statutory or legal requirements.
And I would have no problem in discussing with the community if they wanted to change that particular say the vehicle or a dump truck for a loader and vice versa.
But again, I remind you that 13 million dollars for capital is not very much at all.
So, part of it again, in having to meet those requirements, that 13 million dollars doesn’t go very far.
I'm sorry, I didn't hear, Mr. Ferris.
Mr. Ferris: Mr. Chairman, just to further respond to the MLAs question.
The early consultation is being done with the communities on a departmental specific budget and that information flowed out of what was left over from the GNWT days.
The communities now, for the first time, are seeing a consolidated five-year plan that went out under the signature of the Minister of Finance and my minister.
We've been asked to coordinate, lead in that consultation process and what we will be doing is either visiting in communities or conference call with communities to arrive at what would be considered the first Nunavut Government five-year capital plan.
And so there's been two processes, there was one where we were using early data and now that there's been a release of the five-year plan the MLA's were given initially we've now been asked to meet with the council and to allow for pre-consultation and input on that new five-year plan.
And I would assume that through that process some of the additional priorities of communities or concerns with the timing of projects would get addressed.
That is a consultation on the whole Government of Nunavut capital plan including education and health and so on.
So, we're doing consultation on a limited basis where that community is based on just community government issues and the communities are letting us know what their priorities are.
Also some of the project changes and some of the delegations were coming and visiting with the minister but we're now into a very formal consultation process and actual needs are being set up with all the communities that they'll have input into.
It might have been brought up earlier while I was out but, the question is, there was some talk about community consultation before we started talking about the capital plan itself here.
Are there consultations already in most communities in Nunavut.
Chairperson: Thank you. Mr. Anawak.
Mr. Minister, it's up to you if you want your officials to respond to the question.
Hon. Jack Anawak (interpretation): I would like to ask Mr. Ferris to answer the question.
Chairperson (interpretation): Go ahead, Mike.
There was as the members know, a very detailed consultation process where ministers and MLAs went around and visited all the communities and started with a source document.
That source document was used when we were looking at the 2001/2002 capital planning process and then in our case we were given a new target related to that plan.
What is now gone out is a consolidated five-year plan that was presented to the MLAs by the Minister of Finance and we're now seeking additional input on that five-year plan.
And that is being done in detail with each community to see what they think.
I'm calling that really the first official Government of Nunavut plan.
That would be the first time that the community has seen a five-year plan from the Government of Nunavut.
What they've seen in the past was a five-year plan from GNWT.
I remember the visits.
I was involved in that community visit that time.
That was almost two years ago, or just under two years ago, I think.
That's why I'm asking if there has been an updated consultation.
You already mentioned additional consultation or visiting the communities.
The reason I asked, they're still not being contacted by the department.
That's why I asked that question.
So now I know the answer, it's good to know there's additional consultation on that.
If you don't mind Mr. Chairman, I just want to make an additional general comment about recreational facilities. If that's okay, I will continue.
For the past year and a half now, we've been talking about the recreation facilities where some communities have a very large facility that they use only two to three months a year.
The rest of the year say maybe from May to September or something like that sometimes the youth, for example the arenas, right across Nunavut, if there were some funds that could go to these communities which is very hard to do but in the future, I'm saying that they should be able to use those large facilities year round.
For example, in the summertime they should be able to use the ice arena for roller-skating or the large space that is being used all summer long.
Sometimes they might use it for indoor soccer.
But again, there are a number of things that you can use the facility for besides ice-skating.
If in the future there was some type of additional activities in that facility, again it would make a lot of difference for our young people.
If they can use those in the daytime instead of a roaming around at night time because they are wide awake and they stay up 24 hours.
I used to do that too, I know.
But anyway, I am just saying that there should be some type of year round uses for these facilities.
Again, I know that we have talked about this for the last six months or a year at least that artificial ice may be a pilot project somewhere in Nunavut.
That would at least let us see how that pilot project would work and if it would make a difference.
I am sure that the department has looked at putting together a policy to make this work, but before you can do a really good policy, at least I think you know, you should complete the pilot project and draw out some of the things that you have learned from that pilot project.
Then make it policy.
I am just suggesting that avenue might be a way to go if we are going to be looking at these facilities in the future and how to do some improvements and how to use them year around.
Drawing up a policy before you can do some work, again using the example of artificial ice, I feel that it would not be a complete thing when you are drawing up a policy without learning out how to do it before.
But anyway, I am just suggesting that it should be looked at very seriously and it is a good time if it is in place.
That’s a very good suggestion.
Maybe if the minister doesn’t agree with you maybe you should become minister.
I don’t know whether it was yesterday, I was told that we could go swimming in Sanikiluaq instead of skating because of course the ice is melting and you can’t use it for skating any more.
But you can go swimming, but anyway.
We would like to see how we could help the communities when they want to expand the use of their recreational facilities.
With our limited resources, I think that we should talk to the communities as a government or we could also talk to the private companies and look at other options.
In regards to the member’s comments, and thinking about it, we received a letter from the community of Kugluktuk and they outlined what they wanted to do as a community.
Using that letter we can approach the federal government for additional funds and the Hamlet of Kugluktuk can also make a contribution or the Department of Education or the private contractors or companies and the Nunavut Government can get together and pool their resources to provide those facilities.
For example, these three Sanikiluaq, Rankin Inlet and Kugluktuk are the three communities but then again our colleague keeps saying, I'll just use Pangnirtung as an example.
They have been asking for a swimming pool and we can talk to the people of Pangnirtung and look for outside funds so they can get a swimming pool.
I'm not saying that we are going to do it but I'm just saying that we can look at other options we can also look for outside sources of funds.
We can talk with the communities and look at options and how we can work together to access outside funds to pay for the swimming pool.
So those are the things that we are working on.
Those are things that we would be looking at, the community would make a contribution, the Nunavut Government would put in their share and then we can also look at the mining companies for example, that would also make financial contributions for the building of these facilities.
Those are just examples, I'm just using arenas for example because of course we know that we cannot use those arenas in the summertime.
Using Sanikiluaq as an example, they can't use the arena anymore because the ice has melted.
If they are going to have a music festival they can hold it in there like we did in Rankin Inlet but if you don't have the proper flooring you can't use it for concerts or festivals or whatever.
So we are looking at those types of things.
Any further comments, general comments, questions.
Mr. Chairman, when the minister was talking about a pilot project in three communities I guess, I'm just wondering about enhancing recreation facilities that are already there.
I'd just like to ask the minister if all the communities in Nunavut have basic recreation facilities like arenas, community halls, and gymnasiums already.
At this time there are three communities that don't have arenas and one is going to be built in Kimmirut this summer.
For Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay, they don't have those facilities.
But like I said earlier I was using Sanikiluaq as an example where they use the arena for a little over a month.
Like the member said they were very glad that they got that arena.
They also got a donation from the National Hockey League, but now since the ice is melted they can’t use the arena any more..
What I was saying and through past experience, we are looking at long term plans and also financial resources.
I am not saying that we are going to be able to do that but we would like to use Kimmirut.
If we were going to be building an arena would it be better if we built it with artificial ice, or how could we use the facility longer, like the arenas and the recreational facilities.
We are working very hard so that these recreational facilities could be used longer or year round.
There are three communities, but one arena is going to be built this summer.
If you don’t want to be heard when you are whispering there is a little button that you can press, we heard all the conversation when you were whispering.
So please keep that in mind.
You had to point that out didn’t you.
Mr. Chairman, not only was I asking about arenas, Mr. Chairman, I was wondering how many communities have things like swimming pools, do all communities have adequate community halls.
Do all communities have an adequate gymnasium, that’s what I was asking about not just arenas.
Hon. Jack Anawak: As far as I am aware all communities have community halls.
Again, two communities after this coming year don’t have arenas.
Again, we are doing a study on the completed recreational facilities, understanding that community halls are a very important part of a community.
Especially, not limited to but, especially at Christmas time or celebrations and activities and therefore they are very vital to a community.
Most communities as far as I know have gymnasiums within the hamlet office or in the school, in some cases both the hamlet offices and the school.
But I am not aware of any communities not having a gymnasium in either the school or the office complex of the hamlet.
Again, we want to make sure that we upgrade as much as possible community halls where it is urgently required.
I will use an example of Pond Inlet, Clyde River, Pangnirtung, Gjoa Haven and Kugaaruk are areas where community halls are probably badly required or need to be upgraded.
But at the same time that takes a few more million than the projects we have in mind for upgrading at least some of the facilities that we have.
Mr. Tootoo: I'm just wondering, the minister just missed out the pools, I'm just wondering how many communities we have that are in Nunavut that have pools in them.
Mr. Ferris: Thank you.
There are two that would be considered in-ground pools, one in Iqaluit and one in Nanisivik.
There's about a half a dozen above ground pool operations around Nunavut that are still being used by communities.
And there are a couple of ones that are actually beach swimming programs in the summer time.
We will for the first time be able to ensure the minister can provide that information because our recreation staff have just finished visiting all the communities in looking at facilities and are compiling a recreation facility study.
That will give us an indication of what is there on the ground, the shape it's in and any shortfalls in the program.
But there a few above ground pool programs where the communities have chosen not to operate them any longer.
But it's a small number overall in terms of Nunavut communities.
Mr. Tootoo: I'll just pose this question based on the information I got and I guess the policy or the priority of the department to move ahead with enhancements to existing facilities within Nunavut prior to ensuring that all communities have those basic facilities.
Can either one of you answer.
Hon. Jack Anawak: In terms of what we may want to do, let's say for the three communities that I mentioned earlier would probably cost of a total of about 9 hundred thousand dollars if not just more than a million dollars. Whereas a new arena or a new swimming pool or community hall would probably be quite a bit more than that.
And so, we just mentioned these again because of the very fact as I mentioned earlier, we have a facility in Sanikiluaq, an arena that has been utilized not much more than a month this year, so at least eleven months out of it where it's not being used other than it was used for a singing festival.
But we just want to make sure that we face that whole thing of ensuring that if we have facilities that we get good use out of them.
I just want to decipher if then, it is a priority of the department to move to enhancing existing facilities prior to ensuring all communities have basic facilities, is that the short of what he has indicated.
We're not trying to favour one over the other, from one community to the next.
But, for instance if Rankin Inlet were to get a new arena, you might say that I'm favouring that the community because I am the MLA for that community and the minister.
It's obvious this year in Rankin Inlet that the young people there are very talented in playing hockey, so we can cater to the local talents.
You’re not trying to favour one community to the extent that if one community has the capability of using those funds to their better advantage then maybe at this time we provide those facilities to that community.
Mr. Chairman, I'd like it quite clear to the minister that I had, at no point did I say I was that looking at one community.
I was just wondering if it was the priority of the department to look at enhancing recreation facilities prior to all communities having their basic requirements. That's what I asked Mr. Chairman, and that's what I'd like an answer to.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Tootoo. Mr. Minister.