EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
The schools classroom support assistants are included there.
Is this where the reduction in PY’s in the CSAs is going be?
Like there are less positions there and whether it is janitors and receptionists PY’s, while everyone says that they need more CSA positions and it seems to be less, so I was wondering if the reduction is going to be there.
This is for pre-teacher positions.
These PY’s are from the teacher learning centre and would be affected by four PY’s and they would be a reduction from the regional offices. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): Do you have any further questions?
Mr. Havioyak: Over on the school operations page, I just want to give you a scenario that could happen in the communities of Nunavut, and I’m sure it’s already happened before somewhere.
Let’s say we have elementary students going over to the high school.
We have more elementary students going to the high school this year and there are not enough classrooms in that school because of so many transfers from the elementary school to the high school.
What type of planning is in place, say if it happens this year, how do you get around to getting more classrooms for students whocome out from the elementary school to the high school?
I hope my question is clear.
I’m just saying, we already had all the classrooms filled, but we had at least 40 more students moving into the high school.
Because we’ve got two different schools right, one elementary and one high school, and we have 40 going over to the high school, so there is not enough space available for those new students.
What do you have in place to address that type of situation?
Chairperson (interpretation): It’s usually a lot clearer if you ask your question once instead of repeating it a few times.
Regardless of how many schools have this problem, and I’ll just use this as an example, regardless of how many students you may have in a grade 12 twelve class.
If that’s the graduating class for that year, then the classes are moved into those spaces one ahead.
So, if there’s a classroom for the class that’s coming in, if we find that we have a real problem of not having space in the high school, then we have some situations where the District Education Authorities have changed levels in the school to accommodate the need for the class size to remain at the elementary school.
So, there have been some very creative examples set for us in cases where the space was not available and we’ve even seen cases where portables were used to accommodate the need for an additional classroom.
There are some different examples that have been set which have been used to meet that need.
And thank you, Mr. Minister.
(Interpretation ends) No, it was brought to my attention from the District Education Authority that yes, we have some graduates coming out of the high school but not as many are coming over from the elementary school.
So what they are saying is that they just don’t have enough room for the ones that are moving over.
Let’s use Kugluktuk for an example. If you learned by May or June, that you won’t have enough space for those students moving over to the high school, how would you deal with that?
Would you ship in a trailer to the community?
I’m just trying to get a clear answer here.
Well, that would be dealt with at the community level because if you look at May to September realistically, there is no way we can be expected to build additional classrooms into a school.
Physically adding on a classroom is not possible during that time.
But when they look at the expected enrolment and if there are signals from the upcoming enrolment levels that there is a problem identified by the schools, then the District Education Authorities and the school principals will try to come up with an alternative solution.
Chairperson (interpretation): In order to better direct our meeting, I would like you to know that we shouldn’t be asking hypothetical questions.
Let’s look at realistic approaches because it’s too close to the beginning of the school year.
It wasn’t hypothetical, like I said, I met with the District Education Authority, Mr. Chairman, and it was identified so it was not a hypothetical question.
Anyway, I want to ask them what time of the year do you usually find out that enrolment will be higher in the high school than the elementary school?
Do you have deadlines that each school must report on?
In order to look at the expected numbers for the next school year, we usually know by the end of September.
Mr. McLean: (Laughing) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am not going to say I will keep it brief, but I’ll try.
On the PYs, like two years ago, there was a surplus in the Department of Education because of unfilled PY positions.
The funding came through and there was a brand spanking new school bus purchased for Cape Dorset that they badly needed and for your community that they also badly needed.
To me, that is sort of good that we have school buses in those communities because they needed them but it was something that sort of popped up on the plan.
We know that you needed school buses for Pangnirtung and Cape Dorset.
The point I’m getting to here, is how many unfilled PYs do you have this year?
If you have patience with me, we will have a look at the numbers here.
Looking at the numbers for our Department of Education, we have 66 positions that were not filled out of 937 positions.
That is quite a few unfilled PY’s.
How many of them are actually in the school?
Are there any actually in classrooms?
Are there any unfilled PY’s in the classrooms and if so how many?
I’ll have my deputy minister respond to the question and to remind everyone there is a fluctuation in the numbers every year.
Mr. Rich: The numbers fluctuate almost monthly particularly with the school system.
So, yes, at any given time we’ll have vacancies in the school system.
We tend to run in September with about 100% of the positions filled in the school.
We may have a maternity leave; we may have a sudden illness or what ever, so our filled rate in schools generally exceeds 95%.
Usually about 95% capacity.
If we look at other areas of the department such as the head offices in Iqaluit, what ever, we may have more long term vacancies of positions.
But generally the school positions, I would say 98 to 99% are filled during the school year.
That’s good to hear that schools are staffed up and there are no unfilled PY there.
We like to say that well, they’re not filled at headquarters or something like that, it is really not a great loss but it just means that you have to work 20 hours a day instead of 18.
I commend the hard working staff at the headquarters office and the regional offices.
But on that issue, when you get a community like this, this community here is an anomaly where the school population fluctuates as there are not too many other communities other than Arviat that really stand out where once the school starts in September, you could have a large jump in the population because of filling jobs.
How do you deal with that forced growth?
Is there any money in the budget to deal with any kind force growth in the school system in Nunavut?
Usually, well what they did was use some of our funding to fill the positions and we had to re-profile some of the dollars in order to fill up those positions.
Mr. McLean: The day is getting long, Mr. Chairman.
On that issue, can I ask a few questions on District Education Authority because it’s under school operations?
I have a few questions to ask there.
Well, if he wants to ask any question on any issue, please go ahead.
Chairperson (interpretation): I’m sorry, my mind was far away.
Go ahead Mr. McLean.
The reason I asked is some other Members are looking at me and I don’t know if they’re happy that I’m asking questions there.
They’re starting to squint and when people squint they’re either tired or angry so I’m hoping that everybody is tired.
But the question I have and it’s on a serious note, with the dissolution of the regional education boards, has the functions of the regional offices changed?
The regional education board had a total accounting function.
They provided a lot more services to the regional districts, the district education authority.
Since we dissolved the board and got rid of the elected Members, we still have the District Education Authority.
What I’m getting to here is that the functions of the District Education offices are changing.
What I’m getting to here is that the District Education Authority’s roles and responsibilities, assuming that they’re going to take on more responsibilities with the new act coming down, eventually, have you as the Minister looked at re-profiling the functions of those regional offices?
As a matter fact, yes.
And we have also looked at making some changes already.
And that’s an area we will continue to look at to see where the necessary changes are required.
Is one of the changes that you’re looking at doing is seeing that these people in these regional offices that are supposed to be there for school support, are actually going out and supporting the schools in the regions?
My concern is when I’m in my home community and I’ve got the regional office there and I’m going through Rankin Inlet and talking to people from Arviat, they’re not quite sure what their function is any more and actually how much support they’re getting out of those regional offices.
This is to go out there and help in the classroom and give the teachers and the administration the additional support they need for changing times with regards to dealing with conflicts in classrooms and teaching materials, just all around support for the teachers.
Are you looking at doing that in these regional offices?
We want the regional offices to be aware of these issues and to the question, we want the regional offices to be helping the District Education Authorities more within their regions.
I’ll try to make this my final question.
On that issue, when you’re looking at these regional offices and you have, I don’t know what the PYs are, but there’s quite a few PYs in those regional offices, and one of those issues that’s been brought up to me for probably the last ten years as the District Education Authority members and even as an Member of the Legislative Assembly, is that you have these PYs and they’re supposed to be out in the schools helping them do whatever they’re supposed to do in regards to making our education system better.
Sometimes I wonder if those offices provide that function.
But on that note, I’ve been asked numerous times about trying to take one of those positions in those regional offices and turning it into a regional child psychologist so that they could go out and work in the schools to identify issues happening in our schools.
Social workers currently are being overwhelmed in each community with the shortages.
Would your department consider looking at converting one of those PYs into a child psychologist on a test basis in the Kivalliq?
You don’t have to do it in the three offices but maybe just a test case in the Kivalliq to see if it would provide a good support function for the teachers who are running into all kinds of issues with fetal alcohol syndrome and various behavioural problems.
I don’t know if I’m in a position to commit to that at this time that I will take this position away and turn it into this one.
However having said that, I know this has been a challenge already for the Department of Health but it is an issue that we can look at and review, taking into consideration the number of letters and communication that we’ve had over the year looking at providing some level of service in our schools.
I really appreciate this and I may buy those bombardiers from you now.
My last question is on that issue, the seriousness of it.
I’m trying to emphasise that with the current situation in Nunavut now, and I don’t want to go on about suicides, but if we had a position like that in a regional office, that person could travel around and talk to teachers because teachers deal with kids from kindergarten to grade 12.
They see the behaviour of a child in a school everyday.
Most of them have to deal with anywhere from 5 children in grade 12 to 30 children in kindergarten and grade one.
If we had a child psychologist in the regional offices that went through the communities once or twice a year to talk to teachers about behavioural problems and what they are seeing in our children, then they could maybe interact with the help of social services in the community to stop a situation that could happen down the road in regards to suicide prevention.
I’m appealing to you as the Minister to seriously consider putting that position or creating it or flipping or turning it or something like that to see if it would alleviate the problem that we have in our communities.
Mr. Chairman, I know that it’s very important.
We know as a department that it’s very important but what we’re trying to finish off right now is reviewing how the students can get more support.
As part of our review, we will find out what kinds of positions or kinds of other support that we can provide.
Working along side of Health and Social Services, in regards to child protection or child welfare, we’ll be looking at those types of things that the Member is referring to.
From there if we need to, then we will provide some information to the Members as to what we’re going to do.
In regards to the District Education Authorities line items, in the amount of over 90 million dollars, I’m just looking at the figures here in Inuktitut.
The contributions to District Education Authorities for authority administration costs and for a portion of the operating expenses of the schools; I just wonder what it means by the portion of the operating costs, the word portion.
Which page is the Member referring to?
Could he tell me the page number?
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): It’s on page 9-20, under District Education Authority contributions.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): I’m sorry Mr. Chairman; I just saw the page where he’s at.
What they mean by portion, this is for the portion costs and a portion of the operating expenses.
My other question is the District Education Authorities have their funding and in the communities, are they doing more projects on their own as a District Education Authority as a result?
The District Education Authority’s know what they’re suppose to do and we know what they’re suppose do.
The District Education Authority’s are reporting more directly to our department in regards to their operations.
So, we’re working closer together with them now.
Chairperson (interpretation): 9-19.
Any questions on 9-19?
Total Operations and Maintenance. $88 million, 687 thousand dollars.
Chairperson (interpretation): Going back to page 9-4.
Education, department summary.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $159 million.
I’m sorry but my glasses are oops.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $159 million, 970 thousand dollars.
Does the committee agree that the Department of Education is completed?
It’s good that we can complete something that’s this important. Mr. Kilabuk.
Just to say that this is probably my last portfolio and it’ll probably be handed down to another minister and I would like to thank all the Members of the legislature for working with them and I would like to also thank my staff for all their hard work in preparing these.
I would also like to thank my fellow Members.
Chairperson (interpretation): What is the wish of the Committee?
I would like to continue on with the Minister of Justice.
Chairperson (interpretation): Is the Minister of Justice ready to make his opening remarks?
As the Minister of Justice, I am ready.
Mr. Chairman, I’m pleased to appear before the committee to present the Department of Justice, 2003 and 2004 proposed budget.
The department has been allotted a total operating budget of $46 million 58 thousand dollars, which represents an increase of $1 million 900 thousand dollars compared to last year.
The new money in the department’s budget will help us enhance our programs to reflect the priorities of the Bathurst Mandate.
Last year, I was asked by the Members of the house to ensure an RCMP presence in all Nunavut communities.
I’m happy to report that we are able to comply with your requests for this coming fiscal year.
The majority of the new resources cover positions for new detachments for the two communities of Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet plus a relief position for those detachments.
There is also some additional funding to support the emergency call centre and a police dog service for Nunavut.
Currently, the Baffin Correctional Centre is above capacity and there are additional costs in housing inmates outside of Nunavut. $300 thousand dollars will be used to cover those costs.
A longer term solution will be addressed in the department’s next capital plan submission.
Additional community corrections positions were hired in mid-year in 2002/2003 in order for more offenders to serve their sentences in the communities.
The increase of $200 thousand dollars is to cover the salary costs for those additional community corrections positions.
The community corrections positions are an important way to enrich the Department of Justice in using Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in our work.
Having enhanced supervision available for offenders in communities makes it more likely that offenders can serve their sentences in their communities, maintaining their family contacts and having counselling in their home setting as an alternative to being incarcerated.
All of us in the justice system from the Nunavut Court of Justice, the RCMP, Corrections and Community Justice Committees, are doing our best to divert individuals who have committed less serious crimes to community justice committees, integrating offenders to outpost camp programs and other alternative ways for offenders to make restitution to the community.
This is a good example of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and culturally based healing programs.
We are always trying our best to enhance our programs and services to serve Nunavummiut better and to do our best to meet the priorities of the Bathurst Mandate.
Those are my comments, but I will be pleased to respond to any questions that Members of the Committee may have.
Chairperson (interpretation): Any opening comments?
Committee Chairperson, Mr. Iqaqrialu.
I’m pleased to be able to give the committees opening remarks as we begin debate on the 2003/2004, main estimates for the Department of Justice.
Later on, Members will have an opportunity to ask questions regarding these estimates.
Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee Ajauqtiit, has had the opportunity to meet with the Minister and his staff.
The Minister was able to give an update on his department’s proposed expenditures.
Mr. Chairman, Members were pleased to hear that the department will open two new RCMP detachments in Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet.
Mr. Chairman, the lack of officers in these communities was an area of concern in the past.
The presence of the RCMP will ensure that the people will finally be able to feel safer in those two communities that had not had any officers for quite some time.
Mr. Chairman, Members remain concerned about the housing of inmate in other institutions outside of Nunavut because of our current shortage of space.
Members are pleased with the department’s efforts to keep inmates within their home communities.
Mr. Chairman, this also brings up the need for a facility for incarcerated women.
Fortunately Mr. Chairman, Nunavut does not have a large number of women inmates.
However, the lack of such a facility has been a concern for some time now.
Members are very pleased to see the plans for a future facility in the department business plans, even though no actual funds have been put in place yet.
Members strongly support action in this area.
Mr. Chairman, Members are also pleased to hear that the law line can be accessed once again.
Members are optimistic that we will one day have more Inuit lawyers available to advise unilingual people in Nunavut.
Members remain supportive of the Akitsiraq Law School.
Mr. Chairman, Members look forward to receiving the evaluation reports about the pilot project called Inuusimmut Aqqusiuqtiit, the Family Law Mediation Program.
This pilot project could be very beneficial to families and to decrease unnecessary court costs.
Member’s noted with concern that funding for legal aid which helps people without means still does not appear to have increased.
While there continues to be increases to funding for internal government legal services, more support is needed in the area of legal aid.
Members are generally satisfied over-all with the department’s progress and I anticipate that individual Members will raise their comments and concerns about the department’s 2003/2004 main estimates.
At this point, rule 77.1 allows each Member 10 minutes for general comments and to ask further questions after.
Chairperson (interpretation): There is a motion on the floor and it is not debatable.
The Speaker can come back.
Speaker: Returns to Orders of the Day.
Report of Committee of the Whole, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Irqittuq.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, your Committee has been considering Bill 30 and the main estimates and would like to report progress.
Bill 23 – An Act to Amend the Cities, Towns, and Villages Act – Third Reading
I have two bills if you will allow me, I’ll read both of them.
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Pangnirtung that Bill 23, an Act to Amend the Cities, Towns and Villages Act be read for the third time.
Bill 23 has had third reading.
Bill 24 – An Act to Amend the Hamlet Act – Third Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Pangnirtung, again, that Bill 24, an Act to Amend the Hamlet Act, be read for the third time, after eight years, Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The motion is carried and Bill 24 has had third reading.
Orders of the Day. Deputy Clerk.
Deputy Clerk (interpretation): Orders of the day for March 19th, 2003,
This House stands adjourned until Wednesday, March 19th, 1:30 p.m., Mr. Quirk.
>>House adjourned at 19:26 p.m.  Nunavut Canada
Wednesday March 19, 2003
Pages 2882 - 2955
Opening Prayer 2882
Ministers’ Statements 2882
Members’ Statements 2885
Oral Questions 2891
Written Questions 2911
Tabling of Documents 2912
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters 2912
Report of Committee of the Whole 2953
Orders of the Day 2954
Wednesday March 19, 2003 2882
134 – 1(6): Income Support Worker Training (Kilabuk) 2882
135 – 1(6): 2002 Tax Filing and Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (Ng) 2883
136 – 1(6): Sivumut II Economic Development Strategy Conference (Akesuk) 2884
446 – 1(6): Past Rent Scales (Iqaqrialu) 2885
447 – 1(6): Elders and Their Roles as Counsellors (Alakanuark) 2885
448 – 1(6): Participants in Sports at Kugluktuk School (Havioyak) 2885
449 – 1(6): Condolences to Resolute Bay Family (Williams) 2886
450 – 1(6): Kitikmeot Patient Travel (Puqiqnak) 2887
451 – 1(6): Grandson Kevin to Iqaluit in April (Kilabuk) 2887
452 – 1(6): Inadequate Medical Services – Tammartarvik Boarding Home (Irqittuq) 2887
453 – 1(6): Student of the Month at Nakasuk School (Tootoo) 2888
454 – 1(6): Environmental Contaminants on Marine Mammals (Kattuk) 2889
455 – 1(6): Rezoning in Iqaluit – Represent the People of Nunavut (Anawak) 2890
444 – 1(6): Tax Filing: Other Communities Participation in Program (Williams) 2891
445 – 1(6): Communication between Dept. of Education and IDEA (Assessment Testing) (Tootoo) 2892
446 – 1(6): Tammartarvik Boarding Home – Adequate Rooms (Irqittuq) 2894
447 – 1(6): Use of IQ on Child Protection (Alakannuark) 2897
448 – 1(6): Lena Pedersen Boarding Home – Adequate Rooms (Puqiqnak) 2899
449 – 1(6): Differences in Employee Benefits (Iqaqrialu) 2902
450 – 1(6): Sivumut Economic Development Conference – Amend Invitation List (Anawak) 2904
451 – 1(6): Dental Services in Baker Lake (McLean) 2907
452 – 1(6): Patient Transportation Vehicle in Iqaluit (Williams) 2908
453 – 1(6): Status of Negotiation on Public Service Act (Tootoo) 2909
008 – 1(6): PYs in the Schools (Tootoo) 2911
087 – 1(6): Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet PPD Events (Anawak) 2912