EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
At this time, I would like to get the chair of the Standing Committee, Mr. Mapsalak, to do his opening remarks.
A reminder that the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Housing and Economic Development is to meet in the Tuktu Room at noontime to review the bill with the minister responsible.
The Committee of the Whole is now on a break until 1:30.
Please, be back at 1:30, and have a good lunch. Thank you.
>>Committee recessed at 11:46 and resumed at 13:22
Chairman: The committee will come to order.
Does the chair of the standing committee have opening remarks?
I am pleased to be able to give the committee’s opening remarks as we begin debate on the 2004-05 main estimates for the Department of Environment.
Members were pleased to hear that 2004 federal budget will be provided over 10 years for a major multi-year cleanup of federal contaminated sites, 60 percent of which is expected to occur in the North.
Members wish to be kept informed by the minister on any meetings with his federal counterparts, especially with respect to the schedule and budget for cleanups, once the funding has been finalized.
Members are of the view that there are a number of contaminated sites on the land that only community residents and hunters are aware of.
Communities should be consulted in identifying priorities.
Members expressed great concern with respect to MOUs for polar bear quotas.
HTOs in communities continue to express concern that these agreements are out of date.
The current MOUs being used were signed almost a decade ago.
Some of the communities have asked for increases in their quotas because the polar bear population appears to have risen in some areas.
This is very evident by the number of nuisance polar bears breaking into caches and dumps.
Members have been told that the department has prepared the final drafts of a number of MOUs for polar bear quotas.
Members look forward to reviewing them once they have been signed by the minister.
This area is a prime example of where Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit should be relied upon in government decision-making.
On a related issue, the committee noted that this is the only department that refers to Inuit Qaujimajangit rather than Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in its business plan and commends the department for giving genuine, careful thought to these concepts.
Members understand that the department is now working on drafting regulations for the new Wildlife Act and will be consulting with communities.
Members wish to be kept fully informed on progress in this area and have the opportunity to review draft regulations prior to their final approval.
There has been significant media coverage recently with respect to fisheries in Nunavut.
Members understand that the MOUs that formed the Baffin Fisheries Coalition expired at the end of May, and a new MOU will be required.
The committee is committed to the development of Nunavut’s fishing industry as this will create much-needed employment for Nunavummiut.
Members eagerly look forward to reviewing the new fisheries strategy.
Members note with approval that the prices and sales of sealskins have stabilized somewhat and commend the department’s efforts to revitalize sealing in Nunavut through its fur pricing program and support for marketing campaigns that highlight the sustainable harvesting practices used by Inuit.
Members wish to be kept informed on the status of the establishment of the joint planning and management committees for all territorial parks in Nunavut and the final negotiation of outstanding Inuit Impact Benefits Agreements for conservation areas.
Members realize that this is a new department with new structure.
There may be some overlap in the area of economic development, and the committee will be monitoring the department’s progress closely over its first year of existence.
This concludes my opening remarks, and I anticipate that individual members will raise their own comments and concerns on the department’s 2004-05 main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Will the minister go to the witness table?
Will you need your officials over there, Mr. Minister?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk: Yes, Mr. Chairman.
I wish to bring my witnesses.
Chairman: Thank you.  Sergeant-at-Arms.
Could you please introduce your witnesses, Mr. Akesuk?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk: Yes, Mr. Chairman. To my right is Deputy Minister Simon Awa.
To my left is Mr. Trevor Jarrett, Manager of Financial Services.
Chairman (interpretation): Welcome, Mr. Minister, and your officials.
I would like to recognize Ben Kovic, who is the chairman of the Nunavut WIldlife Management Board.
Welcome, Mr. Kovic.
As the members know, we have been going through this daily.
General comments are open to the members.
I won’t be using my ten- minute allotment, but I will be speaking my own concerns.
Inuit people have always thought about using wildlife in the best way that they feel that they could.
For many years, we have thought of wildlife as precious to our community.
At times, we have concerns when we see television programs where the animals are mistreated and when there are Greenpeace people. It impacts on the people of Nunavut.
Sometimes, there are people out there who don’t want fish and other wildlife abandoned, which is the case for us here in Nunavut.
To us, the Inuit, it’s our culture, our way of doing things, not to waste any fish.
When there’s fishing on television, you can see them throw away some of the fish.
I can use myself as an example because I have to live by breathing in air, and if I stayed in the water for too long I would drown.
It’s the same thing that could happen to the fish caught in the net.
Whenever the fish are in the water they are okay, but as soon as you bring them into the air, they can’t breathe anymore. That really bothers me.
It’s just the way I grew up as an Inuk.
I’m not exactly sure what happens here in Nunavut about the fisheries in Nunavut. I’m not sure if they have the same kind of thing as the southern fishermen.
There are a lot of people hungry out there in the communities of Nunavut who could survive on the amount that is wasted elsewhere.
Some of them go fishing, when you see the southerners on television they do catch and release… .
As long as I am living in Nunavut, I’m going to be in support of the Inuit way of doing things, and I will not tolerate those people that are like animal activists and Greenpeace organizations.
Our way of sustenance is seals, it is the way of life here in Nunavut.
The animal rights activists and the Greenpeace people, I do not agree with their way of doing things.
I just wanted to be able to mention this because I am always proud of it, and it has always been a concern of mine, especially when I see, on television, people fishing and pulling them out of the water and just leaving them to die.
I just wanted to mention that, Mr. Chairman. That is it.
This has always been a concern, especially in my constituency, at the Polaris mine and Nanisivik, and I would like to talk about it..
In regard to the review or study of pollutants and contaminants, we do not know today exactly what the pollutants will do to the people from those abandoned mining sites, and we have not been told how dangerous it is for the unborn fetus or for the health of the public living close by.
This has been a great concern for the people of my constituency.
I think that there has to be a cleanup done in those abandoned mine sites. It is evident that it is all over the place and has been around for a number of years.
Quite a few years ago, it seemed like the top of the snow was just like in the summertime, and it was a concern because there are children playing out on top of the contaminated snow.
In 1945 and 1954, the American armed forces did a lot of work at Melville Island, and they abandoned some contaminants. I am sure that they have not been cleaned up to date, such as the barrels that are still not empty.
There have not been any regulations made or any study done to make sure that they are not spilled into the ground.
We thought that there was going to be some asbestos removed from the old buildings up in my constituency.
Now, all the remains of those old building sites have to be cleaned up.
Also, the magnetic North Pole and the true North Pole are visited by a lot of tourists.
I feel that it should be cleaned up.
The Polaris mine has not been cleaned up yet, and it seems like they did a review on it to find out how much it would cost, and the cost was getting higher all the time.
I feel that there should be a cleanup of contaminated diesel fuel out there on the land. It is very expensive to clean up.
I feel that the old abandoned mine sites, especially with uranium contaminants, must be cleaned up.
Wildlife out on the land is always migrating, and we have to make sure they are in a healthy state.
The fish in the sea are also worse off for those things, and as well, there are airborne contaminants everywhere. Sometimes those substances end up being eaten by cod and other fish in the sea.
It takes a long time for studies to be done on wildlife to determine if they are not carrying contaminants from abandoned mine sites and other contaminated sites.
I think that should be done regularly.
That’s what I wanted to talk about, Mr. Chairman.
I have Mr. Arreak’s name, but he’s not here, so who had a hand up? There’s a point of order.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): During Committee of the Whole, do we need to wear proper attire? Can you clarify before too long?
Chairman (interpretation): The rules state that we have to wear proper attire, although we don’t need our jackets on during the Committee of the Whole.
You need to wear a tie.
(Interpretation ends.) That’s the rule. I’m sorry.
Mr. Evyagotailak, did you want to make your general comments?
(Interpretation ends.) I just wanted to say to the Minister of Environment that this time of year is a family time where a lot of people in Nunavut are camping out.
We are all concerned about garbage going all over when the campers don’t bring their garbage back.
There are grizzly bears, polar bears, foxes that can make a lot of mess with the garbage.
I’d like to see the Minister of Environment get some posters out to the communities, so that next year, in springtime, or even in the summertime, when a lot of people go out camping a lot of garbage will be brought back into the communities.
I would like to see that the minister get a poster out to make sure that the campers and the hunters bring all their garbage back.
Nunavut is a very clean country.
We need clean land, and once you start walking where there’s a lot of garbage in all camping areas, it’s not nice to see, especially for tourists coming from down south, come to see the nice environment.
That’s about it, Mr. Chairman, Thank you.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Evyagotailak.
Mr. Arreak (interpretation): I’m going to make my general comments short.
The Department of Environment is important to the communities because we grew up with hunting lifestyles, and usually that was our way of life.
I’m sure that the public of Nunavut will be going out hunting.
The HTOs are very beneficial to the communities, and they have to work with Article 5 in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. The HTOs also work with the directives of the government, and other entities give directives to the HTOs.
Yet, they are not provided with adequate resources and are provided with insufficient funding at the local level.
It seems like the funding for HTOs is never increased.
At times they have difficulty hiring secretary managers, especially in Clyde River.
I’m sure it is like that in all the communities.
I would urge the minister to look into this, if he has not already do so.
They need to be provided with additional funding.
We have heard that the polar bear memorandum of understanding is outdated, and we are still using the MOU. The polar bear quota has not been changed for approximately 10 years.
We’ve been using it without any amendments.
I have heard that they’re working on the amendments, but one thing that is needed in the community when the polar bear comes into the community… . When they shoot the bear, when they harvest the polar bear, they used to deduct them from the quota.
Previously, they had red tags for nuisance polar bears.
Every time we harvest bears, when they come into the communities and are harvested off season, they take tag out of the quota after it is harvested for safety purposes.
Looking at the past four years, perhaps Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit will apply in the new MOUs.
I do not see any extra Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in memorandums of understanding, although they are mentioned in there.
Every time Inuit talk about their knowledge to officials visiting them, and try to negotiate with the officials, they don’t really believe in Inuit knowledge when they start talking about Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
It seems like the number of polar bears coming into the community has increased, and the population has increased.
When the wildlife or any form of species become over- populated, they don’t get scared of human beings, so, if the quota could be increased, there would be less disturbance in the community.
I’ll conclude with that for now.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Arreak.
We’re on page I-4.
We’ll start off with I-5.
Environment branch summary.
Total, operations and maintenance, $3,348,000.
I welcome the minister and his staff to our meeting.
Can the minister update me on the establishment of the Department of Environment in the Kitikmeot? Do you have any staff out there or any offices?
Mr. Minster.
Yes, we have to look into what is happening around Nunavut communities in order to have an appropriate set- up in all the regions.
Although we have decided not to deal regionally, my officials went to attend a meeting of the environmental senior officials to look at environmental issues and their work to date.
We have an office in Kugluktuk.
They attended a meeting for environmental strategic issues, and it went well.
Would the minister explain to me the reporting structure in terms of the Kitikmeot staff? Do they report to someone in the Kitikmeot, or do they have to report to someone here at headquarters?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Minister.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk: Thank you. I will get my deputy to respond to that question.
Mr. Awa.
Mr. Awa (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
When the new department was established back in March, we had to do some rearranging of the HTOs at the local level, as the minister stated.
Although he stated that he really does not want to use regional, but that is the case in our operations.
The regional Kitikmeot had headquarters in Kugluktuk.
The Regional Wildlife Division has an office in Kugluktuk, and they have administrative assistants and a finance controller, too.
The regional wildlife manager in Kugluktuk reports to the director of wildlife in Igloolik.
That is the reporting system.
The HTO’s headquarters is Kugluktuk, and the Kugluktuk Wildlife Division reports to the Igloolik Division Office.
How many staff do you have based in the Kitikmeot under this structure?
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Awa?
Mr. Awa (interpretation): At this time, I can only say that the majority of the communities have HTOs, including the headquarters in Kugluktuk.
I am just estimating.
I apologize, I am giving you a guestimate, perhaps close to 10.
It might be a little bit over 10, including the biologists.
We do have biologists over there, so it is close to 10-12 staff in the Kitikmeot.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Awa.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to point out that a few years ago there was a concern that when folks in Kitikmeot wanted to deal with an issue, they called the regional staff based in Kugluktuk, but they weren’t really regional staff. They reported to someone here in Iqaluit.
That complicated things.
It took a lot of effort and time to get regional issues dealt with or concerns listened to.
What I am hearing is that you have one biologist, but then you have hunters and trappers organizations, but the biologist is the one who actually works for the Department of Environment.
Yes, all the biologists work for us.
At the local level, we usually we want HTOs to work closely with the biologists, so that they can recognize Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and incorporate them.
We have asked them to work with the biologists.
You have one biologist, but do you have any other plans in the future to hire any other experts involved with wildlife? You have companies in the Kitikmeot, mining companies, the DEW Line cleanup, the companies that do DEW Line cleanups.
It is the sort of organization that would require expertise in your department based in the Kitikmeot, to get some timely advice and help with the policies they are working on.
We are going to work extremely hard and do all we can.
Of course, we are representing the Inuit of Nunavut, the people of Nunavut, and we will keep a close on eye on it.
The reason why the Department of Sustainable Development was split was to deal with the concerns in a more appropriate manner and, to us, it is extremely important in regard to the environment and to the cleanup.
We have to have properly skilled or experienced people to work in our department.
I think that we will have to be more diligent in that regard. Thank you.
I would like to ask a question regarding the MOUs on polar bears.
When are you going to be approving the MOUs on polar bears?
They have not been given to us from Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.
I think there are two or three signatures still required, but after it has been approved by Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, it will be up to me to review it further and then approve it.
Of course, we want to understand what is happening and be kept up- to- date on all of those issues.
There are some communities that have fewer quotas for bears.
Is your department thinking about increasing the quotas for these communities?
We have had some increases in some communities, but of course, it has to go through the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board prior to coming back to me.
Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, the Department of Environment, and the regional wildlife officers worked on this agreement, and we have consulted with the hunters and trappers organizations.
Chairman: Mr. Barnabas.
The problem we have is McClintock Channel. Could you give us an update on whether you are going to be lifting that moratorium in the McClintock Channel?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. I do not think it is in here, but I will let you go ahead.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): In regard to the McClintock Channel, there is going to be a meeting around the middle of June, and we are going to be inviting all of the stakeholders in regard to McClintock Channel.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): Mr. Chairman, there is also another agreement with the government of Greenland, with the Home Rule Government, on polar bears.
Has this agreement been signed by the parties?
We have not signed any agreements to date, but we are having ongoing discussions in regard to polar bears in the environment.
Chairman (interpretation): That’s it?
I just want to give a preamble and ask a question afterwards.
The HTOs and the NWMB have a lot more contributions to make in regard to keeping the environment clean.
The hunters and trappers organizations apply for the CIP grant in order to clean up the campsites.
Minister Tapardjuk stated that there was $680,000 that would be used for the summer student program and that could be accessed by agencies at the community level.
I think that we are all aware that there are campsites out there, outside of our community, and that we cannot use government assets to go out there.
I think that we could utilize the summer student program to get the environment cleaned and also to advertise or show pamphlets or posters out there by accessing these monies made available by the government.
Today governments, different agencies, and the aboriginal organizations sign agreements. I believe it is doable to keep the environment clean.
There could be a working relationship with the governments, private agencies, aboriginal groups on keeping our environment clean. Your department could also have the communities use four- wheelers, boats, and so on belonging to the government, so that they could go out there and clean up the environment.
I also thank the member for his brilliant suggestion for keeping the environment clean. If that should be initiated by our government, because, of course, we signed an agreement with NTI, we could include that agreement, so that there would be a working relationship between the two bodies.
We’re also concerned about one of the clauses of Bill 35, about keeping the environment and campsites clean.
This has been an ongoing concern of the communities, and I think that suggestion would be an excellent way of taking care of that problem.
We could have discussions with private agencies, the hamlets, and the stakeholders in order to get this initiative going.
Anything else, Mr. Alagalak?
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): I’ll have additional questions afterwards, once we go on to the appropriate page.
I have a question on I-4.
Can the minister provide an update on the other outside funding initiatives currently being accessed, negotiated, or pursued by the department?
Hon. Olayok Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you.
Is your question in relation to the source of outside funds?
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Barnabas.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): My question is in regard to the base funding estimates.
We are going to be looking at accessing possibly 20 percent more funding.
Chairman Thank you.
What kind of goals has your department set in regard to increasing the number of wildlife officer positions in Igloolik?
Hon. Olayok Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Chairman.
I’ll have my deputy respond to your question.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Awa.
Mr. Awa: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In Igloolik, we had been working on these positions for a long time, and one of the difficulties that we are having is that they have to be specialized and technical people.
The main problem we have is the lack of housing in Igloolik.
Currently, the government has identified five units for staff housing for our purposes.
Although there are people over there, we haven’t filled all the positions yet.
At this time, we are identifying the positions to be filled, and they will be moved up there as the positions are filled.
The major problem we have is the lack of public housing, but they will be going up to Igloolik starting this month.
Mr. Barnabas: Thank you.
The department conducted community consultations on the Wildlife Act with every community in Nunavut.
How many communities will be consulted in the development of the regulations?
Hon. Olayok Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Department of Environment, along with NTI, the RWOs, and the HTAs, have agreed that they are going to start looking at the Wildlife Act, and, of course, we’ll be including the HTOs at the community level.
When we set up the wildlife regulations, we will involve all stakeholders.
I don’t know exactly how many communities we are going to be going to, but what I can say is that the stakeholders will be involved and consulted when we are putting together the regulations.
When are the regulations going to be tabled at the House?
In order to implement Bill 35 before the regulations, I don’t know exactly when they going to start writing or drafting the regulations.
I’m sure that members of the Legislative Assembly will be involved and that entities out there will be coming to you to voice their concerns.
I can’t tell you exactly when they are going to be completed, but we will want to implement it by January.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): What new regulations are we going to see?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): As I said, the RWOs, NTI, NWMB, and HTOs are going to be getting together to draft the regulations.
Once they are complete, we will consult with you to make sure that it is Nunavut- made, just the same way that we processed Bill 35.
All stakeholders will be involved because we want to have this a Nunavut- made act, along with Nunavummiut regulations.