We want a Nunavik riding, KRG councillor says

Muncy Novalinga told Quebec ministers March 3 that Nunavik would benefit from having its own member of the National Assembly. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — The Quebec government says it supports a separate National Assembly riding for the Nunavik region.

Quebec’s natural resources minister Nathalie Normandeau— also the minster responsible for Plan Nord — made the comment at a town hall meeting in Kuujjuaq Mar. 3, but fell short of committing to any action.

“Our government is favourable to the creation of a special riding for Nunavik,” Normandeau told Nunavik leaders following a presentation on the province’s northern development plan.

Normandeau was responding to a comment from Muncy Novalinga, a Kativik Regional Government deputy councillor from Puvirnituq.

“We do have government ministers who represent us,” Novalinga told Normandeau and other visiting ministers Geoffrey Kelley and Pierre Corbeil. “But what would be most beneficial to us if is Nunavik has its own member of National Assembly. The proportion of time you spend [working] on the North is very small.”

Nunavik is represented federally by the Bloc Québecois and provincially by the Parti Québecois, parties that, Novalinga says, don’t necessarily represent Nunavik’s interests.

But Normandeau’s comment supporting a Nunavik riding comes only months after Quebec Premier Jean Charest scrapped his government’s Bill 92 and suspended the revision process for Quebec’s electoral boundaries. This move essentially closes the door on a separate riding for Nunavik for now.

Since 1983, Nunavik’s Inuit have unsuccessfully called on four separate commissions, federal and provincial, to give the region its own riding.

Different commission reports have suggested new regroupings for northern Quebec, although minimum population requirements mean any new riding would have to encompass more than Nunavik’s 11,000 inhabitants.

Makivik Corp. has previously asked electoral commissions to make special allowances to recognize the region’s ethnic makeup.