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A three part series on suicide in Nunavut by freelance journalist Jennifer Tilden:
TODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT A GNWT committee has drowned Rankin Inlet's hopes of becoming a fuel supply hub for the Keewatin region.
The Keewatin Resupply Committee, at a Yellowknife meeting last week, rejected an option that would have made Rankin Inlet the region's gateway for fuel and dry goods.
To do that, Rankin Inlet would have needed a tank farm estimated to cost about $8.7 million, and make other expensive infrastructure improvements.
The committee is made up of seven Keewatin mayors, the president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, a Keewatin Chamber of Commerce representative, and three MLAs Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien, Aivilik MLA Manitok Thompson and Keewatin Central MLA John Todd.
After a day of debate last Wednesday, committee members voted unanimously to keep the current supply system in place until 1999.
Committee members also agreed to begin the work needed to ensure each Keewatin community will be ready for direct resupply in the future.
Churchill system maintained
Now, fuel and dry goods for the Keewatin are shipped by rail to Churchill, Manitoba where they are stored and then shipped out by barge to each Keewatin community.
The territorial government began exploring other resupply options when the future of the Churchill rail line was in doubt.
But in November, a U.S. based company called OmniTrax offered to buy the rail line from Ottawa and is now negotiating to buy the port of Churchill.
OmniTrax's vice-president of business development was at the Yellowknife meeting, as were people representing a number of shipping companies, and some high-profile Manitoba politicians.
NWT-Manitoba co-operation agreement
Manitoba's deputy premier, James Downey, and Len Derkach, the minister of rural development, represented the Manitoba government.
"The supply of northern communities is an important part of the Manitoba economy," Downey said in a news release issued by the Manitoba government about the meeting last week.
Last June, NWT Premier Don Morin and Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon also signed a memorandum of understanding that commits the two governments to cooperate in areas such as transportation, mining, resources development and trade and commerce.
Surveys and infrastructure
Although Churchill's future may now look brighter, committee members decided that the Keewatin still needs to plan for its own future.
The committee recommended that the territorial and federal governments pay for hydrographic mapping in the waters near Keewatin communities to allow larger vessels to navigate entrances to their harbours.
Committee members also want the territorial government to make the improvements in infrastructure and pipelines needed for direct delivery of fuel to each Keewatin community.
Committee head pleased
Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien, the chair of the Keewatin resupply committee, says the decision not to go with the Rankin Inlet option will save the GNWT about $3 million a year.
"It wasn't workable, it wasn't feasible, and it didn't provide the fairness to all the communities," O'Brien said this week from Arviat.
The committee has been researching the issue and gathering facts for about 12 months.
"There was a point where the information spoke for itself," he said.
O'Brien and Todd agree
O'Brien has been battling with Keewatin Central MLA John Todd and other tank farm backers for months about the best way to resupply the region.
But O'Brien says he talked with Todd this week and both have agreed to put the resupply issue behind them and work together to prepare for the future of Nunavut.
"I'm pleased with the results. It's time to move on," O'Brien said. "It's taken a lot of energy, but it's an issue that had to be dealt with."
The committee's recommendations will now go to Jim Antoine, the GNWT's transportation minister.
A political battle
"It became a political thing between Mr. Todd and Mr. O'Brien, unfortunately," said Rankin Inlet's newly-elected mayor, John Hickes.
Hickes says his council has to steer clear of those types of political battles and "take the high road."
Hickes says the hamlet council has to plan for the community's growth, which includes expanding the fuel storage capacity and building a marshalling area and storage area for dry goods.
The mayor says Rankin Inlet has to be ready to handle the new infrastructure that will be needed to house Nunavut's government, and to meet the needs of the mining industry.
"We need it regardless of whether we become a hub or resupply point," Hickes said.
Hickes called the decision to continue with the status quo, a "non-decision" and called the committee's work, including a consultant's report on the issue, "a bit of a waste of time."
Questioned numbers
At the Yellowknife meeting, Hickes questioned some of the figures used in a consultant's report that compared various options for supplying the region.
Hickes says, for example, that it wasn't made clear enough that the tank farm would have been built by the private sector and leased back to the government.
Manitoba must help
Hickes says the Manitoba politicians at last week's Yellowknife meeting are aware that if people in the Keewatin no longer ship their goods through Churchill, then they will also no longer buy their goods from Manitoba.
"If you have a transportation mode that has changed from Churchill to Montreal, or St. John's, Newfoundland, all the commodities will be coming out of those provinces and not Manitoba anymore," Hickes said.
Hickes estimates that the Keewatin communities now purchase between $200-300 million a year in goods and services.
"That's why you had the deputy premier there," Hickes said.
"The ball is in their court. The province of Manitoba along with the community of Churchill have to show to us that we are a valued customer."
He said, for example, that perhaps Manitobans can pay the estimated $4 million needed to refurbish Churchill's aging tank farms.
If the people of the NWT are asked to pay part of the cost to fix up the Churchill tank farm, Hickes says, "I think there will be a fight."
Hickes says he understands the concerns of Churchill residents because he used to live there, was a member Churchill's town council, and grew up with current mayor Michael Spence.
Spence is out of town this week and was unavailable for comment.
But the town's assistant chief executive officer says the mayor, and other Churchill residents, are pleased with the outcome of the Yellowknife meeting.
"It means a lot to us that they've shown confidence in Churchill," Cory Young said this week from Churchill. "We are going to work very hard to maintain a good relationship with the Keewatin district."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUITThe union representing teachers in the Northwest Territories said it will take legal action to force government negotiators back to the bargaining table.
And the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association (NWTTA) is seeking Ottawa's help to do so.
After seeking an opinion from an Edmonton legal firm, union president Patricia Thomas said she has every confidence that a legal challenge to the GNWT's amended Public Service Act will have the desired effect.
Just to be sure, the union announced Tuesday that it plans to ask the federal cabinet to use its powers to overturn the Act. Thomas also said the NWTTA intends to plead its case before the International Labour Organization and the U.S. office of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"We're considering all our options," Thomas said. "We're certainly committed to exhausting the legal route before examining the job-action route."
Teachers rejected offer
The union and the Territorial government have been trying to reach a new contract settlement since last April, but remain wide apart on many clauses central to the government's final offer tabled last November.
In an early December vote, 68 percent of NWTTA's members rejected the government offer. In particular teachers oppose a proposed across-the-board salary rollback of 6.25 percent.
They are also upset with the government's plan to scrap its generous vacation-travel assistance program for some 968 teachers living and working outside Yellowknife. Travel assistance has typically been worth thousands of dollars of year per teacher.
Thomas acknowledged the teachers' position is somewhat weakened by the fact that the only other public-sector union in the North, the Union of Northern Workers, accepted the rollbacks.
However, added Thomas, "just because everybody's doing it doesn't make it right."
While the union proceeds with its legal challenge, individual teachers may already be pondering more private acts of protest.
"I think what we'll see is that some teachers will leave the North," Iqaluit teacher John Maurice said this week. "They'll leave because they just don't see the rationale in living and working in an isolated and sometimes stressful situation, and not being rewarded or appreciated."
Maurice, who for two years has been trying to generate interest in his fledgling Nunavut Teachers' Association, thinks both the union and the government deserve failing grades for their efforts to resolve the dispute.
"We need a different kind of collective bargaining agent and a different kind of association," said Maurice, who anticipates the creation of a new teachers' union after Division in 1999.
"I think the new Nunavut government has to look at developing a different kind of relationship than the GNWT has had with the NWTTA."
If yet another contract is imposed on teachers without reaching a collective agreement, Thomas indicated she, too, fears the demoralization may be too much for some NWTTA members to bear.
"Certainly some of our teachers have indicated that leaving is an option they're considering," Thomas said. "Any time we lose experienced people from the system the quality of education is going to suffer."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT He was an Inuk pipe smoker who suffered from arthritis and chronic back pain, but how he died and who he was remains a mystery.
That's almost as much as Iqaluit RCMP know about the identity of a body that was found in the Lewis Bay area last September.
A group of people discovered the body when they were in the area on a healing retreat. It was under a pile of rocks in a well-traveled area of Lewis Bay about 36 kilometres south of Iqaluit.
Iqaluit RCMP Constable Pierre Caron said police first thought it was a burial site because the body was covered with rocks, but added that's a practice which was stopped about 50 years ago.
"If it is a burial site then we want to return the deceased," he said, however, "foul play is always in the picture until it's ruled out."
Body sent for study
The body was sent to a forensic lab in Toronto for examination last fall and the chief coroner received a report in November, but police still don't know who the man is or how he died.
"We've been checking the missing persons reports for all the territories but none have matched," Const Caron said.
In the Iqaluit area most missing persons on record are from a boating accident in 1994, but those have been ruled out because of age.
Though they couldn't determine the cause of death, experts say the man was plagued with arthritis in his hands and would have experienced great pain when he used them.
He wasn't a tall man, standing between 5'2" and 5'8", and was between 50 and 76 years old when he died.
Const Caron said that although the skeleton was discovered virtually intact, there were some missing bones which makes it impossible to determine the exact height.
Smoked a pipe
Forensic evidence also revealed that the man was likely a pipe smoker because of a circular gap between his upper and lower teeth which would have been noticeable when he smiled.
All modern technology aside, old-fashioned, on-site investigation revealed that the man probably didn't die before 1984 because a 1985 penny was found near his body. Couple that with forensic evidence and police place the time of death between the spring of 1985 and the fall of 1995.
This mystery has more than just police puzzled; no one seems to have any answers about the man's identity.
Mary Lou Sutton-Fennel of Iqaluit was part of the group that discovered the remains.
"There was a lot of unease that there was a body there," she said. "It was very clear it wasn't one of the traditional burials of the past. It was a new grave.
"I don't think people were shocked. They were deeply concerned to determine who this person was. I was deeply impressed with the degree of caring."
The group of about 10 people held a ceremony to say goodbye to the person and release the energy from the site.
"There was tremendous respect shown to this site. Nobody dug into it. For us it was a week of being there and dealing with the feelings of that body being there. There's a lot of personal loss that has taken place that hasn't been accounted for."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsTODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT NTI President Jose Kusugak says he can't confirm that Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak is about to be named interim commissioner of Nunavut.
"I don't think that's a question that I can entertain," Kusugak said this week.
Kusugak said he's talked with Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin about the appointment, and expects Irwin will make the announcement in the next couple of weeks.
Story premature?
Kusugak also said that a Nunatsiaq News story last week that said Anawak was about to be named to the job was premature.
"There is way more to hiring an interim commissioner than saying a person's name," Kusugak said. "Anything short of something coming from my mouth, the minister's mouth or the premier's mouth is premature."
He said, for example, the person will have to agree to work with a deputy interim commissioner, and will have to agree to abide by the conditions outlined in his letters of instruction.
Must live in Iqaluit
That includes agreeing on which community he must work from. The three signatories to the Nunavut political accord have agreed the person must work in the capital of Nunavut. Anawak and his family recently moved back to Rankin Inlet.
Kusugak also expressed some concern about when the interim commissioner can get to work.
He said if Anawak is named to the post, he likely won't be able to take the job until at least April, when a byelection can be held to replace him as MP for Nunatsiaq.
Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak didn't return calls by our presstime to answer questions about his possible appointment to the post.
The interim commissioner will represent the interests of the people of Nunavut until the new government takes over after April 1, 1999, when the Nunavut territory will be born.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Young people in Nunavut finally have a voice in the development of the new territory.
Youth from the three regions of Nunavut are expressing their opinions through a project called "N-Files Project 136."
Easy to understand info
The N-Files give young people easy-to-understand information about the upcoming Nunavut government. They've been distributed to community youth groups, schools, drop-in centres and hamlets throughout the Baffin, Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions.
As well as providing information, the N-Files asks young people to respond to various proposals suggested by the Nunavut Implementation Commission. Youth have until January 18 to share their ideas on gender parity, two-member constituencies, the selection of a Nunavut premier and decentralization.
Youth had no input into either of the two Footprints reports that discussed the various issues that must be decided before the NWT will divide in April, 1999.
Jimi Onalik, youth co-ordinator for the Kivalliq Inuit Association, wants to make it clear that this project is not an attack on the process, which so far has practically excluded youth.
"There's been a perception that this is all happening to criticize different organizations or the process, but it's showing how these politically-organized youth groups can make a good contribution to the development of Nunavut. We're not out to attack an individual organization, but to build a working relationship."
Youth want to contribute
And Onalik said youth want to contribute to the discussions and are eager to be heard.
"I can't read a mood yet, but there's a consensus that there's something to say, though I don't know what that will be. There's been no forum to express their views and no chance for any youth to say what they think of the Nunavut government."
Distributed through the regions
Raurri Ellsworth, the youth co-ordinator for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, said he's distributed the N-Files to youth throughout the Baffin region.
He, like his counterpart in the Kitikmeot region, Bernice Lyall, are waiting for the responses.
After the responses are in, a Nunavut-wide youth report will then be written in Cambridge Bay later this month. It will be presented at a meeting of Nunavut leaders in early February.
Back to Nunatsiaq News
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT People frustrated by efforts to extract information from the government of the Northwest Territories may soon find some relief.
The Northwest Territories' first access to information and privacy law went into effect Jan.1. The Territorial government is expected to soon pick the first information and privacy commissioner.
Advertisements for the $120,000-a-year position were posted before Christmas and if the experience of other Canadian provinces is any indication, the succesful candidate will likely be a lawyer.
Spokespersons in the Justice Department were forbidden this week to say who, if anyone, has made the shortlist.
Commissioner to play key role
The information and privacy commissioner's role is crucial to the application of new access-to-information legislation. The legislation affirms the public's right to obtain non-confidential government records that don't contain personal information about other private citizens.
Disputes between individuals and government departments over access-to-information requests will be arbitrated by the information and privacy commissioner.
The Access to information and Protection of Privacy Act, or so-called "sunshine law," requires that a commissioner be appointed no later than April 1, 1997.
The Information and Protection of Privacy Act sets forth a protocol for all GNWT departments, crown corporations and agencies handling information requests from the public and allows individuals to correct any personal information held by the government.
Justice officials are anticipating an average of 70 to 90 requests per year, with less than half being appealed to the information and privacy commissioner.
The cost of enacting the legislation and setting up the office will cost the GNWT about $960,000 per year.
Under the privacy Act, a person seeking government information held by any public body must make a written request to the government department of agency believed to have the information.
The access and information co-ordinator for that department or agency may either provide the information or refuse the request, in which case the applicant has the right to appeal to the Commissioner.
The Act, passed in 1994, does not yet apply to municipalities and other local bodies. Use of access-to-information procedures is meant to complement existing procedures for obtaining government information, such as telephone calls.
Although a commissioner has yet to be named, access and privacy co-ordinators have been appointed in all government departments. Their names and telephone numbers are contained in the GNWT's Access and Privacy Directory, distributed to government offices and libraries across the North over the last couple of weeks.
Responses for information are supposed to take no longer than 30 days. If for some reason more time is needed, access and privacy co-ordinators are required by law to contact the applicant.
Fees for obtaining information from the government may apply. Records concerning personal information pertaining to the applicant are free, provided the cost of photocopying doesn't exceed $25.
Access to general, non-personal information, however, will cost $25 per request and more if the cost of processing the application exceeds $150.
In addition, the law seeks to protect the rights of third parties who may be affected by the release of such information. Access and privacy co-ordinators will, therefore, retain considerable powers of discretion.
If, for some reason, a public body doesn't follow the recommendations of the information and privacy commissioner, an applicant may appeal to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories.
Back to TopJENNIFER TILDEN
Special to Nunatsiaq News
YELLOWKNIFE Amittuq MLA Mark Evaluarjuk wants to know what is causing young people to lose their fear of death.
He says that elders do not understand what is going on with the younger generation of Inuit. So it is not surprising that the elders find themselves unable to relate to what is happening today.
It was less than two generations ago that Inuit were living a traditional lifestyle, governed by their own laws and beliefs. Back then, it all made sense. Life was about survival. Sharing and sacrifice were of the utmost importance.
It was rare for a young person to commit suicide, but common among the very old and the sick, Evaloarjuk says.
Life was very hard and there was only so much food to go around at the best of times. The dogs had limited energy for pulling people. There were many children to feed.
Elders sacrificed themselves for survival of the group
If a person was no longer able to contribute to the welfare of the family, he or she would begin to see themselves as a burden. Others would too.
The Igloolik Research Centre has conducted interviews with elders about traditional life.
In one of the interviews, a man recalls a case in which a son took his elderly father hunting. When they reached an island the son said to his father, "I am going to leave you on this island."
The old man replied very slowly, "yes." His son took him out of the boat and left him behind.
Rhoda Karetak, an elder from Rankin Inlet, says that most of the suicides that took place were a form of euthanasia. There were no modern medicines or painkillers, and people with severe injury or illness would choose death over indefinite suffering.
Sometimes individuals with a mental illness would sometimes become violent towards others.
"Some people would realize the threat they posed to their loved ones and choose to kill themselves. Other times they would have to be killed or abandoned," Karetak says.
This was a fact of life that was understood and accepted.
Inuit taught to fear death
From the time that they were children, Inuit were taught to fear death above all else. The environment in which they lived was unforgiving and it was necessary for children to understand that there was no room for taking risks.
Karetak remembers her grandfather saying, "Children that are too noisy meet an early death."
They were told never to pretend or joke about death. There were many lectures and stories about death told to children by their parents and grandparents. These were used to convince the children to avoid dangerous situations.
Elisabeth Ootoova, an elder from Pond Inlet, also remembers what life was like back then.
"Even though our life was hard, and we would go through long periods without food, we never considered giving up the struggle to survive. We were very afraid of death," Ootoova says.
This concept of death was one of many daily lessons taught to the children by their parents and grandparents. It was the parents' responsibility to pass on their language, customs and beliefs to their children.
"People talked to each other... and Inuit looked after each other"
Rhoda Karetak recalls that there were problems, as in any society, but families were very close back then.
"I don't ever remember having nothing to do, there was always something. We had to make the clothing for the family, clean the skins, cut up the meat and perform many more chores to ensure our survival. There was no television, radio or telephones back then, so people talked to each other. I remember when we had a good life. Our children were happy " Karetak says.
Karetak also remembers when things began to change. It was when the RCMP, and government officials from the departments of health, education and justice started to arrive.
Inuit children forcibly abandoned?
Inuit lost their ability to determine their own future.
Although Karetak says that she recognizes the importance of education for young people, she believes that a lot of what is happening today with the younger generation, has been caused by this loss of self-determination.
"We were told that we were no longer responsible for our children after they reached the age of 16. The government told us that what we had to pass on to our children was less valuable than what the Qallunaaq education system had to offer," Karetak says.
Some children were separated from their families and homes at the age of 10, when they were sent away to residential schools.
These schools taught Inuit children to forget their language, culture and beliefs. Now elders and young people have lost the ability to communicate with each other. There is so much that is no longer shared.
"We are no longer the teachers," Karetak says.
Power to parent must be reclaimed
She believes that the power to parent was taken from Inuit and that this power needs to be reclaimed.
Elisapee Ootoova also says that schools have replaced parents as the primary educators. She remembers that children used to be told to spend their time outside. It was believed that it was bad for children to be inside for too long.
Now she says, "Children are inside schools all day. They have been taught that what they learn there is more important than what their parents have to teach them. So they don't listen to us anymore."
Ootoova thinks that the schools have a responsibility to talk to the students about their culture. She believes that the schools should instill a sense of pride and optimism in Inuit students.
Rhoda Karetak, Mark Evaloarjuk, Elisapee Ootoovak and many others care deeply about this issue. It is their children and grandchildren that are dying.
Don't wait for government
They all want to know what can be done to stop young Inuit from killing themselves. Karetak says that we don't have to wait for the government to come up with the money for programs; we don't have to wait for plans to be put in place and people to be trained.
She says Inuit can start right now by reclaiming our role as parents and educators to our children.
"We are late, but we have to let them back into our lives, love them and take care of them," Karetak says.
Please read the final part of Jennifer Tilden's three-part series on suicide in Nunavut in the next issue of Nunatsiaq News.
Back to Topby John Amagoalik
A winter is not complete until you have had at least one good blizzard. Some howling winds, zero visibility, and lots of drifting snow are required to confirm an Arctic winter.
Blizzards not only cover a lot of garbage but they seemed to purify the air as well. Standing outside after a good blizzard, you take a deep breath and the cold air will seem fresher and crisper than before the storm. A blizzard is like giving a stuffy room a good airing.
A good blizzard is especially rewarding to children. The new snow banks are so clean and white. The snow has a special sound to it as you walk on it. And you can have a lot of fun digging tunnels before the new snow gets hard. Growing up in Resolute, where we got more than our fair share of blizzards, I must have dug a mile of tunnels.
Blizzards are also necessary to create snow banks with enough depth and the right kind of consistency for igloo building. A blizzard creates the right conditions so man can build shelter from it.
So, instead of cursing the next blizzard, think of it as an air freshener, playground maker and provider of construction material.
"I'll take on their coffee boy."
Zebedee Nungak expressing frustration that separatist leaders will not debate him in public.
"When it comes to boards and agencies, the politicians in Yellowknife are chicken."
A frustrated civil servant on why NWT politicians are afraid to make cuts to boards.
"He was told to get lost."
A teacher telling about another teacher who approached education authorities with some suggestions.
Back to Top"The federal and provincial governments have not discovered us yet."
A Micmac explaining why Indian people will not participate in events marking Cabot's arrival.
When Nunavut Tunngavik receives anonymous correspondence we toss it in the waste basket.
This does not seem to be the case at the Nunatsiaq News, which is now publishing anonymous "surveys"! (Jan. 3, 1997 edition, p. 19,"Nunavut Residents' Survey on NTI's AGM")
The journalistic ethics and motives of a regional newspaper anonymously publishing such a biased, poorly developed, unprofessionally prepared research attempt must be called into question.
It is not entirely clear what the objective is, or the purpose of the survey. One thing that is clear is that Nunatsiaq News agrees with this politically motivatedquestionnaire, and is lending its resources to the author.
Its intent appears to be to prompt people to write your newspaper, expressing opposition to, or dissatisfaction with Nunavut Tunngavik.
It is my understanding that the ethics of anonymity in journalistic practice generally apply to situations where a writer or source's life or livelihood might be placed at extreme risk if their identity were known.
Clearly no legitimate research effort in Nunavut would require such extraordinary measures! If the writer had brought questions directly to NTI, it would have been our pleasure to respond.
I believe anyone who is asked to respond to a survey has a right to know what individual or organizational hands their letter would be placed in, and what their motivation is.
I believe they also have a right to know how the information will be tabulated and analyzed, what "statistical biases" will be factored into the calculations by the researcher, the sample size of the survey response, what the survey's margin for error accuracy rate is calculated at, what purpose the information will be put to, and what individuals or organizations will have access to the core data. None of this information has been provided.
Publishing anonymous surveys, with the publisher asked to compile the results, leaves me with the very strong impression that the journalistic standards followed by the Nunatsiaq News leave much to be desired.
Surely as a member of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association, and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association, you subscribe to a Code of Practice.
We will be following this matter up with the appropriate Press Council in the belief that it is unfair to collaborate with an individual to anonymously publish a politically motivated survey or this type.
The lines of communication to Nunavut Tunngavik are open in our democratic system of running the institutions that Inuit operate.
If publication of thisso called surveyis in the public interest, then the public and Nunavut Tunngavik must be made aware of the name of the individual that the publisher of Nunatsiaq News is collaborating with.
Jose A. Kusugak
President, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
Editor's note: Mr. Kusugak describes the open letter from a Baffin beneficiary we published as "anonymous," which suggests we don't know who the letter's author is. We don't publish letters without knowing the author's identity. We talked to the author about Kusugak's reaction to her letter and her reply appears below.
This is in response to the president of NTI's letterabout the small unofficial survey of NTI's AGM.
Firstly, the letter is not anonymous as the author has requested that the name be withheld.
The survey was not intended to be professional it is more of a, how should you say it? A wake-up-and-smell-your-coffee call to beneficiaries!
Is it not about time that we knew what was happening at NTI? Of course, it is not a professional survey; it was not intended to be one.
Yes, it is appropriate to have beneficiaries write Nunatsiaq News. They should have a say in their future. We are a free nation and do not live in a dictatorship.
The president's response to the survey would have me believe that he would love for us to live in such an environment.
What happened to the Inuit way a vote by consensus? What has the president and the board so paranoid by this little unprofessional survey?
Are they afraid of what the results may be, once beneficiaries do write in their responses?
Would it not be more interesting as a president to know how beneficiaries feel about the way their elected officials manage their organization?
This is one way of getting these results. They could be used to the benefit of NTI. This could be a start of how to better communicate with beneficiaries and also an excellent educational tool to teach beneficiaries about the roles and responsibilities of NTI.
Do not forget Jose, that you are an elected official and that you are accountable to the people that elected you. I am really ashamed that you would write such a response letter to the only newspaper that had balls enough to publish the survey. My hat goes off to them.
I thank you for making this survey into such a controversy that other beneficiaries will respond to. We can truly see what their reaction to your action is.
There will be no "statistical biases" factor, no tabulation, no analyzing, no political motivation, no legitimate research effort, no individual or organization's hands, no calculations, no margin for error, no access to core data necessary, no collaboration with the newspaper. Just plain old-fashioned information for all the beneficiaries to read.
As a true democratic leader you should welcome this opportunity to answer the questions raised and use this as a positive communications tool to inform the people of Nunavut as to where their future lies. Instead, you have taken this survey as a threat, which was not the intention.
As for your threat to take this matter up with the Press Council, I give Nunatsiaq News my permission to have this survey released to the Canadian Press and any other news organization that will publish the survey, along with your response to it.
Do not forget that knowledge and information is power. Beneficiaries have a birthright to it, therefore, it is to be shared by everyone-as equals! Even this little insignificant survey.
I leave you with a dictionary definition of survey: a comprehensive view, a detailed examination of a problem or situation.
Name withheld by request
Back to TopYou have to give the GNWT credit for one thing.
They've shown, in their recent response to the Nunavut Implementation Commission's Footprints 2 report, that they're willing to learn from at least some of their mistakes.
"Footprints 2," in case you haven't yet heard, is a thick pile of paper that sets out the NIC's latest recommendations on how Nunavut should be created. It's named after "Footprints in New Snow," the Nunavut commission's first attempt to outline how Nunavut's new government might be organized and built.
Back in May of 1995 when the commission published its original Footprints report, the people who ran the GNWT made a big mistake that came back to haunt them in a most embarrassing manner. The GNWT did their best to ignore the NIC and unlike Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., provided no response to the NIC's ideas.
Not surprisingly, that strategy backfired. In April of 1996, Ron Irwin announced a series of crucial Nunavut decisions made by the federal cabinet, decisions made with little or no input from the GNWT.
Not until after Irwin's announcement did the GNWT publish its views on the NIC's work at a May 1996 gathering of Nunavut leaders in Arviat.
This time however, the GNWT wasted no time in responding to the NIC's work.
Only a few weeks after its release, Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo, at a press conference in Iqaluit, released the GNWT's formal response to Footprints 2.
At long last, the GNWT's ideas about how to create Nunavut along with all the strengths and weaknesses of those ideas may be examined and debated by the public.
Predictably, Yellowknife government's approach to division and the creation of Nunavut is cautious and conservative. The GNWT rejects most new ideas advanced by either the NIC or Nunavut Tunngavik, and much of their response reads like an endorsement of the status quo.
Indeed, the GNWT appears to favour a Nunavut that is a carbon copy of the current Yellowknife government. If that's true, it's a position at odds with the wishes of most Nunavut residents.
For example, the GNWT's positions on issues like decentralization and staff housing are riddled with inconsistency, and they reek of hypocrisy.
For people in communities like Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet, Baker Lake, Arviat, Igloolik, Cape Dorset, and Coppermine who believe that they'll get territorial government jobs within a decentralized Nunavut, this is of great concern.
That's because, in a lengthy section that raises many concerns with the decentralization model proposed by the NIC, the GNWT suggests that decentralization may not now be affordable.
That's a legitimate concern. But coming from the GNWT, it reeks of hypocrisy. The GNWT's own policies have also made decentralization more difficult to achieve. Because of GNWT policies such as departmental amalgamation, restructuring, privatization, job layoffs, and other changes, there are fewer jobs and functions left to decentralize in Nunavut.
Later on, the GNWT notes that the NTI-Ottawa infrastructure agreement, under which the construction of Nunavut's legislative assembly and other buildings will be financed by private capital, provides for supply of staff housing to some Nunavut government employees.
This "has the potential to create divisiveness between employees," the GNWT says. This is the government that has been throwing employees out of staff housing for the past four years.
And it's the same government that for the past two years has ignored NIC recommendations to suspend the sale of staff housing partly because of fears that the policy will make it impossible for Nunavut to recruit new staff.
The GNWT's conservatism is revealed by its rejection of the NIC's common sense suggestion that Nunavut's divisional boards of education be replaced by one Nunavut-wide board, and that Nunavut's health boards be abolished.
For a government that since 1991 has committed itself to the idea of "strength at two levels" strong community governments, a strong territorial government, and diminished regional institutions this is a curious position.
But at least that, and other GNWT ideas are now known to the public and can be openly debated. For that, the GNWT deserves our praise. JB
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Last updated January 17, 1997
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