Makivik Corp. presidential race: the candidates
Four people in the running for Jan. 19 vote
“I want people to understand that in 1975, people gave up the rights to our lands and rivers,” said Makivik Corp. President Pita Aatami, who is running for a sixth term. “So how do we get back what was stolen from the Inuit?” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)
Senator Charlie Watt says that as president, he wants to give the power back to Makivik’s beneficiaries. “I will be president for a few years while the community begins to transition, and I will be training other men and women to take the lead,” Watt said. (FILE PHOTO)
Jobie Tukkiapik says the time is right for leadership change at Makivik Corp., while Nunavimmiut are ready to start their own “Quiet Revolution.” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)
“I see our society in Nunavik in a transition period,” said Makivik presidential hopeful Harry Tulugak. “We need to understand why we’re going through this to (be able to) see where we’re going.” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)
Makivik Corp. will ring in the New Year with a race for its top job.
Makivik’s long-time president Pita Aatami will seek re-election Jan. 19, 2012.
But Aatami has some competition: he’s running against three other candidates; Jobie Tukkiapik, Harry Tulugak and Senator Charlie Watt.
Eligible beneficiaries of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement can vote at advance polls on Jan. 12, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at local municipal offices or Landholding Corp. offices.
On election day, polls will open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. at local municipal offices or Landholding Corp. offices.
Polling stations for Puvirnituq and Killiniq will be located at the local municipal offices.
Beneficiaries outside the region should contact Makivik’s Montreal office at (514) 745-8880 for information on how to vote.
Read a profile on each of the four candidates below.
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PITA AATAMI
1. About the candidate:
Makivik Corp. President Pita Aatami, 51, was first elected president in 1998, and has since been re-elected to four more terms in the organization’s top job. Before he was elected as president, Aatami served as Makivik’s treasurer and board member.
In his role as president, Aatami also sits as chairman of First Air and has served as former president of Kuujjuamiut, Halutik Enterprises and other Makivik subsidiaries
2. Why did you decide to run this time? :
Aatami says he’s committed to the “Inuit cause.”
“The work is never finished, in any kind of organization that is dealing with people’s needs,” he said. “I feel I’m the best person for the job because I’m fighting for Inuit issues.”
“This Plan Nord that’s coming is a major concern,” he said of Quebec’s sweeping plan to develop the province north of the 49th parallel. “And in no way will it unilaterally go ahead without our [approval].”
3. The biggest issue facing Nunavimmiut in 2012? :
In the face of Plan Nord and upcoming development targeted at northern Quebec, Aatami said Nunavimmiut want to work towards getting back the autonomy and control over their lands, which they lost when the Northern Quebec Inuit Assoication (Makivik’s forerunner) signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975.
As Makivik president, Aatami wants to sign a Nunavik government deal that will see the region regain control over lands and waters north of the 55th parallel.
“I want people to understand that in 1975, people gave up the rights to our lands and rivers,” Aatami said. “So how do we get back what was stolen from the Inuit?”
As Quebec’s Plan Nord moves forward, Aatami said that Makivik will continue to work with other regional organizations to develop a strategy.
“We have our own plans, it’s not as if we’re going in blind,” he said. “If [our plans] aren’t considered, we’ve made it clear that we won’t be supporting it.”
4. What should happen with negotiations for a future Nunavik government? :
Aatami plans to see progress in the discussion around Nunavik’s future government in 2012.
“We hope to move forward on this file,” he said. “If so, our language and culture will be recognized and Nunavik would have actual decision-making power over the region.”
Aatami wants to see Inuktitut recognized as the region’s official language under a Nunavik government. Aatami said the Avataq Cultural Institute can play a big role in supporting those efforts, which he refers to as Nunavik’s “Bill 101,” after Quebec’s French-language legislation.
5. Name some specific initiatives you would like to put in place to help address the region’s social needs:
• Housing shortage: Aatami is currently in negotiations with the federal government to try and secure more social housing for the region. But those talks have hit a standstill, he said, which he hopes will have the help of a mediator in the New Year.
“The federal government is saying that it’s fulfilled its [housing] obligation over the last 10 years,” Aatami said. “But we’re telling them it doesn’t meet our needs.
“If this situation existed in the South, it wouldn’t be tolerated.”
• Youth: “Nunavik has one of the youngest and fastest growing populations in the country,” Aatami said. “We have to look at what we’re we going to do for their future.”
Aatami said support for Nunavik’s youth must be centred around the opportunities that exist in the region, such as within the growing mining sector, tourism or within a new government structure.
“We have to be realistic about what we have in Nunavik.”
JOBIE TUKKIAPIK
1. About the candidate:
Jobie Tukkiapik, is the director general at the Kativik Regional Government, a position he has held for the past six years.
Before that, he studied commerce at John Abbott College in Montreal and later started his career at the KRG’s employment and training department, which he also headed before accepted his current position at the KRG.
Tukkiapik has also worked as a pilot at Air Inuit.
The Kuujjuaq father of three has also served as a local member to Makivik’s board of directors for the last 12 years.
2. Why did you decide to run this time? :
(This is Tukkiapik’s first campaign for Makivik’s presidency.)
“I think the timing is right,” Tukkiapik said. “In the last few years, I’ve had some concerns about the orientation of the organization. There are some areas that haven’t been focussed on, and many [beneficiaries] haven’t been consulted.”
Tukkiapik says the time is right for change, while Nunavimmiut are ready to start their own “Quiet Revolution,” a period in the 1960s when Quebec is considered to have given birth to its national identity.
3. The biggest issue facing Nunavimmiut in 2012? :
Tukkiapik remains concerned about the scale of mining development expected to come to the region under Quebec’s Plan Nord, and how that development will impact Nunavik’s communities.
Tukkiapik wants to create a Nunavik-centred mining policy to prepare for future growth.
“We need to hire a team to see what resources are out there, and map the best approach for us,” he said. “My priority for 2012 is to work on a position on mining.”
Creating that policy will require consultation with Makivik’s beneficiaries, Tukkiappik acknowledges.
An often-mentioned spinoff of the mining industry under Plan Nord is a potential road link to Kuujjuaq. This has been prepared without consulting Nunavimmiut – and Tukkiapik says that is a problem.
“If there is going to a road or a railway, what are the impacts for us of being connected?” he said. “I foresee if it does come around, it would have a huge impact on the traditional lifestyle we live. Once you connect a road, you are no longer isolated.”
4. What should happen with negotiations for a future Nunavik government? :
Tukkiapik called the recent meeting on Nunavik governance hosted by Makivik in November “a positive start” to discussion on future negotiations.
“I understand we have to go back to the table, because what was proposed was clearly refused,” Tukkiapik said of the Nunavik Regional Government model, which 66 per cent of Nunavummiut voted against last April. “It may take a bit of time, but the dialogue is there.”
But in the meantime, Tukkiapik said that Nunavimmiut cannot wait for self-government to resolve the region’s social issues.
5. Name some specific initiatives you would like to put in place to help address the region’s social needs:
• Education: Jobs are out there, but Inuit need better education to acquire them, Tukkipik said.
“We need to bring education and training as close to the people as we can,” he said. “Education is a way to empower ourselves and take real ownership of out territory.”
Tukkiapik points to the success of training for teachers and daycare staff which has been offered in Nunavik. He’d like to work to bring nursing and paralegal studies to the region as well.
• Cost of living: Tukkiapik says he would like to implement an elders’ allowance.
• Partnerships: If elected, Tukkiapik wants to see Makivik work more closely with landholding corporations across the region, to provide them with better resources and funding.
• Nutrition North Canada: Makivik could – and should – do more to represent the region’s views on the Nutrition North program and help Nunavimmiut make the transition from the previous food mail program, Tukkiapik said.
• Services: Tukkiapik says that Makivik should offer more legal support services to its beneficiaries.
CHARLIE WATT
1. About the candidate:
Charlie Watt, 67, was the founding president of the Northern Quebec Inuit Association in 1972, a position that led him to help negotiate and sign the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975.
Watt went on to found Makivik Corp., where he served as president until 1982.
The Kuujjuaq father of five has served in the Senate of Canada since he was appointed by the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1984.
2. Why did you decide to run this time? :
Watt says he wants to be president again to “redirect the path of our communities and find a healthier place.”
“We have such great potential in our region and we are living in such an exciting time, that I look forward to working with our newest generation of leaders and transferring my knowledge to them,” Watt told Nunatsiaq News. “I created many of the institutions that govern our lives here in the North, and I am not afraid to take apart the ones that aren’t working.”
Watt says that after more than 25 years in the Senate, he wants to be closer to his family and friends in Nunavik. He plans to wind down his work in the Senate in the New Year.
3. The biggest issue facing Nunavimmiut in 2012? :
“We have too many kids who are taken away from their families and are removed from their homes and out of our territory,” Watt said. “And we have a tremendous problem with drugs and alcohol dependency.
“If we want to keep out families safe and healthy we must also have enough quality homes.”
4. What should happen with negotiations for a future Nunavik government? :
“We know that the Kativik Regional Government is an administrative body with limited jurisdiction. Now is the time to move to establish a legislative assembly,” Watt said. “This matter doesn’t require negotiations with Canada or Quebec. We need to have more internal discussion and internal decisions have to be made before we advance.”
5. Name some specific initiatives you would like to put in place to help address the region’s social needs:
• Education: “We need education opportunities in the North, a community college in Nunavik and improved Internet access for online delivery of programs,” Watt said. ‘We also need community centres where adults can go for recreation and learning at night, in their free time.”
• Healthcare: “There is an acute need for a medical coverage program that works for Inuit people and out communities,” Watt said. “We need reliable access to medical treatment — in English and Inuttitut, and better coordinated services with Montreal.”
• Youth: Watt wants to create the position of Youth President within Makivik to ensure young Nunavimmiut will be actively engaged.
• Montreal’s Inuit community “needs a health complex with accommodation and treatment facilities for the aged,” Watt said. “Our permanent Inuit residents in Montreal also need a community centre where they can hold community feasts, language classes, art courses and where we can go to feel a link to our home.”
• Intellectual property: “We need to create a department to deal with intellectual property issues, and provide training to artists and innovators to teach them how they can preserve our collective knowledge, and benefit personally without giving an advantage to non-Inuit.”
• Government relations: “Makivik has closed its Ottawa office and we have no reliable lobby on Parliament Hill,” Watt said. “We need more Inuit in Ottawa, [and] we need to hire people to work for us there. I am amazed at how little politicians know about our way of life, [and] this is not going to improve unless we do something about it.”
• Housing: “Until we can guarantee housing for everyone, I think we should re-evaluate the housing criteria,” Watt said. “I think we are focussing on what the government can do for us and not looking at what we can do for ourselves.”
• Makivik’s role: “I am convinced the office of president should not be held by one man for an entire generation and this executive and board of directors terms of office will be revisited at our next annual general meeting,” Watt said. “We will also deal with the question of amendment to the by-laws and give the powers back to the people.”
HARRY TULUGAK
1. About the candidate:
Harry Tulugak says he learned most of what he knows growing up and working in the co-op system in his hometown of Puvirnituq.
Tulugak went on to work as executive secretary to the president of the Fédération des co-opératives du Nouveau-Québec in the 1980s.
The father of five served as mayor of Puvirnituq in the early 1990s, before he was named to the Nunavik Commission, mandated to make recommendations on the future design of a new regional government in Nunavik.
From there, Tulugak was named by Makivik as a co-negotiator to the Nunavik Regional Government’s final agreement.
2. Why did you decide to run this time? :
This will be the third time Tulugak faces off against Pita Aatami for Makivik’s presidency — and hopefully, he says, the third time will be the charm.
Tulugak says he wants to help Nunavik form a strong and prosperous vision, at a time when Nunavimmiut are facing difficult social changes.
“I see our society in Nunavik in a transition period,” he said. “We need to understand why we’re going through this to (be able to) see where we’re going.
“And I believe I could lend a hand in finding ways to help out society get through this.”
3. The biggest issue facing Nunavimmiut in 2012? :
Tulugak says he laments the resources that the region continues to give up.
“During the James Bay negotiations, my [late] father told me that we need to be strong, and we can never give up our land,” he said.
The messages of many Inuit leaders from the 1970s still ring true today, Tulugak said, although a younger generations of Nunavimmiut are out of touch with the work those elders did to build the region.
Tulugak said that while touring the region in 2011 as a NRG negotiator, he came in contact with a “lost generation” of young Nunavimmiut who don’t know the story of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which he says is vital to facing the future.
That’s because it applies to much of the debate around Quebec Plan Nord today, he said.
“We’re willing to share out resources, but on our own terms,” Tulugak said. “Right now, we’re spectators to all this development.”
4. What should happen with negotiations for a future Nunavik government? :
Tulugak would like to see a new Nunavik government come to fruition, with full participation of Makivik’s beneficiaries.
But he says he doesn’t see the rejected Nunavik Regional Government agreement as a failure, but rather a foundation to work from.
“There been a lot of public outcry from past Makivik leadership, which was very sad,” he said. “I can’t say that people didn’t understand the [NRG’s final agreement], because I travelled to every community and spoke about it.
“But I did not give enough time for the local population to go through the document and make changes. This time, we must consult communities and with no time table.”
5. Name some specific initiatives you would like to put in place to help address the region’s social needs:
• Nunavik-centred policy: Tulugak wants to help create a “think tank of Nunavik minds” – a body that would develop regional policy based on Inuit values.
“Perhaps a permanent think tank could lend solutions to some of the issues we face, like foster care and education,” he said. “It would give a sense of direction to our leadership.”
• Makivik’s executive should be inclusive of non-Inuttitut speakers, who are not currently permitted to run for election.
“This is just absolutely wrong,” Tulugak said. “Either they’re beneficiaries or not.”
