EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I also want to say that it is important for us to respect and honour our elders in our daily lives.
Elder abuse and elder neglect occur too often in our communities.
I ask all members to join me in expressing respect for our elders and taking a firm stand against elder abuse and neglect.
Member’s Statement 062 – 4(3): Baker Lake High School Graduates (Mikkungwak)
I rise today to acknowledge the 2015 graduates of the Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School in Baker Lake who invited me to participate in their graduation ceremony in August 2015.
Mr. Speaker, it was an honour to have been part of the graduation ceremony for the five graduates.
Katlyn Amitnak;
Rachael Aupaluktuq;
Holly Kayuryuk;
Eugene Sivuraq, and
Tonya Tagoona.
The graduates also received awards that day.
Katlyn Amitnak received the Governor General’s Award, Holly Kayuryuk received the CGS Computer Award, Tonya Tagoona received the AREVA Award, I presented Eugene Sivuraq with the Pilimmaksarniq MLA Award, and Rachel Aupaluktuq received a Northern certificate.
Mr. Speaker, all the families were extremely proud of the accomplishments of the graduates.
I would also like to thank Hamlet of Baker Lake and the Bake Lake DEA for sponsoring events for the graduates.
I would like to ask my colleagues to join me in applauding the success of the Baker Lake graduates.
Member’s Statement 063 – 4(3): Congratulations to Whale Cove Soccer Teams (Kuksuk)
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Good day, my fellow residents of Nunavut and Arviat, as well as the people of Whale Cove.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate a group of people from Whale Cove who came here last month. (interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate soccer teams from Whale Cove. Recently, there were boys’ and girls’ teams that went to Iqaluit for a tournament.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to say that it was the girls’ team from Whale Cove that took home the gold. I’m sure they trained really hard to win the gold.
I’m sure that these types of sporting events are really good opportunities for our youth from different communities to meet, make new friends, and learn from each other.
This is what it’s all about.
Mr. Speaker, the team members were:
Caitlyn Oklaga
Lyla Marie Hapanak
Dianna Okalik
Mary Angoo
Pearl Kriterdluk
Mr. Speaker, I also want to say “thank you” to their support team, their coach, Keesha Jones, and their chaperone, Chris Jones.
(interpretation) Thank you. I would like you to join me in congratulating them, Mr. Speaker and my colleagues. (interpretation ends) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
An Hon. Member: Way to go!
Member’s Statement 064 – 4(3): Problems with Boarding Home in Iqaluit (Keyootak)
I rise today to state my constituents’ concerns.
I have repeatedly spoken out about this. In our community and throughout Nunavut, we all know that many people make use of medical boarding homes.
There has been an ongoing concern about the operations of Tammaativvik.
With regard to the telephone system, especially for the disabled people who stay in their rooms, there aren’t any attachments for the hearing impaired. If they are called, they don’t hear the phone ringing when they’re inside the room.
There are no hearing aids and the facility is not clean enough. These have been concerns of my constituents.
The hearing impaired need assistance when they try to go outside and some of them are neglected when there’s information needed to be passed on to the patients.
I will be asking questions about the concerns regarding Tammaativvik at the appropriate time.
Member’s Statement 065 – 4(3): Second Year as an Elected Member (Mike)
My colleagues probably remember that we were elected on October 28. It has been two years now and I appreciate that I am able to be with you here.
I don’t have much to say, but I just wanted to speak to that and for the two late arrivals, Alex and Pauloosie.
Member’s Statement 066 – 4(3): Congratulations to Elijah Tigullaraq (Enook)
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate one of my constituents, Elijah Tigullaraq, for having recently been awarded the 11th annual Council of the Federation Literacy Award for Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, this award was established in 2004 by the Council of the Federation, which represents all provinces and territories in the country.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I have had the honour and the privilege of knowing Elijah Tigullaraq and can personally call him a friend. I have known him for many years.
His commitment and dedication to education, language, and culture is recognized throughout our community of Pond Inlet and Nunavut.
(interpretation) Mr. Speaker, I thank (interpretation ends) Premier Taptuna (interpretation) for having nominated Elijah Tigullaraq for this award, and I ask all members to join me in recognizing him on his lifetime of service and accomplishment.
Member’s Statement 067 – 4(3): 2016 Plebiscite on Land Ownership (Hickes)
I was just finishing some notes and decided to make some of my preamble in Oral Questions into a Member’s Statement.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to discuss the land plebiscite that’s right now arranged to occur in May of 2016.
Mr. Speaker, Nunavummiut were entitled to revisit the land, the leasehold title structure of land use, this year in 2015, as outlined in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
After I had been elected and when I was first informed of this plebiscite being held next year in 2016, I voiced my disappointment as our government had 15 years to plan for this event.
I consider myself an informed person, but I am not aware of all the pros and cons in converting to a freehold title structure.
To date, I have not seen any information shared with our constituents to help them decide what method is best for their community.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will have questions on this matter.
Return to Oral Question 026 – 4(3): Update on Capital Plan for Francophone School (Mike)
This was a question asked by George Hickes directed to me as the Minister of Community and Government Services. It relates to the capital plan for the francophone school in Iqaluit.
In March earlier this year, we got an update on the $2 million that was approved in last year’s fiscal budget to do preplanning studies. (interpretation ends) Included in that preplanning study intended to improve capital project delivery through more comprehensive planning prior to being considered for cabinet approval is an addition to (interpretation) École des Trois-Soleils.
(interpretation ends) In that correspondence, it had the preplanning phase that would be completed by April of 2016.
I would like to get confirmation from the minister whether that date is still valid.
(interpretation) The Department of Community and Government Services’ Technical Services staff are working collaboratively with the Department of Education on this project. We are planning to hit the original date of April 2016. There is no change to that deliverable.
I want to recognize the person I used to work with when I was the Co-op manager in both Taloyoak and Gjoa Haven.
He works with Arctic Co-operatives Limited.
Welcome to the House, Mr. Andy Morrison.
I would like to recognize my fellow resident whom I have known for many years. (interpretation ends) He is the founding president of ITC. He has also been an MLA in the NWT legislature and an MLA in the Nunavut legislature as well.
I would like to ask my colleagues to welcome Tagak Curley to the House.
Yes, the person who was just recognized, Mr. Tagak Curley, I remember at the time in1975, I started working for ITC when he was the president and I remember very clearly that the land claims process was introduced when he was there.
There was Prime Minister Trudeau sitting at the time. I cannot forget that at the beginning.
Today, we are sitting in our Legislative Assembly because they were our true leaders and they were the first ones. Tagak Curley, be proud of him and thank him as Nunavummiut.
Yes, I would like to join in recognizing Tagak Curley, but he also remembers that when I was a young person, as a student in Kivalliq Hall, the MLAs went to speak to the graduates.
I remember clearly that he was one of the speakers for the graduation of Kivalliq Hall telling us to have a good future, to get an education, and to help our fellow Nunavummiut.
I remember it clearly that he spoke to us very well and I listened to him, so I am now a Member of the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you very much and welcome to the Assembly.
He has been recognized already, but I want to recognize him also because he is a fellow resident of Rankin Inlet, Mr. Tagak Curley.
I have been a member of the Co-op Federation and I would like to recognize the general manager, Andy Campbell and the chief financial officer who is also here, Glenn Williams.
I forgot the name of the third person. I worked with them a lot at the Co-op Federation.
I would like to recognize them while they’re in the House.
I would like to welcome Tagak Curley and his grandchild.
Tagak’s father and my father were cousins.
I don’t usually mention this, but I have to do it, so I stand to say it.
I welcome him to Iqaluit. He was also a resident of Iqaluit and worked in different capacities.
Welcome here, cousin.
I, too, would like to welcome a visitor to the gallery, Tagak Curley’s granddaughter, Megan Nester. Welcome to the gallery.
Question 075 – 4(3): Status of Social Assistance Review (Mikkungwak)
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Family Services has been conducting a review of income assistance programs across Nunavut, as the minister stated in the Minister’s Statement.
Community consultations were held in the community of Baker Lake in mid-September and a number of my constituents attended these meeting to provide input.
Can the minister provide an update on when she anticipates bringing forward the results of this review?
There are still five communities we have yet to visit and we’re planning to visit them in the coming months. It’s because of the weather that we were kept from going there.
We are hoping to be able to visit them before the winter session, and also to give you the results of the review at the winter session.
I understand there are five more communities that have to be visited, but over 40 percent of all Nunavummiut currently access income assistance programs.
In some cases, the monthly amounts provided through social assistance as well as the Child Tax Benefit and the Universal Child Care Benefit combined are barely enough for a family to survive.
Can the minister indicate whether she will be bringing forward an increase to the social assistance allocations in the new fiscal year?
I thank my colleague for asking questions regarding income support.
The review is ongoing and for social assistance, they are reviewing the elders’ benefits, daycare benefits, and the senior fuel subsidy.
They are all being reviewed right now. In the month of December, the poverty reduction group will be meeting about social assistance.
There are still a lot of things that need to be done, but we will give you more information at a later time.
I recognize that there are a number of meetings that are still going to be occurring.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that the Income Assistance Program is one of last resort and that the government seeks to encourage clients to work towards other means of supporting themselves and their families.
I am confident the minister and her officials are aware that there are often limited opportunities for certain individuals to reduce their reliance on income assistance while, at the same time, the prices for food, clothing, and other necessities continue to rise.
Will the minister commit to ensuring that adequate supports and resources will be provided to those individuals who rely on social assistance to feed and clothe their children?
Everything that is being said is being heard from the communities and we haven’t visited all the communities yet, but we should have visited them all in the new year.
After that, we have funding from the bureau of statistics to do a consumer price survey. In previous times, we didn’t know that, but as a government, we are keeping track of food prices now and also as to how Inuit are being helped through social services and social housing.
All of that is under review, so I can’t really respond fully to that right now.
Question 076 – 4(3): Public Service Management (Angnakak)
Whenever I ask the government to explain why the Department of Human Resources was dissolved and its functions and personnel transferred to other entities, the response has been that this was a recommendation contained in a consultant’s report that was prepared for the government a few years ago.
The minister alluded to this report just last week when he responded to my questions.
However, that report was never made public, so very few of us in this House have actually had the opportunity to give careful consideration to the rationale for the recommendation.
Will the minister table this report in the Legislative Assembly before the end of our current fall sitting, yes or no?
I thank Ms. Angnakak for the question. I don’t know if I should thank her, but it seems like every time I answer a question, I get hammered in the newspapers by all these anonymous posters. There are a few non-anonymous posters.
Mr. Speaker, it’s no secret that Human Resources was struggling for many years and the OAG report did come out in 2010.
That was just one report that was taken into consideration by the Government of Nunavut of the day.
We announced, if I get my dates correct, in budget 2011, that we were considering the restructuring of the government. We were going to review the government and look at some restructuring, which we did. We hired a consultant by the name of Ken Lovely.
He worked with all the departments, deputy ministers, and other officials in the government, and prepared a report.
That report was shared with MLAs and ministers of the day. I remember having extensive consultations and meetings with MLAs and ministers in Full Caucus.
We discussed that in the House here and we went through the process that the government must follow to restructure government departments, and it was approved in this House.
I don’t believe it was tabled and since this is a whole new session, I would like to encourage the minister to table the report.
If the minister does table the report, I am willing to read it with an open mind.
Is the minister open to the idea of at least looking at such models as an independent public service commission to address the issues that have been raised regarding the management of the public service?
Hon. Keith Peterson: Mr. Speaker, again, Ms. Angnakak, I’m not sure where she is pressing on this.
Again, we restructured the human resources department. We amended the Public Service Act in September 2013 and strengthened the Act to protect the public service.
We just opened up the independent Office of the Ethics Officer on April 1.
We have continued to upgrade, improve, and amend our Human Resources Manual and directives. We’re doing a number of things that provide better oversight and management of our public service.
We have said in this House many times that our employees are our most valuable resource. We appreciate the work that they do perform.
Again, I’m sure Ms. Angnakak has been a manager and an employee, and she will understand that being an employee or a manager in the public service or any entity is a challenge.
There are entire fields dedicated to that in universities and colleges.
They call it organizational behaviour with thousands of books or possibly millions of books. Everybody’s got a theory on organizational behaviour and how employees, managers, supervisors, and boards of directors work together as a team, and that’s what we’re trying to do in this government.
I was hoping to hear that the minister would be agreeing to at least look at other models.
There’s always room for improvement for all of us.
I’m going to go on to my last question.
Although it’s not a substitute for structural solutions, dialogue is a good place to start. My final question is this: when did the minister last have a face-to-face, sit-down meeting with the president of the Nunavut Employees Union to exchange views, concerns, or ideas about how to reduce conflict in the workplace?
I agree with Ms. Angnakak.
There’s always room for improvement and that’s what the government has been doing over the years, from 1999 right up to the present, and continuing to recommend improvements.
The cabinet approves all kinds of changes to internal reorganization of departments or external arrangements through the collective bargaining process as we work with our unions.
My officials in the Department of Finance and other departments meet with union officials all the time as to how to administer and manage our government.
I haven’t sat down at a detailed, comprehensive meeting with Mr. Fennell. My office is always open. I sat down with him on Friday, although that didn’t get picked up by the media.
They don’t look too closely at good news events, but we sat down and signed the new collective agreement for the Qulliq Energy Corporation employees.
Question 077 – 4(3): Elders’ Issues (Akoak)
My questions are for the Minister of Culture and Heritage.
In 2011, the Government of Nunavut’s 2010-14 Elders Program Strategy was tabled in the Legislative Assembly.
When will the minister be tabling his department’s updated strategy?
I thank my colleague from Gjoa Haven for asking that question.
Mr. Speaker, as to actually when would I table it, I cannot say today right now, (interpretation ends) but I will take that as notice.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) The minister has taken this as notice. We will continue on to the next member. (interpretation) Oral Questions.
Member for Aivilik, Mr. Mapsalak
Question 078 – 4(3): Assistance for Disabled Hunters (Mapsalak)
Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if the minister can respond to this. When full-time harvesters get injured and they are no longer able to hunt, would you provide support to those harvesters who are no longer able to hunt due to injuries?
The Department of Environment views harvesters or hunters as employees.
Once we have completed the review of the harvester support programs, we will be able to make a decision on how we can deal with that within the Department of Environment. We have a plan and we need to consult.
It is part of our plan to consult with the public in regard to the question you just posed for the harvesters who are injured during hunting and how they can be provided support or compensation. This is not publicized as much as it should be.
Perhaps I understand that you are saying there is such a program.
I just spoke about that program within the Department of Environment.
It has the responsibility of ensuring compensation to the harvesters if they ever get injured while they are hunting. It starts from the community itself.
Yes, we have a program under compensation and harvesters are included.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Your final supplementary, Mr. Mapsalak.
I know that the public is very interested in hearing about this, as to how they can be provided support or be compensated.
What about the individuals who provide support to fill out the application? Where can the harvesters find the application forms? Who can provide them to help fill out the application forms for compensation?
Yes, as I stated before, the public does not know very much about this program.
Yes, we want to publicize this program to the public where we provide support for harvesters.
If there are individuals that would like to fill out the application form, they can approach their local HTO or the conservation officers.
Question 079 – 4(3): 2016 Plebiscite on Land Ownership (Hickes)
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Community and Government Services today.
As I alluded to in my Member’s Statement earlier, there have been a lot of questions around the possibility of a land plebiscite being delayed from May of next year.
At this time, I would like to ask the minister what the status of the plan to hold the land title plebiscite in May of 2016 is.
I believe we all are aware that during a Full Caucus meeting, we had a meeting in regard to the land plebiscite.
We had an agreement at a Full Caucus meeting that the Nunavut government can take on the responsibility of the land plebiscite.
We had agreed to the 2016 land plebiscite.
That is how it is with the Department of Community and Government Services, using the Full Caucus motion.
Since Full Caucus meetings are in-camera, I wasn’t going to bring that up.
My next question, although he didn’t really answer the status of the plan, I’m going to assume that because he didn’t say otherwise, the plebiscite is still being scheduled to happen in May of 2016.
How and when will information packages be rolled out across the territory to assist Nunavummiut in making an educated decision on what is best for their community?
As I stated, when we first started working on it last year in 2014… . On April 16, 2015, they decided that the Department of Community and Government Services would take on the responsibility of a plebiscite.
To date, we have been working on this issue to make sure that information is distributed to the communities and to make sure that Nunavummiut are fully informed by way of correspondence and by way of publications. We are now moving ahead with this.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Your final supplementary, Mr. Hickes.
In some ways, I feel like I should be allowed to start over. I still haven’t heard an answer to my questions, but I will move on.
I do have a concern.
With capital recovery being the same between leasehold and freehold title systems, if a community does choose to move to a freehold title structure, what is the plan through Community and Government Services with the municipalities to limit costs to landowners on the title transfer?
Almost 20 years ago, we held a plebiscite in Nunavut and the response was no.
We have to be careful with the decisions of Nunavummiut.
For that reason, we are working with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated because they have experience with plebiscites in the past too.
Once we make a decision on the contents as to how the municipal land will be included, we will have to work on that.
I know that next year in the springtime, there will be a plebiscite.
It is evident according to the plans we have that we have to provide information and consult with the public and we’re moving ahead with that. We are working with NTI at this time.
Question 080 – 4(3): 2016 Plebiscite on Land Ownership (Savikataaq)
I was going to ask this question later, but since Mr. Hickes brought it up, I’ll just ask the Minister of CG&S questions about the same matter on the land plebiscite.
It was decided that CGS is the plebiscite authority and the minister did state that he is working on it.
Have they come to a conclusion yet as to who will be an eligible voter?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) The Hon. Minister of Community and Government Services, Minister Mike.
We are working with NTI on these issues and that is part of our planning in terms of who will be eligible to vote on the plebiscite. This issue has been raised a few times and we have heard various positions on who should be eligible to vote on the plebiscite.
We are working closely with NTI and Nunavut Elections on that.
The minister stated that he is working with NTI, Elections Nunavut, and the communities.
Does the minister have a deadline of when this work in progress will have to be done?
There is a timeframe for the plebiscite to happen, which I thought was April, but the minister stated May of 2016.
Does he have a timeframe of when he’s going to have an informative package for Nunavummiut so that they can have an informed vote?
We have started that and I know that we’re going to be working on it this month.
We have to consult to make sure we hear from the communities as to who would be eligible to vote.
Our staff is now planning that.
We will have a better idea next month in regard to the member’s question.