In the Legislative Assembly:

Clyde, CamBay get stable funding for wellness

Wellness centres in Cambridge Bay and Clyde River will receive multi-year funding for their operations, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said in the Nunavut legislature on March 15.

That’s good news for James Arreak, the MLA for Uqqummiut, who became frustrated in the legislature last year after asking why Clyde River’s Ilisaqsivik Society received no core funding from the Government of Nunavut.

At that time, Aglukkaq said her department only supported health and social services clinics in the communities, but she promised to help Ilisaqsivik work with other departments to get the money they need.

Ilisaqsivik provides health and wellness programs for mothers and children, literacy programs, access to computers and counselling, while supporting a men’s healing group, women’s sewing circle, an elders’ group, youth council and Sukkakut, a group for women. Among the many programs run by Ilisaqsivik is an aboriginal diabetes initiative, which pays to keep the school gym open six nights a week in the winter.

Ilisaqsivik received $227,000 from the GN’s health department last year, of which a small percentage went towards paying administrative expenses for the projects. But project money has never been enough.

With no core funding, Ilisaqsivik has scrambled to offer a certain number of projects simply to keep its lights on, heat its building and pay its small number of permanent staff. The community – one of Nunavut’s poorest – has often reached into its pockets and organized sales of crafts and baked goods to support the centre.

Operational costs amount to about $250,000, and the lack of core funding has meant Ilisaqsivik has nothing left to invest in improving the quality of programs and training. Despite its financial constraints, Ilisaqsivik has managed to remain also one of the largest employers in Clyde River, providing part-time work for over 50 people.

Aglukkaq said her department wants to develop a framework for wellness centres that other communities can use to start similar centres.

Taloyoak parka on display at Rideau Hall

Last month, the official portrait of former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was unveiled at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Clarkson’s parka was designed and made in Taloyoak during the mid-1970s by Arnaoyok Alookee of Taloyoak, Nattilik MLA Leona Aglukkaq told the Nunavut legislature on March 12.

The bright blue parka was made with traditional sewing techniques and natural dyes. To match the colour of the parka, the artist worked directly from the original parka, which was sent to her.
Picco to boost teacher training

More students, a better program and delivery in Nunavut’s three regions – these are among the plans the Nunavut Teacher Education Program proposes for the next 10 years.

On March 13 in the Nunavut legislature, Education Minister Ed Picco updated MLAs on new measures to boost the number of teachers in Nunavut.

These include:

* A marketing strategy to encourage more young Inuit to pursue a career in teaching;
* New partnership programs with southern universities;
* More support programs for teachers;
* Development of a language and culture specialist certificate that will certify Inuktitut teachers;
* Expansion of the program to the Kivalliq and the Kitikmeot.

Picco announced later in the week that his department is also providing $10,000 to each Nunavut education authority to fund “language committees.” These committees will help carry out the department’s new language of instruction scheme to help make Inuktitut stronger in Nunavut schools.

And on March 16, Picco told the legislature about another program to provide more training and support to Inuinnaqtun teachers in Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk.
New travelling ultrasound for the Baffin

Nunavut’s health department has bought two new ultrasound machines – one for Pond Inlet, the other for Iqaluit – and a third ultrasound technician has been hired to test patients.

“With these resources it will be possible to regularly visit Baffin communities throughout the year,” Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said in the legislature on March 13.

Right now, patients from the Baffin region who need ultrasound exams, which are offered to pregnant women, must travel to the Baffin Regional Hospital. About 1,000 such trips occur each year, at a cost of $1 million, Aglukkaq said.

In the Kivalliq and Baffin regions ultrasound exams were done in the communities and saved $750,000 for the health department.

A travelling ultrasound program is already available in the Kitikmeot. The Kivalliq health centre in Rankin Inlet has an ultrasound machine and should start a mobile service this year.

“We know that the travelling ultrasound program reduces patient travel risk, minimizes disruptions and provides a more timely service,” Aglukkaq said.

Pond Inlet’s library seeks help

Members of Pond Inlet’s Rebecca P. Idlout Library Board say they need more government help to train staff.

Job dissatisfaction and frequent turnover by library staff has increased over the last two years because of a lack of training, board members say.

The money the board receives from the GN doesn’t pay for training, so the board doesn’t know how its new employees are expected to cope.

Tununiq MLA James Arvaluk raised these concerns in the legislature last week. On March 13, he tabled a letter from the board to the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth this past February.

“There is no community services librarian currently in Baker Lake, so we are asking who will train a new employee and provide that on-going support for our local librarian?”

The board wants training to be provided by Nunavut Public Library Services, which is part of CLEY.

“Poor service in one library affects all the others and this in turn affects the standard of literacy and the opportunity of life-long learning in our Nunavut communities,” says the board’s letter.

CLEY’s minister, Louis Tapardjuk, could not provide Arvaluk with any information about possible training or support for the library in Pond Inlet, but he said he would look into the issue.

Sanikiluaq seeks improved medevacs

People in Sanikiluaq are fed up with cramped conditions and no enclosed toilet when they’re on patient charter flights to Winnipeg, Hudson Bay MLA Peter Kattuk told the legislature on March 12.

Kattuk said portable toilets, which are now on Keewatin Air charters to and from the Belcher Islands, hasn’t been a good solution for passengers during the three-hour flights.

“You can’t really call it a toilet because I saw it, and it was right behind me and was put under a seat… I know that some people don’t want to do their business in front of other people,” Kattuk said.

Kattuk urged the health department to make changes before the contract ends in 2008.

Nunavut’s health minister, Leona Aglukkaq, told Kattuk that she raised the issue with the airline, which responded by installing the screened portable toilets that Kattuk referred to. She said Keewatin Air also held a public meeting in Sanikiluaq to discuss medevac services.

Aglukkaq promised Kattuk that she would ask for larger aircraft, equipped with toilets, for medevacs from Sanikiluaq when specifications for a new tender are put out. She said her department’s goal is always to provide washrooms on flights longer than two hours, but “that’s not always possible.”

Aglukkaq tabled letters on March 14 that Bob May, the president of Keewatin Air, sent to the GN’s ministers of transport and health, as well as to Kattuk.

May’s letter suggests the lack of toilets isn’t the only issue causing discontent among medical travel clients from Sanikiluaq.

In a letter sent last March, May had written that “a number of passengers are continually attempting to use the charter the transport of liquor and illegal drugs… the confiscation of this material causes some passengers to complain about the service.”

Rules about the amount of luggage patients want to bring back may also be an issue May said. That’s because sometimes the additional overweight bags travel on later flights.

May said the airline’s agreement with the health department says that first patients, medical staff, supplies and materials are put on the plane, “then personal effects beyond the normal 60 lbs. per passenger allowance.”

Tununiq MLA James Arvaluk said similar Beechcraft airplanes, also without toilets, are still used for long hauls by commercial airlines, and he wanted to know whether this is permitted.

“A flight from Iqaluit to Igloolik to Pond Inlet to Grise Fiord is on a King Air with no washroom and it’s always full,” he said.