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TODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Two days before Christmas, the federal commission entrusted with designing Nunavut's government stuffed a big thick book into Ron Irwin's Christmas stocking.
Now the federal minister of Indian affairs and northern development can read all about how the people of Nunavut want their government to look.
The Nunavut Implementation Commission's latest report has the tricky "political" recommendations that weren't included in the Footprints 2 report.
The report, "Nunavut's Legislature, Premier and First Election" has recommendations on how many MLAs Nunavut's first government should have, when the first election should be held, and how the premier should be picked.
And most important, perhaps, there is a recommendation that says there should be as many Joan Amagoalik's as John Amagoalik's filling the seats of Nunavut's legislative assembly.
Southern tour
The NIC's work will be discussed at the next Nunavut leaders meeting being held next month in Cambridge Bay.
After that, some members of the commission are planning to tour southern Canada to teach people about Nunavut.
"In the next 12 months, we want to visit all parts of Canada, the west coast, the prairies, central Canada and the Maritimes," John Amagoalik, the NIC's chief commissioner told reporters at a Dec. 23 news conference.
After their tour, the commissioners will likely shift their focus to Ottawa, where they will have to do some "heavy lobbying," Amagoalik said.
Gender parity backed
The commission is strongly backing a two-member constituency model that would allow for voters in each constituency to elect one man and one woman to represent them.
The NIC's gender parity plan was hotly debated at a Nunavut leaders meeting in Iqaluit last November. NIC chief commissioner John Amagoalik held an informal poll and found that 72 per cent of the leaders around the table backed the plan.
That gave the commission the mandate it needed to recommend to Ottawa, the GNWT and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. that the model be adopted for Nunavut's first assembly.
Although Irwin once said he personally doesn't like the gender parity plan, he told reporters in Iqaluit in November that he'd changed his mind and now supports it. But Irwin said he might have a harder time convincing his cabinet colleagues.
Amagoalik said Irwin can tell his fellow cabinet members that gender parity was decided by the people of Nunavut.
"If the people of Nunavut have decided this, I don't know how they can really prevent it because it fits within the constitution and the people up here want it. How can they say no?"
But the Liberal MP representing Nunavut might not be too keen on lobbying his colleagues to support gender parity.
Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak spoke out against the plan at the November meeting.
"If he wants to fight this to the bitter end it could cause real problems, but I hope that's not the case," Amagoalik said.
After Amagoalik had conducted his straw poll, Anawak also questioned whether the group gathered in Iqaluit that voted to back gender parity was really representative of Nunavut's elected leadership.
"Mr. Anawak suggested that it was not a leaders meeting. But I think Jose Kusugak is a leader. I think Goo Arlooktoo is a leader. I think Jack Anawak is a leader. I think it was a leaders' meeting," Amagoalik said.
What's in the reports?
* The commission recommends that there be either 20 or 22 MLAs in Nunavut's first assembly. If the people of Sanikiluaq finally get their wish for better representation within Nunavut, they may be granted not one but two MLAs.
* Nunavut's first premier will be picked the same way as the premier is now picked in the NWT. After the election, the MLAs will decide among themselves who they want the premier to be. The commission wants the Nunavut Act changed so that future Nunavut governments can change the system to allow for the direct election of a premier.
* The election to pick the first batch of MLAs for Nunavut should take place in February 1999 to allow time for the assembly to meet before Nunavut's birth in April.
* The NIC also wants the federal government to introduce a single bill in the House of Commons early in 1997 to make all necessary changes to the Nunavut Act.
If the Nunavut Act is reopened, it will have to be debated again, and some MPs might argue that other changes need to be made.
Amagoalik says he's aware of that possibility, but feels that a Liberal majority government would be able to usher the bill through the House of Commons.
"The government of the last three years has had the most on-hand involvement in this project. So if it's a majority Liberal government, then we expect a lot less problems."
The Nunavut Implementation Commission is a federally-appointed body set up to advise Ottawa, the GNWT, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on the make up and design of the Nunavut government.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT A stubborn holiday storm strafed the south Baffin for at least two days over New Year's with driving snow and 100 km/h winds stranding Iqaluit's party goers, airline travellers and police officers alike.
But nothing it seems could delay the arrival of Iqaluit's newest citizens.
New Year's baby has home birth
Firefighters on snowmobiles whisked Dr. Stephen Wheeler of the Baffin Regional Hospital to an Iqaluit home to help deliver a baby on New Year's Day.
Mona Katsaq's eight pound boy drew his first breath oblivious to the whirling havoc that the winter's worst blizzard was wreaking outside. Towels to wrap the baby were warmed up in the dryer and the baby was weighed on the bathroom scale.
Dr. Wheeler, who was living in Vancouver, B.C. before coming to Iqaluit in September says he's never done anything quite like that before.
"Absolutely, definitely not," Wheeler said. "I actually fell off the snowmobile coming back."
The proud 21 year-old mother says she was getting worried because the raging blizzard kept her from going to the hospital. She was relieved when Dr. Wheeler arrived.
"I thought he was brave," she says.
Wheeler had praise for the emergency measures workers who got him to the home and back to the hospital safely.
"They were incredible," he says. "I couldn't see anything."
Another woman was transported by snowmobile to hospital where she is now delivering her child.
The storm, which began to gather force late Monday afternoon, had reached blizzard proportions by New Year's eve day, closing most businesses and government offices in Iqaluit, including the post office, daycares and the airport.
"It's the worst we've had in four or five years," said E.J. Yougayougaosie, an Iqaluit resident for 40 years, who spent the day repeatedly shoveling snow away from the front entrance of The Snack restaurant in Iqaluit.
"It's very rare. Especially at holidays."
By morning on New Year's Day, drifting snow and gale force winds had sealed all roads in a frozen web of three-foot high snowdrifts, making transportation impossible by any means save snowmobiles.
Although the Iqaluit weather office recorded only two centimetres of new snow over New Year's eve, steady northwesterly winds averaging 80 km/h and gusting up to 110 km/h reduced visibility to zero by 9:00 p.m.
"I guess we're getting snow from Hall Beach," joked meteorologist Louis Allard, who noted that the New Year's blizzard was compounded by an unusually high quantity of fallen snow.
"Let's say you don't see 100 km/h winds every year. So in that sense it's abnormal."
Temperatures held at an average -26C, but the strong winds meant wind chill factors of up to -64C.
Parties cut short
A brief reprieve from the storm on Tuesday afternoon lured hundreds of New Year's eve celebrators to parties all over town.
But the storm resumed a few hours later with renewed vigor, leaving many people scrambling to get safely home.
Firefighters enjoying their annual New Year's supper at the Kamotiq Inn were forced to leave the party early, taking their desserts with them, while some restaurant staff spent the night at work.
Authorities close Legion
A New Year's Eve bash at the Royal Canadian Legion, which authorities finally cut short at just after 11:00 p.m., proved a logistical nightmare for the few cab drivers still navigating roads at that hour.
"They should never have let them stay open that late," a tired-looking Nunavut Taxi driver Keith Baines said Wednesday morning, after spending most of the night sipping coffee and trying to sleep in a booth at The Snack, Iqaluit's only 24-hour restaurant.
By the time the Legion closed, only Baines and one other driver were left to bring all the Legion's customers safely home.
In the past, bad weather and alcohol have often combined with tragic consequences as drunken patrons foolishly chose to make the trip home on foot.
No missing persons
But on New Year's Day, Mike Ferris, Baffin's emergency services coordinator, said he hadn't received any missing persons reports.
Emergency service crews stayed busy instead, shuttling essential staff to and from the hospital at shift change by snowmobile.
"It's critical for our own people to be out there," Ferris said. "But we haven't had a serious emergency at the present time."
Police too were stranded in their homes on New Year's Day and two RCMP members on duty were unable to get to work until emergency services snowmobiles had completed their baby delivery duties.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsJANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News correspondent
IQALUIT Words and images from Nunavut will soon be sitting on coffee tables around the world.
Some time next year the National Geographic magazine will run a feature article on Nunavut.
Michael Parfit, author of four books and numerous National Geographic articles, is on his second visit to Nunavut. He's been flying leisurely flying from community to community in his six-seater Cessna 210.
The research for his article is far from being finished, he says.
"What I try to do is to go and watch and listen," says Parfit. "What people talk about is revealing."
Search for focus
Parfit has already visited communities like Cambridge Bay, Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord and Pangnirtung. He's visited some of those places with a National Geographic photographer.
Parfit's wife, Suzanne Chisholm who also works with him on feature articles is helping him on this assignment.
Wherever they are, they try to take part in local events a high school graduation, a hunting trip, a hockey game or church services.
Parfit says he's interested in observing how people live, and that takes time.
"You can't just go in and ask people," he says.
He says he doesn't yet know what the focus of his story will be. It could be about the making of Nunavut or about something completely different.
But at some point, Parfit will have to sit down to write his story. Then, he says he'll ask himself, "What is this really about?"
Certain basic points, however, will have to be touched on in the article because although National Geographic is widely read, few of its readers, says Parfit, know much of anything about Nunavut.
Avoid stereotypes
But Parfit hopes to draw people away from their stereotypes or misconceptions about the North.
Parfit has visited other places, in what he calls "extreme latitudes," like Alaska's North Slope and Antarctica. He can see some similarities buildings designed for their usefulness rather than their beauty, water and sewage tanks above ground, and dust.
But Parfit says he has seen less anger among Inuit he's met on his tour of Nunavut than in aboriginal communities elsewhere.
He says he finds Inuit he's met are similar to aboriginals from the Navajo Nation in the Southwest of the United States.
Parfit believes the strength and confidence he sensed could be due to the fact that Navajo like Inuit still live and are the majority on their ancient homelands.
Parfit says he likes the people he's met in his travels around Nunavut and likes the scenery and the weather. And weather permitting, before he wraps up this trip, Parfit plans to visit Igloolik, Arctic Bay and Rankin Inlet.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Concerned Rankin Inlet residents started a trust fund over the holidays to help four Inuit families faced with eviction notices.
Trust fund organizers say they're encouraged by the response they've received from donors as far away as Baker Lake and Holman Island.
Administrators with the local housing assocation, meanwhile, have all but stopped talking about the affair.
The Rankin Inlet Housing Association ordered the families out of their homes last Friday for failing to come up with back rent that in some cases totals as much as $13,000.
"Something like this is really close to peoples' hearts," said Peter Ernerk, a trust-fund organizer. "Inuit have always helped each other, for many thousands of years."
Fellow Rankin Inlet resident Marius Tungilik was also involved in setting up the trust fund.
Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak also sent a letter to Goo Arlooktoo, the deputy premier of the Northwest Territories urging him to look into the matter.
As of Nunatsiaq News' presstime, Ernerk said he didn't know how much money had been collected. Funds have been collected at the CIBC and Royal Bank branches in this community since the trust was established last week.
Bad time of year?
News of the pending eviction, which came to public attention a week prior to Christmas at the coldest, darkest time of the year, struck many observers, including Ernerk, as the height of cruelty.
"If I were the housing authority I wouldn't have kicked them out in the middle of winter. It's not the way to do it."
Among the tenants affected by the eviction are a pregnant mother of five, said Ernerk.
Minnie Tatty, the acting manager of the Housing Association, declined to comment on the eviction before press time, but said a report on the association's actions was being drafted and would be released to the public "as we see fit, when the time comes."
"Part of my job is to protect these people," said Tatty. "This thing has got totally out of proportion and I'm not really interested in talking about these families."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Canada's oldest Inuit organization may soon find itself with a cozy new affiliation with the Canadian arm of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC).
Delegates to the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada's next annual general meeting next April in Iqaluit will be urged to support a plan that would see them share resources and even leadership with ICC.
The proposal is contained in an option paper prepared last fall by ITC in conjunction with several regional Inuit organizations, including the Makivik Corporation, ITC president Mary Sillett said this week.
Based on a review of ITC's mandate, which delegates urged the executive committee to conduct at their June 1996 general meeting, the proposal calls for greater cooperation between ITC and the circumpolar conference and even recommends that the organizations amalgamate some resources.
Not a merger
"It's not a merger," Sillett was quick to point out in a telephone interview from her home in Ottawa on Tuesday. "ICC will still be responsible for international issues, and ITC will be responsible for national issues."
Aboriginal groups across the country are finding themselves competing for the same shrinking pile of money from Ottawa, Sillett said, and a closer collaboration between the ITC and the ICC would likely increase benefits for both groups.
The Inuit Tapirisat and the ICC have also come under harsh criticism in recent years from members of regional land-claim organizations who question the wisdom of supporting two lobby groups.
"What happened is that the board of directors said there's so much competition for resources and such duplication of efforts, there has to be a way of increasing the efficiency of the organization," Sillett said.
Delegates to the ITC's annual meeting last June passed a resolution asking for a complete review of the mandates of all Inuit organizations, including the regional associations, "but because of a lack of resources, the task was pared down and only the ITC and the ICC were looked at," Sillett said.
"Finances weren't discussed at that particular time, but the issue was, a lot of people were wondering what the ICC and ITC were doing, I guess."
Double executive duties
Among the issues raised in the option paper, Sillett said, is the recommendation that ITC and ICC staff share administrative resources such as office space and personnel.
"Maybe there'd be a shared receptionist," Sillett said.
Another proposal would even see the lobby groups swap their executives.
"The ICC president would become the ITC vice-president and the ITC president would become the ICC vice president," Sillett said. "So there will be a sharing of executive responsibility. And the reason for that would be to enhance the understanding between the organizations."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsTODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Kenn Harper hasn't yet been reappointed to the Nunavut Implementation Commission.
A federal ethics commissioner has been asked to review a conflict of interest complaint made against him.
"All of the commissioners have been reappointed except for Mr. Harper," NIC chief commissioner John Amagoalik told reporters at a Dec. 23 news conference in Iqaluit.
The three-year terms of nine of the commission's 10 members expired Dec. 10. Eight of those nine were given new order-in-council appointments that will expire soon after the territory of Nunavut is created April 1, 1999.
Harper said this week that he can't comment on the issue.
Ottawa to handle issue
The commissioners had met in Winnipeg last month to talk about a complaint made against Harper by Iqaluit businessman Peter Baril.
"We looked at our policies and procedures, and based on that a resolution was passed asking Mr. Harper to step aside until the matter is dealt with," Amagoalik said.
The commissioners also urged Amagoalik to ask Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin to look into the matter.
"It's in their hands," Amagoalik said. "The people who appointed Mr. Harper are the GNWT, so the GNWT and the minister's office will have to agree on what to do."
Amagoalik said he doesn't expect that anyone from the commission will get involved in the investigation.
"I think the facts of the case are pretty clear. We don't see the need for us to be involved in the discussion."
The commission passed all of the information they had gathered to Irwin, he says.
Memo surfaces
Peter Baril first asked the commission to investigate his conflict of interest complaint against Harper in May 1995.
Baril said that by taking part in the commission's discussions on the future telecommunications needs of the Nunavut government, Harper was in a conflict of interest since at the time he was also involved in an Iqaluit-based company providing Internet access services.
At that time, the commission found that Harper was not in a conflict, but he was asked not to take part in any future NIC discussions on communications.
This latest conflict complaint stems from a memo that was sent anonymously to Baril, Nunatsiaq News and other northern media.
On the memo are handwritten comments addressed to the attention of Mike Stilwell and Pat Guinan, two of Harper's former business partners in an Internet service company called Nunavut Communications Ltd.
Handwritten comments printed in capital letters on the two-page memo read as follows:
"You see, there are advantages to being on N.I.C. I will discuss this with Tammi with a view to her contacting NTI's Iqaluit office with information on our company.
Regards, Kenn."
After that statement, is the following;
"Pat - don't call anybody on this. I got this through NIC. I don't want to feed the 'conflict' fires. Kenn."
Both Nunavut Communications Ltd. and Network North Communications no longer provide Internet services.
On Dec. 5, 1996 Network North Communications filed a claim in territorial court against Nunavut Communications Ltd. and former operations manager Tammi Porter for an amount of $4,631.
The Nunavut Implementation Commission is a federally-appointed body set up to advise Ottawa, the GNWT, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on the make up and design of the Nunavut government.
Back to TopNunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Nunavut residents will always remember 1996 as the year when Ottawa finally came through for their beloved Nunavut territory.
But besides Ron Irwin's landmark announcement last March that confirmed Canada's support for Nunavut, many Nunavut residents will remember 1996 as a year of hardship and difficult change.
That's because of GNWT cutbacks and restructuring activities that caused many Nunavut residents to lose jobs and income.
In spite of those material hardships, it was a time of spiritual healing and regeneration for many, as Roman Catholic Bishop Reynald Rouleau made a long-awaited apology for abuses committed at his church's school in Chesterfield Inlet, the High Arctic exiles accepted a compensation deal from Ottawa, and Anglican priest Paul Idlout become Canada's first Inuk bishop.
January
* The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board decides that Coral Harbour will be the site of Nunavut's first "legal" bowhead whale hunt. Later in the year, however, NWMB members change their mind and move the hunt to Repulse Bay.
* Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo tells Baffin leaders that the GNWT's projected deficit has ballooned by $30 million.
* Etuangat Aksayuk, a beloved Pangnirtung elder, passes away at the age of 96, shortly after he had received the Order of Canada.
February
* The GNWT awards a $90 million fuel resupply contract for the eastern Arctic to the Northern Transportation Company Limited which is owned by the Inuit of Nunavut and the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic. That contract had been the subject of a conflict of interest scandal involving a former territorial deputy minister of transport.
* Former NWT teacher Maurice Cloughley was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to nine counts involving sex offenses against Inuit and Dene children. Cloughley had originally gone to trial on 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual assault alleged to have occurred between 1959 and 1987 in six NWT communities where Cloughley had worked as a teacher.
* NWT Education Minister Charles Dent approves the transfer of Nunavut Arctic College's Management Studies program from Iqaluit to Rankin Inlet, and the transfer of the college's Social Services program from Iqaluit to Cambridge Bay.
* Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo announces a one-year delay in construction of a controversial $15.6 million tank farm project in Rankin Inlet. The GNWT then asked Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien to head up a committee to probe the idea and report back to the legislative assembly.
* MLAs bring in changes to the NWT Public Service Act giving unionized employees a limited right to strike.
March
* Roman Catholic Bishop Reynald Rouleau goes to Igloolik to apologize on behalf of the church for physical and sexual abuse committed against Inuit students at Chesterfield Inlet's Joseph Bernier School in the 1950s and 1960s.
* The High Arctic exiles reluctantly accept a deal worked out by negotiators from the federal government and the Makivik Corporation that gives them $10 million in compensation money. Makivik negotiators fail, however, to win an apology from Ottawa. Makivik now has power of attorney over a special fund set up to manage the money.
* Jose Kusugak won a close victory over Cathy Towtongie to retain the presidency of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. Raymond Ningeocheak was also re-elected as Nunavut Tunngavik's second vice-president.
* Nunavut is hit hard by GNWT wage cuts and layoffs announced by Finance Minister John Todd.
* Inuit in Nunavik attending the Makivik Corporation's annual general meeting say drug use is the biggest problem in their region, as they deliver a stern lecture to Makivik officials.
April
* The NWT's chief coroner launches an inquest into the deaths of two young Igloolik men who committed suicide after escaping from police custody.
* Rosemarie Kuptana quits her job as president of the financially crippled Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, after the organization finds itself teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. She keeps her second job the presidency of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. Meanwhile, former vice president Mary Sillett is stuck with the job of cleaning up ITC's mess.
* Ottawa and the GNWT withdraw promised financial help for the NWT's credit union movement but Arctic Co-ops Limited and other credit union supporters say they won't give up, again.
* Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin announces that Ottawa will spend $149.9 million on the creation of Nunavut between now and the year 2000.
Most of Nunavut's buildings, however, will be paid for with an extra $120 million that will come from Canadian banks and other private lenders. Irwin promises that Ottawa will guarantee the loans.
Soon after, the Nunasi Corporation and the three regional birthright development corporations of Nunavut strike a deal with Ottawa under which the Inuit corporations would build and own all of the Nunavut government's new buildings.
They form a company called the Nunavut Construction Corporation, which will build and then lease the buildings to the Nunavut government.
May
* Paul Idlout, 62, becomes Canada's first Inuk bishop.
* Jackie Koneak, a former vice president of the Makivik Corporation, is charged with assault after a Kuujjuaq woman is medevaced to Montreal with a dislocated jaw.
* Finance Minister John Todd announces a budget for the 1996-97 fiscal year that contains about $130 million in spending cuts. He says it's part of a two-year deficit reduction plan that will lead to a balanced GNWT budget.
* After a two-day meeting in Arviat with Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin, Nunavut leaders accept that $150 million is all they're going to get from Ottawa to create Nunavut.
* The Makivik Corporation of northern Quebec announces a surprise claim to mineral-rich areas near Voisey's Bay in Labrador, many miles away from northern Quebec. Labrador Inuit Association officials, who are already involved in sensitive land claim negotiation with the Newfoundland government, aren't pleased.
June
* Nunavut celebrates as Crown prosecutors drops charges against three Igloolik men who in 1994 had killed a bowhead whale without an official license. The three men had caught the whale to fulfill the request of a beloved Igloolik elder, who died soon after.
* Preston Joe, a 29-year-old Micmac from the Conne River Band in Newfoundland, dies after the helicopter he was piloting crashes north of Igloolik.
* Michael Murphy of Pangnirtung, 47, is charged with arson in connection with a 1995 fire that destroyed the Imavik fish plant.
* Larry Audlaluk of Grise Fiord travels to Israel and, thanks to Israeli television, becomes the Holy Land's best known Inuk.
July
* Some pranksters from Yellowknife and Iqaluit concoct a unique method of satirizing the way most western NWT residents have clung to the name "Northwest Territories." They launch an Internet-based campaign proposing that the new western territory be called "Bob."
Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger doesn't get the joke, however. He attempts to launch a witch-hunt for the perpetrators of the "Bob" campaign, claiming its a Nunavut plot to make the west look bad.
* Most western members of the Union of Northern Workers vote Yes to a new wage and benefit deal that hurts GNWT employees in Nunavut much harder than their western counterparts. Soon after, UNW members in Nunavut tell the Nunavut Implementation Commission that they want a separate union for Nunavut government workers.
* Tired of waiting for the GNWT, the people of Pond Inlet say they want to open their own unregulated credit union.
* The GNWT finally reveals how it will carry out its community empowerment policy: they say communities won't become "empowered" unless they're ready for it, and they promise block funding with few strings attached.
* Nunavut residents celebrate Nunavut Day on July 9.
August
* Dr. Richard Bargen, the medical health officer for the Baffin and Keewatin regions, uses emergency powers granted to him by the Public Health Act to impose a ban on smoking in most public places effective January 1, 1997.
Later in the year, however, Bargen is fired by the GNWT, but not until after the Keewatin and Baffin health boards adopt alternative anti-smoking public education strategies.
* A CF-18 fighter jet crashes and burns on take-off, sending a mile-high plume of toxic smoke into the atmosphere around Iqaluit. Officials from the GNWT and the federal government are still pondering environmental and public safety issues raised by the crash.
* A group of women's organizations, which includes Pauktuutit, bands together to fight child sexual abuse in the Northwest Territories. They're inspired by the jail cell suicide of Carol Kalluk, who had been sexually abused..
* Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin says yes to Canada's first diamond mine near Yellowknife.
* Nunavut residents celebrate the first legal bowhead whale kill in Nunavut for more than 20 years. But the hunt is a messy affair and officials say they'll do it differently next time.
September
* Iqaluit residents reel in shock after two 11-year-old boys put gasoline on a five-year-old Bernard Naulalik and set him on fire. Many residents ask hard questions about why social service officials ignored previous problems displayed by the two boys, who are too young to be charged with any criminal offenses.
Bernard Naulalik is now back in Iqaluit, recovering from burns that covered 40 per cent of his body.
* The eight-nation Arctic Council comes into being, after an elaborate signing ceremony in Ottawa. The international organization is expected to work on circumpolar environmental issues.
* Iqaluit's Jerry Ell emerges as the "winner" of a Sept. 17 election to choose a new president for the Baffin Region Inuit Association. But it turns out that ballots in some communities weren't counted properly.
After several weeks, red-faced BRIA officials announce that Lazarus Arreak, not Ell, is the real winner of BRIA's presidential election.
* The GNWT's Department of Health says they want NWT residents to help them figure out how to help them save money, as they prepare to cut services and place more emphasis on healthier living.
October
* Roland Bailey, the GNWT's top bureaucrat, finally announces that he's quit his job as secretary to the Cabinet and deputy minister of the department of the executive.
The announcement followed months of denials by GNWT officials, who said Bailey hadn't resigned.
* Ordinary MLAs vote to censure the territorial Cabinet for changing the GNWT's capital plan behind their backs. Many spending projects were cut from ordinary member's constituencies, while new spending projects turned up in Cabinet minister's constituencies.
* The GNWT finally dumps Dr. Richard Bargen from his job.
* Environmental eggheads from around Canada converge on Iqaluit for a conference on Arctic contaminants convened by the Canadian Polar Commission. Many use the event to lobby for continued funding of contaminants research in the Arctic.
* Ardicom Digital Communications Inc. a consortium made up of Arctic Co-operatives, Northwestel, and four aboriginal development corporations wins a GNWT contract to build a high-speed digital communications system in the Northwest Territories. When completed, the new system will allow people in every northern community to use videoconferencing, telemedecine and the Internet.
* An auditor tells Baffin Inuit Association board members that their books are in such a mess, he can't offer an opinion on their financial status.
* Delegates at Nunavut Tunngavik's annual general meeting in Baker Lake get down to work, focusing on training and jobs for Inuit.
* The Qikiqtaaluk Corporation BRIA board members are presented with several options for dealing with BRIA's $1.4 million blue dome building in Iqaluit. One option considered by QC is to tear the building down and use the lot for another purpose.
November
* John Amagoalik, the chief commissioner of the Nunavut Implementation Commission, releases "Footprints 2" a follow-up report to the commission's 1995 "Footprints in New Snow" document.
* The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is found guilty on two charges of breaking a court order. CBC radio staff had reported the name of a sexual assault complainant in two radio broadcasts. Judge Michel Bourassa said CBC staff committed the crime out of "institutional conceit" as he hit the corporation with a $6,000 fine.
* Most Nunavut leaders at a summit meeting in Iqaluit say they support the Nunavut Implementation Commission's two-member constituency gender equality plan.
December
* Private Inuit business people say they might go to court to fight the deal on building Nunavut's infrastructure worked out between NTI and the federal government.
* CBC North cuts 33 jobs, the result of budget reductions imposed by the corporation's Toronto head office.
* Mike Ferris of Iqaluit wins a national search and rescue award.
* As 1996 draws to a close, the short-list for the Nunavut interim commissioner's job is reduced to six people. They include Iqaluit Mayor Joe Kunuk, Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak, former NWT government leader Dennis Patterson, and former Baffin regional director Ken Macrury. Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin said in November that he would prefer to appoint an Inuk to the job.
Back to Topby JOHN AMAGOALIK
*The Liberals will return to power with a reduced majority. The Tories, Reform and the BlocHeads will get about the same number of seats and there will be a lot of jostling for the right to be the loyal (or not so loyal) opposition. The NDP will continue to be lost in the political wilderness.
* Jacques (The Joker) Parizeau will continue to play peek-a-boo from his semi-retirement and take puck shots at Lucien Bouchard.
* The new leader of the Bloc Quebecois will not put the separatist movement on fire. The BQ will begin to become irrelevant.
* Jean Chretien will not part with his favourite Inuk carving.
* Donovan Bailey will beat Michael Johnson in their 150 metre race.
* Georges Erasmus will return to Yellowknife to try and rescue the Dene Nation from irrelevance.
* The O. J. Simpson hangover will continue.
* There will be a marriage between ITC and ICC Canada.
* Pauktuutit's influence will continue to grow.
* Zebedee Nungak will still be The Thorn on the soft underbelly of the separatist.
* The Interim Commissioner of Nunavut will earn his or her money.
* There will be political wailing and gnashing of teeth in Bob Territory.
* Prince Edward Islanders will feel a little overwhelmed as hundreds of thousands of tourists cross the new bridge from the mainland.
* The pink energizer bunny will be spotted near the North Pole.
* In the NHL, the final four fighting for the Stanley Cup will be the Detroit Red Wings, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, and the Philadelphia Flyers.
The final will be between the Red Wings and the Flyers. Detroit will win The Cup in seven games. Brendan Shanahan will be the difference.
* War criminals will be captured in Bosnia.
* Zaire will sink further into civil war.
* A cloud will continue to hang over Brian Mulroney as his suit against the federal government starts to crawl through the courts.
* Ron Irwin will retire from politics with Nunavut as the feather in his cap.
* Ovide Mercredi will tire of trying to lead 500 nations.
* John Todd will... (your guess is as good as mine).
Back to TopA Baffin beneficiary of the Nunavut land claims agreement wanted us to publish this open letter to Nunavut beneficiaries.
She also said she wants beneficiaries to respond to this survey. You can mail us at Nunatsiaq News, P.O. Box 8, Iqaluit, NT, X0A 0H0, or fax us your responses to (819) 979-4763.
Are you one of approximately 19-20,000 Nunavut beneficiaries who read in Nunatsiaq News that NTI was proposing to borrow $23.3 million from the Nunavut Trust?
If the answer is yes, here's your chance for you to have your say. Just return this survey to Nunatsiaq News when completed and ask them to compile the results for us.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and please return your results. They are important to us. We need to start letting our voices be heard and if we have to use the media so be it!
1. Do you think that NTI should be borrowing money that was invested for our children's future?
2. Did they inform you before they made the proposal to borrow from the Trust? How much percentage will the interest rate be to borrow the $23.3 million?
3. Does NTI need to be spending $1.8 million on economic development when government agencies are funding the same programs?
4. Do you think the NTI AGM should have approved funding for the Inuit Circumpolar Conference from NLCA money?
5. How do you think that NTI should have informed us of what would be on our agenda before, or on, the day of the AGM? By public notice, or by personal mail?
6. Do you think that NTI should hook up a 1-800 number for beneficiaries to call their delegate/resource person for an update on the AGM?
7. Do you know the role and responsibilities of the NTI staff? Have you seen a job description for all of the staff, from the top down?
8. Which organizations in your community are implementing claims?
9. Which organization in your community is responsible for informing you about Land Claims?
10. How often do you receive Land Claims information, and is there someone to answer your questions?
11. What qualities do you look for in a leader, one you know you can trust to manage your affairs?
12. As a male or female elder, man or woman or youth beneficiary, do you feel you have the same equality at the AGM?
13. Do you know how a delegate is elected to attend the AGM?
14. How has the NLCA affected your life?
15. Do you think that we are ready for self-government?
16. Are you aware that the whole world is watching us, to see how we will govern ourselves?
17. Did you know that once our NLCA money is gone, we cannot go back for more?
18. Do you have any ideas on how to make our elected leaders accountable for their actions?
19. What kind of vision do you have for our children and grandchildren?
Back to TopThe year 1996 was a good one for Nunavut, perhaps one of the best we've seen for a long, long while.
Yes, we know. Some of you are making less money than you did when the year began, and a few of you are even looking for new jobs.
But the confusion and chaos we're now seeing won't last forever because in 1996, many of us began to search for better ways of living our lives and running our communities.
For some of that, we can thank the Government of the Northwest Territories. Despite their frequent incompetence and duplicity, the politicians and bureaucrats who run the GNWT have begun, nevertheless, to give us the tools we need to become more self-sufficient and mature.
Because of a deficit run up by previous governments, and because of new federal financial policies, the people who run the GNWT really had no choice.
But all the same, the territorial government is withdrawing from our lives. And that, in time, will give us the room we need to become more independent.
They've told us, for example, that in the future it's us and not an army of imported bureaucrats, caretakers and hand-out givers who will be responsible for maintaining our health and well-being. The name for that policy is "community wellness."
They've told us they want our elected municipal councils to own the responsibility for running our communities. And they've told us not to expect the government to give us a living from now on, most of us will have to pay our own way through life.
Besides all that, 1996 was a good year for our new territory. Last March, Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin confirmed that his Liberal government will support the creation of Nunavut financially, and morally. For our new territory, there is now no turning back.
Will 1997 be as good a year? We hope so.
Here's a few of our predictions for the coming year:
* Ron Irwin will appoint either Jack Anawak or Joe Kunuk as interim commissioner of Nunavut.
* Finance Minister John Todd's territorial budget later this month will provide for more layoffs and departmental amalgamations but most MLAs will support it in principle and Todd will get his way.
* In his March budget speech, Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin will announce new measures to combat child poverty in Canada. But he won't announce any changes to the GST.
* Canadians won't forget that the Liberals lied to them about the GST. As a result, Jean Charest's Progressive Conservative party will enjoy a resurgence in Quebec, Ontario and the West, and will form the official opposition after a fall election that will see the Liberals re-elected with a reduced majority.
* More Nunavut residents will sober up.
* At least one territorial cabinet minister will be dumped from his or her job.
* Kevin O'Brien's Keewatin resupply committee will recommend against the GNWT's $16 million Rankin Inlet tank farm proposal. But the project won't be dropped until after a protracted fight.
* Ron Irwin will provide a formal response on behalf of the government of Canada to the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples but it won't be enough to satisfy the Assembly of First Nations and other national aboriginal organizations.
* Now that they have all-star defenceman Paul Coffey, the Philadelphia Flyers will win the Stanley Cup.
* The New York Yankees will again win the World Series. And this time around, pitcher Dwight Gooden and outfielder Darryl Strawberry will rebuild their shattered lives and play themselves into the history books.
(Editor's note: We did not fare well in last year's sports predictions. A year ago, we said the Detroit Red Wings would win the Stanley Cup and that the Baltimore Orioles would win the World Series.)
* Peter Ernerk, Bryan Pearson and Frank Pearce will each write at least one letter to the editor of Nunatsiaq News.
* Jim Bell will write at least one nice editorial about the Makivik Corporation. JB
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These materials are Copyright (C) 1997 Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit), and may be freely distributed throughout the Internet, or other electronic computer networks or bulletin boards, as long as this notice remains intact and the articles are reproduced in their entirety. These materials may not be reprinted for commercial publication in print or other media without the permission of the publisher.
Last updated January 3, 1997
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