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At this time, I cannot answer him directly and I will take some question, but sometimes some projects are not finished or completed for that year. That is all I can answer him at this time.
Question 202 – 2(3): Discussion with the Federal Government on Pandemic Emergency Planning (Curley)
My question is directed to the minister of Health and Social Services, even though my colleagues have addressed the issue related to the pandemic plan and emergency preparedness planning. I have noticed also that the government is seriously dealing with this pandemic plan and emergency issue as stated on page H-22 of the business plan.
I am wondering if the minister maybe could say to the Nunavummiut as to whether or not there is an ongoing discussion with the federal government with respect mainly to the Avian Flu possibilities of the wild animals, particularly the bird. The Inuit people sorely depend on them in the early spring and summer months.
Will there be public information eventually prepared so that we can at least have some understanding of what we should be looking out for?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister of the Department of Health, Madame Aglukkaq.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I thank the member for his question.
The department is aware of the potential of influenza pandemic possibility in Canada and in Nunavut. The Department of Health, through the Chief Medical Officer’s Division, has been participating and planning for a high level emergency response for the pandemic influenza in Canada as well as in Nunavut.
Our role within Nunavut has been to put a plan in place to respond should a pandemic influenza outbreak occur in Canada.
Some of the measures that we have taken are to stockpile medication that will be required to treat individuals.
At the same time, the Department of Health is working with a number of agencies to put the plan in place. More work is required from our part to also engage the other departments in the planning process, in the municipalities, and to test out that response on how to respond to the emergency. That further work is being developed.
At the same time, the national Public Health Agency of Canada will be coming to Nunavut this month to talk about the national strategy and the plan.
At the same time, the individual will be visiting various communities to get a better idea of some of the challenges we may face in Nunavut in responding to a pandemic influenza within our own territory.
I appreciate the minister’s response and plan that is being carried out by the government.
It is very important because when we start hearing about the Avian Flu in Asia, we thought it was quite far and possibly would never get to this part of the world, but then I noted that it is now in Europe and many of the animals that we are familiar with, such as swans, have now been infected in some cases.
So eventually, our people are mainly unilingual Inuit people who have to understand what this Avian or this bird flu is all about.
At the moment, we don’t have a word for it, so eventually, I would like to ask the minister that she will eventually, not raise the alarm clock, or alarm bell, but at least signal to the public that there are a few things that we would have to look out for and that it be done early so that the public will understand.
The hunters will understand what unusual signs may be occurring in their jurisdiction.
The plan will be to communicate what the pandemic influenza response procedures will be. Yes, and I agree with the member, we need to get the information out to Nunavummiut.
The concern right now; the influenza virus is currently confined to birds, but there is concern that it will hit human beings and to try and respond to those types of situations that will require the participation of many agencies and so on.
So I agree with the member that more communication is needed.
At the same time, the Public Health Agency of Canada will be coming to Nunavut to talk about their own strategy, from Canada’s perspective as a nation, and the role of the Public Health Agency of Canada in supporting the provinces and territories in responding to a situation like the pandemic influenza.
Question 203 – 2(3): Tabling the Mining Strategy (Peterson)
My question is for the Minister responsible for Economic Development and Transportation.
Mr. Speaker, mining activity is increasing in Nunavut.
Exploration investment exceeds $150 million per year. Approximately 65 exploration projects are expected in 2006. I read in that in the backgrounder to the Fuel Tax Rebate.
Tahera Corporation just opened their mine in the Kitikmeot Region and Miramar is waiting for a decision on their gold mine, and yet Nunavut doesn’t have a mining strategy.
My question for the minister is; the long awaited Nunavut Mining Strategy was committed to be released by the end of 2005. Can the minister tell the House when he expects to release the Nunavut Mining Strategy?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister responsible for Transportation, Minister Akesuk.
We’re working on the planning process under our department with the Department of Public Service, as well the Department of Education. We’re planning and setting up the strategy for mining for Nunavut.
We will be able to find out exactly what the conditions are at this time, as well as planning for the future mining strategy.
Can the minister tell us or give us an indication of what he expects to see in his main recommendations to be outlined in the Nunavut Mining Strategy?
To further explain, the mining strategy was tabled at the end of February and there are different issues discussed under the mining agreement. We would have to consult with the mining companies, as well as the Department of Education is involved, and how much money that they will be able to make for the benefits agreement.
So we will be getting our elders from that region involved so that they can keep an eye on the mining strategy.
We would like to be able to have an agreement with the mining industry to make sure that they are beneficial to the communities because this economic development opportunity should be spread down to the communities.
It has been well over a year since we have starting asking about a Nunavut Mining Strategy. So the department has had an ample time to do consultations.
Mining is on us now. As indicated, a lot of exploration mines are opening up and we have some that are in the process of opening up.
So Mr. Speaker, many individuals, businesses, hamlets have a vested interested in a strong mining sector.
Here we are, we don’t have a mining strategy.
Can the minister commit to tabling a list...the question is: can the minister commit to tabling a list of individuals and entities in Nunavut who would consult and provide input into the strategy?
Like I said, the final draft is done as of the end of last month, which was a couple days ago. I guess we have to do the finishing touches before we actually hand them out to any people interested in putting input into the strategy.
So we will do our very best to make sure that we include all MLAs to put some input into our draft strategy for mining.
Well, that’s certainly a little bit of welcome news that there’s a draft circulating somewhere in the government as mining is such a vital industry to us.
My final question for the minister: can the minister tell the House if the mining sector told the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, during their consultations on that strategy, that they felt that the Petroleum Products Tax Act unfairly penalizes our companies?
I haven’t had a chance to review the final draft. I guess I will have to get back to the member to come back with what were recommended from the consultations.
I do believe I will have a better idea within the next couple of weeks or months to answer that question and we will make sure that the final draft goes to the MLAs from Nunavut.
Question 204 – 2(3): Addressing the Student Drop-out Rate (Tootoo)
My question is for the eloquent and very fine painter of pretty pictures, the Minister of Education.
Mr. Speaker, earlier in response to my colleague from the High Arctic’s questioning, the minister was very proud to announce that 960 students have graduated from grade 12 since 1999.
Mr. Speaker, the quiet thing that he mentioned in there is the 75 percent drop-out rate that we have experienced and that we are experiencing in Nunavut right now. He also indicated that 86 percent of those graduates were Inuit.
That would mean if you go by it generally, our population is 85 percent Inuit. One could assume from that is that the majority of the non-beneficiaries that are attending schools are graduating.
That leaves 75 percent since 1999 just on those graduates alone, 700 drop-outs.
That is the not so rosy side of our education system, but my question to the minister is: what are they doing to address this atrocious drop-out rate that we face in Nunavut to try and keep those young people within the school system to complete their education and prevent them from falling through the cracks that the government has always said is a very great education system that we have?
The member makes a couple of really good points.
Mr. Speaker, the first one on the truancy issue, we’re looking at types of multiple grade options/multiple passing options within the high school system to bring and gear more interest of the programs that are offered at the school and keep students in school.
A good example of that was in questioning the House the last couple of days about the program that we are running in Kugluktuk with trades programming that the students can do at the high school level and receive a credit for that.
Mr. Speaker, when we are looking at attendance and dropout, both of them go together. You cannot look at one without the other. The local district education authority met here in Iqaluit last week and one of the topics of discussion of every district education authority member was how to keep kids in school and the issues around truancy and so on.
Mr. Speaker, it is a real problem that we have to deal with. When families and when parents take responsibility and say the child has to be in school, and if the kid is not in school, especially at the higher levels, at grade seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, and 12, and what we can do about it.
There have been suggestions, for example in the new Education Act, of looking at putting in fines and so on. There have been other mechanisms looked at, but that debate is ongoing. When we look at the dropout rate, you have to actually deal with the collation or the correlation between the actual truancy rates, the actual attendance.
We find for kids who are going to school, whether they are Inuit or non-Inuit, at 80 or 90 percent of the time, those students are graduating. The students that are not attending are not graduating. That is no different than any other jurisdiction where you see a high truancy rate, which of course equates to a high dropout rate.
I was questioning on the drop-out rate - that’s the number of students not attending school period. I understand the department, one of the things that they do in the schools is if a student indicates that they are quitting school for that year, or for whatever reason that if the student tells the school that they are planning on coming back, whether they do or not, maybe next year or at some point in the future, are those numbers considered into the dropout rate, or would those numbers be on top of the 75 percent drop-out rate?
Dropouts or the dropout rate, how you define that is separate from non-attendees. Non-attendees may be someone that the member explained.
We can use an example of a young person who was pregnant and wasn’t able to complete her year. So they went to the school and said, “I am not going to be able to attend school this year. I am in grade 10 because I am having a baby, but I would like to come back in a year and a half or something like that.”
That person would be a non-attendee; a person who drops out of school, or a person who has continually not come to school over a given number of months, or semesters, or in many cases, a fiscal year of the school. So that it has how that is recorded.
Again, a correlation between truancy, not attending, and drop-out comes right together.
There’s congruence there. That’s no different than any other jurisdiction.
If we could get more of our students to continue to attend school, then we believe we’ll see more graduates and we would lower the dropout rate.
But if you’re not attending school and you’re only coming 30 or 40 percent of the time when you’re in grade six or by the time you get to grade nine, you’ve missed a lot of schooling, and by the time you get to grade nine or grade ten, then maybe the academics becomes too tough because of not attending and a lot of the students drop out.
That’s what we’re seeing Mr. Speaker.
So hopefully that helps clarify that answer.
The minister stated in his response that they’re seeing a lot of the dropouts happen as a result of the academics getting a little bit too tough at the higher levels.
I think an issue that was raised here in Iqaluit a number of years ago was on assessment testing. The district education authority here, at the time, wanted to use the results to try and narrow down where problems may be in the system; not with the teachers, not with students, but with the system itself.
Can the minister indicate what they’ve done to try and analyze and identify where the problem is occurring and what they’re doing about it?
While I was saying that the academics are too tough, and I want to make sure that I’m clear on the response, and the response is this: number one, if you haven’t attended school on a regular basis and you’ve only be attending 30, 40, 50 percent of the time and you continue that from year to year, then you’ve missed half of the school year. You’ve missed half of the educational material that you’ve been presented and therefore, you wouldn’t have a grasp of that knowledge.
And if that continues, especially in the middle grades, seven, eight, and nine, when you get to the higher grades, the academics are too tough because you haven’t absorbed the material because you haven’t been in attendance to take that.
That’s why I said one of the reasons we’re seeing is that the academics are too tough.
Our students who attend on a regular basis 80 or 90 percent graduate.
They write those Alberta exams, for example Mr. Speaker, and they’re passing them.
So the Alberta exams are a standard curriculum used across the country.
Now, the point on the standardized testing, or the look at the curriculum, I agree with the member.
One of the things that we’re introducing right now Mr. Speaker, in the New Year is criterion standards. We’re starting at the lower grades, and we’re doing math criterion standards first for grade three.
Mr. Speaker, across Nunavut, we would pilot a criterion standard and say, “Can you add, subtract, multiply, and divide?
Can you identify a whole number?” and so on. And that would be the criterion standard of a math test.
That criterion standard would have to be met whether it’s in Clyde, or Coral Harbour, or in Iqaluit.
Mr. Speaker, we’re also gearing the department for the first time, the same type of criterion standards for language, whole arts, writing in English as well as in Inuktitut.
I’m glad to hear that the department is finally starting to have a look at developing some tools they can use to analyze our system.
I think painting the rosy picture that our graduates are increasing...the minister indicated that all the people that go to school are graduating. We’ll that’s only 25 percent of the people that start off in school.
I think it’s about time that this government take a look at addressing the needs of 75 percent.
If 75 percent of the students aren’t graduating, I would think that it’s not the fault of the parents and it’s not the fault of the teachers, it’s the system. There’s something very wrong here when 75 percent of your students are dropping out of school.
So I would like to ask the minister if he could, on top of this criterion standard, look at...is the department looking at any other ways to address that situation and if he would provide that information to the Members of this House, along with regular updates on any successes that they may be having in that area?
Again, there have been a lot of discussions, especially over the last several months, and again, up to a week and a half ago with all of the DEA chairs across Nunavut on how to deal with the issue of truancy and drop-outs and because there is a correlation there.
Mr. Speaker, as again, in the new Education Act, there have been suggestions of strengthening the truancy regulations within the Act and how we can apply those, but at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, in a lot of cases, we need to make sure that DEAs, and in the support of the parents, to keep our kids in school.
If you look at the four pages here today, and one of the reasons how you become a pager from the high school, as an example, is you have to be good at academics and be a good attendee.
And so, Mr. Speaker, again, if you are attending school on a regular basis, you have a better chance to proceed.
Mr. Speaker, what happens is, and that the member’s correct, in the department, we are trying to see where the dropouts occur; where are the kids dropping out of school; is it age 13, 14, 15; is it grade seven, eight, or nine; and once we ascertain and get those numbers better correlated, then we could look at why this is occurring.
I appreciate the member’s question and that’s something that we are trying to follow up.
Question 205 – 2(3): Funding Approval by FMB for Capital Projects (Barnabas)
Following the Member for Akulliq, Mr. Mapsalak’s questions, I would like to make a supplementary on that.
(interpretation ends) If any of the capital projects that go over budget, or about to get, do you have to get FMB approval for extra funding?
Yes, it is like that.
Yes, if that’s the case, then can the minister provide us with the written information as to the capital plans that were approved by the FMB if they requested any more funding on top of that?
Hon. David Simailak (interpretation): Yes, I will check to see if we can provide that information and I will let him know. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): I wonder why they go way over it that they request a lot more funds than what they had originally planned. Where does that money come from if they require further funding in a large amount?
Hon. David Simailak (interpretation): If we are going to over-expend, then we have to bring this up at the Legislative Assembly for supplementary appropriations and that’s the procedure that we used.
If that is the case, then where did the extra funding come from? If they over-spent on those projects, when does he anticipate bringing up supplementary appropriations?
Hon. David Simailak (interpretation): I will check with my staff and I will be able to provide you with the information.
Question 206 – 2(3): Department of Justice Budget Cut Backs (Tootoo)
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Mr. Kattuk.
Mr. Speaker, I know that in the media lately there have been cutbacks in the Department of Justice staff mainly at the young offenders’ facility here in Iqaluit and also at the Baffin Correctional Centre looking at cost-cutting measures affecting staff members’ shifts.
I am just wondering if the minister could indicate to us if he directed any cuts to those facilities’ budgets and staffing budgets for them to be able to save some money as a cost-cutting measure getting close to the year-end.
Based on factors in prior years, there were 12-hour shifts and that affected potential safety issues.
When an employee works in a stressful environment and is working for a long period of time, it does affect the potential safety of other employees in the institution.
So we have directed that the shifts will be eight hours and it will reduce the level of stress involved in the workplace. That is what we have done.
I thank the minister for that response in indicating that they do care and worry about their staff’s well-being.
Given that, Mr. Speaker, and on the media article that I mentioned earlier that the young offenders’ home talked about not reducing staff shift times, but actually reducing staff members that would actually be on the floor of the facility at one time.
I am just wondering if the minister can indicate if that was a cost-cutting measure to do that, or was that again just under the general well-being and concern that the department has for the staff’s well-being.
We did look at the level of inmates per officers and in that particular institution, we found that there was over-staffing at that particular institution.
Over-staffing and genuine care, I guess, are the responses that the minister has given for these changes.
Can I assume that none of these changes that I have questioned about have to do with any cost-cutting measures? Is that what the minister is indicating?
Hon. Paul Okalik: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have to contain our costs and at the same time, provide the service and that is what we did.
There has to be a level and management of our overall costs so that we can spread the dollars throughout government.
The money saving comes out, I guess.
My final question for the Minister of Justice is: in changing his staff shifts from a 12 hour shift to an eight hour shift, I’m not sure if that’s something that’s in the collective agreement, but is that something that would basically change the employees’ conditions of work that would be part of the collective agreement, or is that something that the department can determine all on it’s own regardless of whether or not the staff at the facility agree with it or not?
We looked at where we are and at the level of employees that we have.
Also, we’re trying to increase our numbers in Inuit employment and it’s totally dismal in that particular correctional facility. We determined that the hours of work was one of the main factors where we can’t get much Inuit employment in that particular facility.
So yes, we did look at the overall operations of that facility and found that we’d love to encourage more Inuit to apply.
As for the collective agreement, we do what we can within our means and to contain costs and to increase morale and the safety of the individuals involved.
Question 207 – 2(3): City of Iqaluit Finances (Tootoo)
Mr. Speaker, I know the minister and I had an opportunity to meet with the Homeowners Association here in Iqaluit earlier this week and on the conclusion of that meeting, I’d just like to ask the minister if any of the information that they received there, after having some time to discuss it with her staff, was any alarming information or any bells go off that the information that was provided to the department, to the minister by the Homeowners Association regarding the City’s finances?
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for asking the question.
I am pleased that I had an opportunity to meet with the association because that is one of the things that we keep each other informed; is through meeting.
I can state to the member that at this time, Community and Government Services are checking into this because there is an audit in every community.
I will be dealing with the information that I got and they will be audited. There are always two sides to this story, and the Mayor of Iqaluit, I also wish to meet with her.
At this time, we are trying to set a time to meet so I can meet with the mayor.
I thank the minister for that response and also for the fact of taking the initiative of trying to arrange a meeting with the mayor.
My question to the minister is; would it be all right if I were invited to attend that meeting, as well as I attended the meeting with the minister and the Homeowners Association, and as she indicated, there are always two sides to every story. I just wanted to make sure that I’m involved at that level as well so that I hear all the information.
Can the minister assure me that I would be, if the Mayor agrees of course, would be invited to that meeting as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the member.