EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So I would like to ask the minister if he could explain that for the Members of this House and the DEAs that are probably or will be listening.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Tootoo. Mr. Picco.
The member is an excellent student. He remembers lessons that have been taught, and he’s learned them well. However Mr. Speaker, for the record we have to clarify something.
The member would like to start off with the preamble and he mentions 17 wonderful things, and you may agree to one, two, or three of the 17 that he says, and I don’t have time, you don’t have time, the House doesn’t have time to go through each one of them.
So he likes to ad lib and add things on here. For clarification purposes let us suggest this: the member mentions a divot.
I never used my debit card the whole time I was in the tournament, so I don’t know what he is talking about here. It goes in point of what he just said.
In respect to what the DEA coalitions have asked for, last spring I met with all the DEAs and I suggested to them, at that time, it would be good if they actually had four or five representatives amongst themselves, that they could pick that, and I could work with them, instead of having to get all the DEAs together at the same time.
That’s where the impetus came from for the DEA coalition. What I’ve suggested to the DEAs is that…they’ve asked for more control over hiring, for example.
Mr. Speaker, we have a Public Service Act in place; we have collective agreements in place. A lot of the powers that the DEAs have asked for are already in the current Act, but they would like to maybe go outside the scope of that current Act, and be able to deal with some of the other logistic issues that they would like to deal with.
That’s what we’re attempting to do within the new Act. When I met with them two weeks ago that’s what I suggested to them.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I’d like to thank the minister for his answer and also for the wonderful compliments that he passed on.
I guess I could ask the same question again; the minister did not respond to my last question.
The DEA Coalition, as a coalition, all the DEAs decided that they wanted to contribute each $500 to the administration of this coalition so that it could actually do something, so that they could work together.
And the Department of Education, as the minister said earlier, does not fund 100 percent, the DEAs sent out a directive which I will be tabling copies of later today instructing them, ‘No they could not do that.’
So my question, my last question was and this question as well without any preambles or 14 other different things was: why did the department use these strong-arm type tactics in telling the DEAs that they could not contribute $500 of their funding to help administer this coalition?
To the question, Minister responsible for Education, Minister Picco.
Hon. Ed. Picco: Mr. Speaker.
Just again, the very quick answer is that the meetings of the coalition have been funded through the Department of Education. The Coalition is an ad hoc group, they don’t have a bank account, they don’t have a secretary-treasurer; there are no by-laws or agreements and so on.
So before the government can allow every DEA in Nunavut, there’s 25 of them, to contribute $500 to something where there’s no account, there is no secretary-treasurer , there’s no administration, there are no by-laws there are no rules in place; that would be asinine.
So what we’re suggesting is before any of these things occur, if the coalition wants to move forward into a society status, for example Mr. Speaker, then there is a mechanism to be able to transfer money or make an allowance to.
In this case, Mr. Speaker there is an ad hoc group that we are funding, bringing four or five of those representatives together, that they have selected amongst themselves. And where that goes to from here, how that coalition grows is to be determined.
So hopefully that help answers the member’s question.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister .
Question 330 – 2(3): Further Fiscal Reductions (Peterson)
My question is for the Minister of Finance about his fiscal update today.
Mr. Speaker, in the minister’s fiscal update, he mentioned there was a one percent savings reduction announced in September.
I’m wondering, in light of that, that’s for this fiscal year, but going forward into 2007-08, can the minister enlighten us whether there’s going to be additional percentage fiscal reductions for the Government of Nunavut?
At this time, I cannot respond to that because we are considering different ways of how to cost-save and we are working with the other departments within the government.
Yes, we are looking at ways of how to save money for next year or the year after that. So I cannot really respond to those, but they are presently under consideration at this time.
I’m sure he’s probably got a percentage figure in mind that the employees of the Government of Nunavut probably aren’t going to enjoy.
Mr. Speaker, about 30 percent of the Government of Nunavut’s total spending is on compensation and benefits for its employees. I believe the number in 2006-07 is $317 million. The minister mentioned in his fiscal update that there’s a hiring freeze being proposed.
I’m wondering if the minister could tell us if other measures have been considered such as attrition of the public service, wage, and benefit freezes.
Yes, with your other questions today, we have not considered them as to how we’re going to be dealing with the future. I still don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but with all your questions posed, we have not considered them to date yet.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister. (interpretation) Your second supplementary, Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Speaker, the minister told us that the payroll tax has been increased from one percent to two percent, which would generate approximately $5.3 million in additional revenues to Nunavut and that there’s going to be a cost of living credit that they will expect to be $506 per Nunavut resident.
Can the minister tell us what the net benefit is, the difference between the additional revenues, and the credits back to our citizens?
We are increasing the credit to $900. Based on past years, we expect the average credit will be around $506 per employee in Nunavut.
I thank the minister for that answer, but I already had that information in his fiscal update.
I was looking for the net total benefit for Nunavut; the difference between the taxes that we generate and the credits for Nunavummiut. And perhaps he’ll answer that when he answers my next question.
He had mentioned that there is no end in sight to the government deficits in the near term.
If the government implements all their measures, through the deficit reduction plans, increase their taxes, and other such things, can the minister give us an indication of how long these measures will be in place before the deficit problems are eliminated?
We believe that we will have $5.3 million once the payroll tax has been increased.
And also for your second question, and again, I cannot respond to that because they are now under consideration, as we speak, by the deputy minister, the staff, and his officials, within all of the Government of Nunavut.
So we are all considering as to how it will look financially in the upcoming year.
We are now doing research on that. As I stated earlier on, the end is not in sight yet as to how much we would do, but I cannot respond to you how long it will be.
Question 331 – 2(3): Compassionate Travel Assistance (Mapsalak)
As I stated in my Member’s Statement that this father for two years now has been hospitalized for two years in Edmonton and he had not seen any of his children the whole time because it is very difficult to find money to go down.
Social Services is able to pay for families or escorts of children who are disabled when they are being shipped outside of the other communities.
My question is: for those situations when an individual from Nunavut who had not seen their children for that long; he had not seen his family members and it can affect him; can the Department of Social Services be able to provide services for those kinds of clients, especially making support assistance to the family members so that the family members can go down and see the family member who is incapacitated in bed?
Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Aglukkaq.
If they are in a hospital outside of Nunavut for one year, Health and Social Services can assist the family to go see their relative.
That is our policy.
It is not for the whole family. For instance, it is just Churchill or Chesterfield for disabled kids that they have over there, the parents can go see them at least once a year.
Do I understand that your department can provide some assistance or support for that kind of situation, either for the spouse…do I understand correctly that you can send one individual person to go see a patient or their family member who has been in the hospital for a long time, or for that long?
The current program that we have in place allows for parents to see their children once a year.
From a certain age I believe they’re entitled to travel twice a year to see a child.
For any adult that is living in a homecare-type facility outside the territory or within the territory, the family is entitled to a trip, not the family; a parent or parents once a year.
Perhaps there was no service or program for that kind of service. In the communities there are hardly any employment opportunities, especially when the small community is trying to raise money, it gets very emotional.
So for patients like that, no matter where the patient is in the hospital, whether it be in Edmonton or somewhere else, and if the patient is in the hospital for that long, is it impossible for the Department of Health and Social Services to provide airline support to the spouse?
Do you have a similar kind of program for people or clients like that?
If you understand the question, Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Aglukkaq.
For individuals that are living in residential care facilities outside the Nunavut Territory or within the Nunavut Territory, if you are in the care for an extended period of time, the Department of Health and Social Services will pay for the spouse, or a mother and a father to see the child, or the adult.
In this particular case, I’d have to look at the situation because I believe the person is on medical and not living in an extended care facility.
So depending on the situation again, we would have to look into that to see what assistance we can provide.
I do know that in the cases where people are in hospitals, it allows for escorts to those facilities, or allows parents to come and visit their children or their spouses that are living in long-term care facilities.
Your final supplementary, Mr. Mapsalak.
Can the minister get back to me with a response once she finds out if they can provide that kind of support to clients to make sure that they can see their family members outside or in Nunavut?
I will speak to the individual and get the individual’s first and last names today, and then look into the matter.
Question 332 – 2(3): Baffin Medical Travel Update (Arreak)
My question today is for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services regarding the same question that I keep asking.
The Transportation Office for the Department of Health and Social Services in Pangnirtung, and also my question is for...she said that on June 9 that they were going to rectify this problem, but I have heard this week complaints about this, and I heard complaints coming from the patients weekly that this has not been rectified yet.
Can the minister update us now with regard to the Patient Transportation Office? Has that been rectified?
The department is in the process and has done a review of the current medical travel booking system in Pangnirtung. Many of the concerns that were raised over the spring were addressed.
Since that time, the department has also done a review of the referral system; specialist referral systems, the booking referral systems, whether it’s Ottawa, Iqaluit, or here.
We are looking at making improvements on booking with specialists in Ottawa, the timing of it, the clinics, and back.
We have also looked into the services being provided by the airlines.
We examined all the concerns that were raised and I think people have made the assumption that all the problems are a direct result of Pangnirtung office providing the service and when, in fact, many of the concerns were not a direct result of the people providing the service in Pangnirtung.
Some of the concerns are related to the boarding home in Ottawa, some of the problems related to the office in Iqaluit, some of the problems related to the airlines, and so on.
So there is a combination of concerns and they were not all directly related to the Pangnirtung transfer.
During the transfer to Pangnirtung, there was some confusion out there as to the changes, but I think we have worked those out and we continue to look at the current referral system and through the Baffin to Ottawa office and here.
So there are improvements being made, and if there are other concerns that the member has he can forward those to me and I will look into them on a case-by-case basis because every situation is different.
Oral Questions. Your first supplementary, Mr. Arreak.
The booking system that the minister is referring to...she said that she would solve the problem, but that is not the only problem either.
I feel that the problem should be solved right away so that the people out there can phone Pangnirtung when they are ready to go home, but even if they do call over there, there is no answer at that office and it is very difficult for the older people to phone that telephone, but some of them usually go home by paying themselves because they don’t have any other help.
And there are others that I have not mentioned that where a problem exists, such as the airlines.
Will the Department of Health and Social Services be resolving the problem as soon as possible?
The issues that he raised this summer were addressed.
The issue around making the phone calls and not having a phone, we, in fact, made some changes within the current system.
As soon as a person is discharged from the hospital, that clearance form is sent directly to the Pangnirtung office, directly to the travel agent. So the individual patients themselves no longer have to make that phone call to make the booking arrangements.
So we have made that change.
Another change that we made, where there were problems in getting individuals to travel, was a direct result of the fact that the airlines were not processing the travel request. We have met with the service providers in the airline and outlined a procedure to follow in cases where individuals are at the airport without a ticket.
That process has been in place where they will book their arrangements with our office.
At the same time, we have expanded the hours of operations of the Pangnirtung staff to after hours and 1-800 numbers have also been established.
So there are a number of initiatives that have taken place over the summer months to improve the services.
And again, if there are any new concerns since this summer, I would like to hear about that.
We have also met with QIA, as well as the mayors in the Baffin to try and iron out some of those. During those meetings we had discussions around...we process 17,000 travels in Baffin alone, and we do encounter some problems; some of them relate to weather, some of them relate to being discharged by specialists in the hospital over the weekend, not knowing there are procedures to follow.
So we are continuing to address many of those. At the same time, we are looking at increasing some of the positions in Pangnirtung to keep up with the workload of booking travel for people in the Baffin.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister. (interpretation) Your second supplementary, Mr. Arreak.
The minister stated that there have been problems that have been resolved so far, but she’s asking whether there are any more problems that we have encountered. We would not be asking questions if those problems were not there.
If they were solved, then there wouldn’t be any questions.
I would like to ask the minister again: the person that writes the tickets; when will that position be transferred from Pangnirtung to Iqaluit?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: ...first, the issue around confidentiality. Medical information on any patient is confidential, booking travel is not. If the member can provide me the names of the individuals, I will follow up to see where we went wrong in the travel.
It’s also very important that I have that name because we need to know if that problem occurred after the changes were made, or before. And in order for us to ensure and confirm that there are problems from his constituents with the travel, I need to know the dates and the name of the individuals for us to follow up to see if the problems occurred after the fact.
Secondly, I think the assumption, again, is being made that the problems are all directly related to the office in Pangnirtung, when in fact some of the problems are associated with operations in Iqaluit, as well as boarding homes, and/or the airlines.
So I say that again because I think it’s important to recognize the efforts that the department staff have made in Pangnirtung, as well as here to address the concerns that were raised by constituents over the summer months.
Question 333 – 2(3): Table Recommendations on Medical Travel (Barnabas)
I would like to welcome my colleagues back to Iqaluit.
The question that Mr. Arreak has...I also have questions in regard to the airline tickets.
There have been about six months since the problem was supposed to be solved, but we have not heard today whether the problem has been solved.
Can the minister table those documents in the House?
I can provide a letter outlining all the initiatives that were taken to address the concerns raised this summer.
Maybe I could give her 17,000 names if she so requests.
Mr. Speaker, if the problem is solved, as the minister is talking about, why are there still patients that cannot go on the plane? Are they on stand-by?
What is the problem that they can’t get on the plane?
Again, to respond to the member’s question, I need the specifics of the individual, otherwise it’s hypothetical.
I don’t know of any individuals that are being left behind.
I do know that when a person is discharged from the hospital, the clearance form is sent immediately to the travel office to do the bookings. The bookings will be done based on the availability of the first flight out of either Ottawa, or here to the individual’s community.
Some communities receive flights once a week, such as Grise Fiord. If the person is discharged, the person of course will have to wait in the community; here or Ottawa; to travel back, but in the interim, travel arrangements are made.
To respond to the specific comments that he’s made, again, I will need the name of the individuals; the date of travel; for us to, again investigate whether, in fact, it occurred before or after the changes were made. That would be very helpful for us to follow up to see if the improvements are actually working or not.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Madame Minister. Your second supplementary, Mr. Barnabas.
I know that taking back a position from a decentralized community is not an adequate way of doing things, but if we were to try to transfer those position from the smaller communities to a larger community we would encounter problems.
I just wondered whether those positions that we are talking about are filled properly at this time.
If you understood the question, Minister Aglukkaq.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the member please repeat the last question; I didn’t get that.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Madame Minister. Mr. Barnabas, would you please clarify the question to the minister. Mr. Barnabas.
Are the positions in Pangnirtung fully filled, or are there positions that are not filled properly in Pangnirtung?
Thank you to the member for clarifying that.
The positions in Pangnirtung are filled; both the positions are there.
We looked at a number of improvements I had spoken to earlier: expanding the hours of operations, better communication with the airlines.
At the same time, we’re looking at the whole referral system that is currently in place within the department.
Travel is a small piece of that; travel is just a small piece of the bigger review that we’re doing around booking specialist appointments in Ottawa, booking appointments here, transportation, and so on.
We’re looking at developing a system that can better track the referral system of our patients. Right now, we don’t have that. A lot of it is manual.
So the bigger review that we are undertaking is the referral system. The other piece is also the review of people going down to Ottawa and trying to deal with the number of days that they are at the boarding home.
If they’re going to have an appointment on, let’s say, November 21, why are we sending them on November 15? And so on.
So these improvements are necessary for better quality of services to our clients and we are looking into that, but the travel piece, again, is a small piece of the larger review that we are doing.
Of course, recognizing the concerns that had been raised this summer, we’ve done a number of improvements to try and address that, and again, I will outline in a letter to all the Members in the House what we have done to address their concerns.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Barnabas.
The minister stated that when the boarding homes are too full, they have to be billeted out to the local people, even though they might be elders.
My question is in regard to the elders who have to make inquiries about their travel arrangements.
When the boarding home is full, the elders are billeted out, and then it’s up to them to find out what type of travel arrangements were made for them.
Sometimes they are left behind because they are stand-by, or because the flights, for example, to my hometown are usually full as there are very few seats.
When you’re an elder and you go to the airport terminal, and of course, if there is no reservation made for you, then the elder has to go back somewhere.
What kind of support services do you provide to the unilingual people when it comes to travel arrangements?
I mentioned earlier that the clearance forms are sent immediately to the travel office to process the travel ticket. The information related to where the patient is staying is also, I believe, included in that information for the travel person to follow through.
The individuals that are staying at the boarding home, of course, the boarding home staff is there to provide assistance to them, as well as here.
In some other cases such as the Northern Medical Unit of, I believe, Winnipeg, OSNI in Ottawa, there is communication with that individual as well.
So, again, the bigger review that we are doing includes all of those pieces; the pieces of OSNI, the pieces of the boarding home, the referral made by the physician, and the travel.
That review is being done in terms of how we do business and how we can better provide a more coordinated approach to our clients around referral and it’s in the works right now, but I am hoping that there will be more I can report on in the next little while just in terms of what some of the things are we are doing to try and better track that.
Assistance is provided to unilingual individuals; in most cases, people travelling to the hospitals have escorts as well to provide assistance to them.
So I hope that answers the member’s question.
Question 334 – 2(3): Over-expenditure by Health and Social Services (Tootoo)
Before I ask my question, I just would like to commend the minister in his fiscal update and saying something that they have been saying for a number of years now is that our fiscal and financial position is much like that band a number of years back that used to play some good songs, Dire Straits. Seeing that here, finding the government admitting and taking action to do that, I think it is about time.