Inuit leaders discuss national priorities at ITK’s annual general meeting

RANKIN INLET—Inuit leaders from all four regions met in Rankin Inlet last week to discuss national Inuit priorities as part of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s annual general meeting.

The delegation packed a room in Mary Our Mother church from Sept. 11 to 12. The meeting was also streamed live on Facebook.

On day one, Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials gave an update on the department’s new Arctic region announced in 2018.

The new DFO region would encompass all of Inuit Nunangat—a first for a federal department.

Gabriel Nirlungayuk, DFO’s regional director of the new Arctic region, told delegates the department has completed 50 community engagement sessions with Inuit on the new region over the last eight months.

“We need to hear from them because it’s going to be our future,” he said through translation.

Nirlungayuk said there are still many more steps to take before the new region becomes a reality.

One of those steps is to establish the geographic boundary of the new region, which is still yet to be determined, he said.

Other priorities are to transfer responsibility for the North from southern offices to northern offices and develop a business case for more investment in the new region.

And with a federal election around the corner, Nirlungayuk said a multi-year funding stream is needed to carry the project forward.

“The next government are the ones who will build this infrastructure,” he said.

Aluki Kotierk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and ITK board member, said she was pleased to hear that Inuit want to be involved in DFO’s discussions about the new region.

“This is good news.… If you put up a tent, you need to make sure that it’s secure. If Inuit are going to be involved in fisheries, it needs to be properly structured,” Kotierk said through translation.

On day two, delegates received updates on federal legislation.

ITK noted that Bill C-92, An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families is set to come into effect Jan. 2020.

Bill C-262, a private member’s bill that aimed to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, was also discussed. The bill died in the Senate after passing in the House of Commons.

Charlie Watt, Makivik Corporation’s president, acknowledged that although the bill died, it could still come back in the next Parliament.

ITK also presented its Inuit-specific analysis of federal budgets from 2010 to 2019.

That analysis showed that federal budgets from 2018 and 2019 contain the the greatest amount of Inuit-specific spending.

It also showed that its only in the the last three to five years that budgets have taken a distinctions-based approach to spending on Indigenous peoples over the last three to five years.

This means that budgets now use the terms First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. In earlier years, Inuit were rarely mentioned in federal budgets, the analysis showed.

While much of the discussion over the two days focused on national priorities, delegates also brought forward local issues.

Show of support for Kivalliq hydro-fibre project

For example, David Ningeongan, the Kivalliq Inuit Association’s president, put forward a resolution, which was passed unanimously, to support the further development of the Kivalliq hydro fibre-link project.

“We have been pushing the Kivalliq hydro-fibre ink project for the last couple years,” Ningeongan said.

The project would create a transmission line and a fibre optic line from northern Manitoba into the Kivalliq communities of Arviat, Whale Cove, Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet and Baker Lake.

That project has already received $1.6 million from the federal government for a feasibility study.

“That study is going to be done by March 2020. And we’d like to continue to move the project forward, as such we are seeking support from this delegation to ask the federal government to continue to support this initiative,” Ningeongan said.

“As you all know, a lot of the power generation system is all diesel generated, so we’re looking for clean power and this makes sense for us to continue to move the project forward.”

Nunavut’s leadership have lobbied for years to extend Manitoba’s existing power grid north to communities along western Hudson Bay—the most recent feasibility study was completed in 2016.

ITK’s board of directors also met from Sept. 10 to 11, where they determined regional allocations for federal Inuit-specific spending on early learning and child care for the next eight months and continued discussions on a unified Inuktut orthography, a news release said.

ITK also held a community feast at Simon Alaittuq School where they presented the annual ITK awards.

The new Inuit-led national health survey was also announced during the AGM.

The next ITK AGM is tentatively set to take place in Puvirnituq, Nunavik next year.