EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Due to the fact that the Americans insist on the passage being an international waterway, I thought they got the best answer from the NWT government. But our government, the territory that will be most impacted, never made any statements even though we will bear the brunt of the impacts since we live here and I found this unacceptable.
I would like this government to properly address any matters that could conceivably have such a large impact on our people.
This is especially when it impacts our people and we do not want any government, foreign or otherwise, to suppress our people.
This is our land as Inuit descendents and I want this government to address any issues that impact Nunavut by making the Nunavut position clear on behalf of all Nunavummiut.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Okalik. (interpretation ends) Ms. Premier.
Hon. Eva Aariak (interpretation): Thank you.
I believe that you are directing this government to undertake this initiative.
That is why I sit in my position, to hear directions that members want us to move towards. It’s good to be provided with items that members wish addressed, including any action items, and the only way to progress is to move forward.
However, I can also state that it is a very high priority issue for this government and even if we didn’t address it immediately, it doesn’t mean that we’re ignoring it. We are carefully deliberating on the issues inherent to the matter and addressing some of our colleague’s concerns and ideas with respect to the issue at hand, and that is how we will approach these issues.
Question 002 – 3(1): Infrastructure Needs in the High Arctic (Elliott)
Earlier this month, the minister and Premier Aariak met in Ottawa with the federal Infrastructure Minister John Baird to discuss Nunavut’s urgent infrastructure needs.
I am certain that the minister is as eager as I am to review the contents of tomorrow’s federal budget and I am hopeful that he emphasizes the importance of ensuring that our most remote communities, such as Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay, and Grise Fiord, are not neglected.
Can the minister tell the House what commitments the federal government provided to Nunavut at this meeting with respect to meeting our infrastructure needs?
Minister of Community and Government Services, Hon. Lorne Kusugak.
Hon. Lorne Kusugak: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, we do have a lot of infrastructure needs throughout the territory and I am not able at this time to tell you what commitments they are.
Hopefully we will have some news in our favour come the budget tomorrow.
Your first supplementary, Mr. Elliott.
On April 23 of last year, the GN announced plans to construct a new office building in Grise Fiord.
This much needed and long awaited announcement was met with great enthusiasm in my constituency.
Can the minister confirm for me today that this project will go ahead during the 2009-2010 fiscal year and will he commit to keeping the community fully informed on its progress?
Speaker: Thank you. Minister Kusugak.
The construction of the new office building for Grise Fiord is currently in the planning phase.
The CGS staff met with the hamlet officials earlier to determine the type of building that would be required to best meet the community’s needs and I will keep your community fully informed on the progress.
But at this time, it will be appearing before the standing committee which will be meeting some time next month.
Your second supplementary, Mr. Elliott.
As the minister will appreciate, the community of Resolute Bay was very pleased to note the federal/territorial news release on September 4, 2008, which announced $24.4 million in joint funding under the Canada-Nunavut Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund to “support economic and community projects in Nunavut communities.”
A portion of this funding has been allocated towards the construction of Resolute Bay’s much needed and much anticipated new community arena.
Can the minister update the House today on the status of this important project?
Minister Kusugak.
The construction of the new community arena for Resolute Bay, which is cost shared by Canada and the Government of Nunavut through the Municipal Infrastructure Fund, is currently in the planning phase and again, it will be dealt with at the standing committee next month.
And I will keep the member and the community informed on its progress.
Your final supplementary, Mr. Elliott.
The Department of Community and Government Services’ capital estimates for 2008-09 included $2.35 million in funding for Arctic Bay’s community hall project. Can the minister indicate to me today whether this project is on schedule?
Hon. Lorne Kusugak: Thank you, Mr. Speaker The construction for the new community hall for Arctic Bay again is cost shared by Canada and the Government of Nunavut through the Municipal Infrastructure Fund. The construction contract has been awarded.
Construction of the community hall will be completed during the fiscal year of 2009-2010 and I will keep you informed on its progress.
Question 003 – 3(1): Airline Service in Nunavut (Arvaluk)
I want to raise a matter with the Minister of Economic Development and Transportation.
On November 21, 2006, the Legislative Assembly passed a formal motion concerning the urgent need for the Government of Nunavut to work with the Northern Air Transport Association to bring forward an action plan to improve the availability of affordable and reliable air service to Nunavut’s smaller communities.
I had the honour of voting in favour of this important motion, along with a number of my colleagues who are in the House today.
Can the minister update the House today on what progress his department has made in preparing an updated Nunavut Transportation Strategy for tabling in the Legislative Assembly?
Minister of Economic Development and Transportation, Hon. Peter Taptuna.
I will try to answer the hon. member from Tununiq.
The motion was made in 2006, I am aware of that.
At this time, there are no easy solutions for the high cost of travel to our remote communities.
At this time, the Government of Nunavut will be lobbying the federal government for more assistance for the North.
Some of the things that we are going to be looking at are conducting research in subsidies provided by the federal government in other sectors, demonstrating sovereignty through economic use rather than military presence, and looking at what economic opportunities there might be to improve the outlook for the High Arctic that the hon. member from Tununiq is concerned about.
As the minister will be well aware, Nunavummiut living in High Arctic communities like Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay, and Grise Fiord especially, are extremely concerned about recent cuts to airline services between our communities.
When will the minister be sitting down with the Northern Air Transportation Association to explore ways to meet the transportation needs of our most remote communities?
Minister Taptuna.
I would like to point out that the airlines have contractual agreements to provide basic levels of service, especially the Food Mail Program and medical air services, and these must be adhered to.
In February, next month, there’s going to be consultations happening with the High Arctic mayors from these three particular communities, including airlines.
From there, we are hoping to develop a working plan to address the issue of the high cost of transportation up in the High Arctic.
Mr. Arvaluk: When the government issued its recent Request of Proposals for medical travel, airlines were asked to, and I quote, “clearly identify how their proposal would contribute to improving scheduled airline services throughout Nunavut.”
Can the minister explain to the House today how his department works with the Department of Health and Social Services to encourage airlines that have been awarded medical travel contracts to expand services to our small and remote communities like Grise Fiord and the surrounding communities?
One of the issues that we have been dealing with is that the Government of Nunavut is not in a position to provide subsidies to the air carriers operating on these routes.
One of the things that we have been discussing with the air carriers is they have been consulted on the best ways to reduce costs in the High Arctic. Their suggestion was to lengthen the runways. The purpose of that would be to start using modern aircraft that are more efficient to bring the costs down for these communities.
That was way too quick. (interpretation ends) I recognize that the Government of Nunavut has very little flexibility to directly subsidize the commercial airlines.
However, given the strategic importance of the High Arctic to our national sovereignty, I think you have mentioned that already, and in light of the historical legacy of the High Arctic relocations, I think it’s called relocation but we used to call it exile of these people from elsewhere, I believe that we ought to make a case to the federal government that Ottawa has a responsibility to ensure that the people of the High Arctic have access to affordable air service.
When will the minister be raising this issue with his federal counterpart and what timeframe does he have to discuss that with the federal government?
At this moment, the department will develop a position paper on economic and transportation issues of High Arctic, including developing a lobbying strategy to ensure that the high costs of sovereignty are equitably shared by different levels of government.
On January 22, 2009, the cost of demonstrating sovereignty through military patrols was identified at $843 million per year.
This may present an opportunity to outline a strategy to the federal government that demonstrates sovereignty through economic use at a significantly lower cost to the High Arctic.
At this time, we are still working on the scheduling and the timeframe.
Question 004 – 3(1): Financial Aid for Home Heating Fuel in Upcoming Budget (Okalik)
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Bonus day. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I believe that the minister is aware of the high cost of fuel here in Nunavut.
I was just recently in the south where I rented a vehicle and whenever I would fill up the tank, it would cost me approximately $20. But when I do the same thing here, it usually costs me upwards of $40 to fill up half the small tank on my vehicle.
I’m just citing this as an example of the disparity in fuel costs today.
However, most private homeowners have experienced a tremendous impact on their books this winter due to increased fuel costs.
So I would like to ask the Minister of Finance if he is planning to address this in their upcoming budget by providing more assistance to private homeowners. Therefore, my first question is if the minister has initiated any plans to provide assistance to them in his budget.
Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Financial Management Board, (interpretation ends) Hon. Keith Peterson.
I thank the hon. member for asking that question. Yes, we realize that there’s a high cost of fuel in Nunavut.
Unfortunately, last year, when we purchased fuel, we purchased at the highest possible price, almost $130 to $140 per barrel, so that placed a lot of stress and strain on homeowners.
I believe we are always worried about the effect of high prices on homeowners and other users of fuel in Nunavut, and I believe as time goes on, we will be looking at ways to help the homeowners, particularly the seniors, with their higher fuel costs.
When we are reviewing the main estimates, we will ensure that we look at that more closely.
(interpretation ends) My follow-up question is in regard to the coming season. The rest of the country is enjoying two-year lows in fuel prices and we do have a hedging policy that we had put in place in prior years that we can use at any time. So I’m asking the hon. minister if he can hedge and purchase at this price so when the price goes up again, we won’t be as badly affected.
So I encourage my colleague to consider that and hopefully he can move on hedging and buying at the lowest price possible for all Nunavummiut so all of Nunavut can benefit.
Minister of Finance, Mr. Peterson.
I thank the hon. member for asking that question.
It’s interesting, when I was on the regular members’ side, I used to ask that question to the Premier and pressure him when the hedging policy was signed.
I am very pleased to inform the House that there is a hedging policy in place and recently, there was an agreement negotiated with Merrill Lynch and our Finance staff is working very closely with that organization on monitoring the prices.
I have to inform the hon. member that there are no immediate plans to use the hedging policy this year.
Your second supplementary, Mr. Okalik.
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Would it make it easier for my colleague to make that decision if he had the support of all members to a motion to purchase fuel at this low price at this time so that we can all enjoy the benefits of reduced prices for the coming year for homeowners and hunters, and all the people that rely on fuel for everyday survival?
I don’t think we need a motion in the House. The hedging policy is one of the tools that are available to the Government of Nunavut to secure fuel at lower prices.
We are considering other alternatives at this time on how to benefit from the lower fuel costs.
Your final supplementary, Mr. Okalik.
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) We put in that policy so that we can buy low and save for the long run. So I am hopeful that the minister and the rest of the Cabinet can reconsider and implement that policy, but I would like to know what other alternatives this government may be looking at. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the member for that comment.
As the member is aware, as I said earlier, the hedging policy is one of the tools.
We’re in a very volatile environment these days with the price of fuel. A barrel of oil fluctuated from $34 to $50 per barrel in recent weeks alone, so that’s how volatile it is.
Our advisors who monitor fuel prices are indicating long-term that they don’t see fuel increasing much past $50 per barrel.
Question 005 – 3(1): Emergency Contingency Plan for the High Arctic (Elliott)
As the hon. member of Tununiq has so eloquently pointed out, the issue of the airline services to our communities provides many challenges. With the loss of the flight between Pond Inlet, Resolute Bay, and Cambridge Bay, it has cut off a major route of travel to the east and the west.
It has created barriers for my constituents in Grise Fiord to travel and visit relatives in Pond Inlet. For the Government of Nunavut, it has created longer travel time for employees to travel to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay to service the communities.
With the manner in which the airline cut this service route, it has gotten residents in Grise Fiord concerned about the future. Presently, there is one airline servicing this remote community.
There are concerns that this airline could pull out and stop servicing their community.
If this were to happen, this would cut off essential services to their community. Health care, food supply, and mail service, to mention a few, would stop.
I’m sure our government, with the best interest of its residents in mind, has some type of emergency plan in place to deal with this situation.
Can the minister tell me today if there is such an emergency plan created to deal with a situation like this should it arise in any of the communities across Nunavut?
Minister of Economic Development and Transportation, Hon. Mr. Taptuna.
I appreciate the question from the hon. member from Quttiktuq.
At this time, I am not aware of any emergency scheduling or plans for these High Arctic communities or any other community in Nunavut, so I’ll take the question as notice.
The minister has taken the question as notice. (interpretation ends) Oral Questions.
Question 006 – 3(1): Leaked Comments of Former Minister (Okalik)
The Premier was on the news recently regarding the former Minister of Justice and she stated that he was removed from that portfolio, which was extremely regrettable.
Apparently, someone was raising questions about the matter, especially as to whom the previous minister’s, Minister Tapardjuk, email was addressed to.
How many people and who raised questions about that email? I cannot find anything in the document.
How many staff members was this sent to?
It is indeed regrettable that we had to undertake this action, but when such matters surface, we have to deal with them as a government.
I didn’t see the copy that you have of the actual email addressed to staff. It was sent to the Department of Justice staff members.
The email was appended to the document which came from your office and that’s the reason why I raised the question of who was sent this email with several items cut out.
For some matters, it is regrettable to read what the email states. However, the matter of violence has to be looked at in all avenues if we are to lessen the number of incidents.
Whichever portion we choose, there are bound to be detractors from it and people will not appreciate it. But as Inuit, we have to be open and transparent in dealing with these issues.
How do these episodes start?
It’s quite unbelievable that he was just removed. I believe this requires further review and if we are to stem the tide, we have to look at all of our options.
Can she try to find out who this email was addressed to?
It stated reasons behind violence against women.
As a government, we don’t condone violence against women and we don’t want it ignored either. With respect to that email, it included incidents of violence against women that stated that it was initiated by the women and they cited examples of how it can occur.
I spoke to the minister and the minister apologized for his actions.
His reasoning for writing the email was to debate Inuit knowledge aspects and how the government can better incorporate traditional practices into its operations.
However, you know how the ending went and the email actually included examples that were unacceptable, especially to have victims listen to some examples whereby they are the ones who are being blamed for violence. That’s the only area that was unacceptable to me and that’s the area that I dealt with.
With respect to the organization, if we are to use Inuit culture in the government practices, then we would identify the government policies and we would have to negotiate off some of the material. If we were to follow some of the recommendations in this email, it would be good to have an open and transparent government. You can read the body of the text of the email from that organization and the mandate is to work towards incorporating more traditional practices here in Nunavut.
The email was addressed to the Executive Council as well as his colleagues. It was sent to the senior management of the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth and his colleagues from the Department of Justice.
If the email was indeed just addressed to those people, then they limited themselves. We can speak about any matter, especially when we are looking at options and alternative avenues.
It’s good to make improvements in the way we deal with matters on a daily basis.
The previous minister was very vocal about protecting Inuit traditional practices and incorporating them into government operations. He was removed when he was just trying to ask how we should operate as a government. Will we be repatriating our Inuit customs?
Keeping them hidden is not a viable option and it’s something I wouldn’t like to see.
Everyone has to be able to see both sides of every coin, not just the ones that we like.
We all run into difficult situations and some of them will not be very good to hear, but we have to try to deal with all of them.
The minister in question was and we are all aware that he was and is working very diligently on his mandate. It was due to his attempts to protect Inuit customs that he penned that email to his colleagues and staff members.
I have no problem with that part of the process since it’s assisting some of the government initiatives.
However, it was the portion alluding to violence against spouses, as well as the RCMP and the allegations that other agencies which killed off parts of the Inuit culture were the only areas that caused us concern and that’s the only reason why we have kept that email.
As well, with regard to his portfolio under CLEY, that has not been changed and further, I may be adding more responsibilities once the government has had all of the portfolios assigned.
Now that we have the final Member of the Executive Council, Mr. Tagak Curley, I will be reviewing the matter of the portfolios.
I completely believe in Mr. Tapardjuk’s capabilities and he works extremely hard on the issues on his slate.
However, this matter has taught us several things about emails and how easy it is to make errors. So we have to be very careful when we are sending emails, especially their contents, because they can land on any person’s desk.
The email has already arrived on different people’s emails and we know that this is an issue that cannot be misunderstood, but it has already been misread.
Due to that reason, Mr. Speaker, I want it understood that we didn’t have a problem with the entirety of the email, only the specifics that I mentioned.
The two areas that I alluded to as being controversial are the violence against spouses and the allegations against the RCMP and CLEY. Those were the only two areas we disagreed with.
My expectations are that he will remain as the Minister of CLEY and that he will continue to contribute towards the inclusion of the Inuit culture in our government.
With respect to this issue, we all know that all cases of assault against anyone need to be stopped.
Looking at the body of the text that was written, he was trying to find out about the matter.
Yes, we may be a bit uncomfortable with some of the text, but was this a serious enough issue to remove him from his portfolio?
If the Premier will be removing ministers for frivolous reasons, then it will become a very big concern.
We have to look at everyone equally, both men and women, because we all have to live together.
This will have to be resolved in the future because we can’t keep carrying on in this manner.
We have to be open to one another and not take unilateral actions whenever something minor comes up. I would not want to see this in the future.
We had a meeting prior to the leadership forum this morning and we were openly discussing why we were doing this with Mr. Tapardjuk present. Mr. Tapardjuk recognized the support expressed by members and I thank him for his positive participation.
I want to repeat what I said about violence not being acceptable in any form, it’s self-explanatory.
The email stated that quite a few men get arrested possibly due to provocation by the women in their lives.
Question 007 – 3(1): Transportation, Interpreter, and Escort Deficiencies for Medical Travel (Aupaluktuq)
Mr. Aupaluktuq (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I was elected to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly by listening to the issues raised by residents in Baker Lake. I would like to work closely with the Minister of Health and Social Services, Hon. Minister Peterson, and express concerns of Baker Lake residents in regard to health care.
As an example, the residents were wondering why taxi vouchers stopped being provided and they wanted me to raise that question.
It is becoming an almost daily issue for people who need to travel for medical reasons.
When they are not able to get a ride to the airport, they cannot make the flight down to Winnipeg and this is exacerbated by the fact that many people can’t afford taxi fares.
Another problem that keeps cropping up is the lack of proper interpreters and this concern is raised continually by the people who have to go on medical travel to Winnipeg. This is especially the case when they are staying at the Kivalliq House while waiting for their appointments.
The client escort policy is not understood very well by our people.