EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
If there are no comments we can start going page by page, starting with page 7-5; if you could please turn to that page.
Page 7-6.
Under Directorate, under 7-6, it states that the broad based legislation that applies to all communities, such as the Hamlets Act or Transportation are included…Thank you Mr. Chairman
Just to let the members know that we are on Community Government and Transportation.
Directorate, Page 7-6.
The Directorate under Community Government and Transportation it’s all Deputy Minister’s office, policy division and all those.
Anything else Mr. Arvaluk?
The minister gave us a copy of an employment summary by category document.
Looking at that document, under Directorate, the offices, is executive and senior management.
Is that in 7-6?
And looking at the document that she provided for us, Employment Summary by Category; did you get what I said?
We don’t have the same copy of the document that you have, Mr. Arvaluk.
Or we’re looking at the main estimates page by page but with that, maybe I will allow the minister to respond to the member’s questions.
During the committee meeting, I handed out that paper that Mr. Arvaluk is talking about.
Perhaps if he could ask his question again and detail the matter, so I could respond to it.
Chairperson (interpretation): I’m sorry, Ms. Thompson.
Go ahead, Mr. Arvaluk.
Mr. Arvaluk: Under the directorate I understand these are positions with deputy minister’s office, policy division, emergency, finance airport, special advisory corporate affairs, etc.
What is the ratio in your employment of beneficiaries employed in that directorate page, 7-6?
We’re just looking for the figures on that page.
But I could say that I realize that we have to have more Inuit or more beneficiaries.
A lot more beneficiaries have to be employed by us.
As a minister, I realize that there are not enough of the beneficiaries being employed by my department under directorate.
Mr. Arvaluk: Out of total positions of 179, it can’t be 179, but anyways, in the executive and senior management, middle management.
Okay, I’m not talking about professionals or paraprofessionals.
In those three categories, management positions, am I correct that you have only eight beneficiaries employed in that directorate out of how many positions that have been filled?
I understand that, I cannot get a clear picture on this one but I see that you got, in the executive you have one beneficiary, four in senior management, and four in middle management.
That’s all I could see Mr. Chairman.
The member is correct that there are only eight beneficiaries in… (interpretation ends)…there are only eight, Mr. Chair, for senior management, middle management.
For senior management our total PYs are 17.
Out of that 4 are Inuit.
For middle management we have 39 PYs and out of that only 4 are Inuit employed in those Mr. Chairperson.
I realize that this is very low.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): You deal with hamlets and with the communities recognizing that a majority of the transportation or the need for coordination and transportation are also in the communities; roads and airports, etc… dogs.
Can the minister tell me, over the last three years, why the Inuit employment in this very community oriented department has been so low in the last three years?
I cannot answer for the last three years but I realize that there is a need for more Inuit to work in our department.
I can say that the regional staff have Inuit that are dealing with the hamlets on a regular basis but we need to do better.
I don’t really know what the problem was in the last three years but all I can say is that I have discussed this with my department and we will try to do better in hiring Inuit.
A lot of it has to do with technical people are needed at that level but our goal is to have more Inuit dealing with the hamlets and we will pursue those goals for this department.
I could not answer for the last three years.
And on page 7- 2, that’s a part of it.
I find it rather startling that, I knew the regional offices are doing very well with Inuit employment.
I know that hamlets are doing very well with Inuit employment.
Perhaps not so much in the City itself but other communities, most of the employees are Inuit.
But in the directorate the policies are developed at the directorate level to be used in the communities through the regions to the communities. Perhaps it’s a problem hiring Inuit who know about the communities more adamantly and they would be the ones who are developing the policies and directives.
I also recognize that Mr. Chairman, there’s a lot of full time folks, from the south originally but have lived in and been adopted by Nunavut. I appreciate that but even with that recognition, have you taken the Human Resources announcement about Inuit Employment Plan to your directorate level?
Hon. Manitok Thompson: We have taken Inuit Employment Plans very seriously.
I’ve just been in this department for three months but I’ve asked my department now to refocus their energies on serving our communities better and see where we can train Inuit to go into positions and I agree with the member.
We need to improve and do better at this level and we will try our best to accommodate that concern because we agree with him.
My staff have been told and directed by me to improve our Inuit Employment Plan.
We went a little off track but we’re back here again.
Mr. Chairman, in the directorate level do you have on the job training for the preparation of getting into senior and middle management positions?
Well executive and senior management positions because I heard one point that the Department of Finance had on the job training for several of the employees for these senior management positions.
Do you have a similar kind of on the job training for Inuit for the senior management positions?
We do have two trainees for the positions of accounting and also planning in the Motor Vehicle Division.
So we are starting to plan for more training in our department.
This is something we need to improve on and we will certainly see where we can train people to take over the jobs.
I will try to make my question quick because I have three minutes left.
Can you tell me from your senior management how many Inuit employees have left the department in the last three years?
You will have every opportunity to ask further questions even after your minutes are up.
That’s for the information of the members.
We lost two employees who were in the Assistant Deputy Ministers positions.
David Akeeagok moved on to another position and Rosemary Keenainak was moved to another position also.
At times when there is shuffling of portfolios, there tends to be a shuffling of senior managers as well.
We don’t have the numbers in front of us but Methuselah Kunuk used to work in the department when I was the Minister of MACA.
He has since moved on to the Qikiqtani Inuit Association office and I don’t know how many there are currently who have moved on.
Mr. Arvaluk: Have you looked at your regional offices in the Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Baffin Regional Offices to see if you could recruit those middle managers?
I am happy that you have an experienced Assistant Deputy Minister now from the Kivalliq; there is one that has come from there.
But have you looked at other middle managers from your regional offices to move them to headquarters, or at least attempt to move them to your headquarters in the directorate level and train new ones in the region.
The reason that I am saying that is because the communities and the regional offices are great training grounds for potential senior managers at the headquarters level.
Have you made that move?
I can only say that we will encourage more Inuit employees coming from the regional offices to headquarters if they want to.
We are always open to those ideas and we will pursue those where there are Inuit that want to be promoted to headquarters level.
I am pretty sure the regional superintendents would have a pretty good idea who would be willing to move up, but a lot of times that involves moving families and a lot of our regional staff have stayed in those regions so long that it is difficult sometimes for them to move.
But we need to recruit more younger Inuit that may be more mobile and this is something that we are going to be working on in the department and we will certainly pursue those goals to put more Inuit in senior management.
Mr. Arvaluk: If I ask a real quick question, then maybe I could ask one more. Do you have people in your files from your regions that you would be able to contact when the positions become available at the headquarters level?
Do you have a pool of people that can be quickly contacted to encourage them to apply for senior management levels?
We have started a newsletter to all of our decentralized offices and to the regions. So all the staff should know that there are positions opening in our department and should be able to take advantage of those positions in Iqaluit at the headquarters level.
Yes we are encouraging this with our staff and my staff at the regional level are very good at promoting Inuit staff if they wanted to move.
Right now we will have all Inuit Superintendents in our three regions.
That’s what we are pursuing and I agree with the member that we need to make sure that we have more Inuit employment at the headquarters level but to say that, we also have improved since the last time in our Inuit employment rates across the department we now have 62 employees working in the department.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): This is more of a policy question.
On the same page, is it true that you no longer practice five year capital planning at the community level for heavy equipment for example, dump trucks and things like that for example?
We do have a capital planning process and we communicate with our hamlets still and if we are not then we should be told.
But my staff are doing that, it is something that we carried over and is still being done with our hamlets.
Like in a hockey game you owe me two seconds after the whistle.
Mr. Chairman, on the directorate are you getting some feedback from the communities on how to deal with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit through your special advisors?
Do you have a network of incoming advice from the communities on how to deal with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, and does your special advisor?
Maybe I will just rephrase my question.
Does your staff for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit catalogue the information coming from the communities, especially the hamlets and mayors, in your office?
We do have a special advisor on Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit at the headquarters level, Tom Sammurtok.
Also in each region we have a contact person who is constantly listening to the concerns of the hamlet councils and other people on a regular basis.
So yes we have those people.
Just to get back to James’ earlier question.
When you talk about special advisors, there are three positions in this department, so is there a director on top of a special advisor?
What is the exact structure?
We have to have positions like a special advisor to deal with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
Because of its importance we now have special advisors on top of directors or there are directors also for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): I’d just like to ask the minister if they have directors, are they all Inuit beneficiaries?
The Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit advisor is an Inuk beneficiary, but the directors aren’t Inuit beneficiaries.
We’ve hired an Inuk beneficiary to collect information in regards to Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, because we do not want to lose any information that is collected.
I just to get some more clarification, if they’re well qualified for their positions, why aren’t they in the directors’ positions?
These advisors are very qualified and they deal with the senior managers and for instance, Simon Kuliqtana is the Director for Sports in Igloolik.
There’s a position in Baker Lake in Sports North, and this individual, Marilyn Neily, in Iqaluit, who is very qualified in her position with sports.
We also have Tom Sammurtok, who deals with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
We have an individual who deals with different regions.
There are a lot of positions but there are three main divisions.
There’s the deputy minister and two assistant deputy ministers.
There are three divisions that we deal with within the department and as individuals we try to listen to people that are well qualified in what they do.
There was 777 thousand dollars and it’s now 1 million 608 thousand dollars.
Under travel and transportation, are you expecting to travel more?
I spoke to my new staff about that and I told them that they should visit communities more to get information and consult with communities on different matters.
I encouraged them to go to communities more so that’s why there’s an increase.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Under contract services, it’s over 1 million dollars.
What kinds of contract services or contracts are there in the department?
Like I stated, in Nunavut, there is a review that needs to be done on air transportation corridors.
If we were to do a review on the air service study, this money would be used for that or other types of contracts.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): On page 7-7, under Grants and Contributions, Grants, Leadership Forum, to facilitate leadership meetings in Nunavut.
There was no previous line item and now there is a figure of 150 thousand.
Would this 150 thousand be used for meetings held for SAOs and councillors for example?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): The mayors sometimes want to meet, for instance mayors from the Baffin, mayors from the Kivalliq, mayors from the Kitikmeot, sometimes want to get together or hold a conference to discuss common issues.
So this would be used to facilitate a conference such as this.
Under that, there are contributions for firefighter training.
She spoke about it in her speaking notes.
So my question is why was the training not available to all communities?
Sometimes, the facilitators or trained teachers will go to the communities and hold fire training workshops for firefighters.
I can say that we will review this course and if we have to make changes, we will do so in respect to the training of firefighters in the regions.
That’s very clear and I will relay that to my constituents who wish to have this type of course, as there was a course taught in Arctic Bay and no one knew about it.
This 54 thousand dollars, what would the fire equipment funding be used for?
What kinds of equipment?
How could the community ask for this funding?
The regional offices are aware of what communities need and the 54 thousand dollars for fire equipment is used for jackets or boots for fire fighters.
I understand what it’s for.
But my question is: how would one approach the office to get a part of this funding?
How would a community ask for this funding?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): I apologise, the communities can request money through the department.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Thompson. Mr. Havioyak.
I just wanted to make a little comment about Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
I have seen what is being done here in the Baffin Region using Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit procedure and in the Kitikmeot it seems like it is not as advanced as the people of Baffin.
How can we go about using these methods since we want to use it more in our region and make it move visible in the Kitikmeot?
How can we go about this?
I understand where the Kitikmeot is concerned about and Kane Tologanak is an individual that the communities are able to work with.
In Kugluktuk there was a conference that was facilitated by Tom Sammurtok and the communities were invited to participate in the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit conference.
Sometimes you probably don’t know where I am coming from and we would very much like to use the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit methods in our area as well.
Thank you for your response and if we are using it more then it will be more visible in our region.
I would like to ask another question in another area.
Your staff will be visiting the communities in our region more and it will help a lot in our communities when your staff visit our region more often.
When I was a mayor in Kugluktuk, sometimes the staff at the regional or headquarters level would have one job and go to one community just for one day and after that one job the staff member would leave right away and we didn’t like that at all.
If this person could do more than one thing at a time when they go to visit the community, then it would be more effective.
If each person was able to do more than one job then it would be more helpful.
We should teach our people at the community level how to drive trucks, lands management and so on.
How do you see this now, is it progressing?
I would like to ask the minister that question.
His question and comments are very clear, but Mr. Chairman, in the Baffin because the population is higher, sometimes we have to visit the communities.
For example in Pond Inlet and sometimes we have to send people from our office out on an emergency basis.
So I understand when the member says that staff should come in an assist the hamlets more with their responsibilities.
So I understand what the member is saying.
This brought to my mind that the aboriginal people that are working, the ratio is very low.
There are fewer Inuit people working in senior management positions that there should be.
For people in Kugluktuk we have to keep this in mind that the Inuit people … (interpretation ends)…technical people just to get things off the ground.
I think now that we have some positions filled in the management area, again I just want to follow up what James was saying let’s get some training going so that you have more Inuit employment in those decentralized communities.
Again, so we are benefiting the communities instead of having someone coming in from the south to work.
I want to I guess, encourage that, or pressure your department or division to have some trainee positions open at each level for senior management positions.
We also participate as a department in career days so that we can promote our department at the high school level, at all levels in the community. That’s one way we can attract more young people to go into professions of their desire after grade 12. Training requires a lot of O and M dollars and this is something that I know the government as a whole is pursuing to get more trainees into our positions.
I agree with the member that there is a need for more Inuit employment in my department and we are trying everything that we can to, and we will try everything we can to make sure that we are promoting Inuit employment in our department.
If there are none, we are on Community Government and Transportation.
Page 7 – 6.
Total operations and maintenance 10 million 218 thousand.
Any other questions or comments?
Turn the page to 7 – 8 which goes on from 7-9 to 7-15.
So if you have questions you could ask your questions relating to all those pages for your information.
Mr. Chairman, I want to ask a question on 7-11.
To assist sport organizations and associations with the costs of clinics, workshops, conferences, competitions and projects oriented towards the development and promotion of amateur sport.
Is that a realistic budget and how was the budget set by the government?
That’s a very good question and Shawn Maley was a previous recreation director so this is in the bottom of his heart.
So I think I will give him the pressure to answer that question.
Mr. Maley.
Mr. Maley: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As to the question by Member Glenn Mclean; to answer your question this particular line item just deals with sport association development with Sport Nunavut.
What we are seeing here is in fact a 500 thousand dollar transfer out of the budget because it was an Arctic Winter Games year.
Then we topped that up with additional dollars, as Mr. McLean asked, to in fact augment the training and travel costs with Sport Nunavut.
In addition to this line item though we also offer a number of programs in the sport areas, through recreation and leisure and I am sure that you will be asking questions further as we proceed later today.
Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Maley.
All these questions that are raised are all interesting.
So Mr. McLean.
Sport Nunavut is located in the community that I live in it’s no secret.
One of the issues that was brought up was that you are giving referee’s clinics, Sport Nunavut were at one time going out and running different clinics and hiring coaches and due to the strong central government that we have in Iqaluit, that a cheque for a coaches clinic would have to come out of Iqaluit.
They never trusted the Sport Nunavut people to issue a little 50 or 60 dollar cheque to pay people that volunteer to do things.
And there is a lot of skill level in all of our communities and I think it’s time to give people in the decentralized communities that are in charge of different organizations.
I know a director or a superintendent has spending authority up to 250 thousand in the old GNWT and I am sure that we have passed that down to our directors and superintendents.
If we haven’t, we should and I strongly recommend it.
But have you decided if you are going to give this organization any kind of spending authority in regards to writing cheques at the local level or having a finance person at the local level, help do some cheque writing authority?
We are looking at the changes right now and so we will be seeing some changes in that area that we need to improve upon.
Just for the members to be aware that we are looking at this right now and we will see some changes.
Do you want to continue Mr. McLean?
Mr. Chairman, my question to the minister is that when I was doing my Nunavut Tourism last summer, it was very delightful to see new arenas opening up and being built in certain communities.
We all know that 50 to 60% of our population is under 20 and what I noticed this summer was the large usage that community halls were getting, and gyms and stuff.
The kids seem to be really athletic.
Kids in Nunavut are very athletic a lot of them and they like to play, on the land or in the gyms or in the arenas and things like that.
Since division we had a really successful program for recreation directors up in Inuvik where kids would go up there for two years and become recreation leaders and people like that and it seems to have disappeared right off the face of the map in the last three years.
I think it’s needed because sport and recreation is important to the young people in Nunavut because in the Bathurst Mandate and it was in a couple of other budgets that we wanted to keep people healthy and we want them to make healthy choices and things like that.
My question on this, like you say recreation association development 40 thousand, coaching development 215 thousand.
I think we are selling our young people short on the kind of money that we are putting into sports and recreation, coaching development and that.
We have the facilities; they are in almost every community.
But what are we doing to enhance sport and recreation activities in our communities for people in the future?
There used to be that two year program in Inuvik and what we are planning to do now is divide that same program into ten modules that can be delivered at the community level and each module should take nine days to complete.
We will try to do it better so that each person will not have to leave their families for two years to be recognized for that certificate.
So we are tailoring it to the communities and we will deliver it in ten different modules.
That’s good news that we are going to give another level of certification to recreation directors.
And I am sure that a lot of our communities can identify individuals that could benefit from this.
I want to bring up a couple of other issues, if I can Mr. Chair and I will ask them as questions.
I will make a brief statement and I will ask them as questions.
In the old GNWT, in the old days, there was a lot of recognition given to individuals in communities and we know who they are.
There always seems to be someone in our communities whether it is an elder or a young person, somebody interested in minor hockey.