1997: Another year closer to Nunavut

January

* Blizzard conditions frustrate efforts to provide crisis counseling after the New Year’s Day murder of 32-year-old Judah Natanine in Clyde River. Natanine’s body is left alone in the house where he was killed for three days, until weather permits RCMP officers from Iqaluit to fly into the community.
* Thomasie Hainnu, 27, is charged with first degree murder. The New Year’s blizzard lashed the south and central Baffin regions with terrific force.
* Sources say Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak is a close to being appointed to the post of interim commissioner for Nunavut.
* The GNWT makes public its response to the Nunavut Implementation Commission’s Footprints 2 report, noting that it’s generally pleased with the NIC’s model for a new Nunavut government.
* Rankin Inlet’s hopes of becoming the fuel resupply hub for the Keewatin region are shot down after the Keewatin Resupply Committee, headed by Kivallivik MLA Kevin O’Brien. O’Brien’s committee estimates the plan drive up the cost of fuel in all Keewatin communities except for Rankin Inlet.
* The union representing teachers in the Northwest Territories threatens to take legal action against the territorial government to force GNWT negotiators back to the bargaining table. The teachers are upset with proposed wage rollbacks for public sector employees.
* Finance Minister john Todd delivers what he describes as the toughest budget in the history of the Northwest Territories, announcing plans to cut public spending by $100 million, lay off hundreds of employees and generate a surplus of $8.9 million by year’s end.

February

* Commercial shippers offer to put their vessels at the Coast Guard’s disposal to held the cash-strapped federal agency carry out its ice-breaking duties. The idea is put forward in response to a Coast Guard plan to retire one of its own icebreakers as a cost-cutting measure.
* Librarians and library supporters in Baffin and Keewatin petition the GNWT to abandon plans to cut funding to regional libraries. Education, Culture and Employment Minister Charles Dent defends the cutbacks as a necessary budgetary measures, and promises that community libraries will be outfitted with computers to improve access to online catalogues of publications.
* A 25-year-old Baker Lake man freezes to death in a blinding snowstorm after losing his way near a mining camp he was hired to look after. Joshua Aminaaq’s companion during the ordeal, which took place 100 kilometers west of the hamlet, survived.
* Anglican clergy scold the territorial government for its obsession with deficit reduction, blaming cuts to social assistance, health care and education for the general feeling of insecurity and despair in the North that is hindering development.

March

* A conference on the future of work in Nunavut is broadcast live across northern Canada’s TVNC network, with participation by residents from all communities. Many wished to remind their fellow Nunavummiut not to forget that jobs are badly needed in small communities, too.
* The Atagoyuk School in Pangnirtung is destroyed by fire, taking with it hundreds of photographs of elders, graduates and graduation ceremonies of the past that had lined the school’s walls. Two hundred students in Grades 6-12 are affected by the blaze. Temporary classrooms are set up at the elementary school and at Nunavut Arctic College’s adult learning center.
* Arlooktoo Takoonarak, 29, arrives in Iqaluit weary and cold after leaving his broken snowmobile and walking for 13 hours back to town alone. The hunter got stuck in slush 42 kilometers from Iqaluit along the Sylvia Grinnell trail, and decided – to his later regret – to leave his machine and kamotik, which was loaded with supplies. He was treated for frostbite and dehydration at the Baffin Regional Hospital, and released.
* Beloved CBC broadcaster Jonah Kelly retires after 31 years of service in the North. His farewell party in Iqaluit attracts well wishers from across Canada, including Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien, who commends Kelly for his contribution to Canadian culture.

April

* Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin announces that he will not run for re-election, prompting speculation about who his successor will be.
* Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak is named interim commissioner of Nunavut, and promptly resigns his seat in the House of Commons.
* Nunavik beneficiaries give Zebedee Nungak the mandate to lead the Makivik Corporation into the next millennium. Nungak vows to use his three-year term as president to continue talks with the federal and Quebec governments on issues like self-government and offshore claims for Nunavik.
* Moosa and Pitsiula Akavak lead their children on a 180 kilometer walk from Kimmirut to Iqaluit in the name of family unity. The Akavak’s hope to demonstrate the importance of strong families in healthy communities.
* Two executive members of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association face expulsion after they turn up drunk for a charter flight from Iqaluit to Sanikiluaq and are refused permission to board the plane.

May

* A six-foot high sculpted inukshuk, commissioned for Canada’s Governor General Romeo Leblanc, is loaded on a military Hercules aircraft in Cape Dorset and flown south. Sculptor Kananginak Pootoogook worked on the inukshuk with his son Johnny, using 20 different pieces of Dorset stone.
* A formal federal civil servant living in northern Quebec is charged with sexually abusing children between the ages of eight and ten years old. Barry Gunn, 67, is charged with four counts of sexual assault on young girls, following an investigation by the S�ret� du Qu�bec in Inukjuak.
* Under orders from the CRTC, Canada’s telecommunications regulator, Northwestel prepares to submit a plan that would finally bring competition to long-distance telephone services in the NWT and Yukon. Since 1992, people in southern Canada have enjoyed cheaper rates, thanks to the introduction of competition from long-distance carriers. The phone company says competition would force it to raise basic-service rates to offset the loss of revenue in the long-distance market.
* Nunavut voters turn down a plan to create two-member one-woman, one-man constituencies in Nunavut’s first legislature.
* Scientists studying glacial ice on Baffin Island report they can find no evidence of global warming in the eastern Arctic – at least not over the last 30 or 40 years. Dr. Roy Koerner’s three-year study of the Penny Ice Cap in the Auyuittuq Mountains consisted of removing core ice samples, drilling hundreds of meters from surface to bedrock, and analysing them for evidence of historical climatic change.

June

* A long-awaited government study of contaminants in the Arctic food chain confirms the presence of small amounts of PCBs, heavy metals and pesticides in human food.
* Three young girls from Arctic Bay are treated for severe burns to their hands and faces after igniting a propane tank accidentally. The girls, aged 9 to 11, were sniffing the propane from a barbecue tank when one of them began playing with a cigarette lighter.
* Jane Stewart is sworn in as Canada’s new minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
* A territorial government survey shows that the shortage of housing in the North has reached critical proportions. The GNWT survey estimates that at least 25 per cent of all NWT residents are without adequate shelter, and that there’s a need for at least 4,000 new housing units.
* Interim commissioner Jack Anawak receives his letter of instructions from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, along with $10 million to run his office until division of the NWT in 1999.
* A publicly run dental therapy program in the Keewatin region is slashed by the Keewatin Regional Health Board to make room for a deal with a private company called Kiguti Dental Services. Despite cries of protest from the community, the health board proceeds with the move.
* Territorial government officials deny any knowledge of a police investigation into allegations of criminal activity within the GNWT after news of the probe is leaked to media. The RCMP’s commercial crimes in Edmonton confirms that they’re carrying out an investigation, but won’t say who is being investigated or what crimes they’re investigating.
* In a stunt that earns them national media attention for a few fleeting days, a handful of attention seekers in Iqaluit declare Joseph Morneau’s home to be an independent country, naming it Arctica. The illusion of originality dissipates after the pranksters choose July 4 as their Independence Day.

July

* First Air completes purchase of NWT Air from its parent company, Air Canada, in a deal that expands the airline’s northern empire of the skies. Business people worry about the concentration of ownership in the northern travel industry, while one of the unions representing NWT Air employees predicts a merger of the two airlines will result in job losses.
* The Qikiqtani Inuit Association drafts strict guidelines governing the purchase of computers, furniture and a range of goods and services, to favor Inuit suppliers. Preferential treatment for Inuit companies will mean giving Inuit who bid on contracts for goods and services with the QIA a 10 per cent price advantage over non-Inuit competitors.
* The Inuit Circumpolar Conference celebrates its 20th anniversary by holding a party in Barrow, Alaska, where it all started back in 1977. The international Inuit organization is celebrated as a model for indigenous peoples around the world.
* Iqaluit municipal councilors give their blessing to a construction project at the Iqaluit’s “four-corners” intersection. The Nunavut Construction Corporation is given permission to build three new office buildings here to house the new Nunavut government.
* Parks Canada announces a plan to reorganize its service in Nunavut that will add about 20 new jobs in Auyuittuq Park, Ellesmere Island and in the North Baffin. When the organization is complete, Parks Canada says it will hire a chief park warden for Auyuittuq, near Pangnirtung, in addition to several patrolmen.
* Five hundred mourners pay their last respects to elder Abraham Okpik, who died at age 68 in Iqaluit following a lengthy illness. Okpik had served as a territorial councilor and was a champion of disabled peoples’ rights. He also headed up Operation Surname between 1968 and 1970, giving European-style surnames to a generation of Inuit in northern Canada.
* Poor weather conditions cause U.S. adventurer Will Steger to call off a scheduled solo walk from the North Pole to Ward Hunt Island in Canada’s high Arctic.
* A five-month-old baby boy is struck and killed by a runaway tire in Iqaluit.
* The commission set up to recommend electoral districts for the new territory of Nunavut reveals that it would like to see a 17-member legislature, rather than the 20-22- member government favored by signatories to the Nunavut Political Accord.

August

* Debt-ridden Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. abruptly severs the Internet company it launched in 1996 after Bell Canada disconnects phone service for non-payment of bills.
* Roman Andruziak, a young doctor with no experience in the operating room, uses an ordinary battery-powered drill to perform emergency surgery on a Puvirnituq man’s head, saving his life. Luc Larouche was struck in the head by a rock and was bleeding internally when Dr. Andruziak intervened to relieve the pressure inside the man’s cranium.
* A trio of hikers from Toronto arrive safely in Iqaluit following a face-to-face encounter with a polar bear in Auyuittuq Park near Pangnirtung. Peter Joel, a computer operations manager, managed to scare the bear off with a canister of pepper spray.
* Arctic Co-op Ltd. gets a toehold in Iqaluit by taking over the local cable TV business, Eastern Arctic TV. The cable service purchase is largely regarded as a step toward reviving the co-operative movement’s presence in the local retail sector.
* Twenty women and children flee the women’s shelter in Iqaluit, when a drunken knife-wielding man takes his estranged wife hostage. A six hour standoff with police negotiators ensues, ending quietly and peacefully after pizza is delivered to the couple inside.
* Authorities in Hall Beach suspend alcohol permits after brawling drunkards terrorize the hamlet for several hours one weekend. Two RCMP officers caught in the mayhem respond to 11 complaints of assault, domestic violence and attempted suicide within the space of 24 hours. Three men are airlifted to Montreal to undergo surgery for injuries they sustain as a result of the binge.

September

* The Supreme Court of Canada dismisses a request by the Government of the Northwest Territories to appeal a lower court decision in its long-standing pay equity dispute with the Union of Northern Workers. The decision is expected to cost the government tens of millions of dollars in retroactive pay to female employees.
* Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard visits the village of Kangiqsualujjuaq for talks with several Nunavik organizations. Nunavik leaders appeal to the premier to re-open self-government negotiations.
* Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. files an application with the Federal Court of Canada to challenge the 1997 turbot quotas allocated to Davis Strait fishers by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
* NTI says the fisheries ministry ignored the Inuit land claim agreement when in allocating those quotas.
* The Baffin Regional Health Board turns down Qikiqtaaluk Corporation’s offer to build and lease back a replacement hospital in Iqaluit. Board members reject the $25 million offer on grounds that dealing with the Inuit birthright corporation could put the board on the slippery slope toward privatization of health care in the region.
* Okalik Eegesiak is elected to a three-year term at the helm of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, vowing to continue chipping away at the organization’s debt. Eegesiak beat incumbent president Mary Sillett, who assumed the presidency following Rosemarie Kuptana’s sudden resignation in 1995.

October

* An Anglican minister from northern Quebec is sentenced to eight months in jail after pleading guilty to four sex-abuse charges involving young girls. Comments from a fellow minister that appear in Nunatsiaq News and which appear to portray Rev. Iyetsiak Simigak’s behavior as culturally acceptable among Inuit, trigger cries of indignation from readers.
* NWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng orders an internal review of changes proposed by regional health boards in the Keewatin and Baffin regions.
* A GNWT report predicts that the federal government will have to cough up an additional $135 million to cover the cost of dividing the Northwest Territories into two separate jurisdictions. The report’s authors warn that unless Ottawa can commit to the extra funding, “the orderly creation of two new governments could be in jeopardy.”
* MLAs pepper Finance Minister John Todd with questions about the workings of the NWT’s first Aurora Fund, which pulled in $35 million for job-creating business loans in 1997. Critics complain that few people know how much has been loaned or which companies have borrowed money from the fund.

November

* Dennis Patterson is named chair of the Baffin Regional Health Board.
* Citing a “failing by the ordinary members” of the NWT legislative assembly, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. announces that it intends to set up a “shadow cabinet” of its own to mount an effective, vocal opposition in Yellowknife. The Inuit birthright organization says it will budget $100,000 for such government monitoring in the new year.
* Under pressure from hamlets and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., GNWT Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo postpones a controversial plan to build an elaborate fuel pipeline connecting four Keewatin communities. At meetings in Rankin Inlet, Arviat and Baker Lake, Arlooktoo hears that residents don’t want such a system until after division.
* Linguist, author and longtime northerner Duncan Pryde dies of cancer at age 60. Pryde remains the only person from northern Canada to have ever graced the cover of Time Magazine. He is fondly eulogized by friend and fellow author Kenn Harper in Nunatsiaq News.

December

* Ham Qaunaq, a 62-year-old Igloolik elder, is sentenced to 12 years in jail after he pleads guilty to a string of assault and sexual abuse related charges stretching back to the late 1950s. Saying that Qaunaq was a complete failure at being a father and husband, NWT Supreme Court Justice called his Qaunaq’s actions “derelict and depraved.”
* NWT Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo announces that the GNWT will delay implementation of its Keewatin resupply proposal until after the Nunavut government is created in 1999. A few days later, Premier Don Morin gives the Public Works portfolio to Jim Antoine, and the Justice portfolio to Arlooktoo.
* Finance Minister John Todd’s 29-year-old son Ian dies in a house fire in the small town of Lancaster, Ontario, just east of Cornwall.
* NWT MLAs hold a one-day session December 2 to pass a resolution on national unity.
* Nunavut leaders announce they’ll hold a two-day meeting in Iqaluit Jan. 13-14 – but the public won’t be welcome. Saying that leaders want to have some frank “heart-to-heart” discussions, NWT Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo says leaders want to meet behind closed doors. “If every single word is being recorded, I know it’s difficult for some to say what’s really on their minds,” Arlooktoo explains.
* Ardicom Digital Communications announces that it’s high-speed data communications network has passed all of its tests and that they’re open for business.
* Paul Kaludjak of Rankin Inlet easily wins re-election as president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association. In the Baffin, Johnny Mike, a longtime Pangnirtung resident who now lives in Iqaluit, becomes the Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s new secretary-treasurer.