Legislative Assembly briefs
Long-term care comes to the Kitikmeot
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, March 20, 2017
NUNAVUT
The first two residents have settled in at the Kitikmeot Regional Health Centre Residential Long-term Care Unit. Health Minister George Hickes announced the opening of the facility in his March 13 minister's statement.
The Department of Health celebrated the official opening March 15 of the newly renovated east wing, the former Baffin Regional Hospital. From left: deputy minister Colleen Stockley, executive director of Iqaluit Health Services Dennis Stravrou, elder Enuapik Sagiatook and Health Minister George Hickes. - photo courtesy of the Department of Health |
The opening follows the renovation and repurposing of the Kitikmeot Regional Health Centre in-patient unit. The new unit has seven residential long-term care beds and one bed for respite and palliative care.
"Seventeen new personal care workers, who are local residents, are currently receiving on-the-job training to fulfill the unit's staffing requirements," said Hickes.
"Health is committed to providing care for and support to Nunavummiut who need care while acknowledging the need for a made-in-Nunavut strategy."
Seniors strategy, handbook launched
Premier Peter Taptuna announced the launching of the Nunavut Seniors Strategic Framework and Handbook on March 13.
"Elders are Nunavut's strongest tie to our history and our resilient traditions, and to bridging our culture and language in the modern world," he said.
Taptuna tabled both a report titled Strategic Framework: Addressing the Needs of Nunavut Seniors, as well as the Nunavut Seniors' Information Handbook.
"The strategic framework focuses on the challenges of Nunavut's seniors, the current status of programs and services, and the next steps," said Taptuna.
He called this a starting point for the GN's seniors strategy to eliminate barriers and create more accessible support systems at a community level.
The handbook ties into this strategy, by listing what resources are available and where and who to contact for more information. It will soon be available in large print.
Taptuna noted how Nunavuumi Inutuqait Katujjiqatigiingit, the Nunavut Seniors Society, has been allotted $100,000 for the coming fiscal year along with a promised annual contribution of $150,000 moving forward.
Gender identity added to Nunavut Human Rights Act
Nunavut MLAs were unanimous in their decision to support transgender rights within territorial legislation, following the reading of a bill to amend the Nunavut Human Rights Act on March 13.
"This is a tremendous day for people who are transgender in Nunavut," said Minister Keith Peterson.
Bill 31 requests inclusion of gender identity and gender expression within the list of grounds for which Nunavummiut cannot be discriminated against, as listed in section 7(1) of the Act.
"Gender identity is a person's internal sense of being a woman, a man, both, or neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum," said Peterson. "Gender expression is how a person publicly presents their gender. This can include behaviour in outward appearance, such as hair, make-up, body language, and voice, a person's chosen name and pronoun."
He said including gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination is in keeping with the purpose of the Act and the move will help prevent discrimination and prejudice against people who are transgender in Nunavut.
Nine provinces and one other territory have already included gender identity and/or gender expression in their legislation.
Present in the gallery were Nunavummiuq Kieran Drachenberg and his mother Catherine Lightfoot, who have been vocal supporters of the bill. Peterson thanked them for their support and personal stories.
$10 million to education, following fire
An additional $10 million has been added to the Department of Education's 2017-18 budget, to support a fire that destroyed Kugaaruk's only school on March 1.
The March 13 amendment brings the new dollar figure for the departmental budget to $81,807,000.
Of the new money, $6 million is budgeted for the purchase and delivery of six portable classrooms the department intends to deliver on the summer sea lift.
The remaining $4 million will go towards planning and design of a new school. The new building is estimated at $40 million.
Airport remediation eight years late
Husdon Bay MLA Allan Rumbolt wanted to know why a defunct airport in his hamlet of Sanikiluaq was taking so long to be torn town.
"It's just abandoned, there are no windows left in it, the doors are just hanging, the siding is falling off and the building is just beginning to fall apart on its own," he said March 10.
"I've been asking this for the past eight years, so I think something needs to be done fairly soon in order to remediate this building."
Rumbolt asked members to look back at the GN's 2015 business plan, which stated that plans would be made for remediation and removal of decommissioned airport buildings in Qikiqtarjuaq, Coral Harbour, Nanisivik, Sanikiluaq and Resolute Bay. He said the GN's current business plan reads identical.
"It's like you're copying from one year to the next."
Economic Development and Transportation Minister Monica Ell-Kanayuk said the year-to-year shuffle was an effort to keep remediation of the respective airports on the books.
She said the projects require funding from the federal government, which has to be applied for each year. To date, she said capital funding for remediation of each airport has been denied for 2017-18.
A grave piece of art
The GN has received another Franklin-themed art piece to add to its collection.
Ottawa resident Arlie Hobson donated the work titled The Three Franklin Expedition Graves, in memory of her late husband.
"The painting is a depiction of the three graves of the seamen who died on Beechey Island in 1846 during the last expedition of Sir John Franklin," said Minister of Culture and Heritage George Kuksuk, March 9.
The work was done by artist Maurice Hall Haycock when he visited Beechey Island in July of 1975.
"At the time of the painting the grave markers were subsequently removed for conservation, and it is the last painting done of the site prior to the grave markers' removal," he said.
Kuksuk said the territory has received an increase in art and artifact donations since the GN's decision to move its art collection to the Winnipeg Art Gallery and with its heritage collection soon heading to the Canadian Museum of Nature.
