Budget, elders in need top Kativik Regional Council agenda

KUUJJUAQ — The Kativik Regional Councillors met in Ivujivik this week to discuss the Kativik Regional Government’s recent activities and to set objectives for 2006, including the priorities for Nunavik’s five-year $65 million Isurruutiit program for new infrastructure.

“That’s very important for the communities,” said Maggie Emudluk, chair of the KRG since last November.

In January, the executive approved the KRG’s total $140-million budget.

But Emudluk said there’s still concern over the Kativik Regional Police Force’s deficit of more than $500,000.

“The regional council has expectations, and we have to deliver,” Emudluk said.

Among the projects considered by the KRG council is a proposal to form a Nunavik Elders Association, which could, among other issues, look at indexation for elders’ pensions.

“They get exactly the same amount as down South, and a lot of the programs that they can access through the government have no information in Inuttitut,” Emudluk said.

Last June, council members were presented with the research report, A Socio-economic Profile of Elders in Nunavik. That report surveyed elders and found that 419 elders in Nunavik need urgent assistance.

“We want to work on that,” Emudluk said.

To get feedback on community concerns, Emudluk, the KRG executive and several department heads toured communities last month on the Hudson Bay coast, from Puvirnituq to Kuujjuaraapik, where they met with municipal councils and held phone-in discussions on community radio.

“We wanted to listen to what they had to say,” Emudluk said. “I think it’s important for the elected people to touch base once a year.”

The need for more housing, the high cost of living and hunter support were among the issues brought up in the five communities visited.

At this week’s meeting in Ivujivik, councillors were also brought up to date on the brief presented by KRG and Makivik Corporation concerning the creation of a seat in Quebec’s National Assembly for Nunavik.

The brief argues that Nunavik, because of its history, geography and unique character, should be accepted as an exception by the Election Act of Quebec and given its own provincial riding.

“Making room on Quebec’s political scene for a small, predominately Inuit population living in this vast region for thousands of years would be a decision universally applauded,” Emudluk told the commission looking at electoral boundary revision in Quebec.

At present, Nunavik is part of the sprawling Ungava riding, which includes francophone and Cree regions to the south.