EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So for me, as the minister, to somehow stand up in front of all 19 Members in this House and say, “Will you agree to put an extra $5 million into the Department of Education for Inuktitut materials,” when I haven’t even expended the total Education budget that’s in place, that was only passed on April 1, less than two and a half months ago, and if there is extra money available within my Department of Education, I can move money around, which I do on a regular basis.
I believe that does show some leadership in the Department of Education and I believe I demonstrated some leadership since 2004 with the member.
I resent very strongly his facetious comment to resign and when he resigns, I might be with him, but I doubt it.
Question 572 – 2(4): Health Services in Winnipeg (Simailak)
I send my greetings to the people of Baker Lake.
Mr. Speaker, I have received a number of calls from my constituents about their concerns with the quality of health services being provided in Winnipeg. There are issues with the quality of health care, which is unacceptable.
The patients that are going to Winnipeg for medical reasons, either for check-ups or surgery, people who have to go to Winnipeg for medical reasons; there are too many people who have raised their concerns.
Can the minister advise me whether she is aware of any ongoing problems with the level of service provided to the patients travelling to hospitals in Winnipeg, either at the Inuit centre, or Ublivik, or for that matter, anywhere else in Winnipeg?
Has she been apprised of any problems related to the quality of health care?
When concerns are raised with me related to Winnipeg, a majority of those issues relate to the boarding home and not so much the care and services provided by the hospitals that are there.
So as issues are raised with me, I try to follow those up with the staff in the Kivalliq region who oversee patient case management and they deal with the boarding home staff to address some of those questions, but not related to the medical services per se.
Mr. Simailak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased that the minister acts upon some issues that are raised to her right away.
Can the minister inform me of what processes are in place to monitor the quality of medical services that are provided to Nunavut residents while they are in Winnipeg?
If I understand the member’s question correctly, he’s asking, when patients are sent out for a particular treatment, are they also given an opportunity for any other concerns that they may require assistance on?
Is that correct? I’m not sure of that, but I could look to see what options are available.
And normally, when we refer people outside their community for medical tests or procedures, it’s usually surrounding a particular condition or whatnot that they are made referrals to by specialists and/or doctors. If there are other issues that come up between the patient and the doctor that’s examining the patient, then one would assume that those types of questions are addressed at that time.
So I’m not sure if I understand the member’s question correctly but I don’t know if it relates to the treatment and examinations of a patient or other services offered by the department.
Perhaps she will understand if I ask my question in English. (interpretation ends) Because there are more and more concerns being raised about deteriorating conditions regarding the quality of medical services in Winnipeg, I’m wondering if the minister could advise me and the people of Baker Lake, and indeed, the people of the Kivalliq, what processes are in place to monitor the quality of medical services on an ongoing basis in Winnipeg.
I will certainly look to see what processes are in place to address deteriorating medical services, and perhaps with the member’s assistance, and to be more specific as to what the situation is for a follow-up.
But normally, what we do as a department, we have arrangements in place with hospitals in not only in the Keewatin but also in the Baffin, as well as Yellowknife, in terms of services that are offered by hospitals and so on.
So services that are offered by those institutions would be no different than services offered to individuals in that jurisdiction.
So if it’s a particular case management issue and/or incident that occurred, I can follow that up, but normally, when physicians and nurses see patients, they are treated no differently than any other patient travelling here or anywhere else.
I would strongly urge the minister to make sure that there are systems in place to monitor the quality of medical services on an ongoing basis, rather than the minister trying to respond on a case-by-case basis all of the time.
I think that would go a long way to greatly improving medical services in the Kivalliq.
Mr. Speaker, I recently received a very disturbing complaint regarding a patient in Winnipeg and no doubt, other Kivalliq MLAs receive a number of them also and some of these are very disturbing.
Would the minister be prepared to work with us, the Kivalliq MLAs, to find ways to greatly improve medical services in the Kivalliq, and indeed, in Churchill and in Winnipeg?
If there are concerns related to medical quality services, absolutely, I would be prepared to discuss those issues with the members from the Keewatin. I know, in the past, we’ve also had previous ministers that have travelled to Winnipeg to also address concerns related to the boarding home and some of those concerns are being addressed on a regular basis.
But to also talk about ways of better improving, that’s something that we should do on a regular basis.
I do know that the staff also work very hard to maintain a good working relationship with the service providers that provide services for us outside our territory, that we’re not able to address here in our own territory and if there are ways of improving that, I know we have good working relationships with those jurisdictions to address services.
So absolutely, I would commit to that and set a time to invite regular members from the Keewatin to discuss what those issues may be.
Question 573 – 2(4): Funding Recreational Facilities (Mapsalak)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of CLEY.
Mr. Speaker, is the funding for recreational facilities, for renovations, or for additions still available and is it still set at the $200,000 cap? Is that fund still there?
There is still funding available for that program for existing facilities’ repairs. Out of all our subsidies, this is the least used one and we rarely get applications for funds, but we are very interested in receiving applications, whether it’s for recreational facilities, community facilities, or for swimming pools’ repairs and upgrades, Mr. Speaker.
What is the largest amount that we can apply for from that funding?
According to my memory, the largest amount that you can apply for is $200,000 for capital items.
If that’s the case, perhaps it could be used for purchasing Zambonis for our arena.
We can look at the applications as to whether it can be used for capital items such as for recreational facilities.
We assisted Cape Dorset on a similar case where we provided some assistance for capital furniture in their youth hall.
Yes, we can look at the applications provided that they apply.
Perhaps the minister can provide me some information by way of correspondence as to whether the funding could be utilized for arenas.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Yes, I can commit to it and we will let the other members know of the policy towards that program.
Question 574 – 2(4): Technical Assessment of Health Centre and Airport Terminal in Qikiqtarjuaq (Arreak)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister for Community and Government Services.
In Qikiqtarjuaq, the two buildings that I refer to as being dilapidated due to age are the health centre and the airport terminal buildings.
It seems I am met with disbelief every time I state that these two buildings are the oldest ones in Nunavut, especially without documentation. They don’t believe it unless there’s an inspection report.
So will the department conduct a technical assessment of those two buildings in Qikiqtarjuaq?
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the member for his questions.
The officials in Community and Government Services always believe the information provided to us and they work to the best of their ability when urgent cases arise.
Yes, for the issue that you raise, there could be assessments done this coming summer.
We can definitely do an assessment, however, there are no funds set aside for renovations or repairs of these two buildings.
We don’t have anything budgeted, so I cannot really say what will happen. Perhaps after an assessment, our staff can meet with the hamlet officials or council to discuss these two buildings that the subject of concerns.
I would also like further clarification as the minister stated that there are no funds set aside.
Is she saying that there’s no funding for conducting a technical assessment or replacement of these two buildings?
We have to prepare a Five-Year Capital Plan and include their replacements.
I can’t find the information here in relation to Qikiqtarjuaq, although I’m searching for the information here.
I cannot find it here, but I can look for the items in the prepared documents.
What I can say here is if you need a technical assessment done on the buildings, I can direct my staff to assist you in that assessment.
The $242 million Building Canada Fund from the federal government was slated to be used for schools, health centres, and large capital projects.
Can the minister include these two items into the capital plans from these funds?
In regard to the funds received through the Building Canada Fund, the federal government has directed us on the eligible projects.
Some of the funds can be used for large capital projects, such as health centres and municipal services provided at the community level.
We haven’t completed the plans yet, so I can look into the matter and get back to the member to give him the information he requires.
Question 575 – 2(4): Midwifery Assistance Training Program in Kitikmeot (Peterson)
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the Minister of Education didn’t accept my colleagues offer to resign before I ask this question.
I have been talking about the Kitikmeot Health Facility for quite a few years. It seems to go through different phases and now, I’m trying to find out when it will become a fully operational.
I wrote a letter to the Minister of Health about that situation/ She responded to me with a very informative letter. One of the issues she mentioned in her letter is that a birthing program is scheduled to become operational by fiscal year 2010-11 in the facility to coincide with the completion of the Nunavut Arctic College Midwife Assistance Training Program.
My question for the Minister of Education: can the minister tell the House what Nunavut Arctic College is doing to promote the Midwife Assistance Training Program in the Kitikmeot?
There have been a lot of exciting things happening with the Midwifery Program and on the midwifery front over the last few years. And it goes back to Rankin Inlet and the wonderful work done by Nowyah Williams and her group in Rankin with midwifery and now it’s culminated in the opportunity to bring forward midwifery legislation specifically for Nunavut and the incorporation of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
This September, we would like to begin the training program for midwifery, but again, there is some contingency on the legislation being approved also in the House.
Could the minister be a little clearer? Could he tell me if there has been any midwife assistant training programs developed and offered to date in any of the regions in Nunavut?
Minister of Education and Minister responsible for the Arctic College, Minister Picco.
There have been some training programs offered for midwifery and I talked a little bit about the birthing centre in Rankin Inlet which has done tremendous service.
Instead of many of our wives, many of our sisters, and many of our mothers having to be sent to Winnipeg, as an example, to have a baby, they were able to facilitate that, in many cases, in Rankin Inlet.
So that’s part of the process that we’re talking about in midwifery.
The key on the legislation part, of course, is that when the legislation is approved, then a midwife can be certified here in Nunavut under our legislation and that’s one of the reasons for the expedient process that we would like to see in place for that legislation.
Mr. Speaker, there’s no doubt that the Midwifery Program will be valuable to all our regions and I’m sure it could be very valuable to the Kitikmeot.
I’m sure there will be a lot of very interesting candidates on that program and I’m hoping that the minister’s college is actually promoting it in the Kitikmeot.
Having said that, Mr. Speaker, can the minister inform the House if all graduates from the Midwife Training Program will be guaranteed employment with the Government of Nunavut in their chosen career?
Midwives would be hired specifically for full-time employment through the auspices of the Department of Health and Social Services.
However, what I can say is that if we can get the midwives trained, if it’s a three or four-year program, and then if they can receive their certification, then, of course, they would have the opportunity for full-time employment within that certification process.
In the Minister of Health’s letter, she indicated that to achieve the target goal for full usage of the facility, the Kitikmeot Health Facility will require 58.6 person years and that’s by 2010-11. She also said that part of the overall goal of the Government of Nunavut and Health and Social Services is to train Inuit and Nunavummiut for various health care professions for planned expanded services in Nunavut.
My question for the Minister of Education: can the minister explain to the House how the Nunavut Arctic College coordinates with Health and Social Services to identify and offer appropriate training programs and courses to Inuit and Nunavummiut who wish to pursue health care professions in Nunavut?
I just want to say for the record and on the record that I congratulate the Minister of Health for really going out there and taking on the advocacy role for midwives and maternity care workers in Nunavut, and moving the legislation forward itself. That’s something that’s been a long time coming and the minister deserves some serious recognition for that.
What the process is, Mr. Speaker, very quickly, is that individual departments will identify a need, whether that’s a need for a Journeyman Carpenter Program, or a Nursing Program, or a Midwifery Program, once the department identifies that type of program, we would like to be the trainer of choice, where possible, and that’s the Nunavut Arctic College.
And they would bring a proposal to the college and say, “Can you deliver this program?”
And then we would look at the classroom activities that would be needed - the logistical, administrative, and the financial supports - to put it in place, then the college would go back to the sponsoring department and say, “Here’s what we think the cost will be. Can we deliver it?” And that’s the process that occurs.
Question 576 – 2(4): Handling of Air-Chartered Building Materials (Kattuk)
We know that last summer, there was a fiasco with the marshalling contract and the construction materials that were slated to go to the communities were ultimately delivered.
In Sanikiluaq, however, we received housing materials not slated for Sanikiluaq. There were plywood sheets, 2x4 lumber, plumbing materials, and all kinds of materials that came into our community.
Approximately four or five charters came into Sanikiluaq and brought in materials that we didn’t need or want.
My question to the minister is: how many communities in Nunavut received housing materials that they did not expect?
With respect to the materials that were just recently flown to the communities by chartered aircraft to bring in the proper materials that were sent to the wrong communities, this was a direct result of the errors committed at the dock in Montreal last year whereby materials were sent to the wrong communities.
After our department did an assessment of the deficiencies of the materials that arrived in the communities, we shipped the missing materials to the communities and I’m not aware of any incidents where materials were sent to the wrong communities with the last shipments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That was the case in our community; the materials came in but they were not the materials that Sanikiluaq needed.
What is your department going to do about those materials that we do not require? Is Nunavut Housing Corporation going to take them back? Do we give them to the housing association or residents in our community?
What are your plans for these materials in the communities?
I’m not aware of materials getting shipped to the wrong community or if that even occurred.
I will look into the matter and get the information to find out what transpired. If errors did occur, that would definitely be maddening.
I prefer not to be the subject of his anger.
However, it is the contractors who are constructing the buildings who advise me that they keep finding materials they did not request. I believe four charters came into Sanikiluaq, and this is the truth.
Please don’t get mad at me, Mr. Minister.
I seem to recall you stating that these charters were completed. Has the shipment process been completed?
I will not blame and direct my anger at my colleague in case he takes it out on me.
As I stated earlier, the mistakes that were made last year occurred prior to my appointment to this portfolio and we resolved that with aircraft charters to ship the materials to the right communities.
The reason was that we wanted to start the construction earlier in the spring, Mr. Speaker, but I’m not aware of any materials going to wrong communities.
I will commit to looking into that issue. (interpretation ends) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Question 577 – 2(4): Government Directory in Phonebook is too Confusing (Arvaluk)
I originally started asking questions regarding this issue outside the House to find out from other avenues.
However, I’m tired of being labelled as the directory assistant, so I will be posing questions in the House and this is in regard to information that the government pays to be included into the phonebook directory.
It is quite confusing and difficult to find information.
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Community and Government Services, more specifically the IT Division under her department.
The government directory is a mystery to regular Inuit, particularly unilingual Inuit. They don’t know what services the government offers and they cannot find references to government employee phone numbers when they are searching for a particular employee.
Is this issue being reviewed so that the next government directory will be easier to wade through, especially the departmental staff?
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the member for his question regarding the government directory.
With regards to the phonebook, back in 2001, the Government of Canada asked the phone companies how they wanted the information laid out and what ought to be included in the directory.
This was done under the premise of making the directory easier for people to digest.
In the contents of the phonebook, they tried to indicate a particular department, for example, for birth certificates, or building permits, or drivers’ licenses, or passports.
They tried to provide that kind of organized index in 2001. Now, I have learned that it still not adequate in 2008 and I feel that changes need be made, so I appreciate his question.
If my wife doesn’t tell me her phone number at work, I will not find her number in the phonebook.
Under CLEY, there was a recording on Elijah Erkloo’s number and no other number at all.
He is an elder advisor and if he is out of the office at a meeting, then you can’t find CLEY, so will the minister look into this?
One of the problems I have is that only if I know the departments or positions, as government employees do, if I only know the names and their titles, then I can find them with no problem.
Will you be planning to go back the way it used to be, organized by department, for 2009?
I’m advised that they are done annually and if there are changes and complaints, then they try and correct them.
With regard to his question, the 2009 phonebook directory... yes, I personally share the need for improvements because it is also translated into Inuktitut and it is too complicated.
I will definitely look into this and work with my staff, although we, ourselves, are not responsible for anyone who is not at their office or leave a recording.
The government has paid for and probably has a contract on what the phonebook directory should look like in the blue pages. Who has the contract or are we, as taxpayers, the ones who pay for it?
It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money if it’s not usable and here we have the government spending that hard earned taxpayer money, and that’s why I’m asking the minister.
Since you pay the telephone company to specify the kind of blue pages they should provide, you probably have specified that in the past in a contract because I don’t think they would put together something without terms of a contract.
So when they publish the next directory, will you specify, through a contract, that you would like the directory to be prepared the way it used to be, by departments?
Members, it’s regrettable that not all members had an opportunity to ask their questions as Question Period is now over.
Going back to the Orders of the Day. Item 7. Written Questions.
Item 13. Tabling of Documents. Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Aglukkaq.
Tabled Document 241 – 2(4): Extended Health Benefits Policy (Aglukkaq)
I would like to table a copy of the “Extended Health Benefits Policy” as well as the “Extended Health Benefits Policy Guidelines.”
Tabled Document 242 – 2(4): Code of Conduct, Outside Employment and Conflict of Interest for Government of Nunavut Employees (Human Resource Manual Sections 202, 203, 204) (Peterson)
I wish to table documents relating to the Government of Nunavut’s Code of Conduct.
Three of these policies are from the government’s Human Resource Manual relating to Code of Conduct, outside employment and conflict of interest.
I’m also including an excerpt from the Public Service Act which describes the kinds of political activity and public criticism that employees may not engage in.
I have carefully read through these documents and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.
To me, the documents are clear, but the recent interpretation by the Department of Human Resources is not.
I’m trying to be very patient here.
Item 13. Table of Documents.
If there are no more, Item 14. Notices of Motions.
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member... Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I remind my colleague to stick with the agenda as presented.
(interpretation) Thank you. Item 15. Notices of Motions for First Reading of Bills.
If there are none, Item 16. Motions.
Thank you. (interpretation ends) Government House Leader, Mr. Picco.
Bill 32 – An Act to Amend the Nunavut Elections Act, No. 2 – First Reading
There’s a bit of duress here today. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Cambridge Bay, that Bill 32, An Act to Amend the Nunavut Elections Act, No. 2, be read for the first time.
The motion is carried and Bill 32 has had its first reading.
Item 17. First Reading of Bills. (interpretation ends) Government House Leader, Minister Picco.
Bill 31 – Legislative Assembly Statutes Amendment Act, 2008 – First Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Cambridge Bay, that Bill 31, the Legislative Assembly Statutes Amendment Act, 2008, be read for the first time.
We had a slight misunderstanding. To the motion.
Question was called.
The motion is carried and Bill 31 has had its first reading.