EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I would also like to take this opportunity and table the five-day forecast from Environment Canada for Friday, 11:00 a.m. on March 16, as well as 4:00 p.m. on March 16 and then again for 11:00 a.m. for Tuesday March 20.
I think it illustrates some of the concerns that we have with weather forecasting and accuracy obtained in Nunavut.
Could the member please provide the tabled documents to the Clerk’s table?
Motion 003 – 2(4): Rejection of the Report of the Nunavut Electoral Boundaries Commission – Notice (Tootoo)
I give notice that on Thursday, March 22, I will move the following motion:
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Honourable Member for Baker Lake, that the Legislative Assembly reject the recommendations of the Report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission in their entirety.
Motion 004 – 2(4): Extended Hours and Days – Notice (Picco)
I would like to give notice that on March 22, 2007, I will move the following motion:
I MOVE, seconded by the Honourable Member for Cambridge Bay, that the Speaker be authorized to set such sitting days and hours as the Speaker deems fit to assist with the business before the House during the Fourth Session.
Bill 09 – An Act to Amend the Nunavut Elections Act – Notice
I would like to give notice that on Thursday March 22, 2007, I shall move that Bill 9, An Act to Amend the Nunavut Elections Act, be read for the first time.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. Item 15.
Motions. (interpretation ends) Minister Picco.
I would like to seek unanimous consent to deal with my motion today.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. The minister is asking for unanimous consent to deal with the motion.
There is a nay.
Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister Picco, you do not have unanimous consent to deal with the motion today, and therefore we will move on to agenda Item 17.
First Reading of Bills. (interpretation) Item 18. (interpretation ends) Second Reading of Bills.
Bill 04 – Workers’ Compensation Act – Second Reading
I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Amittuq, that Bill 4, Workers’ Compensation Act, be read for the second time.
This bill repeals and replaces the existing Workers’ Compensation Act and makes consequential amendments to other Acts in order to clarify and extend entitlement to compensation when a worker suffers a personal injury, disease or fatality arising out of and during the course of employment.
To highlight the importance of worker safety in the new Act, the name of the Workers’ Compensation Board is changed to the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission and the Accident Fund is renamed as the Safety Fund.
The levels of compensation payable to workers for various forms of disability have been rationalized and increased. In exceptional cases, the commission will have the power to grant extended compensation. Vocational training and rehabilitation are given increased emphasis.
The range of compensation available to workers has been expanded. The entitlement of spouses and persons in a conjugal relationship to compensation has also been widened to include a larger group of persons and a higher level of pensions.
Speaker: The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. (interpretation) Question has been called.
Bill 4 has had second reading and is referred to committee.
Item 18. (interpretation ends) Second Reading of Bills. (interpretation) Item 19. (interpretation ends) Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters.
Bill 1, 2, and 3 with Mr. Evyagotailak in the Chair. (interpretation) Before we proceed, we will take a 20-minute break.
>>House recessed at 15:18 and Committee resumed at 15:45
In Committee of the Whole we have the following items to deal with: Bill 1, 2, and 3.
We wish to continue with Bill 1 and the review of the main estimates for Health and Social Services, followed by the Department of Environment.
Are we in agreement that we continue with the main estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services?
Chairman: Thank you. I ask Minister Aglukkaq if she wants her officials to sit with her at the witness table. Minister Aglukkaq.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq (interpretation): Yes.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please allow the minister’s staff to enter the chambers.
For the record, Minister Aglukkaq, please introduce your staff.
To my right is my Deputy Minister and to my left is Shirley Alder, the Executive Director for Finance. And, in the audience there is Dave Richardson, the Assistant Deputy Minister for Operations.
On Friday we were on general comments. The following have already made their general comments: Mr. Tootoo, Mr. Curley, and Mr. Peterson.
Are there any more general comments on Health and Social Services?
Very briefly, yesterday, when we were talking about the release of the federal budget and the amounts that would be coming to Nunavut, at this time we can’t say much, or propose anything new.
But, I would first of all like to touch upon two items; the first is with regards to the Nursing Program. I don’t see anything new here with regards to the Nursing Program.
We would like to know if there is anything we can do to cut costs, or to increase their living allowance and benefits so that they can at least have the same benefits as the Akitsiraq Law School Program students.
I think that if we give them better benefits they would have more incentive to complete the program.
But, when we’re talking about agency nurses, it’s extremely expensive.
I think it’s going to be cost effective if we concentrate on the Nursing Program and look at how we can improve their benefits.
You could possibly have discussions with the Premier, and if we graduate our nursing students we can reduce the number of agency nurses. We can look at probably how much money we can save if we graduate more nursing students and use less agency nurses.
We’re talking about millions and millions of dollars.
I think the elders, especially, and the people of Nunavut, are going to appreciate having nurses that understand and speak their language.
They not only know the language, but know the culture also. And there’s more open communication between the nurse and the client that they’re servicing.
If somebody gets sick for example, and there is a communication gap, then the illness or the sickness that this client has tends to become more progressive, especially in cancer patients, for example.
If we get nurses who understand and speak the Inuktitut language, once they understand what’s the matter with the patient, then they, in turn, can give that information to the head nurse, or the doctor, or the treating physician.
There was a case where there was a terminally ill person who was given Tylenol.
The nurse that can communicate with the clients can make referrals to specialists, or other physicians that can treat that individual.
What I’m trying to say is with the student programs I think that we should be giving them adequate benefits so that they don’t just quit midway.
One of the issues that I wanted to cover was in regard to some of the nurses that have been in our communities for a long time.
If we use Pond Inlet, as an example, we just lost a long-time nurse. We heard that he was moving to Yellowknife.
This individual is male. He was a long time resident, he had an Inuk wife and they had children.
He had hunting equipment and snowmobiles and made himself at home to our community lifestyle and so we had a doctor who had adopted our community lifestyle being taught the Inuktitut hunting skills by the father-in-law.
We have to think about the nurses, or doctors, who have been up here for a long time and for one reason or another, we’re going to lose them.
We know that there are excellent programs and benefits made available to the agency nurses but not the long-time nurses. Even some of them have their own private houses.
Lastly, but very briefly, I am very pleased that the government has set up the decentralized programs to the smaller communities.
I am not saying that the job that was moved to Pangnirtung is not good, but what I’m trying to say is that this individual, who worked for the Baffin General Hospital was transferred to another location and it’s creating a problem.
I would like you to consider looking at other options.
We should think about trading the position, moving that transportation officer here to the Baffin Regional Hospital and moving another GN position up to Pangnirtung that can be filled by a local resident.
Do members have any more general comments?
We will now proceed to page-by-page review of the departmental estimates, starting with page H-5, H-6, and H-7.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $21 million.
Under directorate, and I am assuming this because it doesn’t show it on their organizational chart at the front, I guess they call it an accounting structure, it shows 154 PYs.
This is my first question to the minister or officials, is that where their corporate services or finance section falls under?
Again, I would say that based on the announcement made by the Finance Minister last week that this doesn’t accurately reflect what the department structures can look like after those positions were transferred in June, I believe it was in June.
I’m just wondering if the minister could inform the members of this House how many PYs that they are looking at transferring over to Department of Finance?
We are looking at approximately 17 positions transferring from Health and Social Services to Finance and I guess just a point of clarification around the directorate piece that you had asked about, some of the positions are also in Kivalliq and Kitikmeot that are going to Finance.
Out of those 17 positions how many of those fall under the Directorate?
As she said, some of them fell under the regional offices that would move to Finance, correctly to the regional Finance office in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet.
For here and under the Directorate, where this area is, how many positions exactly are we looking at that are being voluntarily, as the minister indicated, transferred over to Finance?
Ron is just looking for the breakdown of that. Just again, for clarification, all the positions are within the directorate, but in the two boxes below it also includes the regional operations under the assistant deputy minister of operations. That’s where some of the Finance positions in a region fall under in Health.
While she is looking for the numbers, I would like to see: how many here at the headquarters are being transferred out here in Iqaluit?
I didn’t hear the question. Can he repeat the question please?
Can you repeat your question, Mr. Tootoo?
Mr. Tootoo: Pardon me, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman: Repeat your question to the minister please.
Mr. Tootoo: Okay, I was listening that time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would just like to ask the minister: how many, out of the headquarters function here in Iqaluit, are being voluntarily transferred to the Department of Finance?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Mr. Chairman, approximately six, I believe, is the information Shirley has just provided.
If the minister could firm up that number, ‘approximately,’ it’s people’s jobs that they’re talking about.
I guess the next question, while I’m waiting to find exactly the number of people affected by that, can the minister indicate whether, or when those individuals were informed that they were being voluntarily transferred over to the Department of Finance.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I’m going to get Ron to answer that question.
Mr. Browne: About two weeks ago there was a meeting of staff when the accounting and financial staff were informed that we would be taking steps to strengthen financial management by consolidating the accounting operations within the Department of Finance.
I will ask Mr. Browne then; did that meeting with the affected staff take place before or after the Minister of Finance did his statement here in the House that those positions were being voluntarily transferred to the Department of Finance?
Mr. Browne: That information was provided to the finance staff on the same day that it was announced by the Minister of Finance.
What were those individuals told specifically; did you say it was nice working with you; you’re now going over to Finance? And, that’s it, or were different options made available to them, or was it just a meeting to inform them that, ‘Sorry, but as of X date, you’re going to be under the Department of Finance’?
Mr. Browne: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The meeting held with staff was a general statement that accounting services would be transferred to finance, and individual meetings are now being held with staff in the department to clarify their role and determine precisely which positions would be transferred to finance.
Since the minister volunteered those individuals to go work for a different department, I’m just wondering if any of those individuals decided that they did not want to go work for the Department of Finance, if for whatever reason, they wanted to stay within the Department of Health, what options are available to those individuals?
As I mentioned, there are meetings being held with each individual person now to determine their interests and to explain to them the opportunities that are available to them in the Finance Department.
So we don’t know at this point which staff may or may not be interested in that change.
I’m not looking for numbers of staff or who wasn’t or who isn’t happy about being volunteered for something.
My question, maybe I need to clarify it more is:
What options are available to employees regardless if they choose not to go along with the volunteer transfer over to the Department of Finance and they want to stay working in the Department of Health, what options are available?
Surely, this is something that they must have looked at.
The opportunities being provided to the staff when they move to the Department of Finance provide the same salaries and benefits, and the functions are being identified regarding which ones will specifically be transferred.
And in terms of options for those who don’t want to transfer, I don’t have the details on that at this time.
I don’t know if this is the case or not, but I’m just going through my mind is if I was an affected employee in that case, and I found out the same day that everyone else did that I was being volunteered; it reminds me, I watched the movie, ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ last night and there weren’t too many people volunteering to be the first one off the ship going to the beaches.
Some questions that go through my mind, one would be: what if I go transfer, this is my job right now; this is how I’m classified. If I move over to another department, what if the classification of the job changes and the pay level goes down for example, what happens then in that reclassification?
Mr. Browne: Mr. Chairman, as I said, the positions and the salaries and benefits will transfer from Health and Social Services to Finance.
The transfer allows the accounting staff to work in a larger group of peers and it gives them more opportunities for advancement, training, and support.
There are ongoing vacancies in the department and elsewhere if any individual who is referred to seek another vacancy and apply for that. The opportunity being provided to these staff to become part of the Department of Finance is, as we see it, a good career move for them.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m glad that you think making career choices for your employees; I thought people made career choices on their own.
My point is I’ve seen or heard that there are issues around jobs being reclassified and if that was the case, then you would be red circled for a year and then your pay would drop down to whatever the reclassification was.
If an employee chose not to go, Mr. Browne just indicated that they would be able to apply for other, I think it’s a third of the department that’s vacant right now.
Would there be no consideration given to an affected employee on a transfer, that they would automatically be transferred to another position within the department, if they so chose to do that, rather than having to apply again.
I am pretty sure that when it comes to employees on layoff status they would be given priority for something like that. So, basically they’re being laid off from the Department of Health and they’re being transferred over to the Department of Finance.
If someone decided for some strange reason to stay in the Department of Health that they wanted to stay there, could they just transfer into a similar categorized position within the Department of Health, rather than having to resign, or re-apply for another position?
The whole issue on process, and staffing and labour relations, I am not very familiar with what those options are, and when those options kick in. I know in the case of when employees are laid off through restructuring, that there has been offers made in the past, such as the decentralization of PYs and so on.
In the case of the employees transferring PYs from department to the other, I don’t know if those options are available to those. I am not sure how to respond to that: the labour relations issues. I don’t know the answer to that question but I can certainly look into what options are available.
In this instance, the GN, as an employer, is transferring PYs from one department to another and I don’t believe that results in a layoff.
I can get more of that information and share it with the members.
I’d have to consult with Department of Human Resources on that as well.
I am just wondering, I thought you guys have your own HR division within the department?
Do they not touch on any of this?
Within the Department of Health we have an HR division for nursing recruitment only. We don’t have a labour relations and job evaluations division to answer some of your questions.
The reason I bring this up is because I know any time, nobody likes change; everyone’s scared of change.
We have people that have made commitments for employment; there is a big push to get people out of staff housing and into homeownership.
Changes like that can affect those individuals, whether it is any department, anywhere.
There is that fear of that uncertainty. Your pay could be changed after a year.
As you know if that happened to me, if I am getting mortgaged based on my pay right now, in a year from now I am going to be reclassified, I am going to be earning less money. How does that affect my ability to pay my mortgage?
From that perspective, if there are...I don’t even know if there are or not, but I would assume that there are employees that may, more than likely, find themselves in a situation like that, the uncertainty of not knowing if that could happen to them or not, through this transfer.
I am just looking for a level of comfort for myself that I am not going to just have any of those health employees who live in Iqaluit; they come and talk to me if they have problems, as with anyone else that lives here.
I know I would like to be able to give them an answer if they did come to me, and ask me what happens if this goes from a commitment from the minister or officials, if there are people that are affected like that, that all those options would be made available to them and that they wouldn’t be just turfed off to Finance, and that’s their problem now we don’t have to worry about you any more.
I would like to remind you again that your questions are to be to the point and the answer the same, and the minister may wish to not to answer if she feels the questions are hypothetical.
I will speak with the Department of Human Resources officials with my staff and explain what options are available to these individuals.
They are valuable employees to us and we want to keep the individuals within the government as the employer, and I know we are all working close with the Department of Finance to ensure that it is a smooth transition from one department to the other.
Specifically to address the questions you raised, in case a question is raised, I will get that information and commit to the member to provide it.
We are of Page H-5, 6, and 7.
On the directorate, the issue I brought up in regard to the transportation office.
First of all, perhaps I’ll ask a question in regard to the policy. The employees who would live in the health centre, staff not just for the department, for example, the hospital cooks.
If a cook could be moved to Pangnirtung, and live in Pangnirtung, and commute to Iqaluit, and be a cook, I don’t know how feasible this is.
Or the driver for the boarding home who drives from the boarding home to the airport and from the boarding home to the hospital.
The driver for patients, I’m not sure if they can be moved to Pangnirtung, or transferred to Pangnirtung.
The transportation driver for patients who are going into the hospital and who are being discharged, I don’t know if the driver could be transferred to Pangnirtung? The driver is only responsible for the patients to take them to the hospital and to the airport. What kind of policy do you have for those?
The question that he has raised is under H-13 of the Main Estimates, not under the Directorate.
When we go to page 13, I will be asking that question on that page.
I thank the minister and welcome her and her officials back to the House today.
I have a question on page H-13 of the Business Plan.
I wanted to follow up with some priorities from 2006-07. The status of the Phase 3 of the eHealth Plan is completed.
The final stage in the plan is schedule to begin in 2007, to be completed over two to three years.
Could you perhaps expand on what the eHealth Plan is and how successful it has been to date and how it is going to help us reduce costs in the Health Department over the next two to three years?
The eHealth Plan refers to the electronic health record and being able to improve patient care by having the patient information more readily accessible to the healthcare providers when and where it is needed.
There currently are a couple of steps that have been implemented in achieving that goal.
For example, we do have a laboratory computerized system in place, we have a pharmacy system being implemented, and that is to progress beyond to include nursing records, health centre records, patient care so that information can be more reliably accessed by healthcare providers to provide good patient care.
I thank Mr. Browne for that answer.
Could you take me through step-by-step? If I’m a healthcare provider and I’m working with a patient, how does that system work?
If a patient goes into a health centre in Iqaluit but they’re from Cambridge Bay, how would that help the healthcare provider treat that patient?
If a patient was not being cared for in their own community, for example, if it was a patient from Iqaluit being cared for in Ottawa, then the information could be more readily available to the specialist in Ottawa, and that would include diagnostic imaging, X-rays, lab tests.
The computer system also allows easier tracking over a period of time, particularly for laboratory tests; if you wanted to see what the trend has been over weeks or months, and perhaps even years.
So that information can be very valuable as well in ensuring good patient care.
I would like to thank Mr. Browne for that answer.
So basically what Mr. Browne is saying is that we’re one of the territories in Canada where we’re catching up to the rest of Canada in terms of becoming more electronically connected to other systems, in the great expanse of the territory.
Is that essentially what we’re doing here?
The member is correct with his statement.
Currently we have no electronic health record systems of our patients.
Further down on that page, H-13 of the business plan, there’s another priority from 2006-07.
The department will work with Health Committees of Council, as these committees play a critical role in identifying healthy initiatives and promoting healthy living as residents. This is an ongoing priority.
I recall a former Health Minister established the Health Committees in the year 2000 and that was as a result of getting rid of the Regional Health Boards.
There’s been a call for reinstating the health boards from the Kitikmeot in the last couple of years, in particular, a large lobbying effort from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association AGM.