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A three part series on suicide in Nunavut by freelance journalist Jennifer Tilden:
ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT - Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated says the GNWT and federal government aren't committed to developing a training plan for an Inuit workforce for Nunavut.
NTI made the comments in its response Tuesday to the Nunavut Implementation Commission's Footprints 2 report, the blueprint for the structure of the Nunavut government.
"People tend to talk about results in the end without an actual plan in the beginning," said NTI President Jose Kusugak in an interview this week. "The whole idea is we (NTI) put emphasis on planning."
While NTI says it agrees with about 90 per cent of the NIC's recommendations in Footprints 2, they did outline several areas where they differ
One key area is NTI's insistence that Yellowknife and Ottawa become more aggressive in providing training and employment plans that will see at least 50 per cent of the jobs in the Nunavut government held by Inuit by 1999, as agreed to under Article 23 in the Nunavut Act.
"There is no real human resource statement, staffing or otherwise, on the actual Nunavut Act," Kusugak said.
Must respect land claim
The NTI response repeatedly states that meeting the goal of having the Nunavut government's workforce filled with representative levels of Inuit isn't just a "desirable goal" but is legally and constitutionally entrenched in the Nunavut land claims agreement.
NTI wants the interim commissioner, expected to be appointed within the next several weeks, to oversee a comprehensive recruitment and employment plan by May of this year.
That plan should address both regional and headquarters positions within government and have as its primary objective to recruit an Inuit workforce.
"As much as we're talking about training and we expect training to be well planned and happen, there's also the element of hiring practices," said Kusugak. "I honestly don't believe that a lot of people in the territorial government are necessarily qualified if they were Inuit."
Priority on jobs
Kusugak said the 600 new jobs that become available through the formation of Nunavut must go to Inuit, especially since he says about 400 of the 500 positions expected to be cut by the GNWT before division of the territories are staffed by Inuit.
That means the majority of the staff left to make up the Nunavut government will be non-Inuit.
"That's where the problem is," Kusugak stated. "We have to insist that the new 600 jobs have to be Inuk priority, as well as all the subsequent jobs coming up. If they don't want us to touch existing jobs, we want priority on new jobs."
NTI accepts NIC's recommendation that all current GNWT staff at regional and community levels be offered comparable positions within Nunavut, yet Kusugak wants staff in those positions to be reviewed after three years.
NTI expressed concern that current GNWT initiatives, such as downsizing and devolution, are determining the size of the Nunavut government.
NIC recommends a smaller regional public service workforce in Footprints 2 than it did in Footprints in New Snow, its original document. NTI rejects that recommendation, stating it was based on the policies of the GNWT.
"NTI's responsibility in planning for Nunavut is to focus on the needs of the future Government of Nunavut for the delivery of an acceptable level of programs and services, not on the needs identified by the GNWT in 1996 to 1999," stated the report.
NTI called on the other two parties of the Nunavut Political Accord, the GNWT and the federal government, to reject NIC's recommendation.
NTI also urged the GNWT to refrain from changing policies that would affect the approved design model of the Nunavut government leading up to 1999.
NTI called upon NIC to provide a detailed analysis of the proposed distribution of government departments as an aid to future planning.
Power with no money?
Tuesday's response expressed concern that a 'patchwork' of responsibilities will exist at the community and territorial levels after the GNWT has completed its devolution and community empowerment phase.
Here are some other points raised by NTI in its formal response:
TODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT - Nunavut MLAs held an emergency meeting last week to react to comments by John Amagoalik, the chief commissioner of the Nunavut Implementation Commission and NTI President Jose Kusugak.
Amagoalik made his comments in Inuktitut during an interview with broadcaster Jonah Kelly on the CBC North radio program Tausunni last week.
MLAs grumbled privately that some of Amagoalik's comments were racist and demeaning towards non-Inuit MLAs, and some considered launching a public counterattack against him.
They decided instead to opt for a more conciliatory approach, sent Amagoalik a letter, and raised some not too subtle questions about what role, if any, the NIC will play in the future of Nunavut.
John Todd, the lead minister responsible for division, talked in the legislative assembly about the need to cool the "unnecessary rhetoric," and to "rise above small-minded partisan attitudes," and to "put aside some of the emotion."
Cool rhetoric, ease tensions
In an interview outside the assembly, Todd said he was reluctant to comment on what he described as the "rhetoric" that had been aired.
"I think it's inappropriate," Todd said. "You've got to show statesmanship on this issue. This is not the time to be cranking up any additional tensions that were already there."
He said Nunavut's leaders have to work things out through compromise and not confrontation.
"Cool off the rhetoric. Be a little careful what we all say."
Todd stressed that there are only three groups that now have decision-making power on Nunavut issues - the GNWT, Ottawa and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
"Those three parties will agree and give direction to the interim commissioner," Todd said.
"The NIC doesn't have decision-making capacity. Let's get that clear," he said. "It has the ability to provide recommendations to the three parties, which this government appointed three members to. That sometimes is lost in the debate."
Funny business?
But Amagoalik says he has nothing to apologize for.
"We've been hearing a lot of very strange stories coming out of Yellowknife and that the GNWT is up to all kinds of funny business. I was commenting on that," he said.
Amagoalik says that in the interview he said that many of the top politicians in Yellowknife were behaving like "chickens without heads."
"I make no apology for making that comment because that's the way they've been behaving."
Amagoalik said he did make one comment about qallunaat, and suspects that's what raised the ire of some MLAs.
"I did say that white people tend to have less patience when it comes to this sort of thing. That's the only comment I made," Amagoalik said.
Kusugak's comments questioned
MLAs also scrambled last week to find out what NTI President Jose Kusugak has said about them during an interview with Inuit Broadcasting Corporation.
They say Kusugak has taken cheap shots at the GNWT, and in particular at Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo. The Nunavut caucus also sent Kusugak a letter complaining about his comments.
In Yellowknife, Arlooktoo says he's disappointed by what both Kusugak and Amagoalik have said.
"I really don't know where Mr. Kusugak and Amagoalik are coming from," Arlooktoo said. "I have reviewed the transcripts of what they said, and am very disappointed. I am saddened to see two individuals who we thought were objective leaders in Nunavut resorting to personal attacks on MLAs and on ministers rather than dealing with issues we have raised."
Arlooktoo said the comments directed his way are like "water off a duck's back" and don't bother him on a personal level. But some MLAs say they are getting tired of being the sitting duck that other leaders line up to take turns shooting at.
He said a recent "orientation meeting" in Yellowknife with NIC and NTI officials turned out to be "Arlooktoo-bashing."
Bursting with questions
For his part, Kusugak said NTI officials are eager to debate and discuss key issues about the design of Nunavut's government with members of the Nunavut caucus. But most of those MLAs didn't even show up at a recent briefing session in Yellowknife.
"We are bursting at the seams to ask these questions," Kusugak said. "What are we supposed to do?"
Kusugak says NIC and NTI are talking to each other regularly about issues such as the commission's Footprints 2 model for the design of Nunavut's government and other political recommendations, but the GNWT hasn't taken part in those talks.
Kusugak said he suspects some of those issues will be tackled at an upcoming meeting of Nunavut leaders in Cambridge Bay.
"It will force everybody together, and it will help clear the air," Kusugak said.
Power struggle
Until the interim commissioner for Nunavut is appointed, leaders say there is a power struggle going on for who will be driving the process of Nunavut.
The interim commissioner isn't now expected to be appointed until after the leader's meeting.
"I suspect that's what's happening. But they are probably expecting much more from the interim commissioner than what that person will actually be able to deliver," says Amagoalik.
The battle for control of the process to create the Nunavut territory has been raging behind the scenes for months, but has only now spilled across the public airwaves, and entered the public debate.
The next round in that debate is slated for Feb. 16-17 in Cambridge Bay.
Key meeting in Cambridge Bay
Several leaders say they expect that meeting to be a showdown with nothing less than the future of Nunavut at stake.
"There's a lot of stuff in the air and we have to clear it out," Amagoalik says. "I think we are going to probably end up having some very heated debates in Cambridge Bay. I think that's necessary..."
Todd describes the upcoming meeting as "very important."
"I would say it's critical," Todd said, adding that he hopes to leave that meeting with a clear direction from the leaders on key Nunavut issues so he can then present those ideas to federal finance minister Paul Martin in March.
Ottawa has to agree to pay for any design model the people of Nunavut come up with, he says.
Arlooktoo describes the meeting as a "pivotal point" where the different parties must find consensus, not fight and accomplish nothing, such as what happened at a previous Nunavut leaders meeting in Arviat.
"It will be a very important meeting. I think history will show that will set the tone of what happens down the road."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT - Commercial shippers have offered to put their vessels at the Coast Guard's disposal this summer to help the cash-strapped federal agency carry out its icebreaking duties.
The idea was floated during a meeting of shippers in Iqaluit earlier this week, and is expected to be contained in a list of recommendations issued by the Arctic Marine Advisory Board.
"A couple of the companies will have ships transiting the area and if we can enter into an agreement to use them during the season that is required in the western Arctic, it saves me time, in terms of not having to have a ship transit from Victoria, up to the North," said Jim Quinn, the Coast Guard's regional director.
Risked disrupting sealift
The Coast Guard had originally planned to retire its multi-purpose ship, Sir Wilfrid Laurier from the West and provide icebreaking services there by freeing up one of five icebreakers in the eastern Arctic on an as-needed basis.
But shippers balked, warning of costly delays and the risk of disrupting the annual sea-lift to dozens of remote Arctic communities.
Under the latest proposal, the Coast Guard would charter commercial vessels in the West with icebreaking capacity.
The private vessels, under charter to the Coast Guard, would also be used as a base for search-and-rescue operations and pollution control, as well as radio and navigational services.
"When I get those recommendations I'll be pursuing them within the Coast Guard organization," Quinn said. "I'm confident we'll come up with a short-term solution."
Shippers were generally encouraged by the summit's outcome.
Spread too thin
But Cpt. Georges Tousignant of Montreal-based Nanuk transport reiterated the shipping industry's main concern that the Coast Guard is trying to stretch limited resources too thinly.
"Right now when you require an icebreaker, the icebreaker's not behind you. You always have to wait a half a day, a day. So by reducing the number, it could be two days, three days, four days..."
Those additional costs would eventually be passed on to users, Tousignant warned.
Another meeting of the advisory board, made up mostly of private shippers, is scheduled for April 8 and 9 in Montreal.
Quinn said he was very pleased by the level of cooperation the shippers have shown.
"The bottom line is that we're putting forward some solutions that will reside within the existing fiscal framework I have to operate in."
Jim Antoine, the GNWT's transportation minister told MLAs last week that the government was also concerned about the changes in the icebreaker service, and would continue talks with Coast Guard officials.
High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas reminded Antoine about what can happen when sea-lift service is disrupted by referring to the missed sea-lift in Grise Fiord. Supplies had to be airlifted to that community at a tremendous cost.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT- More than a thousand Nunavut residents have signed a petition urging the territorial government to abandon planned funding cuts to regional libraries.
But in Yellowknife this week the minister responsible for library services said the GNWT would push ahead with the cuts anyway.
Supporters of Iqaluit's Centennial Library presented the government with 730 signatures from residents of Iqaluit and Apex earlier this week.
In Igloolik as of Tuesday, organizers had collected 377 names. And in Rankin Inlet, a group calling itself the Friends of the John Ayaruaq Library had managed to get 200 signatures by presstime on Wednesday.
Nunavut-wide support
"I'm impressed. I can't believe the response that we've had," said Lisa Rigby, Iqaluit organizer of the Friends of Nunavut Libraries campaign.
People from as far away as Pangnirtung, Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord, Broughton Island, Kimmirut, Cape Dorset, Hall Beach, Cambridge Bay, Inuvik, Yellowknife,-even Ontario and the United States-have been moved to register their protest.
"We, the undersigned," the petition from Iqaluit reads in part, "object to the radical change which the GNWT Department of Education, Culture, and Employment has planned for library services in Nunavut..."
"Literacy, especially Inuktitut literacy, is very important to the future of Nunavut and libraries play a critical role."
Lightning rod
Layoff notices for two remaining regional librarians were issued last week, touching off a spirited protest across Nunavut, the likes of which no government downsizing to date has mustered.
"It was like a lightning rod," commented Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco, who presented the petition to the legislative assembly.
By the middle of last week, supporters had rallied closely around Baffin regional librarian Yvonne Earle and Denise Andersen, regional librarian for Rankin.
"I think in our case, our regional librarian has been very pro-active for literacy," said Picco, who was also overwhelmed by the reaction of the community to news of the cuts.
"She's a well-known figure in the community and well-known in the Baffin region. So I think it's someone most everyone can put a face to."
Technology to replace people
Charles Dent, minister of education, culture, and employment defended the layoffs in the legislative assembly as a necessary budgetary measure. Dent also vowed community libraries wouldn't be affected by staff reductions, thanks to computers.
"The technology is progressing to the point where we believe that certainly in the course of the next little while, the services will be able to be delivered adequately to all communities," Dent said last week during question period.
"Sometimes I think this technology is becoming almost like a Frankenstein monster," Picco retorted.
The Department of Education, Culture and Employment plans to redistribute funds for libraries across the Northwest Territories. Money for 19 existing libraries in Nunavut will be reduced to make more resources available to 40 other communities where no public libraries currently exist.
Eleven community libraries in Nunavut would be affected by the proposal.
Part of the restructuring plan includes putting computers into these communities so that users can search the NWT library's catalogue of publications on-line. Details of the proposal have not been made public.
What is known is that the territorial government wants to distribute funds for library services according to the size of population in each community, rather than on the current formula, which only takes into account the number of hours each existing library stays open.
Compromise possible
Critics like Rigby say the new funding proposal, which would see money for existing library services dispersed over twice as many communities, will simply produce a greater number of poorer libraries. She's confident that this concern is now being taken seriously in Yellowknife.
"I certainly think we're making progress on the restructuring of the library system and re-organizing the funding," Rigby said, adding optimistically that a compromise on the regional librarian jobs is not out of reach.
"I could see them maybe turning those positions into a Nunavut librarian's position to oversee regional services or to coordinate the division of library services when they divide up the Territories in '99," Rigby said.
"I think that would be the most ideal solution."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT - There's a housing crisis in Nunavut, and MLAs say the GNWT is offering only band-aid solutions to relieve the most immediate problems.
Goo Arlooktoo, the minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, came under fire in the legislative assembly from MLAs demanding solutions for a housing crisis that's forcing people to live in deplorable conditions in many smaller Arctic communities.
Natilikmiut MLA John Ningark wanted to know why Arlooktoo hasn't addressed his concern that 19 families are being forced to live in homes in Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak which have no indoor running water while government staff houses, complete with a running water system and furnishings, sit empty.
He pressed Arlooktoo for a commitment that something will be done about the problem, even after the minister declared that most of the quarter million in housing dollars set aside for the Kitikmeot area would likely go to Gjoa Haven.
"The term he used 'likely' gave very little comfort to the communities of Gjoa Haven and Pelly Bay," Ningark replied. "I am not comfortable with the term 'likely'. Will the minister do it? And when?"
This is typical of the type of assurances MLAs are demanding for their constituents, but Arlooktoo is cautious about making promises.
Blaming the federal government for its complete withdrawal of funding for housing in the North, the minister said the GNWT is struggling to come to grips with the problem.
"Early indications are that we have an immediate need for 3,500 new units, just to address today's need," Arlooktoo said. "We have nowhere near that amount of funding."
He said his department is doing the best it can with what it has. But that wasn't good enough for MLAs, who spent several days hammering away at the issue.
Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco hit Arlooktoo with a barrage of questions relating to concerns in his riding, where about 70 families are on the waiting list for social housing homes.
"This government seems devoid of a social housing plan," he said. "Isn't is about time we put away the rhetoric and stopped blaming the federal government?"
Picco said the GNWT has been without federal money for years and during that time should have fleshed out a housing strategy.
Clyde River, the only community in the NWT still using old matchbox houses for rentals, was another thorn in Arlooktoo's side last week.
Baffin South MLA Tommy Enuaraq wanted to know the government's policy on the dozen matchboxes being used in Clyde River.
"Those old houses in Clyde River, the so-called matchboxes, they are in existence still because there is a great shortage in housing."
Arlooktoo could offer no solution for the residents, except to say the matchboxes would be replaced with new homes by the end of the 1998-99 fiscal year.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT - Northern wildlife officials say Canada's first endangered-species legislation ignores decades of conservation efforts and may interfere with aboriginal treaty rights.
The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and the territorial government want stronger recognition of the role that aboriginal peoples and co-management authorities play in northern conservation.
Both have demanded changes to sections of Bill C-65 - a new piece of federal legislation - that would transfer responsibility for such northern animals as polar bears to the federal government.
"I don't think anybody here has any problem with the endangered species legislation," said NWMB director Dan Pike, "it's just a matter of who can do the job better."
Stephen Kakfwi, territorial minister of resources, wildlife an economic development, appeared last week before a federal standing committee on the environment to raise concerns about the Canada Endangered Species Protection Act.
Act conflicts with land claim agreement?
Kakfwi said the GNWT is concerned the bill as written may conflict with harvesting rights contained in land-claims agreements with Inuit, Inuvialuit, Gwich'in and Sahtu.
"The Act might create de facto 'principles of conservation' which would result in aboriginal people being denied access to their resources through the provisions of their own claims," Kakfwi warned.
The wildlife management board pointed out in its own submission that the proposed legislation conflicts with provisions of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement in the area of jurisdiction.
In particular, the agreement invests the NWMB with the authority to approve designation of rare, threatened and endangered species within the Nunavut Settlement Area.
"What we don't want to see happening is for committees to bumble through and start doing things without getting the approval here," said Pike.
Northerners must keep control
Both the territorial government and the wildlife management board want Ottawa to rewrite Section 3 of the Canada Endangered Species Protection Act to ensure that northerners retain primary legal responsibility for endangered, threatened and vulnerable species north of the 60th parallel.
They point out that northerners have a proud record of co-managed recovery plans, including one for polar bears, which has been in place since 1984 and has earned the GNWT international praise.
As it stands now, Ottawa will assume responsibility for species so designated in the Yukon and Northwest Territories once the bill is passed.
That means the Canadian Wildlife Service would automatically be handed the job of managing polar bears, wood bison, wolverine, Peary caribou and grizzlies - all currently classified as either "vulnerable, threatened, endangered or extirpated" by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
One flaw, critics say, is that the federal wildlife service has no presence in the North outside Yellowknife.
"They don't have anybody in Nunavut," Pike said. "They have nobody working in these communities."
On the other hand, the GNWT has spent the better part of thirty years building its own network of biologists and wildlife technicians in the North. Conservation officers currently work with native hunters and trappers associations in 38 NWT communities to monitor animal harvests collect population data.
The GNWT now has management agreements in place with 30 communities that hunt polar bears, for instance, a species Ottawa considers to be vulnerable.
"You take away all that from the Department here," said NWMB executive director Jim Noble, "and how long is it going to take for you to re-establish that infrastructure?"
"That could mean an overharvest of the animals in the meantime."
The system envisioned in Bill C-65 for managing and identifying species at risk, furthermore, minimizes the importance of combining traditional aboriginal knowledge with conventional science, the Board claims.
The NWMB would like more explicit guarantees that COSEWIC decisions will be informed by traditional knowledge as well as scientific expertise.
Must fit northern reality
In communities such as Hall Beach, where polar bears are so common this winter that they're considered a public menace, residents will have little patience for inadequate southern regulations that ignore the reality of daily life.
In the legislative assembly this week, Kakfwi spoke for many northerners when he defended the GNWT's system of species co-management.
"For some conservationists, bears are animals that they never see in their life but are concerned about, unlike ourselves who have animals, sometimes every day, wandering around our communities.
"There is a different perspective that we bring which makes it almost imperative that we do everything we can to make southern people, politicians, environmental groups, aware of the realities we face up here."
Back to TopJANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News Correspondent
MONTREAL - Consensus emerged around only one issue at a conference on the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: at 3,500 pages, the report is too simply too long.
"No one here can say 'I read the report,'" joked one speaker.
More than 700 participants came to McGill University last weekend for a conference called "Forging a New Relationship."
In nearly 30 discussion sessions, native and non-native academics, politicians, and pundits tried to analyze the lengthy report's call for a new relationship between Canada and aboriginal peoples.
The main thrust of the report's 440 recommendations is the creation of a third tier of government for native peoples across Canada.
Some participants said the report could be a "tool for reconciliation" and a "blueprint for action."
"Royal Ommission Report?"
But there were many more critics of the result of five years of study and $54 million in government funds.
The report was found to be a "Royal Ommission Report," "seriously flawed" and even "evil."
It was condemned for its "Eurocentric" views, for looking too much at the "what" and "when" instead of "why."
Not surprisingly, sparks flew during many of the sessions.
Aboriginals, sovereignists clash
And because the conference was held in Quebec, sovereignists often clashed with natives as the report's implications for Quebec secession surfaced.
Makivik President Zebedee Nungak was able to seize yet another opportunity to talk about Nunavik's "intractable" determination to remain in Canada.
Nungak offered the audience a short history lesson, outlining the many changes of government that have affected Nunavik, changes over which Inuit have had little control.
He repeated his stance that Inuit in Nunavik will decide their own future.
"The powers that be are not taking into account what we think and where we want to be," said Nungak.
While the Royal Commission report did not go into detail about the effect of Quebec sovereignty on native peoples, the conference did not succeed in bringing the diverse points of view together.
The Bloc Quebecois critic for Aboriginal affairs, Claude Bachand, repeated Quebec's intent to keep its borders - and the territory of native peoples - intact, even if Quebec leaves Canada.
Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard has not yet responded officially to the Royal Commission report.
But many at the gathering expressed frustration about the kind of response that the report has generated in Canada.
A sour note
The conference's final session about the lessons of the report for the future, ended on a sour note.
Speaker Andrew Coyne, a national newspaper columnist, condemned the report as a dangerous and expensive retreat back into traditional culture.
"You keep your taxes," countered Ovide Mercredi, head of the Assembly of First Nations, "We want the land, the resources!"
Violence could result, suggested some, if action on at least some of the report's recommendations is not taken.
The Nunavut formula, involving a joint land claim and political accord, received little attention during the conference.
NIC Chief Commissioner John Amagoalik and ICC President Rosemarie Kuptana were both listed as speakers at the opening and closing of the conference, but neither attended the sessions.
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The Royal Commission's report on the Internet: Easily accessible public information about the recently released report by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples is hard to find. Here's what's on the World Wide Web as of today:
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Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT - Ordinary MLAs spent much of the week reviewing Finance Minister John Todd's latest budget.
They've had to swallow most cuts, but this week they passed a motion recommending the government not go ahead with a planned 10 per cent cut to women's organizations in the NWT.
The attack on cuts to women's groups was led by Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen and supported by most ordinary MLAs.
Inuvik MLA Floyd Roland and Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger voted against the motion and the members of the cabinet abstained.
Info on consultant sought
MLAs also wanted more information about a Toronto-based consultant the government hired to do a review of the GNWT's health and social services department.
Yellowknife South MLA Seamus Henry wanted to know why the government hired Med-Emerg International Incorporated and not a northern firm.
Other MLAs wanted to know how the consultants planned to talk to people in the Northwest Territories about health care reform before completing their report.
Health Minister Kelvin Ng told MLAs the consultants report would include a review of health care facilities like the hospitals in Iqaluit and Inuvik.
Funding for solvent abuse program
In other assembly news, Health and Social Services Minister Kelvin Ng announced the GNWT will continue to fund a program to treat adolescents for solvent abuse.
The federal government cut funding for the Adolescent Solvent Abuse Treatment Program last year, but the GNWT Department of Social Services agreed to provide funding to the end of the fiscal year.
Under GNWT funding, the Yellowknife-based program will include treatment of solvent abuse as well as alcohol and drug abuse for both aboriginal and non-aboriginal youth.
Ng quoted a survey which found that more than one third of northern youth between 15-24 are heavy drinkers and have used marijuana or hashish. Thirteen per cent have sniffed solvents.
"Successful early intervention in the lives of young drug and alcohol abusers will mean fewer addicted adults in the future," Ng stated.
Mickey to visit NWT?
Yellowknife South MLA Seamus Henry wants to invite Mickey Mouse and the Disney Corporation to the Northwest Territories.
Last week, the Speaker of the legislative assembly ruled it wasn't inappropriate to wear Mickey Mouse ties in the assembly.
Henry said the Disney Corp. has been benefiting from the free advertising from Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko's Mickey Mouse ties. He said he will invite a Disney representative to appear before the legislative assembly's rules committee.
"They can also promote the north's fashions in the south, but also our northern environment and lifestyle. Given Mr. Krutko's contacts with Mickey Mouse, perhaps he can link us with Walt Disney and invite them to the north," Henry said in a member's statement.
Back to Topby John Amagoalik
There is a hint of anger in his voice.
The young man from Nunavik is usually calm and even tempered. But today, his frustration and anger is starting to show.
"I'm sick and tired of the separatists," he says. "I'm tired of living in this political uncertainty."
The Inuit of Nunavik have made it known that they do not intend to be part of an independent Quebec. They want to split from Quebec if it declares independence and join Nunavut or work out other arrangements to remain part of Canada.
The young man from Nunavik doesn't want to wait. He wants Nunavik to split from Quebec now.
"If the separatists are going to continue with this crazy stuff, the hell with them. Nunavik should separate from Quebec now."
The threat to use force by the Parti Quebecois to keep dissident communities in Quebec does not help. What's worse is that Canada has not declared that it would protect the Inuit from this force. In this regard, as Zebedee Nungak likes to say, Canada is like a 97-pound weakling.
When it comes to how things would unfold, the separatists are all over the map.
First, they say that separation would be orderly. That national and international law will be respected. That things will be neat and tidy.
Then their other face says, the hell with the law. We will declare independence unilaterally.
They say minority rights will be respected. Then they say that French will be the only language in Quebec. They say that aboriginal peoples and their homelands will be part of an independent Quebec whether they like it or not.
The separatists content that aboriginal peoples surrendered all their rights when they signed the James Bay Agreement and must quietly accept their fate inside an independent Quebec.
The Inuit and the Cree signed that treaty with the nation of Canada and the province of Quebec. If that province declares independence, the James Bay Agreement is out the window.
The aboriginal peoples of Quebec will not accept being accosted into a political adventure that they have no interest in participating. They will not accept their homeland being stolen a second time.
I cannot predict what the separatists or the federalists will do. But I do know what will happen if anyone tries to force Inuit and others to go where they do not want to go.
The aboriginal peoples will fight in the national and international court of law and public opinion. And, if necessary, they will fight in the streets. Northern Quebec is a huge territory. The separatists will not control what happens on the ground in that territory.
If the separatists declare independence, the Quebec flag will be taken off the flag poles in the Inuit communities of Nunavik. Inuit and their leaders will challenge the authority of Quebec in their communities.
This time, we expect Canada and its people to support the Inuit of Nunavik.
The racism of history
It is not accurate to say that Columbus "discovered" North America.
John Cabot did not "discover" Canada.
Martin Frobisher did not "discover" Baffin Island.
This description of history suggests that these people were the first humans to come to these shores. It suggests that aboriginal people somehow do not qualify as humans.
It is this subtle racism which has resulted in the injustices on the first peoples of this continent. Our lands were stolen. Our human rights ignored and trampled. Some people still wonder why we cannot take part in events marking the 500th anniversary of Cabot's arrival.
It is time to tell our children that Columbus "stumbled" onto the shores of North America and it took almost 500 years for aboriginal peoples to be recognized as human beings.
Back to TopIt was most interesting to follow the letters relating to the "Survey".
The latest letter from Kathleen Tagoona, the Nunavut beneficiary in Ottawa, is very critical of Nunatsiaq News for, among other things, printing an anonymous letter conducting a survey.
What the writer failed to point out is that she is a senior employee of NTI and in effect obtained free access to your newspaper in order to anonymously defend NTI.
While I am an ex-employee of NTI but not a beneficiary I think that a survey might highlight some of the inefficiencies of NTI, which in turn will result in a better managed organization representing the beneficiaries.
Joe Lashley
Nepean, ON
About every two weeks in Iqaluit, just before those special days when the unemployed and the hopelessly unemployable line up for their social assistance checks, there are children falling asleep hungry because their parents can't buy food.
They're the same kids you can see in front of The Snack and Arctic Ventures begging loonies so they can stuff their aching bellies with candy.
There are hundreds of people jammed into overcrowded, disease-ridden houses or walking the streets because they have nowhere to live.
There are scores who have lost their jobs and many hundreds more who have lost income they will never recover.
There's a hospital losing doctors and nurses in droves as our health care system continues to deteriorate in a quickening slide towards privatization.
There's our wealthiest service industry - dope-dealing and booze - which is robbing our children of their parents, their pride, and even their shelter.
At the same time, there's a treatment centre whose empty beds are threatening to create a financial crisis.
And Iqaluit's Inuit are slowly being annihilated by suicide.
Yep, there's much to correct and heal in Iqaluit
But are these the social ills that are now vexing Iqaluit's leading citizens?
Surprise, surprise. Neither poverty , homelessness, nor the despair of hungry children is enough to activate the wrath of Iqaluit's righteous petition-makers and protesters.
From within the insulated bunkers of their homes and offices, it's the plight of a soon-to-be unemployed librarian that has many of our esteemed citizens howling in protest.
Only in a community as screwed up as Iqaluit could such an absurdity be comprehensible.
Yes, libraries are important. Yes, the GNWT's recent policy announcements in that area raise legitimate questions. And yes, Charles Dent, the education minister with the fancy haircut and the expensive suits, has done a lousy job explaining what his department plans to do.
But is this molehill of an issue worth the mountain of energy that some Iqaluit citizens are expending on it?
Two, count 'em, two, jobs have been cut - one in Iqaluit and one in Rankin Inlet. No libraries have been closed. No books have been burned. The sky has not fallen and the earth has not opened up to swallow the multitudes.
Indeed, the GNWT even says it wants to take the tens of thousands of dollars a year it will save and use it to provide services to communities that don't have libraries.
What's wrong with that? Nothing, probably.
But many Iqaluit residents, for some unfathomable reason, think there's a lot wrong with it. And in a righteous frenzy, some have arm-twisted their gullible neighbours into signing a petition calling on the GNWT to "save our libraries."
Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco presented that petition in the legislative assembly on Monday, and has repeatedly asked Dent questions about the issue.
One indignant constituent even told Picco that he'll get thrown out of office in the next election if he doesn't do more about the library issue.
As "proof" that the GNWT plans to strip Nunavut of its libraries, Iqaluit's petitioners have been waving around a photocopy of a GNWT discussion paper that somebody dredged up. But what they don't tell you is that the discussion paper is not GNWT policy, and likely never will be.
And what they also don't tell you is that Iqaluit is a community already rich in libraries, especially compared to similar-sized towns elsewhere in Canada.
In addition to Iqaluit's well-funded and well-stocked Centennial Library, the Nunatta Arctic College campus boasts one of the best Arctic libraries in the world - underused though it may be, it's also open to the public, and managed by a competent librarian. And Inuksuk High School also has an adequate library for youth.
Come on people. Get your priorities straightened out before you cause any more embarrassment for those in the community who do care about the life and death issues many people are facing here. 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 February 7, 1997
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