EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Let the ministers out there know that if there is anything we can do to help, to let us know.
I’m sure that the minister is also aware, and it will probably come up at those meetings, that last month the parole officer that was found murdered in a home had recently released the offender in Yellowknife.
In light of this tragedy, can the minister tell us whether the policy or practices relating to parole services in Nunavut have been reviewed at this time.
Unfortunately, parole is currently handled by the federal government.
In Nunavut, we are working with the federal government to gain control of it so we can pool our resources.
So, I cannot speak for the federal government, but in looking at the media reports, I do believe they have taken steps to avoid similar situations.
So, once we get an agreement with the federal government to handle parole and probation issues, then I think we should have more management of this situation.
Speaker (interpretation): Your last question, Mr. Tootoo.
I’m pleased to hear that, and I guess from the ministers’ response that violence against women is something that is a priority of this government.
I’ll just ask him, for the record, if he can confirm that addressing the violence against women and working with groups to try and address that is one of the top priorities for this department.
Unfortunately, it has to be in light of where we stand in the country.
It is an area where we do not appreciate having the highest numbers.
I’ll be working with my colleagues on this side of the House to try and address this issue, whether it be with the Status of Women Council, and our Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth minister.
So, it’s something that all departments in our government are working on, an inter-departmental working group, and as I said, I look forward to discussions at the national government level to try and find ways through this very difficult problem.
Question 002 – 2(2): Department of Health in a Deficit Situation
Last fall during the Kitikmeot meeting, someone stated there is one department of health, it was $26 million , last year, that there will be in a deficit of $8 to 10 million.
I was wondering if that is true.
Did they get that figure from the Department of Finance, or was that just an estimation? Are they going to be in a deficit of $8 to10 million?
. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Ms. Aglukark.
I believe the member is referring to a comment that was made through the media from by some officials.
Of course, you know there have been some issues and shortage of funds for the Department of Health and Social Services, and tomorrow in my update I will be covering that in more detail.
We will anticipate that there might be some additional funding required for the department and I will unveil that tomorrow.
Speaker (interpretation): Your first supplementary. Mr. Curley.
Last supplementary question to the minister: is that the usual practice of the government, when the deputy ministers make those kinds of statements?
Even before they make a statement to the committee of the legislature?
(interpretation ends) I guess government... . (interpretation begins) Are they part of the variance reports, or was that taken from the departments?
So, I would like to ask if you have any policy, if officials like that are going to be making statements like that, because people get scared that they might be losing money.
So, if that’s clear, I would like a response.
In dealing with the budgets and when presenting budgets, those numbers and that information is released in the House.
The Deputy Minister of the Department of Health and Social Services and the Assistant Deputy Minister at the time had spoken to some figures at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association meeting, based on their analysis internally, and the information that related to any department’s variance report is reported, or what-not is reported and discussed at Financial Management Board.
Whenever there is a shortfall or emergency funding required, that information is dealt with at Financial Management Board and is then presented in the House in a formal request or in the main estimate.
Mr. Curley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to get clarification from the minister if it is a practice of the deputy minister to make a statement, as a government official, that the particular department is going to have a millions-of-dollars deficit.
Is that deputy minister authorized by his or her minister or by the Department of Finance?
In terms of the portfolio I hold as Finance minister, that’s not the policy internally.
What the deputy minister stated in Kugluktuk at the KIA annual general meeting... . It is generally not the practice to release those types of information.
When he stated those comments at the time, no, we had not discussed that in detail at the Financial Management Board level, and I understand that comment and that statement were dealt with through the Senior Personnel Secretariat of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Speaker (interpretation): Final supplementary question, Mr. Curley.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): I would like to ask the minister of Health: when the deputy minister made those statements... . If those go ahead, that they will have utilized $72 million for operations and also for medical care outside of Nunavut... . If that is the case, some of the programs will have to be shut down.
Can the minister clarify for me: if you’re going to have that kind of a deficit, what types of services are you going to close down?
Speaker (interpretation): You’ve been directing your questions to the Minister of Finance and now you’re redirecting your question to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
So, I will disallow that question.
Question 003 – 2(2): Investigation of Fuel Spill Near Coral Harbour
My question is directed to the Minister of Community and Government Services.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, subsequent to the spill in Rankin Inlet that occurred earlier this year, the minister assured members that steps were being taken to ensure there would be no further spills, but weeks later the most recent spill happened in Coral Harbour.
What specific actions did the Government of Nunavut take after the Rankin Inlet incident, and why were they not successful in preventing subsequent spills in Coral Harbour? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We recall that there have been five oil spills in Nunavut.
Apparently, when the coupling breaks from the pipes, that’s the result of oil spillage during delivery to the communities.
When we found out that the couplings break, because there have been numerous spills in Nunavut, what we told them is that instead of delivering fuel to the communities with a pipe, they should embark it onto the land so they could put the oil into the tanks.
Even after that happened, with the new procedure, what we found out that there was a spill again in Coral Harbour last fall.
Apparently it had to do with the breakage of the coupling, or the attachment.
So, from there, we spoke with Mr. Woodward and the general manager of that company about our concern.
What we said was that there were three more communities for the fuel to be delivered to, and that they should be using the new procedure to put oil in the tanks in the communities.
I think he talked about the attachments to the pipes or the couplings.
Since they have the new ones now, with that new attachment, did that still occur in Coral Harbour?
With the new attachment in Rankin Inlet, when there was a spill, what we did was we wanted them inspected every week to ensure there was no breakage.
They were the same attachments that were used in the Coral Harbour spill and there was nothing wrong with them, but we found out that there was another breakage in Coral Harbour which occurred last fall.
Next year what we plan to do is if they are going to be using the same procedure, they have to replace the attachments to the pipes and have a longer pipe to deliver fuel to the tanks in the communities.
Mr. Netser (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Speaker.
I didn’t know that there were these attachments that were more solid.
Apparently they can break too as well.
(interpretation ends) The minister has indicated to the media that the fuel supply contracts will be reviewed.
When will the review be complete, what has been determined to date, and will the minister commit to tabling that information in the House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will try to answer his questions.
As we all know, on the third year with the fuel delivery contractors we were going to review them, but as soon as their contract has expired we’ll be doing an investigation and a study on their procedures that they have followed, and we will take the concerns that were expressed by the people of Nunavut, and we will review them and table them.
Question 004 – 2(2): Opening of the Men's Healing Facility in Kugluktuk
(interpretation ends) As it was mentioned in my members’ statement earlier today, I look forward to the opening of the new Kugluktuk men’s Ilavut facility.
Mr. Speaker, can the minister tell us if the date has been chosen for the opening of the centre, and will the minister be present for the opening ceremonies?
My department is entitled the Department of Justice.
We don’t just deal with the courts.
The Inuktitut name for our department is “justice”.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the opening.
I understand the training was very helpful and I personally met the very happy future employees of the facility here in Iqaluit.
I do hope we can open it soon; it’s just a matter of completing the facility for security purposes and that’s in the hands of the local contractors.
So, once that is done the facility should be ready to go.
I understand that the workers still require a bit more training, at least two more weeks.
But they should be ready to go soon.
As I said, the facility is the only issue that will hold us back at this point.
Mr. Evyagotailak: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Approximately how many inmates will be repatriated from the Northwest Territories and from the Baffin Correctional Centre?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) From what I understand, in the first stage we will be able to hold ten inmates, and there will be some further work, installation of minor renovations, to accommodate further inmates in the coming year.
Hopefully by next fall we’ll be able to have 16 inmates all together, so it will be a very good improvement from the current state today.
What specific type of rehabilitation and healing programs will be offered to the inmates?
From what I understand, that’s one of the areas that the future employees are getting trained in right now, to offer programming for healing and to provide security, and in some cases to be trained for grieving and loss situations.
That training will be happening now to get them ready to work with the inmates.
Speaker (interpretation): Supplementary question, Mr. Evyagotailak.
Can the minister assure the people of Kugluktuk that all measures have been carefully taken to ensure the safety of the public.
Yes, that is why they took special training courses here in Iqaluit, operating under conditions they can expect.
So, they received training and actually went to the facility here and learned those skills.
In addition, as I said, the reason why the facility is not open now is that there needs to be further work to make sure the building is secure for all concerned.
Question 005 – 2(2): DNA Testing
Last March, Rhoda Maghagak, a constituent in my community, was murdered in the wee hours of the morning.
Cambridge Bay is a very small town of 1,500 people.
Three months went by and an arrest wasn’t made.
We heard that there was a delay in DNA testing.
I raised that issue in the House at the end of our last session, and the minister said that he would follow up and see if the DNA tests could be sped up pertaining to this particular investigation.
I wonder if the minister could update the House on his efforts to speed up the DNA testing for this murder and all murders in Nunavut.
Yes, any delay is a delay in justice, so I applaud the member for raising this matter with me.
It’s a real issue for not just the family but the whole community and our fellow Nunavummiut.
So, with the help of the member we were able to alert the RCMP of the urgency.
Unfortunately, they were working on a mega case in DNA testing in B.C. at that time, but from what I understand, they are working on finding ways to increase their capacity for DNA testing.
So, thanks to the member, we have been able to press our issues with the RCMP and they are currently, from what I understand, re-examining their ways and perhaps setting up another office for DNA testing.
That’s very reassuring to hear from the minister that the RCMP is speeding up the process to look at other means to assist in investigations.
I wonder if the minister could tell us today, many murders are the RCMP currently investigating in Nunavut.
I don’t have that information with me right now, Mr. Speaker.
Any death is investigated; it doesn’t matter how the individual may have died.
They continue to investigate it until they determine the cause.
So, I can’t say categorically how many may be under active investigation for murder.
I will take that question as notice and get back to the Member.
Speaker (interpretation): The minister is stating that he will take the question as notice and get back to the member.
Question 006 – 2(2): Research Facility Consideration for Nunavut
My question is directed to the Minister of Environment, Hon. Olayuk Akesuk.
I will be asking him the question because it is very important to our communities of Nunavut.
When I used to be a member of an organization, we used to talk about it quite a bit.
We talked about it with Sustainable Development, and it was talked about by the hunters.
I would like to ask the minister... . I am sure that every one of us is a hunter here in this House, and we have noticed that the mammals and the land animals are no longer comfortable in their environment.
There are no testing facilities of any kind here in Nunavut, although there are little labs in the communities, in the wildlife offices.
To send the testing down south costs a lot of money.
My question to the minister is has there been any consideration about providing, with the help of Fisheries and Oceans or Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, a research facility here in Nunavut?
I would like to thank the member for asking the question.
The wildlife officers have been decentralizing to Igloolik and what we have been doing is trying to find out what types of testing could be done in the Igloolik research facility.
We would like to be able to do some research that has to be done in Nunavut in Igloolik.
The person that works for us for the Department of Environment will be looking into this sort of problem that we have as Nunavummiut, and we will look at and review at what we have been doing to date, and what we wanted was for them to be able to look at some research things to be sent down south.
That is where we are at right now.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Yes, I realize that.
Ten to fifteen years ago, we heard that same thing. I think they were supposed to do that sort of stuff years ago and they still want to do it.
If you are going to eat walrus or polar bear meat, we do not know whether it is safe to eat it or not, or if you are going to hold a feast and there is a certain type of food that you might think is not good for consumption, then we have to know right away.
They feel that if the caribou has brucellosis that they tend to leave it out there on the land, but they do not want to do that because they might get charged by the RCMP for abandoning their kill.
Those things, I feel, are very important and that there should be a testing facility, and I do not want to wait for a laboratory. (interpretation ends) I do not want to have to wait that long for the results of the hunter’s judgement on the meat that he harvested.
(interpretation) I think this is very important.
I have been a member of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, and we talked about things such as eating walrus meat because of the danger of the bacteria that they have in the meat.
I know that they have one now in Northern Quebec that could do some testing of those animals that might not be fit to eat; I think they are in a better position.
I would like to ask the minister again: are there some kind of guidelines that are in place as to what kinds of things you are going to be doing in order to obtain a testing facility or a laboratory, and whether there is a proposal try to get one from the federal government?
Speaker (interpretation): The question period, perhaps, is very short.
So if you can shorten your preamble.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): What we have done was we looked at the facility in Igloolik.
At Minister Tapardjuk’s invitation, we went to Igloolik and looked at the laboratory and found out what is needed there to do some testing of those animal carcasses.
So, what we have done is that we wrote down all of the stuff that is needed in that laboratory to do some testing on those animals.
Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Alagalak, your supplementary question.
Yes, I understand that, but you did not answer the rest of my question.
I would like to be able to find out whether the minister’s department has a written proposal for the federal government to get some funding for the upgrading of that laboratory because we need it here in the North, because we want to know whatever we are going to eat is safe to eat, whether it has diseases or not.
There are also a lot of foreign things going into the North that we do not even know anything about, that are out there right now, such as those wasps coming into Nunavut and foreign animals coming into the north.
Those are the types of things that are coming to the North and we do not know whether they are a danger or not.
We have to be looking at them.
Mr. Akesuk, you are the head of your Department of Environment.
I think it’s about time that you and your department look at this issue very seriously, because our immune system is at stake, because those foreign diseases that our animals have contracted are getting to be dangerous.
If you know the history about the whalers, they had all types of dangerous things.
So I think the department should be looking into it seriously.
Speaker (interpretation): Mr. Alagalak, what was your question?
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Mr. Speaker, my question was I just wanted to know what plans are in place for the department about getting good laboratories in Nunavut.
What we have been doing is writing down the diseases that are in our wildlife today and the new diseases that are being contracted by the animals, but what we are trying to do is to work with the science institute in Igloolik.
What we could do is we could look into those types of concerns that the member has, and I know that funding is going to be needed for that laboratory, so what we have to do is make considerations to pursue with that.
Question 007 – 2(2): Climate Change Conference Representation for Nunavut
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Environment.
We heard that there was a conference in Iceland in regards to the climate change around the world and we also heard that there were no Nunavut government representatives attending that meeting, even when it is going to have the most impact here in the arctic.
Are you going to be sending representatives to future conferences?
When there was a meeting in Reykjavik... . I will be going to Reykjavik next week with some of my staff to have meetings on the issue of climate change.
There will be international representatives at that time and we will be attending that meeting.
Mr. Arreak (interpretation): I have no further questions.
Question 008 – 2(2): Research for Sea Cucumber Fish
Mr. Kattuk (interpretation): I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Environment.
In my riding and around the islands, we eat sea cucumbers, but we haven’t had any this summer because they were dead.
We do not know why, but it is probably due to the change in the climate.
I would like the minister to find out why those sea cucumbers have died in our area.
We could look into this issue, and as Mr. Alagalak said, he put an emphasis on having research done on the marine and land animals.  I will work closely together with the Member for Sanikiluaq to find out why there are no more sea cucumbers around that area and what impact it would have on the consumers.
I will work closely together with the member and biologists to find out the cause of this problem.
We will also look at the other shellfish.
Could the minister tell me when he will have the research done in our area?
Once we arrive in Iqaluit, we can send the specimens out to be analyzed.
We will need to have the specimens sent here so that we can send them down to the laboratories.
The people of Sanikiluaq cannot send specimens in one day.
From Sanikiluaq we have to send the specimens through the South, and then send it up to Igloolik.
It is going to take a while for the specimens to arrive at their destination and they will get spoiled en route.
I think it is up the minister’s department to see if we can send the specimens down South directly.
Are you going to be talking with the people in Winnipeg so that we can send the specimens down?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): We look at what the best would be, and since this is urgent, we will see what would be fastest.
We can work on it this week.
Speaker (interpretation): Your last supplementary, Mr. Kattuk.
I will work with the minister on this issue this week.
We’ll do all we can to look at this problem, and it is obvious that we do need a research centre or a laboratory built in Nunavut.
Mr. Barnabus.
Question 009 – 2(2): Medical Escorts
I will direct my question to the Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Levinia Brown.
When I was visiting my three communities, one question that kept popping up is why the elders and youth, who need medical care in the south, are not allowed to have escorts.
In emergency cases, some escorts are sent at a later date, but not at the same time the patient is going down.
In the larger communities, they are escorted.
Why is it that in my communities, they are not allowed to have escorts?
With regard to the policies and their application, the difference might be that we use different carriers for medical emergencies.
As you stated, if a unilingual elder is going South for medical treatment, it is stated in the policies that they are to bring an escort.
It is up to the medical personnel, and only after they’ve been approved by the medical personnel are they allowed to bring escorts.
Everyone has had an opportunity to pose their questions.
Mr. Tootoo, Mr. Curley, and Mr. Peterson.
Question 010 – 2(2): Determining a Fair Rate Rider
I am certain that all members of this House were as shocked as I was to hear the electrifying news last Friday, at precisely 5:06 p.m., the Hon. Minister of Education had emerged, like a phoenix from the ashes of the Rate Rider disaster, to once again take responsibility for Qulliq Energy Corporation.
I understand, Mr. Speaker, that he is so eager, he even has brought into this Chamber an extension cord that he has in his drawers.
My question, however, is not for him, it is for the Minister responsible for the Utility Rate Review Council, and it is straightforward.
The Utility Rate Review Council Act allows cabinet to issue guidelines to the Utility Rate Review Council with respect to what principles it should follow when determining whether their rates or tariffs are, and I will quote, “fair and reasonable”.
What does the minister consider to be fair and reasonable, in the context of the Qulliq Energy Corporation’s present financial position?
Speaker (interpretation): The Minister responsible for the Utility Rate Review Council, Minister Okalik.
I am glad that some member of this House has offered an extension cord as a symbol of an extension of a political career for one of our ministers.
It is very nice of the other side, perhaps offering it to my colleague, so he does not have to lose any sleep tonight.