EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So we are trying to be proactive in providing the charter service to Winnipeg from Sanikiluaq for passengers, but at this point in time the contract is in place.
When we go for an RFP I will be looking at perhaps a larger aircraft that addresses the concerns. Whether that is feasible will remain…I mean we won’t know that until we go through that process.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister. (interpretation) Member for Hudson Bay, Mr. Kattuk.
Thank you, Minister. (no interpretation)...or the contract is not expired yet, but I would like to say, would the minister be able to consider the concerns of Sanikiluaq people when the next contract is issued to a different aircraft, or a larger aircraft to be able to have washroom facilities in the aircraft because this is a great concern.
I cannot pilot a plane and if something happens to the pilot, then the passengers don’t know how to operate an aircraft, so there should be a co-pilot.
That was your first supplementary question.
In response to the complaints that have been raised related to that airline, we did remove some seats to install a portable toilet in the aircraft separated from the passenger area.
So that was the interim measure that was taken to try and address that concern.
The contract is in place until 2008, so when we go forward with the RFP or tender process we will include those, like I stated in the past, to see what we can come up with. It is not a scheduled airline service but rather charter services that we organize for patients from Sanikiluaq to Winnipeg.
So we will look into that and I have committed to looking into that in response to his earlier questions but the contract is still in place as it is right now.
Member for Sanikiluaq, your second supplementary.
Yes, I understand the contract will be put out again in 2008, but what we hear often is that there is a portable toilet.
It’s like one of those toilets that you use when you go out hunting in a tent.
You can’t really call it a toilet because I saw it and I was sitting at the last seat and it was right behind me and was put under a seat.
You can’t call it a toilet.
I know that some people don’t want to do their business in front of people. There is room for improvement.
So, even before the contract is up, this is an urgent matter, and this should be considered seriously because we Inuit are in great discomfort when we are sick, and they have to try and make us comfortable.
So, I am urging the minister even before the contract is up, this is an urgent matter, and this has to be looked at because the flights take a long time.
We are trying to address the member’s concerns. The aircraft that is used for the Keewatin area is for medevacs and charter services, and it’s not a scheduled aircraft.
So, we are trying to address some of those issues and to come up with a temporary solution, a portable toilet was installed. I didn’t say a washroom. A portable toilet was installed to try and address that.
For preparation of passengers before travel, they are notified that there is no toilet. We are trying to address this. It is not a scheduled aircraft.
It’s a chartered medical evacuation and scheduled chartered service to Winnipeg.
We are trying to address that. To go out with a request for proposals right now to change the airline, we can look into that.
But I have mentioned that we will do a request for proposals and tender calls to try and address perhaps getting a bigger aircraft with the company to do the medical travel and medevacs.
In the interim, the temporary solution is in place. I recognize your concerns and we are trying to address that. At the same time, I know the airline takes your concerns very seriously as well as well as the concerns of Sanikiluarmiut.
They did have a public meeting about those concerns, and generally speaking, from what I gather through the correspondence I shared with you from the mayor, or SAO, that they were satisfied with the service of Keewatin Air.
But, in terms of the bigger aircraft, and toilets, we’ll put that into the RFP process this year.
The public meetings that she keeps referring to, I apologize, I couldn’t be there because I had to go somewhere else; it was at the same time as the graduation ceremony and I couldn’t be at two places at the same time.
So I attended the graduation ceremonies.
When I met with the hamlet council just last week, this is one of the issues that kept coming up. It is the number one priority in the community.
When I met with the Hamlet Council, they kept complaining that the aircraft is way too small, and there are no washroom facilities.
And, that is still a concern from the hamlet council.
I just wanted to give her that information.
That was not a question, but if you wish to respond, Minister Aglukkaq?
I will follow up again with the Council of Sanikiluaq and perhaps provide a timeline for the member. I will also table tomorrow a letter I received that went to the airline from the mayor and council in regard to the public meeting consultation with Sanikiluarmiut in regard to the Keewatin Air service.
So for the members’ information, I will table that in the House and provide some information, and we will look into the whole issue of looking at the size of the aircraft that’s used to provide chartered medical services and medevacs out of Sanikiluaq.
Question 038 – 2(4): GN Requirements for Scheduled Flights (Arvaluk)
Very similar to what the Honourable Member for Sanikiluaq just said, (interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, it’s not only Kivalliq Air that is flying Beechcraft for medical purposes; we also have Beechcraft and King Airs on Baffin Island.
These aircraft are designed for short hauls; that’s why they have no toilets but we use them in Nunavut for long hauls from Iqaluit to Grise Fiord for example.
If there’s medical travel from Grise Fiord to Ottawa, then there are issues; how long a flight is that?
It’s a question Nunavut-wide of using small aircraft for both schedules and charters. A flight from Iqaluit to Igloolik to Pond Inlet to Grise Fiord is on a King Air with no washroom and it’s always full.
I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Health if she will reveal what’s the requirement of the government to serve their people when they are required to fly right now in these kinds of aircraft.
Would that not be in their call for request for proposal, some conditions such as washrooms, two pilots, and other requirements for safety purposes?
In terms of what overall government requirements are for washrooms on aircraft, I will have to speak to the Transportation Minister on that.
Are you asking me whether it’s a requirement for health or overall government requirements on any charters or medevac services that we provide in the types of aircraft required for emergency medical evacuations, or scheduled flights, or Government of Nunavut’s charters with small aircraft carriers?
Perhaps I’m asking the wrong minister on this one.
I would like the government; I don’t care whether it goes to the Minister of Health, Transportation, or the Premier, it doesn’t matter to me. Ask the Nunavut Government; maybe ask the federal counterparts what is a short-term haul; is it one hour, two hours, one-and-a-half hours, or is it the usual four hours, is that short-term haul without a washroom, with a single pilot?
What’s the requirement of the federal government; wouldn’t that be the same standard that applies to Nunavut?
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you. When you’re asking questions please direct them to the same minister.
Minister Aglukkaq, do you wish to respond?
Broadly speaking, I don’t know what the conditions are from Transport Canada on different kinds of aircrafts, or transportation requirements and terms of reference are for this government, but I can speak to the Department of Health on what we asked for in our medical contracts; medevac services.
From what I understand for any trip that’s more than two hours generally speaking we try and provide washrooms on the aircraft. That’s not always possible.
So I can speak to that but I don’t know the answer to what the Transport Canada regulations are, and whether they’re safe or not; one pilot or two pilots, I don’t know the answer to that.
I can speak to my colleagues in the departments and the department responsible for putting out the RFP, or tenders for charters and get back to the member.
This is not new; I’ve gone through this before.
The right hand doesn’t speak to what the left hand is doing. This government is only one government.
They are supposed to know what each and every one of those departments are doing. The Department of Health is supposed to know. At least talk to the Minister of Transportation of what the standard criteria are?
What the requirements are? And the federal government is at the centre.
As regular members our hands are tied because once I start asking questions to a particular minister I should just stick with that particular minister, rather than getting an answer from the minister who knows most about it.
I’ll ask the minister then has she reviewed, or at least find out from the Minister of Transportation, from this government and from the federal government what the requirements are for shipping patients, or returning dying patients and carrying them in those types of backgrounds that the Member from Sanikiluaq was alluding to?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think my colleagues also heard that question so I can also follow up with them just on that.
Just getting back to what we provide in terms of services for medical travel; in most cases the services that we provide are after hours of scheduled aircraft, and in most cases those aircraft are King Airs, or Citations, or what not.
They’re different aircraft that we use for after hours; after scheduled flights, and that’s the only option we have in the north to get sick patients out of the communities to the nearest centre for treatment.
In cases where we do RFPs; Sanikiluaq as an example, in that particular case that charter service to Winnipeg, as well as medevacs to Winnipeg; that contract for that is similar to the other ones, but that’s one where they have the portable toilets. In all the other incidences we don’t.
So I can look into that.
In terms of the regular scheduled flights, I can’t speak to that.
There are scheduled flights with Kenn Borek, and different communities in King Air craft and stuff, I cannot speak to that, but I can speak to what we do provide in the Department of Health in evacuating sick patients from the communities to the nearest centres.
I know that she can’t respond to my question, and I understand that, but Sanikiluaq residents’ representatives have been asking these questions for the past three years, asking the same question.
Can the minister tell me if you’ll be able to respond to those questions prior to the new contract coming up in 2008?
In response to the concerns in the past, temporary interim measures were taken to install a portable toilet on that aircraft.
What I have committed to providing to the member is when the contract is expired within this year, to do the RFP to come back and report back as to what we can look for.
To do an RFP to address that particular concern will be a bigger aircraft. What type of aircraft, I don’t know. But, those specifications, we can go forward and check to see what is available out there in addressing the member’s concern.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Oral Question Period is now over. (interpretation ends) We’ll move on with Item 7.
Tabled Document 024 – 2(4): US Accused of Silencing Experts on Polar Bears – sfgate.com article March 9, 2007 (Netser)
I wish to table the following document from the San Francisco Chronicle dated March 9, 2007, entitled; US Accused of Silencing Experts on Polar Bears; Climate Change Scientists Were Told Not to Speak Officially at this Conference.
And the reason for tabling this document, Mr. Speaker, is to demonstrate that there are many agendas at work within the reasoning behind listing our polar bears as endangered species, and most of it has nothing to do with Nunavut and the health of polar bears.
Mr. Speaker, there are dissensions within the group that is going to list our polar bears on the threatened species list.
Tabled Document 025 – 2(4): Governor General Adrienne Clarkson Wearing Taloyoak Parka – Photos of Official Portrait by Mary Pratt (Aglukkaq)
As per my member’s statement earlier, I would like to table photos of the former Governor General in a parka, taken from the Globe and Mail and the Ottawa Citizen.
As stated earlier, Arnaoyok Alookee of Taloyoak made the parka in the 1970s.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Bring the documents up to the table officers, please.
Tabled Document 026 – 2(4): Nunavut-Manitoba Road – Selection of Preferred NU-MB Route (Alagalak)
I would like to table this document. It doesn’t say route. I want you to be aware of the Manitoba/Nunavut route selection.
Speaker (interpretation): Please bring the documents up.
Bill 02 – Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act #3, 2006-07 – First Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Nattilik, that Bill 2, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act #3, 2006-07, be read for the first time.
Bill 03 – Supplementary Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act #3, 2006-07 – First Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable for Iqaluit East, that Bill 3, Supplementary Appropriation (Operations and Maintenance) Act #3, 2006-07, be read for the first time.
The Motion’s in order.
All those in favor. Opposed.
Bill 02 – Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act #3, 2006-07 – Second Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Nattilik, that Bill 2, Supplementary Appropriation (Capital) Act #3, 2006-07, be read for the second time.
Bill 2 has had second reading and accordingly it is referred to the Committee of the Whole.
Bill 03 – Supplementary Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act #3, 2006-07 – Second Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Iqaluit East, that Bill 3, Supplementary Appropriation (Operations and Maintenance) Act #3, 2006-07, be read for the second time.
To the principle of bill.
Bill 3 has had second reading and accordingly the bill is referred to the Committee of the Whole.
Bill 1, Bill 2, and Bill 3 with Mr. Barnabas in the Chair.
Before we proceed we will take a 20-minute break.
>>House recessed at 15:14 and Committee resumed at 15:40
In Committee of the Whole we have the following items to deal with: Bill 1, Bill 2, and Bill 3.
We wish to continue with the review of Bill 1 and the main estimates for the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, followed by the Department of Community and Government Services.
EIA.
Mr. Premier, do you have witnesses you would like to bring to the table?
Chairman (interpretation): Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could escort the witnesses to the witness table.
Thank you, Sergeant-at-Arms. (interpretation ends) For the record, Mr. Minister, could you please introduce your witnesses?
At the witness table, on my right I have John Walsh, and on my left, for Intergovernmental Affairs Deputy Minister David Omilgoetok.
We were on page B-10.
At this time the floor is now open for any questions.
I welcome the minister and his officials back today.
I have a question that’s related to your business plan on page B-19. I believe it falls under that page of the main estimates.
It states in your priorities for 2007-08, “Work with Canada, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon to develop a northern vision.”
Could you perhaps expand on what that schedule means in respect to the northern vision and how it would benefit Nunavut?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) In the previous government, I know in the strategy that was put together, we had set aside $40 million but we have put it to good use.
The new government has talked about creating a northern vision for their government.
So we want to partner with our sister territories and see what we can develop together. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Minister. (interpretation ends) Mr. Peterson.
When you’re working with your northern counterparts, the Premiers for the other two territories, as part of the northern vision, will that encompass finding some economic development funds to help with developing our economy in the north?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Yes, that comes piecemeal with any arrangements.
So that will definitely form part of the vision that we’ll be pursuing but I can’t promise that we’ll get it.
It’s an arrangement that we’ll have to work out with the federal government.
Our sister territories have been very supportive in all our efforts. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In support of the development of a northern vision, do you see consultations with Members of the Legislative Assembly and members of the public?
Our goal was to get a northern vision, so if we can get our federal partners to buy into the vision, then we’ll start working on it, but in the meantime, we’re just in very preliminary discussions.
So, we haven’t gotten past first base yet.
I believe under this page as well, the Government of Nunavut office in Ottawa is by Intergovernmental Relations, could you tell us how many positions are currently in that office in Ottawa?
There are currently four PYs working in my department.
I see in the description on page B-17 of the business plan that the intergovernmental relations office is involved in devolution negotiations.
Could you expand a bit on the role representing the Government of Nunavut to facilitate devolution negotiations?
Currently there is one PY working out of Ottawa, coordinating with finance on maintaining contact with the federal government, and coordinating our activities out of the office.
It also mentions that they also work on other corporate issues as assigned.
Can you give us an idea of what other corporate issues you might assign in the course of a year to help the Government of Nunavut in Ottawa?
Yes, there has been a lot of work so far on devolution, so, including them doing other work like doing strategy work for the polar bear on an intergovernmental basis, and other files that come on a pressing basis.
It’s something that we make sure that that office there is always kept busy and used to maximize the benefit for Nunavummiut.
Can the minister tell us if he believes that we’re getting good value from those four PYs in Ottawa?
If we didn’t, they wouldn’t be there.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the minister for his answer.
Can the minister indicate if he’s aware if the other two territorial governments have an office to perform the same functions?
I know that they do have offices there, but I don’t run their government, so I can’t respond to the issue of what they do.
I wasn’t asking if he knew what they did, I was just inquiring if they have offices in Ottawa.
Mr. Chairman, there is an office... Energy Secretariat, I believe falls under this page. Page B-17. There is a description there, increased funding for $35,000 from $202,000 in the next fiscal year.
Could the minister explain what that increase will go for, what role will they play?
This year we wanted to make sure that the need for the office is there and it was identified that it was required, so there is one PY and half time as well.
We are on page B-17.
On B-10, as my colleague pointed out the Energy Secretariat is under that section and I recall the Minister of Energy in December tabled a document, prepared by the Energy Secretariat titled, ‘Approaching Ikummatiit: Developing a Nunavut Energy Strategy.’
In that strategy it indicates, “Ikummatiit asks that we step back and again review the idea of a single company; that a single company should manage Nunavut’s power operations and Petroleum Products Division.”
It goes on to say that the GN will need to work its way towards a well-staffed and effective Department of Energy, Minerals, Oil, and Gas.
My first question to the minister is I know in the past the Legislative Assembly did not approve the $500,000 request of funding to transfer PPD responsibilities to the Qulliq Energy Corporation.
I am just wondering as a result of that comment in the report that the Minister of Energy tabled, is that something that this government could, as it states, again look at?
We have to look at overall operations of energy. It runs 20 percent of our budget today.
I am open to any way that we can improve our condition. Whatever we put together at the end of the day, will have to be approved by the House.
So I’m sure that we’re all interested in what the outcome will be but I want to remain open and work along with everyone because today it is not working very well, and we have to find a way to make it work better.
So whether it be coordinating through one office or not, I am quite open to it, but before we get there I can’t respond to the question.
I guess the part in there it worries me is that we step back and again review. As far as I am aware there was a comprehensive review, we probably paid a consultant that didn’t contribute to the Payroll Tax a whole lot of money to prepare that review and look at the amalgamation of Petroleum Products Division and the Power Corporation.
What I’m asking is do we need, or are we looking at again spending money to hire a consultant, or someone to come up with a review, that’s something that has already been done?
Hon. Paul Okalik: Perhaps, I can bury my head under the sand and pretend everything’s going well but I wanted to see ways on how we can improve what is happening today.
I want to remain open to any options that may be presented to us, whether it is trying to find ways to save money, or trying to improve the services that we’re doing today.
So I can’t respond to a question that may not come up. We have to look at all options and I will remain open. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I think a lot of people out there might say that’s exactly what this government has been doing for a while; is sticking their head in the snow and pretending everything is fine.
I’m not saying ‘ignore that,’ I mean that work was done already, and saying that we’re going to waste more money in getting it looked at again, as that option that’s already been...you know a proposal, or a review, or whatever you want to call it, a consultant’s report, a study has already been done looking at that.
I just want to make sure that we don’t waste our scarce resources on, again, looking at something that has already been looked at.
That’s all I’m getting at and hopefully that clears it up for the minister.
Hon. Paul Okalik: I didn’t hear a question. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Minister. (interpretation ends) Mr. Tootoo.
Mr. Tootoo: Touchy topic, I guess.
Mr. Chairman, maybe I can make it really clear for the minister is his government, his department, again hire a consultant, or pay someone to do a report at looking at the amalgamation of Petroleum Products Division and the Power Corporation, which we already paid a lot of money for someone to do.
Hopefully, that clarifies it for the minister.
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Currently, the two organizations are talking to each other and seeing what the best ways of looking at delivering the services that they are delivering today, and how we can improve our services, reduce our costs, and improve the situation for our constituents. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I guess my next question is: wasn’t that already outlined in the last report that was done?
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) We owe it to our constituents to find the best way of delivering these basic services that we depend upon, and that’s what we’re doing. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.