Around Nunavik

By -none-

RG council gets a pay raise
Kativik Regional Government council and executive members can look forward to a pay raise, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006.

Councillors will see their annual honoraria rising from $11,920 to $12,164; executive members from $33,560 to $34,280; the vice-chair from $70,491 to $72,024 and the chairperson from $90,918 to $92,900. The speaker and deputy speaker also receive a small additional amount.
Security holes worry councillors
Poor airport security, easy access to guns and rampant vandalism were some concerns discussed by councillors at the recent Kativik Regional Government council meeting in Kuujjuaq.

In Salluit, the snow is so high around the airport that vandals have managed to climb over the fence and get into the tarmac area, said Coun. Charlie Pinguaqtuq.

The lack of airport security checks on flights through Schefferville is also a concern for councillors, who say drug traffickers can catch flights from Quebec City to Kuujjuaq on Air Inuit, stopping in Schefferville.

Several councillors also said they are concerned about firearms in communities, suggesting cabinets or trigger locks need to be supplied and used more often. They said they’re worried about being charged with an offense or losing a firearm if it’s used improperly.

The council discussed using public safety officers to promote firearm safety. The presence of night guards, now on duty in Kuujjuaq, were also mentioned as a way of lowering vandalism.

Money from Nunavik’s billion-dollar Sanarrutik Agreement on economic and social development helps pay for these positions.

A road or railway to Nunavik?
Studies are underway to see whether a road, railway or both can lower the high cost of living in Quebec’s North.

Feasibility studies are looking at a road link from Kuujjuaraapik to the South through La Grande, as well as a railway from Kuujjuaq to Schefferville.

Philip Enish, the band chief of the Kawawachikamach Naskapi and a full-fledged regional councillor, told his fellow Kativik Regional Government councillors a rail connection could unite Naskapi and Inuit and bring prices down. The Naskapi already own their own railway company, which brings up goods from the South, he said.

KRG councillors also learned at the recent meeting in Kuujjuaq that Quebec allocated $500,000 in its recent budget to the KRG to lower the cost of transportation in Nunavik.

“It looks like the government is beginning to deliver,” said KRG chairperson Maggie Emudluk.

However, the KRG had been lobbying for subsidies worth $3 million.

Ivujivik councillor and mayor Adamie Kalingo noted the return airfare to Montreal from his community in $3,700.67.

“That is too much,” Kalingo said. “It would be very hard for a southerner to have this expense.”

The note to the Quebec budget says the “problems of the cost of living” will be discussed at the Katimajiit Forum on development in Nunavik. This forum was to be held last month, but it was cancelled shortly before the March 26 Quebec election was called. The forum is now tentatively scheduled for late August.
Nunavik continues food coupon program
Since Nov. 2004, Nunavik’s food coupon program has provided help to families and individuals to help them pay for food.

At the recent Kativik Regional Government council meeting, councillors decided not to change how its $1 million food coupon program in handed out.

The program gives $50 to $100 a month per person in coupons that can be exchanged at local stores for healthy foods.

Some councillors weren’t happy to see that lard, used in bannock, was on a list of foods that shouldn’t be bought.

And, although one councillor said the coupons could encourage able-bodied residents not to work, Aisara Qinujuak of Puvirnituq said he felt the program worked well.

“The residents of Puvirnituq are working to the extent they can, and a lot of people are still unemployed,” he said, “It’s not right to say these people are lazy. If we say Inuit don’t want to work we’re saying a lie.”

“We are grateful for the program,” said Coun. Mosesie Munick of Tasiujaq.

New name proposed for Koroc River
The Kativik Regional Government council approved a resolution for the Avataq Cultural Institute to officially seek a new name for the Koroc River.

Avataq will also ask the Commission de la toponoymie du Québec, the public body responsible for managing Quebec place names, to have the new provincial park near Kangiqsualujjuaq be given the Inuttitut name for the Koroc River, which is “Kuururjuaq.“

Kuururjuaq means a large valley in a “u” shape in Inuttitut.

If the commission accepts the change, the new park will officially be called ”Parc national de la Kuururjuaq” and the Koroc River ”Rivière Kuururjuaq.”

“The KRG fully supports the use of Inuit names to designate the projected national park, the valley and the river,” reads part of the resolution.

However, some councillors pointed out that the new names were in French.

A KRG lawyer told the councillors that all official place names in Quebec must be in French, although material produced in conjunction with the park may use Inuttitut.

Coun. Philip Enish, the band chief of the Kawawachikamach Naskapi, said the Naspaki, who called the valley “Caribou Heaven” in their language, had not been consulted about any name changes.

Enish, who voted in favour of the resolution despite his misgivings, said the Naskapi planned to present a brief at this past week’s hearings on the Kuururjuaq park in Kangiqsualujjuaq.
Safer Communities Program seeks an Inuttitut name
Makivik Corp. and the Kativik Regional Government have selected Andy Moorhouse of Inukjuak as the first coordinator of the region’s safer communities funding program.

Among Moorhouse’s first tasks: to oversee a regional contest for the Inuttitut naming of the program.

An amendment to the Sanarrutik social and development agreement gave Nunavik more than $300 million over the next 22 years to pay for this program, which is to be used to prevent and combat crime and to promote safe and healthy communities.

Moorhouse will work closely with the Safer Communities Committee, which will identify the region’s needs and recommend priorities and strategies for the program.

Four Nunavik representatives, Johnny N. Adams, Jobie Tukkiapik, Rhoda Kokiapik and Jocelyn Barrett sit with four Quebec representatives from the sectors of health, justice and public security: Jeannie May, Jacques Prégent, Daniel Guénard and Mélanie Savoie.

Suggestions for the program’s Inuttitut name should be sent before March 20 to:

Safer Communities Program
c/o Andy Moorhouse, Coordinator
General Delivery
Inukjuak, Quebec
J0M 1M0

Ullumi: a documentary and web site
Ullumi, a recently-launched documentary and web site, features familiar faces from Nunavik and Nunavut.

The project, in production since 2001, is the brainchild of a Quebec-based company called Les films de l’Isle, which wanted through Ullumi to bring today’s North to the public via film and the Internet.

In the documentary Ullumi, Qajaaq Ellsworth and Lena Ellsworth of Iqaluit, along with Nunavimmiut Evie Mark and Tunu Napartuk, all young adults, talk about the issues which concern them the most – keeping their culture and language strong, education, self-government, youth, the role of women and importance of family.

At Ullumi’s web site at www.ullumi.tv, users can see short recorded segments of different people and activities – ice fishing, a flight, visit to a store and interviews with artist Mattiusi Iyaituk as well as Adamie Kalingo, the mayor of Ivujivik.

The web site was launched on Feb. 20 during a Quebec film festival, but won’t be complete until Sept. 2007. The web site, now mainly in French, should be in French, English and Inuttitut when it’s finished.

Ullumi’s financial support included Telefilm Canada, Télé-Québec, APTN, Makivik Corporation, Kativik Regional Government, Air Inuit, First Air, the National Film Board and the Kakivak Association.

Kuujjuaq-Québec snowmobile trek meets icy end
A snowmobile trek to raise funds for childhood cancer met an abrupt end earlier this month, when two snowmobiles sank through thin ice.

The team of four snowmobilers started out Feb. 25 from Kuujjuaq, with the goal of travelling along both coasts of Nunavik towards southern Quebec.

But on March 6, two snowmobiles sunk through soft sea ice, not far from Inukjuak. A third snowmobile was half-submerged.

Bruce Turner, the expedition’s local organizer, received a satellite phone distress call from the expedition shortly after noon that day. He was told one man was in the water.

He notified the Kativik Regional Police Force in Kuujjuaq, who in turn notified police in Inukjuak and gave them the GPS coordinates of the stranded men.

Local Canadian Rangers then mobilized a rescue team. Four Rangers left Inukjuak, and two others left shortly afterwards to warm a cabin in the area.

The Canadian Rangers arrived on the scene at 2:30 p.m., and within the hour, Ranger Johnny Williams called Turner to say they were okay.

Air Inuit dispatched its Dash 8 to do a fly-over to check the situation.

By 8 p.m. everyone and all the equipment was back to Inukjuak, and the expedition was officially over.

“I want to thank the Canadian Rangers and the KRPF for providing this professional level of service and fast response time,” Turner said.

The trek is over, but the auction of a Cruise North cruise and round-trip tickets to Montreal continues on its web site at www.quebec-kuujjuaq.com
Celebrating International Women’s Day in Kuujjuaq
The Kativik Regional Goverment celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8. Lisa Epoo and Lili Juteau from the KRG’s employment, training and child care department organized a potluck lunch for the KRG’s female employees.

Two elders, who were born and raised in Kuujjuaq, were invited to share their stories and have lunch with the women at the KRG office in Kuujjuaq: Dorothy Mesher and Christina Gordon.

“What a change,” Mesher said, as she compared her story of growing up in a community with no school and no nursing station, to life in Kuujjuaq today, with two schools and a ­hospital.

Share This Story

(0) Comments