In Kuujjuaq, NRG negotiators respond to local fears

Kuujjuaq resident Martha Greig [bottom] hopes the creation of the Nunavik Regional Government will translate into better social services for Nunavimmiut. She and another dozen residents came out Feb. 28 to a consultation at Kuujjuaq’s Kaittitavik town hall to learn more about what the NRG means for the region. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — When the team that negotiated the new regional government agreement for Nunavik rolled into Kuujjuaq Feb. 28, only a handful of the administrative hub’s 2,200-plus residents showed up to learn more about the deal they’ll be asked to ratify on April 27.

But, speaking to more empty seats than bodies in the Kaittitavik town hall, negotiators from Ottawa, Quebec and Nunavik tried to allay fears about the deal and its potential impact on the region.

What happens if non-Inuit become the majority in Nunavik, was the question from a man in the audience.

“There is no danger of being oppressed by the non-Inuit here,” said Harry Tulugak, one of two negotiators for the agreement. “That’s why we’ve made Inuit needs the grounds of this agreement.”

Fear-mongering, particularly on Facebook, has spread rumours that Inuit will lose control over their government and language if the Nunavik Regional Government is adopted, he said.

And other Nunavimmiut have suggested that mining camps such as the one at Raglan mine could become official communities in the region, beginning a trend of non-Inuit dominance in the region.

And these fears are unfounded, too, Tulugak said.

Mining camps will come and go, he said. “We will never lose our language,” Tulugak added. “We will always keep our language as the working language in the NRG.”

This was the negotiating team’s second stop in Kuujjuaq on their regional information tour.

The first was held Feb. 17, with employees of the three organizations affected by the NRG’s proposed amalgamation process.

Under the NRG model, the Kativik Regional Government, the Kativik School Board and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services would merge into public body.

On their second visit to Kuujjuaq, negotiators said the merger could possibly give Inuit a staff a chance to receive better job-related benefits, although they’ll have to wait until the NRG standardizes its working conditions.”

But if the NRG is created, working conditions for those employees will remain the same at first, explained Quebec negotiator Fernand Roy.

“Existing collective agreements will be respected until they end,” Roy said, acknowledging that all three institutions offer different benefits and working conditions to their respective staffs.

“Over time, slowly but surely we’ll harmonize the working conditions,” he said. “It’s not ideal, but the other choice was to have a complete amalgamation right at the start and to force the standardization right at the start.”

That option could have landed the NRG in court.

“We absolutely wanted to avoid a clash right at the start,” Roy said.

Employees that fill new positions created by the NRG will work under conditions determined by a transitional committee, he added.

While some at the Kuujjuaq meeting also said they were worried about more non-Inuit filling positions in the new regional government, school board employee Louisa Whiteley-Tukkiapik, simply came out to learn more about the final agreement, which was released in early February.

Whiteley-Tukkiapik wanted to know how the NRG would be transparent and accountable to Nunavimmiut.

Although negotiators explained that the NRG is a democratic body and will follow Quebec accountability standards, Whiteley-Tukkiapik said there are still “grey areas” in the model and that she plans to read the agreement in full before voting in the April 27 referendum.

And in an emotional plea for more and better social services across the region, local social activist Martha Greig said she hoped a new government would translate into a better quality of life for Inuit in Nunavik.

“We need collaboration between the organizations and the communities because we are all providing the same services to the same people. We need to have an open dialogue,” she said.

New government isn’t necessarily the key, but how effectively Nunavimmiut work together is more important, she said.