EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
How many times is the family allowed to go and visit the people that are down south?
Mr. Speaker, in small communities in Nunavut we know a lot of the families and so on.
I don’t want to get into specific cases in a public forum.
What I can say to the member is that the member is correct, we do have visitation allowed under the department.
Again it is on a case by case basis.
When that visitation is allowed based on the requirements and needs and indeed the situation regarding the patients.
So Mr. Speaker as I said earlier that is the condition.
If conditions allow Mr. Speaker, then Mr. Speaker visitation is allowed.
I am not in the position Mr. Speaker to get into the specifics of a specific case in a public forum.
Question 090 – 1(6): Communities Affected by Bad Gasoline
Mr. Speaker I want to direct a question to the Minister responsible for Petroleum Products.
His Minister’s Statement this morning indicates that there is problem with the gasoline in the Baffin and Kivalliq communities.
Can the minister tell us in the House what communities are affected with this bad gasoline?
In the Baffin and Kivalliq region the people that have complained about the bad gas, I think there have been about 9 of them in Kugaaruk, I apologize, in Chesterfield Inlet, Whale Cove, Rankin Inlet.
I am not exactly sure what communities they are.
I don’t have them in my head at this time.
So I would like to tell the member that I will take his question as notice and give it to the members in writing.
Speaker: The question has been taken as notice.
Question 091 – 1(6): Bad Gasoline – What Steps will the Department be Taking
Mr. Speaker my question is also for the Minister responsible for Petroleum Products.
In light of his statement today and assurances over the past year that we have received from the department; the representatives from petroleum products stating that there are all kinds of safety measures and the gas is checked and there is nothing wrong with it.
In light of the problem that is out right now, could the minister indicate what step or what new steps the department will be undertaking to ensure that the quality of gasoline that we receive in the future will be adequate?
Mr. Speaker yes the member is right that we have done numerous tests of the gasoline and we have stated we are doing our best.
As far as we know we didn’t know there was anything wrong with it before the tests were done.
And to tell the members what we are going to do in the future so we don’t get bad gas again.
We do not want to experience it again in the future.
We don’t want to experience having bad gas again for the communities.
We will be doing something to make sure that the gas delivered to the communities will be adequate and do some testing to make sure that the communities are not getting bad gas before it is put into the tank farms.
It is nice to hear that the department will be doing something.
I think in light of what is happening, I wonder if the minister could be more specific. Has the department looked at developing any changes to the testing, any changes to the supplier, any changes to the fuel or the spec that are required that they are requesting for the fuel in the purchase and supply of fuel for next year’s resupply?
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): Yes, Mr. Speaker, this year’s gas, what we are going to do is test before it is put into the ship for resupply.
It was okay when we did the testing but we found today that it was not adequate for the equipment that we have here, such as vehicles and skidoos.
Although we did some testing on that before it went into the resupply ship, it was adequate at the time.
Once it was in the machinery then we found out that it is not good for the machinery.
Although it was good when we were testing it before it went into the resupply ship.
What we are going to do is before it is brought into the communities we will do those kinds of testing.
Mr. Speaker, and members could certainly correct me, I think all those tests were done before.
We asked when we had representatives of PPD and the Alberta Research Council here they had indicated that those tests were done before and after and at every step along the way and everything was fine in those tests.
Are they looking at changing and looking at any testing that is being done?
Are they going to modify them?
Are they going to look for different things?
Are they going to change what they are looking for?
Are they going to be changing the spec required on the gasoline itself?
He has indicated that this gasoline came from New York I think, or somewhere in his statement.
I am just wondering if there are going to be any changes made for next year’s resupply, you know, what we are looking for in spec, and where the fuel is from.
We will be telling the communities that we will not want to see a similar case happen again.
We will see what we can do when we are checking out the gasoline before it goes up to the communities.
We all know that we don’t want it to happen again.
And Mr. Speaker I am asking what changes were made.
I noticed not too long ago that there was an RFP out in the paper that it indicated that the requirement for the supply of fuel was that it came from a Canadian refinery.
Can the minister indicate if this is one of the changes that they are putting in place to ensure that we get the quality of gasoline that we require in Nunavut?
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): Yes we are dealing with it.
Question 092 – 1(6): Bad Gas – What Kind of Information Provided and Community Contacts
My question is to the Minister of Public Works & Services.
In his statement he said that he is urging everyone to contact local wildlife officers for information on safety.
Some of the wildlife officers that we have in the communities are from the south.
So I would like to get some clarification so that people in the communities will understand.
As we have been and myself have talked about a lot of people will be going out camping with their families.
What kind of information will be going into communities and knowing that if we just talk to wildlife officers, some of the officers are from the south and they don’t know the hunting areas properly.
So what other agencies in the communities have been contacted or will be contacted to make sure that safety is in place?
The wildlife officers are just an example of who can be contacted at the community level.
I have informed my staff now that we know that there is bad gasoline we will be urging the people to contact wildlife officers.
The community of Iqaluit now knows about the gas situation but I am sure most of the smaller communities are not aware of this announcement yet.
Now that we know we have bad gasoline we will inform the smaller communities outside of Iqaluit as soon as possible about the situation.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): I will wait till the two ministers have finished their conversation.
I would like ask the minister again because there are a lot of boards and agencies at the community level and they have an emergency contact.
Who are you going to be informing?
The Hamlets at the community level will be informed about the bad gasoline and also Renewable Resource offices, Hunters and Trappers Organizations will be contacted by my department.
As you stated earlier some of the wildlife officers are from the south but the Hamlets, the Hunters’ and Trappers’ Organizations and the other agencies at the community level can work together.
We will do all we can and use all means possible to get the information out there to the communities.
Question 093 – 1(6): Stranded Medical Patients
Mr. Speaker, today my question is to the Minister of Health & Social Services.
Earlier in the week I brought up the issue of patients from Baker Lake being sidetracked and stranded in Rankin Inlet.
Could the minister give me an update on what’s happened for him to rectify the situation?
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member bringing this issue up.
On April 17th I believe it was three patients were sent out from Baker Lake for medical appointments.
On return because of medical problems the three patients were waylaid in Rankin Inlet.
As a result of that Mr. Speaker, we’ve put three different interventions into place as a department to help facilitate patients that are being or may have to wait over in a community from the point of departure.
Mr. Speaker, in this case it’s Rankin Inlet and we have put those interventions in place.
It’s nice to see the minister acting quickly on this important issue because it was causing undue hardship on my constituents.
The measures that he put in place, do they include that if somebody gets stranded there in the evening at 8 or 9 o’clock at night that they get some kind of meal voucher, or they are allowed to get fed, or something like that.
They’re just not sitting at the airport and being billeted at somebody’s place because if they’re being billeted, these patients arrive at 8 or 9 o’clock at night.
The people that they are being billeted with might not have made arrangements to have them fed.
Hon. Ed Picco: First of all, Mr. Speaker, let me say that when people go on medical travel, we want medical travel to be as uneventful as well as efficient as possible.
Mr. Speaker, if people are waylaid between appointments Mr. Speaker, accommodations as well as food is provided by the Department of Health and Social Services at our cost.
In Rankin Inlet in particular Mr. Speaker, we have distributed an information sheet which is available in Inuktitut and English for patients that are going to Rankin Inlet, Churchill, and or Winnipeg for medical appointments.
Mr. Speaker, the information sheet points out that if there is a problem, accommodation numbers, as well as travel information is available for the patients as well as Mr. Speaker, we’ve also put in place the signs that Mr. McLean talked about earlier in Rankin Inlet.
My understanding from him was that the sign was not correct and gave a number and the number was not available.
Mr. Speaker, the sign in the Rankin Inlet airport is now being revised as we speak, and my understanding, Mr. Speaker, is that only the medical travel line which is answered 24 hours day is listed and third, Mr. Speaker, we’re working with the Department of Public Works, to make sure that a new telephone system is installed so that indeed Mr. Speaker, which will allow callers to leave a message if the lines are busy.
That was not in place before.
That was one of the concerns that were raised by Mr. McLean.
Mr. Speaker, all three interventions are in place and also Mr. Speaker, the accommodations as well as food warrants are covered by the Department of Health and Social Services and again, on behalf of the Government of Nunavut and the Department of Health and Social Services, I apologize to the patients who were inconvenienced on the way between Baker Lake and any other communities to their medical appointment.
It’s good to see the minister implemented all these things to help our patients traveling north and south and like I say when people are traveling, he pretty well explained everything that I wanted to hear and I’m sure that phone line is monitored by a bilingual individual because if a unilingual individual calls up sometime in the evening I hope that they can speak to somebody that speaks Inuktitut.
I commend the minister for acting quickly on this issue and I will be monitoring it with the local health committee on a daily basis by phone.
Mr. Speaker, my next part of the question is; we know that there’s been a big announcement that the new Rankin Inlet health centre will be going into construction soon and it’s been 20 years since that community has been promised that facility.
With that new facility, it’s going to be an increased amount of traffic from Arviat, Whale Cove, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake, Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour.
Has the minister, in the planning stages of this new health centre thought about the issue of a transient centre because with that kind of facility in Rankin Inlet and there may be 20 or 30 people travelling there daily from all over the Kivalliq, is a transient centre on the books for the Kivalliq?
Mr. Speaker, I believe that’s a slightly different question than the first one on the travel location, but I will try to endeavour to answer the member’s question.
First of all, let me point out Mr. Speaker, that a hospital was built in Iqaluit in 1960.
Mr. Speaker, in 35 years of operations there was no boarding home, transient centre or anything for 15 thousand residents of the Baffin Region or in Iqaluit.
Luckily, Mr. Speaker, a boarding home had been built for students that were coming into the community for high school and when education for K to 12 was put in place in the communities the boarding home was no longer needed and that became the transient centre.
Mr. Speaker, today is 2002, and this is the Government of Nunavut.
I would like to inform the member that one of the things that we are working on as a department is hopefully to facilitate a centre for patients travelling to and from Rankin Inlet, but also Cambridge Bay where possible.
Mr. Speaker, the facility is not completed yet, but it is one of the things we are working on in conjunction with some of our partnerships that we have in place.
And I think that shows some initiative and foresight on behalf of the department.
In reference to your inference that his question may not have been related, I believe it was related and if the question was out of order I would have said so.
And in your case you have, the minister has a choice to answer the question, not answer the question or take it as notice.
I am not trying to play any kind of political game here today.
But I’d just like to know, and you know, you come from the Kivalliq and I’m sure people from the Baffin.
And I’m just asking a simple little question here.
He ran all around the question but yes, or no, are they contemplating building a boarding facility in the Kivalliq so that when this hospital is completed, that there will be a facility because we all know there’s a terrible shortage of housing in Nunavut and some times people don’t have the capacity to take other people in their houses.
He just reiterated earlier that we’d like to make medical travellers as comfortable as possible and I just don’t understand the minister’s response.
Yes or no, what are we looking at? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well first of all let me apologise to you Mr. Speaker, having been known to know some of the rules of the House, I didn’t mean to challenge the Chair.
I believe I did try to facilitate an answer and I think I said to Mr. McLean, earlier, that the Department of Health & Social Services is in the process of facilitating a transient centre in the community of Rankin Inlet but at the same time, Mr. Speaker, I also said Cambridge Bay.
So I don’t know what part of the answer he did not understand.
The answer, Mr. Speaker, yes we are looking at it.
Mr. Speaker, we are looking at it over the next two years.
Mr. Speaker, did the minister answer the question, yes Mr. Speaker.
Question 094 – 1(6): Arctic Bay Teachers - Housing Shortage
I will direct my question to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.
This year I have kept raising the fact that the teachers in Arctic Bay have a housing shortage.
What do you have planned for teachers’ accommodations in Arctic Bay?
Speaker: Thank you, Ms. Williams. Minister Ng.
Mr. Speaker, as members are aware, the Housing Corporation just assumed responsibility for staff housing from Public Works just over a month ago.
We’re still receiving information from the department on the specific requests and needs that are out there throughout Nunavut.
The main focus right now is the decentralized communities in respect to staff housing because of the staffing pressures there to make sure the decentralization process isn’t slowed down and the next phase of course will be assessment of Nunavut-wide needs as we move forward to try to address some of those.
You didn’t include the communities that have no decentralization.
We’ve been a government for almost four years now.
The smaller communities that don’t receive decentralized responsibilities.
They have needs too.
Their needs are not less important than the larger communities.
I’m requesting that this be done on emergency cases because there are three teachers that don’t have staff units and also there are some teachers that are sharing their apartments.
Since the decentralized communities receive housing the smaller communities that have no decentralization should also be receiving staff units.
I would like to see staff units for the teachers in Arctic Bay this fall because our students need teachers.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member’s comments and her concerns.
As I indicated the focus has been on decentralized communities, if there is a specific circumstance out there in a non-decentralized community where there is a severe shortage then I’m willing to take a look at that to see if we can address it a soon as possible.
I would like to thank the minister for reviewing it but I don’t just want him to just review it.
He needs to act on it because the Bathurst Mandate states that education is very important to the government.
If there are no staff units for teachers, they won’t be receiving additional teachers.
Perhaps the Minister for Education is very concerned about that also and we require staff units for teachers because our children need to go to school.
Mr. Speaker, when I indicated that I’d review the situation it was obviously to see what can be done I mean, given the other needs that would be out there with other communities as well and I will commit to undertaking that.
I am not going to stop lobbying because our teachers require staff housing and also the other communities require staff units.
I’m talking about Arctic Bay since in Arctic Bay we’ve never received any staff housing since we became a government.
The staffs of the government require units and they need housing.
I’m requesting that you look at the situation as an emergency case.
Mr. Speaker, I believe I indicated that I would look at it as an emergency situation given the member’s concern on that.
But I think it’s important to recognize that there are staff housing needs throughout Nunavut and it is a matter of the appropriate resources that we, the limited resources that we have to try to address that Nunavut-wide situation in respect to staff housing similar to the public housing.
Question 095 – 1(6): Fund Communities to Transport Meat
First of all, I would like to say that we are very proud of the commercial caribou hunt in Coral Harbour.
The Inuit are allowed to harvest six thousand caribou annually and within two months, more like a six week period, the caribou commercial harvest reaches its quota of six thousand caribou.
However, the market buyers in the south buy caribou meat by weight and if they harvest male caribou with lots of fat, even though the number is less than six thousand, let’s say about thirty-five hundred caribou, they reach the weight limit in no time.
Some other communities where there were hardly any caribou, the numbers are decreasing due to their migration from these areas.
So I was wondering if the Department of Sustainable Development has considered whether they could fund a charter to transport the caribou meat for resale from Coral Harbour or tied up slabs of igunaq from Igloolik or seal meat from Qikiqtarjuaq.
The businesses that can sell this meat don’t send it out to other communities because it is too expensive to pay for the freight on the meat or a charter.
I was wondering if you could charter a plane to transport the meat.
Ullakkut.
Good morning. (interpretation) After going down to Coral Harbour with Mr. Arvaluk, the reception was very good and I thank the communities.
I heard the concerns from the community about the commercial caribou harvesting process. Some comments were also made in the community and they had lots of interesting suggestions about how to improve inter-community trade of country food between the Nunavut communities.
They made very interesting suggestions and we found out after that meeting that we had to review how we could support Nunavummiut so that they can eat the country foods that are not available in their community.
So the concern that the member has raised will be reviewed and we would like to work with the communities closely to find out the process as to how we can best lower the cost of freight to transport foods to other communities.
So we want to gather that information from the communities whether it is for caribou or walrus meat or for country food.
The department knows that it can be economically viable in these communities to market meats that I have mentioned and in other communities as well, by selling maktaq from those areas where it is plentiful.
What I am trying to ask is, if you are in the process of making plans.
For example, within this fiscal year the Minister responsible for Finance has said that income support will require 22 million 600 thousand dollars for one fiscal year.
If we could use this to develop economic opportunities there will be fewer income support recipients.
In view of that, if we can charter a plane, could he consider that to transport country food as a possible means of stimulating these economic opportunities?
Speaker: Mr. Arvaluk, I would ask that we try to keep the preambles shorter on the supplementary questions.
We have also made funding available to Nunavummiut and we would like to continue to look for ways to find funding for transporting country food amongst the communities in Nunavut.
We do have various funding for various programs and services.
So we can look into improving these services that relate to this issue.
I will deal with it as an emergency case and also in regards to the member’s comments.
It is a very good suggestion and a very good comment to make.
We could use that to consider how we can improve the trading of country food in the communities.
Question 096 – 1(6): Raise the Quota For Polar Bear Harvest
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I will direct my question to the Minister responsible for Sustainable Development.
As we have heard, he is one of the favourite ministers from the regular members because he responds very well, so I will be asking him a question to see if he will give me an adequate response.
The Member for Nattilik made his member’s statement in regards to getting a few more polar bear in the quota for the M’Clintock Channel.
The Member for Nattilik is wearing his polar bear tie.
So I was wondering, I think he has too many polar bears on his tie, perhaps you should lower his polar bear quota on his tie to three.
In regards to the member’s question, yes, I would like to increase the population of the polar bears in the Gjoa Haven area some time in the future.
I would like to focus on that work instead of looking at the number of polar bears on his tie.
As a matter of fact, I would like to be able to see the same number of polar bears that can be harvested in the M’Clintock Channel some time in the future.
Question 097 – 1(6): Gjoa Haven Polar Bear Quota
Mr. Speaker, you can let me know if I go over my daily limit.
Yesterday, I was informed about receiving a quota of three polar bears. Do not worry, I am not about to dance here, not like yesterday but I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Sustainable Development about how the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and the department determined the polar bear quota and whether his department and the NWMB have looked at the future quotas for that area.
I would like to know if this quota of three bears is temporary or permanent and I prefer to hear prior to the bears being harvested.
In relation to the members’ question, we are presently working on answering that question.
The Gulf of Boothia Survey when it is closer to completion, we will be looking at our options of allowing a polar bear harvest in that area or in increasing the quota there.
We will work with the communities in that management zone to keep them up to date as to how the study is going.