KRG wants Plan Nord to tackle social issues

March 3 at the Kaittitavik Town Hall people in Kuujjuaq will have their say about Plan Nord, Quebec’s big development plan for northern Quebec. “We’re involved in this because we live here,” said KRG chair Maggie Emudluk about Quebec’s Plan Nord, which is expected to be released later this month. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ– The Kativik Regional Government wants more insight into what Quebec has in mind for Plan Nord when three provincial ministers arrive in Kuujjuaq Mar. 3 to discuss the province’s much-anticipated northern blueprint.

Quebec’s native affairs minister, Geoffrey Kelley, along with fellow ministers Nathalie Normandeau and Pierre Corbeil, will speak at a public meeting in Kuujjuaq Thursday morning at the Kaittitavik town hall, starting at 11 a.m..

This will be the final consultation between Nunavik and the Quebec government, which is set to announce its 25-year plan for development north of the 49th parallel later this month, several months later than first planned.

Speaking March 2 at a meeting of the Kativik Regional Government council in Kuujjuaq March 2, KRG chair Maggie Emudluk repeated Nunavik’s position: that Plan Nord won’t get Nunavik’s support unless it addresses the region’s many social concerns.

“We’re involved in this because we live here,” Emudluk said. “A big portion of the land [targeted by the plan] is land we live in, so we can have a say in this.”

“Although they talk about many years ahead, we always try and bring them back to our present situation [concerning] education, health and housing,” Emudluk told regional councillors.

The region has already pressed the province for a housing catch-up program to produce 1,000 new housing units along with measures to reduce the high cost of living.

On March 31, its three-year $12-million provincial subsidy to reduce transportation costs in Nunavik is set to expire.
In the meantime, the KRG is hoping to negotiate a renewed subsidy with Quebec for $4.6 million, good until April 2012.

But just how Nunavik is to benefit from Plan Nord remains to be seen, Emudluk said.

“They haven’t given us a good idea of what they want to do,” she said.

Quebec premier Jean Charest has promised prosperity for all Quebecers through his northern plan, promising investments of tens of billions of dollars, which in turn will sustain ten of thousands of jobs.

In the premier’s inaugural speech Feb. 24, Charest also said the plan would also position Quebec to benefit from the opening of the Northwest Passage by the creation of deepwater ports in Nunavik — although he did not say where these would go.