EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Construction will continue or be completed in the communities of Cape Dorset, Hall Beach, Resolute Bay, Cambridge Bay, Kugaaruk, Arviat, Baker Lake and Whale Cove.
We are also proposing continued vigorous planning and design work for future projects in several other communities including Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, and Sanikiluaq.
Mr. Chairman, as strong as our capital budget is, the demands and the challenges that face education in Nunavut are equally large.
Our challenge has been to address current needs, as well as addressing deferred and delayed projects.
We are moving forward and my departmental capital plan for the next five years will make a great difference in our education infrastructure across Nunavut.
I also want to emphasize before ending my remarks that the delivery of the capital plans remains focused on delivering projects and not budgets to our communities.
With limitations of funding it is crucial that we all understand this fundamental management approach that best delivers the most projects to the most communities in the most expedient manner.
I have been encouraged by my colleagues who have supported the required budget transfers within the education capital budget within the past year.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be available today to discuss the Department of Education capital budget for 2003-2004.
In summary, I commit to make every dollar go as far as it can and adding additional educational facilities that will contribute to this government’s investment in the educational process.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Kilabuk for your introductory comments.
Do the members agree that the minister’s officials can be asked to go to the witness table?
Minister Kilabuk, you may invite your officials.
Thank you for going to the witness table along with your officials.
Could you introduce your officials please, Minister Kilabuk.
To my left Tom Rich, Deputy Minister for the Department of Education and Lorne Levy who is our Capital planner.
Chairperson (interpretation): Is the committee Chairperson ready to do his opening comments?
As the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health and Education, I’m very pleased to have this opportunity to make some introductory remarks as we begin deliberations on the capital budget for the Department of Education.
The Committee on Health and Education appreciated the opportunity to have an in-depth review of the department’s draft capital in September.
The Department of Education has been allocated over 60% of the Government of Nunavut’s capital spending for 2003/2004.
The committee continues to support this investment in Nunavut’s future and the future of our children.
The committee notes that the total of $300 thousand dollars has been identified for minor capital projects.
Recognising that further anticipated costs may arise due to health, safety or other such requirements, members encouraged the minister to be more consultative and transparent in determining the allocation of these funds.
The members have noted that the purchase of school buses will be addressed as distinct and separate capital projects in the future.
The standing committee has continuously raised the concern that amounts allocated for projects often differ widely from the actual costs.
In some cases, this is due to cancellations, deferrals or unrealistic estimates.
However, the minister has recently indicated that the management approach and efforts to expedite projects has resulted in adjusted time frames which in turn lead to the transfer of funds within the department’s capital budget.
While members appreciate the effort to adequately schedule and complete projects, it was felt that the future costs of planned projects as well as projects currently underway should be more accurately reflected.
For example, one project appeared to have dramatically increased the total budget between 2002/2003 and 2003/2004.
Members were satisfied to learn that the changes were the result of the project’s timeline being adjusted as well as modifications to the plan in order to incorporate the department’s new development centre.
Members look forward to hearing the full name for this program area.
The committee urges the minister to keep members informed at the earliest possible time of future project planning directions and reprioritisation of capital projects.
The members of the standing committee support the department’s investment in Nunavut Arctic College’s student accommodations.
These facilities will allow individuals from other communities to finally take advantage of the programs offered.
At the same time, members stress that there are individuals in all communities who wish to upgrade their skills while remaining in their home community.
Members were pleased to note that the minister will consider partnership opportunities with hamlets, community based groups, or within existing school projects to establish or upgrade existing community based learning centres.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my opening remarks. I’m sure that the individual members will have questions and comments as we proceed with this.
I will allow the members to make their opening comments for 10 minutes before we start the questions.
Are there general comments?
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the minister and his officials.
I’ve been bringing this topic up every time we sit in the house.
Also, I guess the officials must have heard my comments from time to time also - but for those people who want to upgrade their education there are no institutions or facilities where they could go. There are a lot of opportunities out there like for instance, there are mining companies.
People could go out there and take some kind of training.
If the individuals are not trained properly they’re not going to be qualified for any opportunities to get a job.
But if these individuals are trained properly they can get jobs in the mining industries.
But if there is a lack of institutions for training people it's going to be very hard for these individuals to train themselves or train somewhere else.
If we don’t train these people, there are not going to be many people that train to work in mining.
Okay, for example, I guess you are aware that the mining companies would like to help the communities and train the people in the communities.
I would like to see all kinds of training opportunities Nunavut-wide not only in Kugluktuk, wherever in the communities because this would be very beneficial to the Nunavut beneficiaries if the government and the mining industries work together and these younger people would begin to start training for their jobs.
But if there is no training or any institutions for training these people won’t be able educate themselves for the jobs that they want.
I think in this way we could go forward.
For example, there some people training with DIAVIK and some people training under hamlets but we need some funding for these people.
I just learned last week when I went to go visit these employees of DIAVIK, I just learned that there are seven of them needing training out of eight people. But these people are not training in mining in DIAVIK because there are training opportunities there but there is no place there for them to take the training for these jobs. If there were it would be great for these people.
I want to see some of these training opportunities developed with the mining companies.
These people like to take training right at home because when they have to go some place out of their community they tend to go home without completing their training.
But if they train right at home they will complete their training.
That’s why these mining companies are encouraging these individuals to train either right at home or in Diavik for instance.
Looking at the capital estimates, let’s use Kitikmeot for example. Like in Cambridge Bay, does it have accommodations for these students?
If the people are going to Cambridge Bay from other communities and if they don’t have any accommodations, where are they going to stay?
Are they going to go somewhere else for their training?
Like I said earlier, when they go to other communities or other places for training, they end up quitting and go home.
Looking at this, they’re going to be sending people that want to take some kind of training for the job; they’re going to be sending them to other communities.
What I would like to see is these people training right at home instead of sending them to other communities.
This way they can complete their training courses if they take their training courses right at home instead of going to other communities or being sent out somewhere else or outside Nunavut.
Like I said earlier, I would like see some kind of institutions in the communities or maybe in the regional centres that would have an opportunity for training in their own region.
There are a lot of young people that don’t have jobs and they have nothing to do, they just walk around.
Because a lot of students, young people don’t have anywhere to go or they don’t have any training centre to go to become educated and these individuals want to upgrade their education as well but there are no facilities or training institutions for them to go to.
This is why there are a lot of people not taking training that they need.
I would like to see the government push for this in Inuit communities instead of sending them outside of Nunavut or to other regions. That’s about all.
That’s the only comment I want to make Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Arvaluk, you have 10 minutes.
In regards to the minister’s opening remarks, you can see the contents in the last paragraph.
We’re all aware how full the schools are and what condition they’re in.
The second paragraph it states that they are gathering information from the Hamlets, District Education Authorities, School operations, and Nunavut Arctic College staff to refine the plan.
If I was to phone Coral Harbour and call the DEA, is that what you do?
They have to agree because you already gave that information in the House.
My general comment looking at the Capital Estimates, for example, for Hall Beach there will be an addition.
I would just like to state that as an example, Hall Beach there is an addition. I believe it was the goal of the Government, I wonder how we can address the overcrowding the school in Arviat.
There are so many hundreds of students and they were running out of room.
Hopefully Education’s goal is not to overcrowd the schools and I am happy to say that Arviat will have a separate building for a school.
I want you to be aware of this.
Inuksuk High School will be renovated up to $19 million.
I wonder if we can build another building with a recreation facility like a base-ball diamond, can we not we build another high school with that $19 million?
When we are done, maybe we will be able to sell the present Inuksuk High School.
I am wondering if we would save more if we build a new one and sell the present Inuksuk High School.
The reason I am saying this is to look within the 2004-2005 five year capital plan just to be considered.
Even though it has been agreed upon in the House I am sure that you can find some other route to how you can spend less money.
Those are my general comments on the Capital Estimates.
The present High School, it would be good to have it renovated, but there is no recreational leisure area; students in high school they are very active, they like to play football or baseball, and nothing like that is close to the present high school.
Looking at the Minister’s introductory comments, it is very similar to my colleague’s comments from Nanulik.
It states that the Minister is aware of all the problems that exist in the communities with the schools.
They get no information from the Hamlet and DEA.
It is just putting on a pretty outlook so it will look good within the Five Year Capital Plan Estimates.
It is very nice to see the breakdown, and some communities are listed as to what they will do in those communities up to 2008 and within the five year capital plan it’s very appealing to look at. But in reality it seems like we’re just trying to satisfy the community District Education Authorities that it seems to serve just those, looking at the introductory remarks that the minister makes the capital plan up to 2008, the way I see it, I raised the question a number of times, for my community, Qikiqtarjuaq.
They have planned for two years, and they been asking to have their school to have a school addition in Qikiqtarjuaq and I don’t see it in the five year capital plan.
I wonder about the addition that they are requesting and I’ve been told that they are in the planning stages.
I don’t think they are telling me the truth because I don’t see it here in the capital plan. I’m very happy that one of my communities, Clyde River has received an addition and I am very happy about that. But the other question I kept raising and it’s not written in the capital plan and I already heard that it was being worked on.
Those are my general comments and I will be raising some questions when we start questioning the minister but I like to emphasise again that students who are graduating grade 12, we celebrate their graduation and we even go the different communities to attend the graduations, but not all of them are successful in obtaining jobs.
Some graduates when they are finished, when they graduate they seem to find more problems or obstacles that they have to overcome within their schools because a lot of times they go to a secondary school, they find it too difficult and we use a lot of money on this. Especially for the last three years especially since Nunavut, those students who attend school outside of their community up to six months when you’re a young person it’s very hard, and they have to adjust their lifestyle.
Also when you’re a teenager we all know, we want to be free, but there are obstacles that we have to overcome. For myself I have learned from my mother and father things that I had to learn from them but I have found them to be difficult even when they are not.
No wonder those students who go to school outside of their communities have to adjust their lifestyle and be more responsible.
Even though they’re training to obtain a job, maybe the teacher or instructor is not doing their jobs so they are just sent back home.
This should be emphasized again and those students who are finishing school in their community, they should take more vocational training so they’ll be capable of obtaining a job because in the present system there is no vocational training in high school, they only do basic academic schooling.
They don’t get any kind of vocational training.
Even though they had finished grade 12, a lot of them are not successful in obtaining a job and we have to find options how we can solve this problem.
This is very important for the department, for the community, and to us and I know they work really hard to produce this and I’m in full support of these. I support the intentions of these even though I might be talking as if I’m opposing it. But I’m just vocalizing the concerns; the problems that I see exist.
So, I hope to see a better transition for them in the coming years.
Chairperson (interpretation): Next is Mr. Puqiqnak.
I’ll make a brief comment in regards to the Department of Education in Nunavut to the Minister and his Deputy and the planner.
I am aware that young people are our future so we are trying to provide for them and to train them.
We have confidence with the Department of Education that they will prepare our young people to be leaders and they should see the world will be open and we’ll to see it and our children when they become teenagers.
When they’re aiming for grade 12 they are happy knowing that they will be self-sufficient once they finish their education and they will be able to help their parents to the best of their ability from what they had learned in school from kindergarten up to grade 12.
They work really hard to get to that status and we the parents feed them and clothe them and parents also work really hard to provide for their children, encouraging them to stay in school and occasionally the schools require a lot of assistance from the parents because a lot of times the teenagers get pregnant even though they are young themselves.
This is our life and it gets hard trying to rear children.
And the parents also work really hard and go through difficulties and so do the students.
So, your department is very important because you’re trying to provide a better future for our children.
Not just you, as parents, we are also responsible and should support the plans that you are producing.
If we see that there might be problems, we should be the ones to alert you for you to correct them.
Mr. Chairman, in my community, I have observed and I’ve been and the minister knows himself, that in one of my communities, just before he went to my community with the Deputy Minister, in Taloyoak, they’ve been asked by the hamlet because the graduates want to know what other training is available.
Or to simply ask them if they’re aware that they’ve graduated.
During my term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I have heard this.
And those graduates, when they finish grade 12, for example, Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa, people would apply in limited numbers, a lot of students were turned away.
Maybe the department can help with that and the Member for Hall Beach and Igloolik of the Legislative Assembly mentioned heavy equipment operators or airbrakes, maybe even to Sustainable Development, education, I think they should make us more aware.
As I stated earlier it’s very difficult to try and complete grade 12 and those students who finish grade 12, they shouldn’t be recognized just in the community, they should be recognized by the ministers as well so they won’t get discouraged and be more encouraged to get more training before they get older.
Mr. Chairman, what people are asking, the students are asking in the community, they go out on the land to learn environmental skills and they have been trained but there’s always an obstacle especially when it comes to providing insurance.
Particularly for the smaller communities and this problem that’s getting in the way.
It seems to be preventing them from learning the survival skills, that’s all I have to say Mr. Chairman.
I have a brief comment.
We went to Clyde River; we saw a nice school that was being built.
It was very nice to see, for my constituents in Grise Fiord it is completed, and it’s a nice school.
I expect that the school in Resolute, because they know the District Education Authority, the kindergarten class would go to what used to be a community hall, so they’ll be expecting an addition.
I very much appreciate the fact that there will be an addition to the school when we know they need schools in every community and sometimes in some communities there are more than one school.
And I just wanted to say that our children should be in the best building, it seems to be at the discretion of the minister because there’s a minister and his staff and a number of staff and they make good money, I’m sure they decide which schools need renovations or additions.
A lot of times we only get what we ask for, if we’re persistently asking for them and that part I can never understand. Why do we have to keep asking in order to get what we want? They should provide good buildings for the schools so they have a good surrounding among them.
On behalf of my constituents I wish to thank the department for the additions.
I don’t have any more comments from the members; if there are no more comments from members.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I apologise, I had forgotten I was going to add on to my comments earlier.
In regards to the students that go to the elementary schools, prior to going to high schools, when the students are preparing to go to high school for example do you have a 35 to 1 student/pupil ratio?
During the following September some of these that are preparing to go to high school, the number decreases.
When the students to go high school, we have a big population of students continuing to go to high school but the number of graduates seems to decline.
Just to clarify, from my understanding, perhaps there are things in the plans where you know down the road.
These are the types of things that will raise questions just to let you know.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to welcome the Minister and his officers to the assembly once again.
I am pleased with a lot of the things the department has done with the capital in this year’s and last year’s plans.
So I guess I wish when we said housing and education are the top two priorities, it’s would have been nice to see education still having the most instead of being number two. But I’m sure that they tried.
So I commend the minister and staff for at least moving down one notch and hopefully we won’t see education moving down further in future years.
Regarding the minister’s opening comments he mentioned that their capital budget has expanded significantly since Nunavut was created.
They have begun and continue completing projects in a number of communities.
I’d like to see more money going towards educational facilities in the communities.
Like my colleague from Baker Lake would say, it’s no secret that all over Nunavut the lack of classroom teaching space is a chronic issue that needs to be dealt with and I can’t stress enough of that.
What we have to try and do is to try and improve that situation so that our young people will have a much better opportunity in a much friendlier and easier environment to learn in.
It’s pretty tough in some cases we’ve seen in the last few years of class sizes as high as over thirty.
I’m not saying that’s the norm but you know when that happens even in the high twenties or mid twenties.
I’ve talked to teachers in all three regions.
It’s very tough and almost impossible for them to do their job under those circumstances.
So I think that by doing the additions and building new schools we have to try and provide as much space as possible.
Then I guess the next thing we’d like to see after that is the teaching positions to go along to fill those places.
Hopefully we’ll see that coming up in the O&M budget in the spring.
And it would be really nice to see the legislation.
The minister also indicated in his opening comments the challenges they face are equally large and if I can touch on those.
With the limits in their funding it is critical that they understand the best approach in delivering a lot of projects.
One of the projects we’ve heard raised in this House by different members, and it was an issue that was brought to the members of this House when we had our session in Cambridge Bay, and that’s the Nunavut Arctic College student residences.
Unfortunately, the married residence here in Iqaluit that was in the capital plan prior to division is still down the road in this capital plan.
I’m just wondering…the Minister of Health & Social Services was saying today or yesterday, I lose track of things when we talk, you kind of lose track of what he’s saying, but you know, that they’re going to be, you know with the new hospital coming here, they’re going to have to be building or expanding on to the boarding home or the centre where patients stay when they come here for, for the demand on that, they’re going to have to look at expanding or building new onto that.
I’m just wondering if you know, maybe some thought be given by the Department of Education with the Minister of Education looking at trying to combine those projects to maximize the use of dollars that we have.
I believe the Minister of Health had indicated, you know, funding for projects that one, for his portfolio would be coming from the Federal Government.
So you know, it could be a way of making more use of those federal dollars and allowing our limited territorial dollars and I’m sure you have to fight tooth and nail to make it go a little further.
So, I’m sure that’s something that the department can look at working with the Department of Health and Social Services to see if that’s something that could be looked at.