EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I know over the last five years, and longer, that they have faced these challenges and it seems inconceivable that they are still having these problems of making sure that students get paid on time.
The Minister indicated that the College is at arms length from her department.
Is there no cooperation, or communication between the College and the Department, specifically, the division that handles Student Financial Assistance.
To ensure that students know what they have to do in order to achieve or obtain their funding?
Mr. Speaker, I guess that I can say that there needs to be better communication between the two parties, the Education Department and the Arctic College staff.
When Arctic College Adult Educators have students, we have to make sure that their applications are being filled.
Maybe that should be the responsibility of the Adult Educator, so that my Department, the Education Department is notified before the course starts.
Many times the course starts and students have not even filled out the application that is one of the problems.
So we need to improve our communication with both parties.
Mr. Speaker, one of the suggestions that can be made is that we need one-stop shop for adults who are trying to get education or training through the College, so that they can get help with their application, and help and assistance from one person instead of two different people, from two different departments, even though they are both under education.
We need to improve on our communication.
I have met with the Board on the weekend; I met with the President, and have also met with my Deputy Minister and staff to improve the communication between the two.
Question 641 – 1(6): Support Local Businesses for Contract
Mr. Speaker, in response to the Member for Baker Lake, the Minister of Housing, recently said last week that in terms of shipped supply and erect, and because of a pilot project in the Kitikmeot, we could do all that.
Can the Minister elaborate on his statement saying that they can do all of Nunavut.
Can the Minister elaborate on that comment a little more that they’re going to be giving the contracts to local contractors in all of the communities?
Mr. Speaker, I indicated that we would do the construction phase for 2004 in two parts; supply of the material is one package and the erecting of the housing units as a second contract.
So, that would make the contracts a bit smaller, more manageable and it would give local companies more of an opportunity I believe to bid on the projects.
I’m not saying that it’s guaranteed that it will go to a local company but it gives more opportunity for the smaller companies in our communities to be competitive.
One of the problems that the local communities, local contractors always have is the bid bonding.
They’re asked to put in a certain amount of money in order to ensure that if they some how screw up on the building that somebody would be able to rescue them.
Can the Minister ensure that if there are contractors in communities that are willing to try for the contract but don’t have the means to put a bid bond in; there will be some assistance in some form?
Mr. Speaker, I do understand that for some companies the issue of bid bonding poses some difficulty.
In the past, we have had an opportunity where we pass on the responsibilities to the Local Housing Authority, or the local municipality and let them tender out the projects and let them use some of their guidelines in respect of allowing opportunities for those companies.
That could be one of the avenues to look at.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, we would be willing to look at trying to assist local companies that may not be able to obtain the necessary bid bonding providing that we still have to ensure Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is that we still have ensure, we’re confident that the contractor is able to carry out their work.
I think, we all in this Assembly, would recognise that.
My final question would be, so is the Minister saying that out of the 116 new public housing units, at least 80 of those units, the contracts will be divided into the supply, ship and erect?
Yes, have supply and ship on one side of a tender and for construction on the other side.
Question 642 – 1(6): Income Support Workers Policies and Guidelines
I talked about in my Member’s Statement the income support workers and whether they have policies or not because they have quite a bit of power.
Are there a guidelines or rules that they follow?
What is the Member talking about?
What does the Member mean, authority?
Could the Member clarify that?
Speaker: Mr. Irqittuq would you please clarify the question for the Minister?
When I made my Members’ Statement earlier, I talked about the authority of Income Support Workers having too much authority.
Even if they do not see a receipt, or a paper, they should be able to give out income support to an individual.
They do not have the right to tell an individual that they have received money already from elsewhere, without having any proof.
Do they have the authority to do those kinds of stuff?
Income Support has guidelines and they have to follow their guidelines.
That is the way they work.
So, individuals who receive money from elsewhere cannot be given income support in excess.
The only thing that they use is the guidelines that they have to distribute, or give out income support, because they have to be able to have the information from the individual what other monies have been received.
Whether they can not give out income support just from hearsay, and if he or she sees somebody receiving money, the Income Support worker has the authority to not give out money if they know that they are receiving money from elsewhere.
Yes, I understand that, but there is always a but, my Members’ Statement was true, Mr. Speaker, the Income Support worker’s authority is very powerful.
Can you provide us with the guidelines that the Income Support worker has?
Saying that they can give a certain amount of money when they have seen the individual receive money from elsewhere, because they do not even know how much the individual got when they see them get some money.
Can you provide us with the guidelines that the Income Support workers use?
The regulations that are used by the Income Support worker, I can provide those.
They have the regulations to work by, that is why they pay the individual a certain amount of money.
If an individual is not satisfied with the amount of money that they receive, there is also going to be a Committee, which is called the Appeal Board, that an individual can go to if they feel that they have been wrongly assessed.
The Minister says that she can provide the regulations of the income support workers.
I wonder if the Minister can provide those regulations before the end of this session.
Yes I will.
Question 643 – 1(6): Justice Services in the Communities
Mr. Speaker, under Members’ Statements, I talked about probation officers and inmates who come home, if there are probation officers in the communities.
Mr. Speaker, in my constituency, I have been given some questions that I have to ask, so I would like to ask the question.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide some detail as to how many communities have independent probation officers providing probation services and how many communities still rely on social workers to provide services in this area?
I think there are about 10 probation officers in the communities who provide probation services for people who have just come from facilities.
Mr. Speaker, if I understand this properly, there are about 10 communities with probation officers.
Yes, 10 at the present time.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I thank the Minister for his response.
Some of the Members of the Legislative Assembly here probably think that there are no probation officers.
In some communities, there are none.
So for this reason, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a supplementary question whether the Department has any plans to provide additional rehabilitative and healing programs with a cultural base and with community elder participation.
Can the Minister update us as to where this is at the present time in the communities where they don’t have probation officers?
The individuals who need to be looked after like, we want to provide those services in the communities, although there are no services of that kind in the communities; social services is the department that provides social workers.
There is not really a permanent position at this time to look after rehabilitative and healing programs for those ex-inmates.
What we’re trying to do is get a service of some kind in the Kitikmeot Region so there would be a healing place and additional preventative measures against crime.
At this time, we don’t have permanent staff.
Mr. Speaker, this has been the concern many times and we try as Members of the Legislative Assembly, we try and get information from our constituents and I was told that this was a concern by some of the people in the community.
Mr. Speaker, what types of programs are offered to offenders while incarcerated that are geared towards the prevention of re-offending.
The Minister said that there are ten community corrections officers but there are 27 communities in Nunavut.
There is a lack of those officers under the Department of Justice and I would urge the Minister that there should be more things done to help the offenders who are going back home to their communities.
Yes, I agree with my colleague.
We would like to see these officers in the communities and I am in support of how they could deal with them at the local level and also deal with the outpost camps and we can provide support.
We tried to do it with community correction officers but the funding is insufficient to get all the Nunavut community corrections officers.
So, we’re utilizing the funding where it’s needed the most.
They do provide corrections officers too, in the communities through social workers.
Usually the social workers provide those services when they have to deal with not too many offenders.
Question 644 – 1(6): Wind Generator Repair in Kugluktuk
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to Minister Picco and to the Energy Corporation.
As you know, he stated yesterday in the House, in regards to wind generators because it would be more of those that we’ll see in the future, because perhaps we’ll be using more of these wind generators for electricity and what not.
As you know in Kugluktuk, there are two wind generators that were built by the NWT Power Corporation.
One is down at the moment.
Would there be any repairs for the one that is down already so that we can utilize these for energy and electricity?
Mr. Speaker, the Government of Nunavut expends about 36 million litres of fuel a year to provide electricity to Nunavummiut. 36 million litres and we wonder sometimes where the costs come from.
Mr. Speaker, the Government of Nunavut spend $121 million, or almost 20% of its total budget in providing energy in oil, fuel, gas, in providing electricity to Nunavummiut.
Mr. Speaker, we have a very serious addiction to oil, and we need to get off it.
Mr. Speaker, on the horizon, one of the opportunities that we have is wind power.
Coming through the foyer here in the building we can see fans that are in operation.
Mr. Speaker, that same principle would be in use with the windmills.
Mr. Speaker, in Kugluktuk’s case, these are some of the old windmills that were installed by the previous Northwest Territories Power Corporation, did not have the logistics, as well as technical ability to produce wind in the climate, generate electricity in the climate.
Mr. Speaker, we are currently reviewing, as I said in my Statement yesterday, a request for proposals on actually bringing into force a number of windmills and examining those projects.
Mr. Speaker, I can also add that at the end of the month, we would hope to be in the position where NRCAN has completed a wind map for Nunavut, where we would be in the position as a Government to be able to say where the best locations are for possible wind generation with wind turbines, that is what the technical phrase that should be used, is wind turbines.
As you know the two wind generators were put up, and I have not forgotten that, as you are probably aware that the two windmills are very expensive.
Perhaps for one, at least $250 thousand dollars.
That is just an example, perhaps it costs more.
Would it be less cost effective if you would have the other wind generator put up?
As you stated that you are reviewing that, while we wait, we can utilize the one that is already in operation and then we can repair the other one, so we can save costs of running just one.
Mr. Speaker, in the past, under the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, the windmills were put in haphazardly, meaning, Mr. Speaker that they chose a community, and they stuck a windmill in a given community.
They did that in numerous communities, a number of communities.
Mr. Speaker, there was no funding for O and M, continuing operation.
They were done on an experimental basis.
Mr. Speaker, under the RFP, what we would like to do, as the Member pointed, and he is making a good point, if you have that critical mass, for example, we believe that it is five and ten wind turbines, and then you would actually have a person on the ground who would do O and M maintenance on it.
And also with that number, they would actually create at the end of the day, the generated power from the wind turbine, it would help alleviate some of the costs.
So the capitalization costs, or the costs of putting those wind turbines in place, would be able to pay for themselves on a shorter amortization schedule.
So that is plan right now.
The turbine that was in Kugluktuk is old technology; it did not work, and for us to go back in and spend several hundred thousand dollars it could be to replace it or to fix it, it would be better to install the newer windmills.
It may be, Mr. Speaker, that when the NRCAN wind map is complete, that Kugluktuk could be identified as one of the better sites for the wind turbine farm that we spoke about.
I am very pleased to hear your response that you are thinking of Kugluktuk as a good place to put up the windmills.
I’m very please to hear that.
You talk about the scope of work (Interpretation end) includes the design, financing, construction and ongoing operations and maintenance of the wind generating system.
In that you also mentioned further down, saying that you have an evaluation criteria.
What type of criteria do you have?
If you don’t have it, can you commit to making it available to the Members in the House?
Mr. Speaker, wind energy and wind turbines are not new.
However, the application of it north of 60 is something that different companies and jurisdictions have been dealing with.
What we have done is we have our own evaluation criteria for the five RFPs and also Mr. Speaker, I asked that the Minister of NRCAN, I met with the Minister of Natural Resources Canada in Ottawa and they are also doing an independent review of the five RFP proposals that we received for the wind turbines.
They will also be using their independent criteria to judge to see which is the best fit for Nunavut.
So, instead of just going ahead and picking the cheapest design and sticking it up and in two years falling down, we’re hoping to be in the position where with NRCAN, our federal partners, to have something in the long terms that will actually generate good dependant electrical power for Nunavut.
Can you make the criteria that you use to get these available to the House for us to review?
Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we can do that.
Question 645 – 1(6): Disability Services
I’m a little bit confused as to which Minister I should direct my question to.
I would like to direct my question to the Minister for Community Government and Transportation in regards to my Members Statement.
There are young people out there who are jobless and they have to feed their children and they’re not used to eating country food and they would rather eat store bought food. especially the young children
who have no jobs.
Are there any programs and services to provide them more support?
Speaker: I would ask that either Minister Thompson or Minister Akesuk address that question.
I know they are overlapping but you can chose amongst yourselves.
The way I understand the Member is that the people with children who have physical disabilities, that they be given more support.
If the Member could clarify his question; it seems like his question was directed towards transportation.
I apologise, but I did not quite understand his question, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Speaker: Mr. Alakannuark, further clarification on your question please.
Mr. Alakannuark (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I would like to thank you.
I was supposed to ask a question to the Minister Responsible for Income Support.
Some parents have physical disabilities and at times they can hardly manoeuvre around.
And some parents have physical disabilities and they have no means of making money except that they depend on income support.
They have to wait for a whole month for their income support money.
How can we give more support to the physically challenged people with children?
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Physically disabled people are given support as well.
I’m looking to give more support to those physically challenged people.
I have met with Federal Government officials, with Minister Stewart.
I spoke to him about this issue of physically challenged people.
Yes, we have to provide more support to the physically challenged people and I’m looking for ways to provide them with more support.
We’ve tried to provide them with additional funding through income support programs, especially those who are physically challenged.
I too would like to thank the Minister for providing me with the information.
Are there regulations for providing support to the physically challenged people?
Physically challenged people, yes, we have considered them.
There is no act or regulation to that but we provide additional funding on top of the income support that they receive.
The legislation was implemented back in 1978 in the Northwest Territories days.
For that reason, I’m trying to work with my federal counterparts and I’m requesting additional funding to be used for Nunavut for the people who are physically challenged because we have to provide additional support to those people.
We pay close attention to these individuals who have physical disabilities and our income support workers have that knowledge.
I would like to thank the Minister for her response.
Is it possible for the Minister to tell us about what other additional programs might be accessible?
I have already informed the Member that Section 3 (B) applies and that’s in regards to the physically disabled and their eligibility for interim support.
I have already given the information to the Member and the other Members of the Legislative Assembly.
I would like to go back to Item 5.
Speaker: The Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to Item 5.
My little brother is here, I would like to recognize him, Samuelie Iqaqrialu, and also his two friends.
I know them all and they are in the Gallery.
Again, I thank my little brother for taking care of my mother, and for hunting for her, while I am in the House.
Item 9. Replies to Opening Address. Item 10.
Report 018 – 1(6): Bill 37 an Act to Amend the Liquor Act and Bill 43 an Act to Amend the Income Tax Act – COW Review of Bill
Mr. Speaker, I wish to report that Bill 37, an Act to Amend the Liquor Act, and Bill 43, an Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, have been reviewed by the Standing Committee of Government Operations and Services, and that the Bills are ready for consideration in the Committee of the Whole.
Tabled Document 135 – 1(6): Nunavut Housing Corporation Public Housing Unit Allocation for 2004-2005
I wish to Table the following document.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation Public Housing Unit allocation for 2004-2005.
Tabled Document 136 – 1(6): Letter to Member Rebekah Williams
It is a letter addressed to Ms. Williams, the MLA for Quttiktuq, dated August 25, 2003, in response to her letter in relation to corrections, and amongst other things, which she wrote to me on June 26th, 2003.
Tabled Document 137 – 1(6): Co-op Briefing Note on Nunavut Government Policy Commercial Accommodations
I would like to Table a document from the Arctic Co-ops Limited regarding the Nunavut Government’s policy on commercial accommodation dated May of 2003, in regards to Edmonton Companies using bunk houses for large construction projects in Nunavut.
Item 19. Consideration of Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters.
Bill 12, Bill 33, Bill 44, Bill 45, Bill 46, Bill 47, Bill 48, with Mr. Irqittuq in chair.
Before we proceed, we’ll take a short break.
Mr. McLean has asked if any members wish to have their photo taken with our special guest and have books signed, they can do so here in the chamber during our break time.
We’ll take a short break and we’ll try to get the Members in a short while.
>>House recessed at 15:41 and resumed at 16:11
We’re dealing with Bill 12, Bill 33, Bill 44, Bill 45, Bill 46, Bill 47 and Bill 48.
Ms. Williams (Interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The committee would like to continue with Capital Estimates for 2004/2005, starting with Housing Corporation and if we have extra time, we would like to deal with Department of Public Works. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
For 2004/2005, the Government of Nunavut has allocated capital funding of $15.9 million to the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation continues to provide funding of approximately $4.3 million for modernization and improvement projects.
In addition, Mr. Chairman, we’re now finalizing the recently announced $40 million social housing infrastructure cost shared program in partnership with Infrastructure Canada and Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation.
Included in this federal funding of $10 million in 2004/2005, the total capital for housing purposes is $30.2 million.
New public housing units will be constructed in all 25 communities, ensuring that all Nunavummiut benefit from these funds.
Investment will continue this government’s commitment to addressing over crowding in public housing and as well, introduce advanced energy saving initiatives through increased insulation values that exceed the national building code by at least 25 percent.
Also, 10 percent of the units will be barrier free.
The Housing Corporation will continue to address the needs of our growing seniors and special needs populations.
To ensure the availability of mapping funds for the strategic infrastructure fund investment, this year’s modernization and improvement funding has been decreased to $2.4 million of Government of Nunavut funds.
With the addition of the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation funding for MNI, a total of $6.7 million will be used to improve 599 units during 2004/2005.
Home owner repair and renovation programs continue to be a key capital spending area for the Housing Corporation.
As in previous year, dollars will be block funded to district offices, giving them the flexibility to respond to community and district specific program demands.
In addition, the Housing Corporation is working with Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation to finalize an agreement to deliver its nearly revised residential rehabilitation assistance program in Nunavut.
We expect that these negotiations will be completed shortly providing an additional $404 thousand per year in funding.
Overall equipment funding is a recurring capital requirement for the Housing Corporation.
Local Housing Authorities are block funded for maintenance vehicles, based on a minimum 8 year replacement policy. $400 thousand is available for this program.
Fire damage replacement funding is allocated at the headquarters level.
The corporation does not carry insurance on its single homes and duplexes.
A recent increase in fires has required the corporation to increase funding allocations to this line from $600 thousand to $1 million.