Eleven Nunavut communities slated for new public housing

Housing headed for communities with the highest needs

Are you in line for a public housing unit in Nunavut?

Then you’ll be interested to learn that Peter Taptuna, the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, announced May 15 in the Nunavut legislature which Nunavut communities can expect to see new public housing units built by the...

Photo: On the ice at the CamBay Omingmak Frolics

Nunavut uses comic book to do sex education

“To improve and maintain sexual health in the territory”

Grade 8 students in Nunavut can now learn about sexual health with the help of a comic book, Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s premier and education minister said this week in the Nunavut legislature.

Aariak called the comic book an “exciting and innovative curriculum resource that promotes good sexual health...

Nunavut has plans to tackle bullying in schools: Aariak

“Bullying is serious"

Nunavut’s education department and its district education authorities are working on ways to reduce bullying in schools, Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak, also the territory’s education minister, said May 15 in the legislative assembly.

Talk about those plans surfaced after Jeannie Ugyuk, MLA for...

Nunavut’s chief health officer wants more “aggressive action” to curb smoking

Tobacco-related illness and death “deprives families of income, increases the cost of health care and hinders economic development"

Last year, Nunavut residents spent more than $43 million on tobacco products, says the chief medical officer of health’s 2011-12 Tobacco Control Act Annual Report.

Smoking is the main reason for high rates of lung cancer in Nunavut, which accounts for almost half of the cancer deaths in the...

Photo:  Hat-throw marks Rankin Inlet grad

Nunavut Premier praises Arctic Council’s focus on mental health

"Hope that this will be a focus of Canada’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council"

During the Northern Premiers Forum held May 9 and May 10,Canada’s three northern premiers expressed support for the Arctic Council and any support the council can provide towards improving the mental wellbeing of Arctic residents, Nunavut premier Eva Aariak said May 15 in the legislative assembly.

Photo: A trip to Abisko’s research station, May 15

Blizzard hampers search for employee missing near Nunavut mine project

Driller from Ontario missing near Agnico Eagle's Meliadine mine project

Despite blizzard conditions, the search continues for an Agnico Eagle subcontractor who was lost on May 14, off a marked about three-kilometre trail southwest of the Meliadine gold mine project near Rankin Inlet.

The drill worker was reported missing in the morning at about 7 a.m. after he failed...

Aglukkaq calls Greenland premier’s boycott of Arctic Council meeting “a domestic issue”

Also "a missed opportunity" for Aleqa Hammond

A “domestic issue,” is how Leona Aglukkaq, Canada’s minister responsible for the Arctic Council, described the decision by Greenland’s premier to boycott the May 15 Arctic Council ministerial in Kiruna, Sweden.

Aleqa Hammond, the premier of Greenland, decided to boycott the May 15 Arctic Council...

Nunavut Premier welcomes Arctic Council’s new leadership

"An opportunity to act on issues important to Nunavummiut"

Hours after the May 15 Arctic Council ministerial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden ended, Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak sent out a statement saying that Government of Nunavut looks forward to a “strong northern perspective in Canada” under the chairmanship of Canada and with Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq as...

Arctic biodiversity report calls for “decisive actions” from Arctic Council

Report says climate change a big threat to species

A report tabled May 15 in at the Arctic Council meeting in Kiruna, Sweden called for “decisive” action on biodiversity to protect more than 21,000 “cold adapted species” and to “help sustain vast, relatively undisturbed ecosystems of tundra, mountains, fresh water and seas and the valuable services...

Photo: Snowplow gets bogged down in Rankin Inlet

Nunavut’s High Arctic wants park to protect fossil forest from coal company

Canada Coal maintains its licenses "keep them out of reach of others"

People in the High Arctic communities of Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord say they want to see a territorial park created to protect the ancient fossil forest of Axel Heiberg Island from exploration.

That’s because they fear the unique vestiges of the 50-million-year-old forest may be damaged by...

Photo: Under Kiruna, May 15

Nunavut MLAs want federal audit of Nutrition North Canada

MLAs plan to put motion forward May 16

Nunavut MLAs want the Auditor General of Canada to look at the Nutrition North Canada program, the legislative assembly heard May 14.

South Baffin MLA Fred Schell gave notice that he would bring forward a motion May 16 to that effect during a member’s statement.

“I’m sure my colleagues and I...

Federal minister announces culture money for Nunavut

Community and arts festivals on the list for money from Ottawa

Ollie the muskox, the mascot of Cambridge Bay’s Omingmak Frolics, has another reason smile: Vic Toews, the federal minister for public safety, was in Iqaluit May 14 to announce the Omingmak Frolics, along with other festivals and cultural events, cultural spaces and official languages projects in...

Greenpeace dumps on Arctic Council’s Kiruna Declaration

"The Arctic Council should be a forum for preventing environmental disasters"

As Canada officially took the chair of the Arctic Council in Kiruna, Sweden, May 15, Greenpeace sent a direct message to Canada.

Greenpeace said in a May 15 statement that the Arctic Council is intended to be a forum for ensuring the sustainability and environmental protection of the region, but...

Iqaluit councillors square off on boulders and posts

“To remove them would be reckless”

Do boulders and wooden posts on Iqaluit roadsides provide safety for pedestrians, or are they a roadside hazard?

That debate resurfaced at the Iqaluit city council’s meeting on May 14, when a motion by the Engineering and Public Works Committee of the Whole came up for vote.

Coun. Romeyn...

Photo: Leona Aglukkaq speaks at the Arctic Council May 15 ministerial