EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Question 371– 2(3): $275,000 Contribution Agreement (Tootoo)
My question is for the Minister Responsible for Economic Development.
Yesterday, in my questioning to the minister in regard to the contribution agreement that his department has in place with Keewatin Business Development Centre, he had indicated that they provided them with $275,000, along with a $1 million authorization to lend money for the development of small businesses in that region.
Mr. Speaker, my question to the minister is, out of that, the $275,000 contribution that is part of that agreement exactly what is that used for?
Minister responsible for Economic Development, Minister Akesuk.
It’s for the operations and maintenance and also they use the funding to budget and also they provide assistance to the communities with that funding.
Last March I was questioning the minister responsible at the time…
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Tootoo, please proceed.
Isn’t it amazing how time flies when you’re having fun.
Last March I asked the Minister responsible for Economic Development at that time in the Committee of the Whole with his officials that were with him at the time some questions and part of it was in regarding to collections.
In that type of field that they operate in with the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation, which is pretty much a lender of last resort, and the different organizations that his department has contribution agreements with, sometimes you end up having to take legal action to collect on loans.
My question to the minister is out of that $275,000 if the organization wanted to spend money on legal fees for collection purposes is that where it would come from?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation) I will have to look into that as to find out where they get the funding for legal fees.
At this time there is nothing detailed in front of me; I have to look into that agreement to see if they can use that funding for legal services.
I know the contribution agreement for this particular case with Keewatin Business Development Centre there is, as I mentioned yesterday, the requirement for them to provide the department with audited financial statements on an annual basis to account for how they spent that money.
My question to the minister has he, or his department officials, received those audited financial statements, and reviewed them?
I don’t know if they have received the audited financial statements at this time so I can’t respond to your question.
Once I get the information from my staff I will give you a response.
While the minister’s officials are probably listening and looking for that information, I am wondering if he could also ask them to look into that information, whether it’s in the contribution agreement, if there is a budget set up in there, how they plan on spending that money, if there is an amount a percentage of the budget that’s set aside for legal costs and compare that to the audited financial statements where they show how much money they actually spent on legal fees for that particular year, if he would commit to provide that information as well.
I’ll make sure that all the information that you requested is there.
Question 372 – 2(3): Fuel Price Increase (Mapsalak)
I would like to direct my question to Minister Brown.
Yesterday one of my colleagues was asking questions about the increasing fuel prices and Minister Brown stated that it would have been a 20-cent increase, but the government made a decision to only increase the price by 10 cents.
I would like to ask the minister about the government having paid for the fuel already at $130 million, so where is that 10 cents going to come from.
Minister of Community and Government Services, Ms. Brown.
We did increase it by 10 cents, but in reality, it should have been 20 cents per litre.
The 90-cent subsidy is being paid for by the government and the money comes out of the revolving fund.
As we bought it on credit it is now owed by the Government of Nunavut and we have to approve the appropriation in order to pay for that debt.
As the Minister of Finance stated the government would be in a deficit of $8 million.
Is that included in that number?
I would like to thank the member also.
I would like to make sure that you are kept informed about what is happening.
We have had Second Reading and I want to make sure everything is in order.
Is that going to have an effect on the capital budget and the projects that are geared towards the communities?
I will be able to respond to that when we go into Committee of the Whole, if the member would wait patiently.
I would like to get a response even before the Committee of the Whole, but I can wait until then.
I want to know if it is going to have any affect on the projects or if there are going to be any cutbacks on the projects that are geared for the communities.
And I would like to thank the member.
We were in the same situation last year when we had to ask for supplementary appropriations in order to put money in the revolving fund.
As everything else, there is an increase in all prices, and it does have an effect on the Nunavut Government.
And what we are doing at this time is to cut some projects and there’s a freeze on hiring at this point and I think we are going to see an increase in those.
What I know is that there is going to be a change.
Question 373 – 2(3): Elder Centres for Quttiktuq Area (Barnabas)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth. Nobody has asked him many questions to date.
In my member’s statement, Mr. Speaker, I stated that the communities that I represent do not have elders’ facilities. These facilities would be used for elders’ gatherings and for meetings.
My question is: when are the communities that do not have elders’ facilities going to be getting some?
We don’t have any plans when those communities are going to be getting elders’ facilities, but we have set aside some monies that can be requested by the communities from our department.
For example, these monies could be used for elders’ facilities. There is money available from our department, but the communities have to make a request if they wish to access those funds.
The people are free to either make their proposals in either English or Inuktitut. We also have monies set aside for the renovation of facilities.
If you would like to build a new one then you would have to ask the appropriate minister who is responsible. There is approximately $200,000 set aside for such purposes.
So what kind of support can we give to our elders? They don’t have secretaries or clerks that can help them write their proposal.
Do you have anybody in your department who can help those elders write their proposals?
For example, and from what I know, the elders can use the hamlet administrative staff to help them write their proposals.
If anybody would like more information, we have a toll-free number where they can call and the employees are available to help. If anybody would like, for the information we have a toll-free number based in Igloolik.
And again, Mr. Speaker, for this winter, Arctic Bay, Repulse Bay, and Qikiqtarjuaq were visited and they had a workshop in regard to financial support and writing proposals.
We can help you either by phone or we have a toll-free number that anybody can call if they would like further information. I can give that number to the member once it’s available.
How does your department come to decisions on the proposals that are received? What criteria do you use when you’re reviewing the proposals?
We usually like to get our proposals before March 31, and we inform the communities out there that we have money available that can be accessed.
Once we’re in Committee of the Whole and when my department comes up I will be giving you all the information. Usually we put out an advertisement so that the communities will be informed about what monies are available.
When we’re reviewing the proposals what we do is you can access the funds from our department to lever additional funds from outside sources.
We will once again be putting out an advertisement, and making announcements to make sure that we get as many proposals out there before the end of the year.
Then how does his department consider, because I presume there are not very many applications especially with the elders’ societies who don’t have secretaries, then how is the money that is not spent utilized after?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I’m not too sure of his question.
Can he elaborate more as to what money he is talking about?
Can you elaborate more on your question, please?
To use an example; those applications are given to his department and even though there is funding available, if there is any money left over, where does it go? Is it used by something else? Or, does it go back to the revenue fund?
Around March, we would ask the communities to see if they have any requests or applications when we make the funding available.
After we review the applications, and usually in the fall, we make it known to the community that we have this much left over.
And, if other communities are interested in applying to access those funds, then we make it known to the communities.
Usually there’s not too much left over, but if there is we let the communities know because we have to expend the funding that has been approved by the Legislative Assembly.
In some cases we don’t have enough, but usually we have adequate funds, and if we have any left over, then we make it known to the communities.
Question 374 – 2(3): Job Opening Announcements (Arvaluk)
I would like to ask the Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth: as he stated earlier under Ministers’ Statements, that he wants to make public to the communities that the job opportunities and his department is closest to the communities.
He usually directs them to the communities other than…for example, the other departments have public relations officers and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Coordinators to make sure the government is abiding, and those require a lot of funding.
I don’t know how much funding they use but the local radio stations; I believe they get about $5,000 or $6,000 a year.
And the people who operate those radio stations, some of them can hardly read; the people usually volunteer and a lot of times what happens is that the job opportunities are not read properly.
I wonder if it can be reorganized where the local radio stations staff people who can read and write.
I would like to remind my colleagues, during Question Period please try to make your preamble short before you pose your question.
If I understand his question correctly; if we have a job opening and fax it to the local radio stations and it’s an announcement for the community and I can say that we have not considered paying more money because it is a service to the community and those are job opportunities.
And it is their responsibility to let the community know of what is going on and also the announcement.
It’s not just for the Human Resources; every time there is a press release by government they try and read it by volunteers.
Why doesn’t the government consider, think about that this message that we want to get across has to go to the people and once goes to the community, then it becomes lost, sort of thing.
What I’m trying to say is; I don’t think he understood me correctly, the information or news releases that come from the government, in order for them to reach the communities, and whatever time they have the local radio station hours they can be announced to the community.
I wonder if this department can find some funding to make sure that these messages do get across to the people in the communities.
Minister of Human Resources, Minister Tapardjuk.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With Human Resources we are responsible for the government employees and we have not considered his question.
We have not looked into this and I don’t think it would fall under Human Resources anyway.
But having said that, we haven’t come to an understanding or agreement if we should have a representative who would inform the communities, but I am sure we can consider this if the Legislative Assembly push for this, but Human Resources doesn’t have anything to do with that.
Then I guess it would be appropriate to ask the minister…for example it’s very hard to separate Human Resources and Culture, Language, Elders and Youth and they are responsible for funding the community local radio stations.
Maybe he will give me a response during Committee of the Whole; how it can be best utilized in the community local radio stations.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): During his question he said he will be asking during the Committee of the Whole so I will respond to it when he asks.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Just to remind members that we will be dealing with capital estimates.
Question 375 – 2(3): Staff Housing Requirements (Peterson)
The Nunavut Housing Corporation is responsible for housing the Government of Nunavut employees including the Department of Health and Social Services.
Can the Minister explain to the House how his department supports the housing requirements of each Government of Nunavut department, particularly departments who hire positions that provide essential services to Nunavummiut?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Minister for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, Mr. Akesuk.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we work with the different departments in regard to housing, even though we are short of funds.
This is very important in Nunavut, especially when we try to service the whole Nunavut and all the communities are short of staff housing.
So we try and work the best we can.
I thank the minister for that answer. I’m not sure if he answered it, but I will continue to ask my questions.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation has known for upwards of five years that the Kitikmeot Health Facility requires housing for health professionals.
Yesterday we heard from the Minister of Health and Social Services state that her department has immediate need for 20 to 25 houses for health professionals.
My question for the minister, can the minister tell the House when the Nunavut Housing Corporation will provide Health and Social Services with housing for 20 to 25 health professionals in Cambridge Bay so that facility can start to provide 100 percent, level service to the people of the Kitikmeot?
We are currently working on this through the Cabinet.
Thinking of the three regional hospitals, we are continuing to work on how we can best use them.
We want to have the best staff that we can.
So we’re currently still working on this.
You’ve already mentioned the three regional facilities because I don’t think it’s a problem that is going to affect just the Kitikmeot.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation issues requests for proposals from time to time across Nunavut to identify housing in communities such as Cambridge Bay.
When a person reads the specs for the housing it quickly becomes clear that the Nunavut Housing Corporation has intentionally, or unintentionally written specs that eliminates available housing in particular communities thus returning to the ongoing unavailability of housing for potential GN employees, including health professionals, despite the urgent demand.
My question for the minister: would the minister commit to reviewing the RFP criteria and those specifications to ensure that they are written with realistic specifications and criteria to elicit responses from developers and landlords to provide good quality accommodation to lease to the Nunavut Housing Corporation?
Minister for Nunavut Housing Corporation, Minister Akesuk.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): We can look at those and we have to envision that different communities have different housing prices.
I think it is better that we try to keep housing prices the same across Nunavut when we rent them from developers out there.
We will review them, like the member asked; review the prices when we do RFPs.
Anyone who knows real estate; markets are different in every community.
Some are up; some are down.
Cambridge Bay is probably a lot different than Iqaluit, and trying to standardize prices is probably impossible.
In Cambridge Bay the Kitikmeot Corporation had a triplex available, a three-plex that they can lease or sell to the Housing Corporation. It would make an ideal accommodation for doctors and nurses. In fact we’ve had numerous meetings with Nunavut Housing Corporation over the last two years in that regard.
My question for the minister: would the minister tell me if the Nunavut Housing Corporation, or the Cabinet has any problems in supporting a long-term lease, or even the purchase of this building for the provision of housing for nurses, or doctors that work in the Kitikmeot Health Facility?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will look into the member’s request because I know that the prices are not the same in each community in Nunavut.
But we want to try to make it similar in the communities to rent them out to our staff. I will look into the member’s request and review the prices.
Question 376 – 2(3): Recycling Program in Communities (Arreak)
I would like to ask the Minister for Community and Government Services, Honourable Levinia Brown, in regard to her Minister’s Statement, about recycling programs that her department is doing.
She was talking about recycling things in Iqaluit. Will the other communities be considered for recycling?
This is just the start of the Recycling Program that we are doing as a government and it’s going to be a pilot project here in Nunavut. I expect that as we succeed then we will probably do that program in other communities because there’s so much recyclable garbage out there.
For instance, in Cambridge Bay, there are old vehicles that are out there in a dump that could be recycled.
It would be very good for other communities to do their recycling, too, because we have already have a Memorandum of Understanding with the companies, like Canadian North, to transport our recyclable materials to Ottawa.
We will look at the other communities to see if we can do it.
Mr. Arreak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the minister for her response.
Talking about recyclables, they could be shipped for instance, not just through the airlines because not all communities have jet services.
When we meet in the fall will the minister inform us as to what she’s doing with the other communities for recycling programs?
Yes, I could inform the members during our fall session. This is not the first time that we have done this Recycling Program.
We did it for recycling papers. However, we also would like to recycle materials such as metals and stuff like that as we have done with paper already.
I agree with the member that we will try and find out what we can do for other communities to transport their recyclables, not just through the airlines, but through other means.
Question 377 – 2(3): Role of Baker Lake Nunavut Power Corporation Office (Kattuk)
This has been a concern of mine. I would like to ask the question to the Minister for Energy.
The minister knows that in Sanikiluaq the Co-op had to pay a power bill because of a problem that they had.
There are three offices in Nunavut that deal with the paying of power.
When the people from Sanikiluaq phoned this office, they kept telling them to phone this office, and that office, and everything else. I just wanted to let the people know with the minister’s response exactly what those telephone numbers do.
What does the Power Corporation in Baker Lake do? Because when somebody called from Sanikiluaq to Baker Lake, the Baker Lake office would just say that they don’t deal with those sorts of inquiries.
I would like to ask the Minister of Energy what the office in Baker Lake’s role is.
Minister responsible for Energy, Minister Picco.
First of all, I want to thank the member for being very proactive.
The issue in Sanikiluaq with the payment of the account at the local Co-op was in the thousands of dollars and we were able to, over a period of time, be able to adjust it, and make sure that the proper amounts of the billing were in place.
I want to say here in the House publicly, that the member played a big role in fixing that issue.
Just going back to the Baker Lake office very quickly, the Baker Lake office is set up to be the payment processing facility for the Power Corporation. The processes for bills and so on are facilitated through that office.
The majority of our employees there are Inuit from Baker Lake. They’ve been trained in the community with Nunavut Arctic College, and we’re very pleased with the work that has occurred in the community, and the work that the staff are doing.
The numbers that are on the bill again are contact numbers. In this case, the member mentions the Baker Lake number, and that is for account information on accounts payable, or indeed it could be accounts receivable.
Mr. Kattuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When a customer phoned Baker Lake, they were told to phone Cambridge Bay.
What’s the purpose of your office in Cambridge Bay?
The corporate office for the power corporation for accounts receivable, accounts payable, administration; that type of work is done through the office in Baker Lake.
In each of the three regions of Nunavut, we have regional operations offices; one in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, and Cambridge Bay.
Depending on what the circumstance of the call was, and I’m not sure if it was a complaint, or an issue on paying their account. Or, was there a problem with the distribution of electrical grid in that community? Was there a power problem itself?
Then, depending on what the issue was administratively, to get the problem fixed, they may have been redirected to the office in Cambridge Bay, for example, or one of the regional offices.
So again, without knowing what the context of the question or the call was, it is very difficult for me to answer why the call was rerouted to Cambridge Bay.
When the customer phoned, they were told from Cambridge Bay to phone Iqaluit.
And it just goes around and around.
They keep on giving the telephone number to another region. What’s the purpose of the Iqaluit office for energy?
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, we have to look at the context of the call.
If I phone for example, the number of the Legislative Assembly, number 5000, and I say; can I speak to Mr. Kattuk? And they say, okay, just wait a second please, and they call the second floor.
I answer the phone and say no, Mr. Kattuk isn’t here, he’s downstairs.
There’s a different number.
You call downstairs. Mr. Kattuk’s not here, he’s in Sanikiluaq. Now you have to call Sanikiluaq.
It may be a case like that and in this case the operational office for administration for accounts receivable, accounts payable, invoicing and so on are done through our offices in Baker Lake.
Each of the regions has a regional operation office. For example, if there was a power outage in Gjoa Haven, the office in Cambridge Bay would have been contacted and if they needed extra logistic or other support it might come from Iqaluit or from the Rankin office.
So in this case if the call from Sanikiluaq was made and referred to Baker and then to Cambridge and then to Rankin it may be an issue with the power feed or what have you.
Again it depends on what the nature of the call is because I don’t know what the call was it is very difficult to me to be able to say at this point why that call was directed the way it was. So if the member has that information that he could provide to me so that I could follow it up.
For that reason, that is how it is. And in our communities, our constituents don’t even know who to call and where to call especially when they want to talk about their bills.
As the minister stated it is very difficult to reroute the calls to make sure it reaches the intended caller.
Perhaps I should ask the minister wouldn’t it be better to centralize a payment office because it is very difficult when you try and make phone calls to the energy office when they keep referring you to a different office.