EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
So therefore I too would like to recognize and acknowledge them and I am sure they will consider my statement.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Mr. Speaker. Although they were already recognized, I would like to recognize a person from Arctic Bay.
Manisa Kilukisaq.
I wanted to recognize him because he is the son of my older brother's son.
My older brother has relocated to Arctic Bay so I would like to recognize Manisa Kiluksiaq.
I too would like to recognize some of the members from Manitoba that are here visiting in our Capital.
It is great to see them here.
I would especially like to recognize someone that I never realized was a relative of mine until a couple of years ago and that is the Honourable Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Mr. Eric Robinson.
He calls my uncle his brother, so I guess that makes him my uncle.
I would like to welcome you here to our territory and our Capital and also a special welcome to Richard Connelly from Rankin Inlet and myself.
Mr. Speaker, following up on Mr. McLean's earlier member's statement, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome to the gallery the official from Manitoba Hydro that I have had the opportunity to meet with several times now over the past year and a half, Mr. Wilson.
I would like to point out to you Mr. Speaker, who have been working very hard on the Kivalliq Transmission line, that our discussions were quite fruitful this morning and I would also like to welcome at the same time, Mr. Eric Robinson.
It is refreshing Mr. Speaker, to have the opportunity to speak with someone that is dealing with a lot of the same issues in the northern or rural area, from a southern jurisdiction, like Manitoba.
So that was refreshing.
I think we are able to work on a plan incorporating the hostel in Churchill in what we are trying to attempt in Rankin.
So I found the discussions very good and the knowledge of Mr. Robinson quite refreshing in that context.
So I would like to welcome him to the gallery.
Question 282 - 1(5): Income Support Clients and Hours of Employment
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for making me go first.
I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Education since he is responsible for income support.
The clients on income support have no other choice because there are no job opportunities in the communities.
I know that you are reviewing income support.
The clients are eligible for support if they have fourteen hours of work.
I was wondering how and when this came out, having to work fourteen hours.
I would like that clarified.
I would like to make a point.
Not everyone that is on income support has to work fourteen hours.
But if the recipient is on a training program in lieu of receiving income support, they have to have the fourteen hours.
For some of them there are less hours as agreed to between the two parties.
I would like to thank the member for bringing this up because there has been a lot of misunderstanding about how this works.
I would like to make a supplementary comment.
Some of the students work until they are about 18 years old in order to upgrade their skills.
Sometimes if there is room at Arctic College, they have to do some upgrading.
If a student is upgrading, is that 40 hours included if they are in a training program.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These are two different topics.
For a student who is upgrading to complete his GED there would be an agreement between the two departments and this student would get student income.
If there was an agreement, the number of hours would be included in there.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): In my first question I made a comment about the 40 hours and the minister responded by saying that these are two separate items.
Could you elaborate on the difference between that.
That is directed to the Minister of Education.
If I could use an example.
If we are basing it on our 40 hours, every time there is a training program there would be an agreement between the two parties.
It would be an agreement between the employer and the department.
If you are going to be taking out people on the land and hunt for the community, that 40 hours would be included in there as well.
If there was an agreement between the employer and the department how would that work.
If I want to make an application to social services and if there was an agreement between the employer and the Department of Health and Social Services, how would it work.
I would like the minister to elaborate on that further.
As I said earlier there would be an agreement between the two parties or maybe it would it clearer if I said it would be an understanding between the two.
It would be an agreement for the student to complete a training program.
If both parties agree, then it would be an agreement between the two parties themselves on whether it is 30 or 40 hours. Let's say it is 40 hours, then the employer and the recipient would know that once they complete their forty hours the recipient has the ambition to go into a training program, and then the student would get financial assistance.
Question 283 - 1(5): Meetings with NTI on NNI Appeals Board
Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister Responsible for Public Works & Services.
Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I was asking her how things were going with the NNI Appeals Review Committee and she indicated that they had been pretty much at a stalemate.
She also indicated that they had held a number of meetings to try and resolve some of these issues.
I would like to ask the minister if any of those meetings that were held, if they were just held between departmental officials, or did she participate in any of those meetings.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those meetings were held by departmental officials from my department and I also met with the political bodies of NTI and the President Paul Quassa.
I met with him in my office concerning this.
So my staff have met with him and I have also met with the NTI President on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that the minister has also been involved in some of these meetings.
I guess I am just trying to find ways, as I know that there are a number of appeals out there and it would be really nice for the sake of those people that have appeals to get these issues resolved.
I think, as in anything, the best way to resolve an issue is to get everyone at the table at the same time.
So I would like to ask the minister if she would be willing to commit to personally, along with her staff, the staff from NTI and some elected officials from NTI that are there right now, to sit down and try and iron out all together the differences that they have on the terms of reference that seem to be the problem.
It has been over two years that I have been working with their organization and departmental staff.
But we have never been able to come to an agreement with the NTI delegation.
The government deals with all the contracts and they hold the money that would be distributed for the contracts.
We have had meetings, myself I have met with the past President Paul Quassa, but at this time the position of President is up for election, and we have come to a blockage.
It would be nice if we could come to an agreement with NTI.
These are government dollars we are talking about they are not NTI's money.
In regards to the appeals board, we have set up the terms of reference already, from the Department of Public Works.
If we could get NTI to understand where we are coming from we would be able to come to a solution.
But NTI is concerned about all aspects and would like to be included in all the work that Public Works & Services is doing.
Mr. Speaker, I guess I asked the minister and again, I would ask the minister, maybe once after December 10 when they have a new President elected, if she would be willing to commit to sit down with her staff, with the new President of NTI and their staff and try to sort out this problem.
As she said, it has been over two years that they have been arguing and haggling over this. It has to end sometime and the only way you are going to do it I think, is if everyone is sitting at the table and you are not getting, the staff are telling me one thing, and this is what one side is taking forward and the other staff are telling the other politicians something else.
If everyone is all together at once, and there at the same time, then there won't be differences of opinion that could be very easily straightened out if everyone is in the same room at the same time.
I am going to ask the minister again if she would be willing to commit to doing that once they have a new President elected for NTI.
I am always willing to talk to any political body if it involves my department.
But in this case the money, the capital dollars, are coming from the government.
It is a public government, it is a public body, and if we started getting capital dollars from NTI, then maybe we could start talking about design of contracts and other things.
Right now, at this time, all the capital dollars are from the Nunavut Government, they are agreed upon by this body and the appeals board mandate is only to hear appeals according to the NNI Policy.
Right now NTI wants to be involved in the design of the building, in the award of the building, in the administration, in the interpretation of a contract and at this time I am not willing to expand the appeals board's mandate.
Because 100% of the capital dollars come from this government.
Mr. Speaker, I wasn't asking the minister for the details, as she said yesterday that's her understanding of what the problems or what the roadblock is.
I don't know if that is the same understanding that NTI has.
All I am asking is if the minister would be willing to commit to sit down with everybody in the same room and try and get together and work together to overcome these differences and agree to terms of reference.
I mean what will it take to say come on to NTI to agree to these terms of reference to get the appeals board set up so that we can hear the appeals.
You know some of them are in the second year now.
How long do those people with appeals have to wait.
I think it is in their interests and everybody's interest that has appeals out there that this gets sorted out and I think the best way to do it is to have everyone sitting down at the same table.
I am not disagreeing or agreeing with what the minister is saying is the problem, but it's not going to get solved unless everyone is sitting down in the same room to try and resolve it.
The only people that I am willing to meet with are the political body and I have done that.
Because I will not be directed by somebody else's officials on how this appeals board should be set up.
I have asked my staff to meet with the officials of NTI.
They have talked to each other and they have a disagreement.
I am always willing to talk to the political people, I’ve done that, and I've talked to the NTI President.
Whoever is the President if they want to talk to me, I will talk with them.
But I just had meetings with my officials and I'll see what the outcome is of those meetings.
Question 284-1(5): WCB Services in Nunavut
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to direct my question to the Minister Responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board regarding his Minister's Statement.
I was hoping that the Nunavut residents would be focused on because we've had problems in the past because the WCB office was too far away from our communities.
So we really have to pay particular attention to this so they can feel at home and so they can welcome the clients.
What I would say to the member is that the Workers' Compensation Board has staff based in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet and there are plans to expand their staffing levels in the next fiscal year.
The staffing based in Nunavut they plan on expanding that.
I understand that the Headquarters is in Rankin.
But we have problems and concerns about the people of Nunavut.
Are they going to be dealt with.
Will they be properly serviced.
Mr. Speaker, the current manager of the Nunavut operation for the Workers' Compensation Board is based here in Iqaluit.
They provide services like I said through the Iqaluit and the Rankin office for all of Nunavut right now.
There may always be issues surrounding some of the Workers' Compensation Board services but there are structures for appeals of whatever decisions are made.
Whatever problems there are in that area.
I think I understand the response.
Was that a yes or a no.
I guess it was a yes.
Speaker: I guess it was a yes.
Question 285 -1(5): Plans for Expansion of Kitikmeot Boarding Home
Earlier I made a statement about the Kitikmeot Boarding home.
I would like to direct my question to the Department of Health and Social Services.
Last year we also talked about the Boarding home.
I want to ask if the minister has any plans to expand the boarding home.
Mr. Speaker, when I was in Kugluktuk with the member a couple of weeks ago, the issue of the boarding home in Yellowknife came up, not only in our meeting with the Mayor and Council but also in the public meeting.
At that time I confirmed to the Mayor and Council that we are involved in a review through an RFP on the contract in Yellowknife.
That would entail looking at the facility itself, the function of the facility as well as the people using it.
That would then determine Mr. Speaker, if an expansion was necessary or needed.
If I understood the response, it seems like there are two points here.
He seems to be referring to the contract but I am speaking about an expansion.
Would that be in the contract then.
Which contract are you referring to.
Is the contract part of the building or part of the Health Department.
Speaker: Minister Responsible for Health. Minister Picco.
Mr. Speaker, part of the work that we are doing on the boarding home in the Kitikmeot which is located as you know, in Yellowknife, is to see the amount of patients that would be going to Yellowknife.
So in two years, when the new facility is in place in Cambridge Bay, part of the reason for putting that facility in Cambridge Bay was to eliminate some of the travel that is occurring right now from the Kitikmeot to Yellowknife.
With the facility in Cambridge Bay we would expect that the number of people going to Yellowknife and staying at the facility would decrease.
Therefore and thus, Mr. Speaker, we need to be able to track those numbers and then extrapolate from that where we are going with the amount of people that would be staying in the facility.
So at the present time I am not doing an actual expansion plan, because we first have to ascertain how many people would be using this facility.
I have always expressed this point.
It has been two years since we have first discussed this.
Two years is a long time to wait for an expansion or to get a facility into Cambridge Bay.
We should be thinking of the needs of the Kitikmeot people today.
We have to make the patients feel at home.
So is this going to be in the contract so that we can expand the present boarding home.
Mr. Speaker, we heard earlier in the member's statement about the services that were being offered in the boarding home and the good work that was being done there.
What we do on a regular basis Mr. Speaker, and we have been doing it in Yellowknife, is get feedback from the patients.
And there have been concerns, as the member has pointed out, with overcrowding at certain times in the facility.
Part of the review that we are doing right now on this contract is to look at that.
To see indeed, if there is a need for an expansion of beds and so on.
But at the same time we have to do it in the context of what would be happening with the other facility that is coming forward.
So Mr. Speaker, I can't say right now that we are going to actually expand the facility because as you know, the facility is not owned by the Government of Nunavut, we are doing it through a contractor, the owner of the building.
Mr. Speaker, we are in a position right now where we only own actually one boarding home facility and that's the one here in Iqaluit, which is leased from the Baffin Education Board, the student hostel.
The rest are leased premises through the contract that we have for boarding patients, whether that is in Edmonton or in Yellowknife.
Final supplementary Mr. Havioyak.
I think that his reply of two years is too long.
How can you rectify the problem with the overcrowding in the boarding home.
Because two years is still a long time.
Mr. Speaker, I am trying to explain.
Maybe I'll start one more time.
Mr. Speaker, we are doing a review right now.
The tender has closed on the reviewing of the boarding home facility in Yellowknife.
That leads to an opportunity for a possible expansion of the number of beds available.
It may not be the same facility that we are going to be using.
It depends on whom the contractor is that may eventually win the contract.
So if that was the case Mr. Speaker, there may be an additional number of beds.
We would have to look at what our needs are as a government.
How many patients would be going to the Lena Pederson home.
It is very difficult for me Mr. Speaker, for me to put extra beds in when at this point in time we don't know what number of beds are needed.
We also have to take in context Mr. Speaker the opportunity of the facility that will be going to Cambridge Bay.
You can't do both in isolation.
Question 286-1(5): Specific Initiatives for Youth of Nunavut
Mr. Speaker, in his department what specific initiatives is the minister currently undertaking to support youth in Nunavut.
I appreciate his question.
We all try to think of ways to support the youth in Nunavut and undertake different initiatives.
But in our department at the moment the budget needs to be approved and that is what we will have to look at in order to deal with the question.
Mr. Speaker, in what ways is the minister working with his colleagues to help construct recreational facilities for youth in our communities so that they'll have a place to go.
In what ways is the minister working with his Cabinet colleagues to help construct youth facilities and what are their plans.
In regards to his question about the recreational facilities, Community Government & Transportation is responsible for those construction of those.
In regards to the youth programs we don't deal with the construction of facilities.
So that is not within my mandate.
Perhaps that question could be posed to the Minister of Community Government & Transportation.
I asked the minister earlier on if he is working with his Cabinet colleagues so that they can make goals and objectives for the youth.
Mr. Speaker, how exactly is the minister's department working with the Department of Health and Social Services to address the crisis of youth suicides.
I mentioned this in my Member' Statement earlier on.
These things touch on all the social issues.
So I was wondering if the Minister for Culture, Language, Elders & Youth is working with Department of Health and Social Services and what their goals are.
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): With respect to your questions, our department last year worked with the Department of Health and Social Services on suicide issues and also with the Minister of Education.
We worked with them so they could deal with the social issues in the schools.
Those are the two main issues that I have worked on with the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Education.
Speaker: Final supplementary. Mr. Puqiqnak.
In his earlier response he said that funding has been approved for the youth programs.
Can you tell me what your department has expended on youth initiatives.
Hon. Peter Kattuk (interpretation): When we start dealing with the Main Estimates I am sure that you can ask that question at the appropriate time.
So I cannot respond to that question at this time.
Question 287-1(5): Review of NNI Policy Completion
This is a question to the Minister of Public Works.
The Manitoba delegation must understand that is consensus government and we are not the opposition.
This is consensus government.
You look at a little uncomfortable over there but if you want to be on our side just feel free to come sit over here.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that little bit of time.
Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of talk about NNI over the last two years and I for one on the initial set up was involved in NNI.
We took it into the committee of the whole and we debated it for a whole afternoon.
I think we were genuinely interested in working with NTI on the NNI Policy.
But over the last two and a half years myself, as a former businessman, listening to various concerns and the pros and cons of the NNI, I am wondering if it is serving us as well as we think it should.
My first question today is, I know the minister is doing a review of the NNI.
Can she tell me when it is going to be available to the House.
Speaker: Thank you, Mr. McLean. Minister Thompson.
Even in a consensus government we have heated debates and that's just part of government.
I could say that NNI has really improved the Inuit businesses and Inuit labour in our territory.
We have done well on that.
We are doing a review on the NNI right now and I couldn't tell you when it is going to be done, I don't have that information right now but we are doing a review of the NNI policy.
I have had a lot of positive comments from local businesses that would like more Inuit labour, and I think it has done some of its job.
I know that in the last few years, the companies that are contracting are starting to hire more Inuit and trying to train more Inuit because of the NNI policy.
The only problem that we are having is the appeals board, it should be just following the NNI policy.
NTI may have concerns about design and award and other things.
That's the only area that we are not agreeing with in terms of setting up the appeals board.
Maybe we all want, the population of Nunavut would like to improve our Inuit businesses, we want to get our Inuit people jobs and that's what both NTI and the government have wanted.
I know I am getting a lot of questions, because I know it is a little bit frustrating for the members, and for myself as the minister, but there are positive things that are coming out of the NNI policy in terms of contracting and giving jobs to the local people.
We are doing a review of the NNI policy and I will let the members know as soon as that is available.
Mr. Speaker, we were elected as a public government, as the minister said earlier, when my colleague was questioning her.
It is a public government and it is public money.
I think the role of the Government of Nunavut is to get best value for their money regarding tenders or RFP's.
That said, we have to be careful, I know NNI and we as a government support it 100%, but it is a policy and policies have to change from time to time.
When the report of the review is completed, could the minister commit to this House that she would table it for us to bring into committee of the whole.
Question 288 - 1(5): Funding for Suicide Prevention
As we were talking about earlier today, we were speaking about the issue of suicide among the youth in Nunavut.
Some of the communities have committees but they’re not funded by any particular organization.
Is it possible to fund the youth committees in Nunavut so that they can work on suicide prevention.
Speaker: They can’t hear right now.
Do we have our sound back.
Mr. Nutarak, can you hear me.
How about the visitors in the gallery can they hear.
Can we all hear.
Let’s proceed.
Continue. Do we have sound now.
Can we proceed.
Carry on Mr. Ng. Mr. Ng.
Can they hear.
I will repeat myself.
I think the member probably raises a good point, there is in the Department of Health and Social Services funding for suicide programs and support and those that are involved in suicide intervention.
As the Minister of Finance I’m not the one directly responsible for placing money and the funds into each departmental budgets.
The ministers are responsible for bringing forward their submissions departmentally and then all the Financial Management Board members debate those programs and policies and we try to set the main estimates for each year.
So I mean it is an issue.