EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Does the department of CGS have any plans in place to look at recreational facilities for the smaller communities, especially in regards to swimming pools and are there any plans to try and deliver swimming pools to the non-decentralized communities, especially those who do not have very many recreational facilities?
Currently, I am not aware of any plans to build swimming pools in any communities.
As I stated earlier, we are late in dealing with all of the capital items for all the communities and we would have to prepare our plans as it relates to these items.
I can direct my staff to develop plans to meet our community requests, and in regards to the community of Repulse Bay, I can ask my staff to meet with the Hamlet representatives, and perhaps the Member for Akulliq can be involved in those discussions to start preparing their capital items and this can be a starting point to proceed from there.
I thank the minister for her initiative in this regard, and I would like to see that kind of process be undertaken since the community has been requesting a swimming pool for many years and this is one of the recreational facilities that the community would like to see installed, especially since people remember our original swimming pool and it would be a good facility for both our children and our young people.
Our residents really would like to see a swimming pool in Repulse Bay.
As the minister stated earlier, she can get this matter reviewed by her officials.
Does the minister know that there was a $5 million fund that would be set aside for development projects for smaller communities?
Is the minister aware whether or not this fund has been used up or whether there are leftover funds that can be used to for projects such as this?
Yes, I can certainly speak to my fellow minister in regards to this issue, especially the ED&T department as to whether we can use those funds for initiatives such as this. In the past, I believe that ED&T used to look after capital items such as this.
Yes, communities can have swimming pools and in particular our children need to have recreational facilities to occupy their time since we hear that many youth have no alternatives in our communities.
I can indeed, look into this matter and I will discuss this matter with my fellow minister as well.
Does this mean that the minister agrees and that she will direct her staff to undertake research into this matter right away by initiating discussions with the Hamlet of Repulse Bay?
The community of Repulse Bay definitely needs a swimming pool to offer our children more choices, so can the minister commit to looking into this matter?
Yes, I can commit to discussing this matter with my colleague, and if my staff is required to proceed with their research, or if they have to collaborate with other departments, then I will ask them to go down that path.
However, it is not only Repulse Bay that wants a swimming pool but I’m sure that there are a lot of communities that want swimming pools.
Yes, I will begin discussions of swimming pools.
Question 502 – 2(4): Recycling of Beverage Containers (Peterson)
Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest last week to the Minister’s Statement on the update of the Nunavut recycling. I was quite intrigued by the announcement in Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit that they have collected more than 500,000 beverage containers.
Congratulations to those two communities and the folks that worked hard to do that.
My question for the minister: they have collected the beverage containers, and the obvious question, but where are the containers going?
Minister of Environment, Honourable Olayuk Akesuk.
We have been working with the people that are doing the recycling in the communities, and up to now, we are still reviewing it on how we are going to do the work and how we are going to continue it as well because the cans are accumulating.
I guess what I’m hearing the minister saying is that they’re removing the beverage containers and stockpiling them in the community somewhere, so they’re still accumulating until they decide how to remove them from the community.
Mr. Speaker, my other question concerns his comment about the End-of-Life Vehicles Initiative and the removal of other metal from Nunavut.
I thought I would ask the minister if he could clarify what that means.
Does that mean that they remove all the metal from the dumps, and if so, where would they remove it to?
The Department of Environment is working with CGS and ED&T on how we are going to do the work on recycling.
Environment is dealing with the environment and how we are going to deal with the metals that are in the dumps.
We will be working with Community and Government Services and Economic Development on the issues in the communities with respect to metals and how we are going to proceed in looking after it for the communities.
Mr. Speaker, I hope his Minister’s Statement on Nunavut recycling is not just a feel good statement, and that they’re actually going to carry through with some of these initiatives and find money, and pass legislation to deal with the growing environmental issues in our dumps in Nunavut.
Mr. Speaker, one of other comments that I noted in the news release was the issue of disposable plastic shopping bags. I believe you raised it a few years ago, Mr. Speaker. They talked about plastic shopping bags, and Mr. Speaker, there are other plastic products in dumps and in the communities; you can see them on the land, all over the place, on the shores of our lakes and oceans; there are diapers, juice containers, oil containers, and milk jugs.
So I’m wondering, Mr. Speaker, if the minister could comment when they have talked about how to dispose of plastic shopping bags, if they will also discuss how to deal with the disposal of those plastic products.
In regard to the plastic products, we don’t like to see plastic and containers being left out there in the camping areas.
We urge everyone to bring back their garbage to the community.
To date, the Department of Environment is doing a campaign awareness to make sure that we leave camping areas and the land clean. We are also going to work with the stores so that they can order non-plastic and biodegradable products.
We will be giving out containers so that the households can put together their recyclables.
I thank the minister for that information and clarification.
Mr. Speaker, I was supportive of these pilot projects in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet last year.
I was hopeful that we would have a similar pilot project in the Kitikmeot, of course, I would like to see one in Cambridge Bay, but we’ll see how that goes.
The minister says that they’re planning to establish a third pilot project in the Kitikmeot.
My question for the minister; these pilot projects are important to gather data and information: can the minister commit that these pilot projects will receive multi-year funding to carry out important work that they’re doing in our communities?
We have a firm, Zack/Whitford, doing a study on how we can improve and keep setting up those types of programs, and to also have containers available for recyclables. We are going to work diligently on this issue, and hopefully, I will be working with the other government departments to make sure that we deal with our recyclables as best as we can.
Question 503 – 2(4): Refund of Rental Payments for Older Units (Simailak)
This past January and February, it was extremely cold in Baker Lake. There were quite a number of houses frozen with their drainage pipes frozen and so on. In particular, it was the older rental units that were built first.
There are still some of those old houses available and what was happening during the coldest months of the year was that the tenants were just going there to sleep and leaving them behind for the whole day.
Is it possible for those tenants to get some of their rent back because they didn’t utilize those rental units except to go to sleep?
Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, (interpretation ends) Honourable Patterk Netser.
Units are extremely old all across Nunavut and it’s about time that we made replacements. I’m not exactly sure if the rent that was paid out could be paid back and I don’t know if there is a policy on it, but I could find out.
I’m referring to the older units in the communities. Do they get inspected by health inspectors?
We would like to inspect the older units, but unfortunately, we don’t have the money and I’m not exactly sure if they’re inspected by health inspectors.
Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Minister. (interpretation ends) Your second supplementary, Mr. Simailak.
I understand it somewhat, but those units are still being rented by tenants because of severe shortage of housing.
We are forced to continue utilizing those older units.
The $200 million received by the Housing Corporation from the federal government is just a start.
We are still waiting for a remaining $1.9 million, so until then, we can’t do much about the housing shortage and the replacement of the outdated units.
Speaker: Thank you, Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Simailak.
Mr. Simailak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker and also the minister.
Do their Board of Directors of Local Housing Organizations have the discretion on disposing those older units, or do they have to wait for approval from the Housing Corporation to dispose of them, or do these old units have to be declared unfit for living?
They have to go through the Nunavut Housing Corporation to dispose of those units and to write them off, if I understand the member correctly.
Question 504 – 2(4): Independent Review: Update on Rankin Inlet Power Incident (Curley)
Could the minister remind us what the status is on the independent review or if it is still in progress?
This is in regard to the three generators that broke down in Rankin Inlet, so my first question is: do you have an update on that independent review?
Minister responsible for the Qulliq Energy Corporation, Honourable Ed. Picco.
Just very quickly, as we know, we just finished this catastrophic failure of the generators a week and a half ago. Last week, we were just to the point where we actually got up to a reasonable state of power in the community.
This week, we’re looking at approaching a couple of different companies to provide that background and update that we talked about to review what occurred on the file and do that independent review.
So we haven’t picked the company yet, I would hope to be in a position to announce that in the next three to five days, or a little bit longer, depending on what process we take.
That’s good news and I appreciate that information.
I think it’s really quite important in view of the major disaster that occurred where we had only one generator that was working left after three of them went out of commission.
It may be appropriate that the minister consider, amongst other things, not just the generators that failed.
I raised some concern whether or not we have an adequately funded, for instance, maintenance crew.
I believe the utility has gone through a number of major changes, including the management, and apparently, the information that I have is the people that used to know where every bolt of these diesel generators have been put to rest through our retirement payouts and so on.
I wonder if the minister would be prepared to do a major maintenance review of the crew, as well as the management review, to ensure that the utility is properly staffed.
Part of the review will include the before and after and during the emergency that we had in the community.
The first step would be to ensure that the proper maintenance and everything was carried out on the equipment and the generators, and indeed, we had a crew in the community at the time.
All information to me thus far, Mr. Speaker, in the case, that proper maintenance schedules were kept.
Indeed, the generator that went down only had 7,000 hours on it, it was brand new, and we only purchased it last year, so it was a little over a year old.
Then we’ll be looking at what occurred during the event and then the after care and so on.
So Mr. Curley’s suggestions will be included in that report.
I appreciate the information.
I think it will be a welcome independent review if it’s successful. But, I believe it’s also important that you look at and not be shy about doing a management review.
I believe the utility needs people with technical competence, including engineering competence at the management level, and that is crucial not only to Rankin Inlet but to Nunavummiut as a whole.
I’m wonder if the minister would be prepared to do a thorough review and put in place the qualifications for every management technical staff so that we will not have to worry about our utilities, as the minister has a whole lot of other things to do in Nunavut.
We take Mr. Curley and the members’ comments seriously, and what we committed to do last week in the House was to provide a thorough independent review of the situation. That will include looking at the maintenance and upkeep of the generators, and ensuring if there was a shortfall within the personnel side and the technical side, for example, with the mechanics and so on, that’ll also become evident in the report.
I want to suggest to the House very strongly that that’s not the issues that have come out of the preliminary work that has been done that I’m aware of, and indeed, this was kind of a one-off situation.
Again, I want to thank Mr. Curley and the people of Rankin Inlet for bearing with us during that problematic situation, and indeed, our staff on the ground put in 18-hour days and they worked very hard in some of the very worst weather conditions, so we want to support and thank them for that due diligence.
I think the minister was quite correct that he is satisfied and I certainly agree that the mechanics are doing quite well, the maintenance crew of that region.
I’m asking the minister to expand the review to include the senior management of the utility as a whole. I wouldn’t want the minister to hire an anthropologist, for instance, as a person in charge of the utility. That could happen if we don’t put in qualifications required to run the utility.
Would he do that please?
Senior management of all Crown corporations is an ongoing priority of the government.
I can’t suggest to the member or to the minister, or the ministers, or my colleagues in the House here that this independent review of the catastrophic situation in Rankin Inlet that we would review all of our senior management across the board. What I can say is that management’s response to the incident will be part of the review.
Question Period is now over. (interpretation ends) Item 7.
Written Question 010 – 2(4): Status of Decentralization (Peterson)
My Written Question is for the Honourable Paul Okalik, the Minister of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, and it concerns the status of decentralization. The question is:
Expressing the data in the same format as that which is provided in the Return to Written Question 4 – 2(3), what is the status of the Government of Nunavut’s decentralization initiative as of December 31, 2007?
Bring the Written Question to the table, please.
(interpretation ends) Item 7.
Tabled Document 204 – 2(4): Photographs of Caribou at the Baker Lake Sewage Lagoon (Simailak)
I would like to table a collection of photographs that show caribou in the Baker Lake area drinking from the community’s sewage lagoon.
I am concerned about the impact that it has on their health. The photographs clearly reveal the need for adequate fencing around the lagoon and my son was able to take those photographs last year.
Tabled Document 205 – 2(4): F/P/T Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management Meeting, January 9, 2008 (Brown)
I am pleased to table the following document: Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management Meeting, January 9, 2008 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Tabled Document 206 – 2(4): F/P/T Ministers of Housing Meeting in Vancouver February 6, 2008 (Netser)
Tabled Document 207 – 2(4): Illamar Marshalling Minister’s Participation at Chesterville, ON Event February 8, 2008 (Netser)
Tabled Document 208 – 2(4): NDC Business Plan 2008-2009 (Netser)
Tabled Document 209 – 2(4): NBCC Annual Report for the Year Ending March 31, 2006 (Netser)
I have a number of items to table.
The first two are the F/P/T Meeting in Vancouver on Housing and the Opening of the Illamar Marshalling Site in Chesterville, Ontario; and also, Mr. Speaker, I’ve got the NDC Business Plan for the Year 2008-09; and also, Mr. Speaker, the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation Annual Report for the Year Ending March 31, 2006.
Tabled Document 210 – 2(4): Nunavut Development Corporation Annual Report 2006/07 (Netser)
Bill 26 – Securities Act – First Reading
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Rankin Inlet South and Whale Cove, that Bill 26, Securities Act, be read for the first time. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The motion is carried and Bill 26 has had first reading.
Hon. Paul Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) I request consent of this Assembly to waive the one-day notice requirement to allow for the second reading of Bill 26, Securities Act.
The minister is asking consent to deal with Bill 26 today.
There being none, please proceed, Minister Okalik.
Bill 26 – Securities Act – Second Reading
(interpretation ends) I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Nanulik, that Bill 26, Securities Act, be read for the second time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill modernizes the framework for the regulating of the buying and selling of securities in Nunavut.
Importantly, Mr. Speaker, the bill enables implementation of the passport system for securities. This is an agreement entered into by almost all provinces and territories for the inter-jurisdictional regulation of the securities industry in Canada.
The passport system will give market participants access to capital markets across our country based on consistent laws and agreements between securities regulators so that the decision of any participating securities regulator will be recognized by all.
In particular, the bill authorizes the Superintendent of Securities to delegate duties, functions, and powers to another Canadian Securities Regulator to accept the delegation of duties, functions, and powers from other Canadian Securities Regulators throughout our country.
In general, the bill sets out detailed information on the procedures and rules that must be followed by every market participant and every person trading in securities, and it contains offenses for contravening those requirements.
This bill creates a new position of Superintendent of Securities and gives the superintendent new powers to ensure the securities market is fair and to protect the investing public.
The bill gives the superintendent the power to investigate suspected wrongdoings and to make various orders when it is necessary to protect the public interest.
The bill gives investors a number of civil remedies by which they can seek compensation. These remedies include the right to withdraw from a purchase of securities and the right to bring in action for damages or recession.
Finally, the bill authorizes the making both regulations and rules relating to securities and the trade of securities, sets out consequential amendments to the Business Corporations Act, and provides transitional rules that apply to transitions that began under the existing Securities Act and continues upon its repeal with the coming into force of this bill. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The motion is carried and Bill 26 has had second reading and is referred to a standing committee.
Bills 22, 23, 24, and 25.
In accordance to the authority provided to me by Motion 4 – 2(4), the Committee of the Whole will stay in session until it reports itself out.
Before we proceed with Committee of the Whole with Mr. Barnabas in the Chair, we will take a 20-minute break.
>>House recessed at 15:19 and Committee resumed at 15:50
I will call the committee meeting to order.
In Committee of the Whole, we have the following items to deal with: Bills 22, 23, 24, and 25.
We wish to continue with Bill 23 and the Department of Education, followed by the Departments of Environment and Community and Government Services.
Does the committee agree we continue with the Main Estimates for the Department of Education?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister Picco, do you have witnesses you would like to bring to the table?
Minister Picco.  Hon. Ed. Picco: Yes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Picco. Good afternoon. Does the committee agree to bring in Minister Picco’s officials?
(interpretation ends) Order, please. (interpretation) Thank you, Sergeant-at-Arms.
For the record, Minister Picco, please introduce your officials.
Hon. Ed. Picco: Thank you and good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon to the committee.
With me today on my immediate right is Mr. David Pealow, the Comptroller with the Department of Education, and on my immediate left is the Deputy Minister of the Department of Education, Ms. Kathy Okpik.
We were on G-12. (interpretation ends) Branch Summary.
Last week, we were on page G-12, School Operations. I’ve got, very quickly, five questions. Your business plan notes that suicide is an extremely “important issue for Nunavut schools and communities,” and that the “suicide prevention protocol is planned to be implemented in 2008...” Can you describe what this protocol includes and who will be implementing it?
Our draft School Suicide Protocol is an interagency funded program with the interagency groups at the local level. What that means is that the local DEA interagency social groups supply people on the ground, like social workers, school staff, principals, school community counsellors, and so on, and are involved in a protocol that states that when there is a suicide in a community or at the school with one of our students, then the protocol will kick in.
The first level of recourse would be at the local level or the community level and then we call on outside resources, for example, from the regional level to help facilitate some of the issues around the suicide in the community.
Those would include grief counselling, support issues with the parents, students and families, as well as work with the caregivers and with the family.
In 2007-08, your department initiated a pilot project, the Multiple Options Program Strategy, which focused on pre-trades and engineering.
How many students have taken advantage of those programs and what types of diploma or certification will those students have upon finishing high school?
We’re really excited about the Multiple Options Program. We have been running the program in the member’s home community of Kugluktuk for about three years now. The first multiple options pilot that we’re doing in Kugluktuk is to see how it works and then we would like to be able to take it across the communities in Nunavut.
There are a lot of options in the program itself - pre-trades, engineering, heritage and culture, family and community care, fine arts and crafts, innovation and information technology, as well as business.
We expect to see several of the students graduate from the program I believe on May 24; the Victoria Day long weekend in May is the graduation this year in Kugluktuk.
After we have an opportunity to analyze how the multiple options has gone at the high school level in Kugluktuk, we would like to be able to take that program and then launch it through some of our other communities’ high schools.
My third question is: what other career options are being considered for future programs under the Multiple Options Program Strategy?
We have about six under the Multiple Options Strategy, including business, IT, which is information and innovation technology, fine arts and crafts, family and community care, heritage and culture, pre-trades and engineering.
Pre-trades would be programs, for example, in the construction industry, and engineering could be used, for example, in the mining industry.