EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We have to let the Utility Rates Review Council process continue.
The application the corporation has asked for has moved forward.
The revenue stream of the corporation is too low and other rates are too low and how much and what percentage of those will increase... . I would suggest to you, Mr. Speaker, that we will be in a better position in February to answer those questions.
I think the good news for Nunavummiut is that the Government of Nunavut realizes that there is hardship.
We are trying to foster our economy, we are trying to help grow private houses and home ownership; we want to be able to support our businesses, and Mr. Speaker, we have a difficult challenge ahead on how we will balance that with the cost revenue that the Power Corporation needs.
So, I would suggest that the member would say to his constituents that he would be in a better position, and we will be in a better position, when we review the process’ completion and the report of the Utility Rates Review Council on the General Rate Application by the Power Corporation, and then we will have an opportunity at that time to look at the suggestions.
Mr. Speaker, it would not be correct right now to suggest what an increase will be on April 1, because we just don’t know yet.
We have to let this process go forward.
So, I hope that helps clarify the question of the member.
A concern is whether they can do the hearings in Sanikiluaq; I wonder if he has any information in that regard.
We, as a government, again, have been listening to the concerns from the Nunavummiut.
That is one of the reasons why we extended the deadline for February 1 for the Utility Rates Review Council to be able report back to the Minister of Energy.
Mr. Speaker, the minister responsible for the Utility Rates Review Council, Mr. Okalik, has recently agreed to extent the deadline for submissions and so on until December 17.
We have actually added a couple of extra dates, for example, where there has been interest, for example, here in Iqaluit, for more public consultations and hearings.
At the end of that process, the Utility Rates Review Council may want to do more visits and so on, but it depends on what logistical and administrative means are present that give them an opportunity to travel to other communities.
So, there have been some requests to go to some more communities and they have to weigh those options and see what the opportunity is.
At the same time, the members of the communities in Nunavut concerned with the increase that is proposed by the Power Corporation have an opportunity to provide written submissions.
The minute the member can make those submissions to me, as Minister of Energy, I will pass them out to the Utility Rates Review Council.
I have already received, from the constituents, copies of the Utility Rates Review Council submissions that I have provided to the Utility Rates Review Council by e-mail, for example.
So, there are opportunities for Sanikiluaq still to have a say and for Nunavummiut to still have a say, because the deadline doesn’t end until December 17.
Question 122 – 2(2): $2,000 to Get a Passport
My question is directed to the Immigration minister, Minister Picco.
Today if we try to get a passport, we have to pay $2,000 to get our photos taken because the photos have to be done through a certified photographer.
Does this apply even to the smaller communities such as my constituency?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister of Immigration, Minister Picco.
Over the past several months, as the Minister of Immigration, we have had an opportunity to have discussions with the federal minister, Judy Sgro.
Indeed, a couple of weeks ago there was a federal-provincial-territorial meeting of immigration ministers.
We weren’t able to make that meeting because of House sessions and other meetings.
Mr. Speaker, at the same time, the member has quoted a number of $2,000.
We are very fortunate, right now, for example, here in this region in Nunavut, to have in place a private business in ownership of Mr. Stephen Lowe who is in the position to be able to take passport photos.
I know that Mr. Lowe does a very good job and the members are familiar with him.
Mr. Speaker, the federal government, since 9/11, has passed several different regulations and administrative changes in the passport application process, including the photo ID.
Members may be aware, for example, that the federal government has now requested that people getting their passport photo taken not smile in that photo.
Mr. Speaker, if the member has an issue with the photo itself, what we will do, through our offices here, is to help the people of Nunavut get passport applications.
If there is an issue about the photo itself, we have been able to work around that, in some regard, being able to get the photos taken that will meet the standards put forward by Immigration Canada for the passports.
Mr. Speaker, if the member has constituents that have issues raised, where they were not able to do that, I would be happy to work with the member to facilitate it.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): Mr. Speaker, we have to spend a lot of money in order to get our pictures taken for our passports.
The motor vehicles department can also take pictures.
Can’t they get certification to take pictures for passports?
Otherwise, we have to spend a lot of money in order to get our pictures taken, and this is creating problems, especially for my constituents.
Yesterday in this House the members ratified and passed and are just waiting for the Electronic Commerce Act.
Mr. Speaker, part of the Electronic Commerce Act that we did yesterday, it is my understanding, allows us, for example, to electronically send photos.
Mr. Speaker, this could be a way for communities, like the member’s, in Nunavut to be able to provide that information, those pictures, electronically.
There is an opportunity under that Act to do that.
There are mechanisms in place so that we have been able to work with Immigration Canada, with the passport office, and with Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who has done good work for us as our MP in Ottawa, to facilitate the passports.
Like I said, I would be very pleased to work with the member to help in cases where the member’s constituents need passports, to help them facilitate that.
The Act that we passed yesterday will be one of those tools that will come in handy to do that.
How will unilingual people, who have no idea how to operate computers, be assisted in that way?
We have had many residents from Nunavut travel all over world using Canadian passports.
The Canadian passport is one of the most recognizable passports in the world.
Mr. Speaker, there are federal regulations and administrative details to the passports.
The passport is issued by the Government of Canada and through our office here, as the Minister of Immigration, we work with those processes to help with constituents, to help Nunavummiut to be able to access their passports.
Mr. Speaker, in the case of someone who is unilingual, we would be able to help provide the information as well as help that person, facilitate and help them get a passport.
So, we would provide that assistance to someone who is unilingual.
Again, Mr. Speaker, if any of the members or indeed the member has a constituent who is having issues trying to get a passport, he would make that information known to myself as minister and we will try to help that individual.
Question 123 – 2(2): Concern on General Rate Application Increase
I’ll make it very short, and hopefully the answer is very short as well, just a simple yes or no.
Is the minister concerned that he was not aware of these changes that were made in the rates that were inaccurate in the General Rate Application?
Is he concerned, yes or no, that he was not made aware of these changes?
Minister of Energy, Mr. Picco.  Hon. Ed Picco: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think all members of this House, and people in general, would be concerned if information provided in the application process by the Power Corporation was in error.
Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding, as I said earlier, I only know this from an e-mail this morning, that the CEO, the acting chair, Ms. Crawford... .
There was a member of the panel presenting on behalf of the business community; they pointed out there may be some inaccuracies in some of the information provided by the Power Corporation, as the member has stated.
In the meantime, the CEO, Ms. Crawford, said that she would correct that mistake.
My understanding is that they’ve done that.
I don’t know how much the amounts were. I don’t know the rates.
Mr. Speaker, at the break, in five minutes, Ms. Crawford will be here to discuss with me the issue around the Utility Rates Review Council and the information that had been provided by the Power Corporation.
I don’t know if that’s a yes or no.
But, I guess in light of that, I’m very surprised that the minister responsible wasn’t informed, as the minister himself has said many times before that the minister is where the buck stops.
So, he’s the one responsible.
He’s the one that should have the information given to him.
Mr. Speaker, I know the minister stated earlier something about the statutory declaration that was signed off.
He’s already said that there was an error in there, so that tells us what that statutory declaration… .
To the best of their ability… .
But I guess they didn’t have all the accurate information in it.
Given, in fact, Mr. Speaker, that this information was provided to the Utility Rates Review Council just after the first hearings that were held here in Iqaluit, and that the wrong information was distributed to all the public hearings that were held, will the minister commit to sending a copy of the new rates, the revised rates, to all communities where consultations were held and apologize for the corporation providing inaccurate information to them during their public hearings, even after they knew that it had been changed.
As I said earlier, in the other request by the member, Mr. Speaker, I’m only going on the information that I have.
They have been addressed in the meeting.
I was in meetings this morning. We had a caucus meeting. I received an e-mail.
I’ve asked the CEO to come as soon as the break starts, to be briefed, to find out exactly what has occurred.
I can’t go by just what the member has said.
He’s hearing second-hand information.
He wasn’t at the meeting.
He’s hearing information that the numbers and figures and so on are wrong.
I haven’t heard from Mr. Mercer who is the chair of the Utility Rates Review Council or any member of the Utility Rates Review Council say that they believe that the whole process is flawed.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t even know what the depth of the information that the member is talking about means, if it might be an issue.
So, Mr. Speaker, I need to be able to read, to be responsible, to be able to review what has occurred and then follow up with the staff of the Power Corporation and to see what information has been changed or fixed or amended and to see if indeed, that has an impact on the hearings that have occurred so far.
So, Mr. Speaker, that is what I will do as minister.
Maybe I can let the minister know that on item 13 I will tabling those new rates that were received from the Power Corporation at the public hearing last night, for the minister to become aware of and all members of the Assembly to be aware of.
Mr. Speaker, given that 68 percent error, if you want to call it that, in what the rates are, would the minister, if that is indeed the case, consider that to be a fundamental discrepancy in the application put forward by the Power Corporation?
The whole process that we are involved in through the Utility Rates Review Council is to determine if the process, the General Rate Application that the Power Corporation has put forward and the information contained therein, are accurate and if it doesn’t reflect accurately what the Power Corporation needs.
Mr. Speaker, if some of the information is wrong, that’s why the Utility Rates Review Council is out there: to provide that check and balance.
At the same time, Mr. Speaker, depending on what the amounts were and so on, then there needs to be some corrective work taken on that process.
I believe the process is working.
If the Power Corporation has inadvertently made a mistake, and I don’t know what has occurred again... . The member says he is going to table the rates that have been changed; he said 68 percent.
At the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, what has come forward from the Power Corporation is a proposal.
The Utility Rates Review Council can accept, reject, or modify the request being made and then it has to come to the Minister of Energy.
I guess I will go back to what I said earlier.
I wondered when the minister is finally aware of what these changes are and aware of the fact that the corporation provided this information to the Utility Rates Review Council before most of the community consultations took place, and once he becomes aware of the fact that that information was not changed in the community consultations process, even though it was done before that, will he commit to sending out the new information to all the people that were at the meetings?
I am sure they have got a list of it; they have probably got legal notes.
Maybe they are good at keeping track of notes and members, but will he make sure that new information gets out there, with an apology to them for not having that information to them at the time of their hearing?
As I said earlier, the Power Corporation has inadvertently made a mistake on the file and has provided members information that has not stood the scrutiny of the Utility Rates Review Council hearing.
Mr. Speaker, I will, as the member has just stated, make sure that the intervenors, the public-at-large, the hamlets, and the stakeholders are aware of those amounts.
If an apology is necessary on the file, then that’s something that will occur.
At the end of the day, as we have tried to say, I am not here to mislead the House or lie, Mr. Speaker.
I am just as upset or probably more upset than the member is.
At the end of the day, I can only go, and the House can only go, by the information provided by the minister.
The minister can only go by the information provided by the corporation, and the Utility Rates Review Council can only go by the analytical information that they have a chance to answer to.
So, Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, mistakes are made.
So, in this case, I have to ascertain.
In a few minutes, I will be having a meeting with the CEO of the Power Corporation to find out what has occurred on the file.
My understanding is that yesterday the CEO did correct the information that was provided.
Again, I have not heard from Mr. Mercer anywhere else on the Utility Rates Review Council to say that they believe it impacts the work that they have already done and I will have to ascertain that.
Oral question period is now over.
Written Question 023 – 2(2): Activities Conducted under the Fire Prevention Act
This written question is for the Minister of Community and Government Services.
Question one, Mr. Speaker, deals with activities conducted under the Fire Prevention Act.
For the fiscal year 2003-04 and 2004-05 to date, within the meaning of the Fire Prevention Act, how many of the following activities were undertaken by the Office of the Fire Marshal;
Investigations under subsection 3 (b)
Inspections under subsection 3 (c)  Reviews under subsection 3 (d)
Reports under subsection 3 (e)
Recommendations under subsection 3 (f)?
For the fiscal years 2003-04 and 2004-2005 to date, how many prosecutions were undertaken pursuant to the Act?
Within the meaning of subsection 3 (e) of the act, when will the annual report of the Office of the Fire Marshal for the fiscal years 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 be tabled in the Legislative Assembly?
For the fiscal years 2003-04 and 2004-05 to date, within the meaning of subsection 3 (a) of the Act, how many fires took place in structures that have been previously inspected by the Office of the Fire Marshal within the meaning of subsection 3 (c) of the Act?
For the fiscal years 2003-04 and 2004-05 to date, broken down by community, how many inspections of Government of Nunavut-owned structures, Government of Nunavut-leased structures, condominiums, schools, and daycare facilities in Nunavut took place?
Written Question 024 – 2(2): 2004 Fuel Resupply
Again, this written question is for the Minister of Community and Government Services.
It has to do with the 2004 fuel re-supply.
With respect to the 2004 fuel re-supply, broken down by community,
what was the schedule for each community’s fuel re-supply?
what was each community’s planned re-supply order by class of product?
With respect to the 2004 fuel re-supply broken down by community,
what were the actual dates when fuel re-supply vessels arrived?
what was the actual quantity of fuel delivered by class of product?
Return to WQ 001 – 2(2): Power Generation in Iqaluit and Related Issues
I have the return to a written question asked by Mr. Tootoo on November 16.
Mr. Speaker, my response to the written question will be now read orally by myself.
Mr. Speaker, Iqaluit experienced a total of 17 outages for the period commencing April 1, 2001 to March 31, 2004, inclusive.
The complete list of outages, including the duration, is on the page, and the causes are provided in a table that is attached to the answer.
During the three-year period that was asked about by Mr. Tootoo, there was a total of 473 minutes, or 7 hours and 50 minutes, of outages, both planned and emergency.
Planned outages, Mr. Speaker, is when they’re doing work on the line.
The average duration of each outage was only 27 minutes.
The combined capacity of the two plants in Iqaluit is 15,460 kilowatts or 15.46 megawatts.
Qulliq Energy Corporation does not have to comply with any specific federal or territorial requirements with respect to reserve capacity. However, Mr. Speaker, Qulliq Energy currently ensures the capability and capacity availability for each plant equal to 110 percent of the peak-load with the largest engine out of service.
The Iqaluit Capital Work Project, during the first 3 fiscal years, is included in the table.
As well, Mr. Speaker, that table is attached, but as an example, there was work on the fuel system upgrade, the cooling system, the 99 unit, the 99 exhaust, distribution upgrade, as well as the federal plan condemnation.
Mr. Speaker, the Qulliq Energy Corporation has prepared an emergency plan for all 25 communities that address contingencies in the event of major interruptions of power for extended periods of time, a copy of the Iqaluit draft emergency plan is attached, this is a federal 99 draft document as we wait for community input to finalize the draft.
Mr. Speaker, I have also provided the executive summary of the Iqaluit emergency plan for the member.
Mr. Speaker (interpretation): Returns to Written Questions.
Return to WQ 011 – 2(2): Workers’ Compensation Board Investment Policies and Practices
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (interpretation ends) Asked by Mr. Tootoo on WCB investment power system practices.
While the WCB does not publicly provide details on specific investments within the accident fund of the WCB, the policy is to invest 25 percent of the portfolio in Canadian Equities.
As the major banks in Canada are representative of the best quality Canadian equity investments, the WCB would normally be holding BMO, Bank of Montreal, BMO stock in the portfolio.
Neither governance council nor internal WCB staff make any decisions around buying or selling individual company stock.
This authority is delegated to investment professionals, whose training in experience make them the best decision makers on individual companies.
The governance council and staff take an arms-length relationship with investment professionals.
There have been no specific instructions given to the WCB’s investment professionals about investment in companies based on their dealings in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
At present, the governance council has placed no ethical screening criteria on its investment professionals based on tobacco and alcohol production or distribution.
The governance council’s investment guidelines for its investment professionals address risk, diversity, and quality of investments.
The objective of the governance council’s investment policies is to minimize risk and to maximize the return on investments to meet the long-term needs of its stakeholders – injured workers and employers in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Speaker (interpretation): Returns to Written Questions.
Tabling of Documents. Mr. Tootoo.
Tabled Document 038 – 2(2): General Rate Application Increases
I would like to table three pages.
One page is the revised commercial rates by community.
The other one is the revised residential rates by community for the Power Corporation for the minister and the Cabinet to have a look at.
Also, Mr. Speaker, on the front page there is a breakdown analysis for Iqaluit specifically that shows the change in the rate application that was put forward that everyone received and chose a difference of six percent for the commercial rates increase, and six percent increase on the residential rates.
Also it shows the proposed surcharges on there and what the surcharges included in the application that go up the rates would increase.
It shows up to 106 percent and 82 percent for residential.
Tabled Document 039 – 2(2): High Cost of Baby Products and Healthy Foods at Local Stores
In my Member’s statement, as I have stated that the nutritional foods are very expensive in Nunavut.
I would like to table this document in regards to the statement that I made earlier on.
Tabled Document 040 – 2(2): Towards a Representative Public Service: Statistics as of September 30, 2004
I would like to table two documents.
The first one is for 2003/04 government services for Inuit Annual Report.
Tabled Document 041 – 2(2): 2003-2004 Public Service’s Annual Report
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a document on Inuit employment statistics.
We have to table these quarterly reports annually.
Speaker (interpretation): Tabled Documents.
Tabled Document 042 – 2(2): A Ten Year Profile of Cancer in Nunavut 1992-2001.
The first one is the Nunavut report on Health and Health Statistics for 2004.
Tabled Document 043 – 2(2): Nunavut Report on Comparable Health Indications 2004
Also another document that I would like to table.
For the ten years, for people with cancer, starting from 1992 up to 2001.
Speaker (interpretation): The documents that are being tabled, please forward them to the Official’s table.
Tabled Document 044 – 2(2): 2002 Reflections Document and the 2002 Annual Report
I wish to table the following document, the 2002 Reflections Document and the 2002 Annual Report from the Workers’ Compensation Board.
Tabled Document 045 – 2(2): Minimum Wage Annual Report 2004
I wish to table this document to have the Department of Justice minimum wage for the year 2004 being the second annual report.
Tabled Document 046 – 2(2): Bilingual Education Strategy for Nunavut 2004-2008
I too would like to table a document entitled the Bilingual Education Strategy for Nunavut in French, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut and English.
Tabled Document 047 – 2(2): Nunavut Business Credit Corporation Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2003
I wish to table the following document, the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2003.
During this period, our staff was able to increase our loan portfolio by 30 percent and reduce its accumulated deficit from $698,000 to $235,000.
Tabled Document 048 – 2(2): Annual Report for the Nunavut Development Corporation for the Fiscal Year 2003-04
I wish to also table the following document, the Annual Report of the Nunavut Development Corporation for the fiscal year 2003-04.
I am pleased to announce the Corporation employed 154 Nunavummiut, either directly or indirectly, however, it does not indicate how that translates into hundreds of income earning opportunities for individuals relying on harvesting, fishing, sewing and arts and crafts sectors of our territory.