Let’s team up, Aariak tells NTI

Premier Eva Aariak speaks to delegates at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s annual meeting in Iqaluit Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. Aariak urged NTI to work with the Government of Nunavut to tackle a long list of social ills. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak wants to team up with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on a wide range of social problems and cultural issues.

Speaking to delegates at NTI’s annual meeting in Apex Wednesday, Aariak said “there is still a lot of untapped potential” in the GN’s relationship with the land claim organization.

“We have a responsibility to Nunavummiut to take advantage of every opportunity to work in partnership and to ensure our relationship is never taken for granted,” Aariak said.

The GN and NTI are already trying to work out a new protocol to follow up 2004’s Iqqanaijaqatigiit and 1999’s Clyde River Protocol, which govern how the two organizations work together.

But Aariak said she wants to see a new deal where the GN and NTI could work together on:
• a review of Nunavut’s child protection system;
• substance abuse treatment programs;
• language and culture preservation;
• crime prevention;
• expansion of the territory’s arts, culture and media sectors.

Aariak also suggested the GN and NTI could take part in staff exchanges.

NTI president Paul Kaludjak said he’s optimistic the land claim organization and the GN can make progress tackling social problems and working on cultural issues.

But he stopped short of saying NTI would put up any money to help pay for the programs needed to implement some of the ideas Aariak pitched to delegates.

“We need to be careful that the land claim organization does not become over-swamped by what the government cannot do,” Kaludjak said. “Our ultimate mandate here is to implement the claim. That has been our target and the government target is the social programs and everything under the sun.”

Aariak also used the meeting as a chance to sell the Qanukkanniq? GN Report Card, a subject that’s expected to dominate the Fall sitting of the Legislative Assembly, which gets started Nov. 24.

The government plans to table an action plan in the assembly “in the coming weeks,” Aariak said.

The report card unearthed a long list of gripes by Nunavummiut, ranging from difficulty contacting government workers to calls for action on Nunavut’s high rates of grinding poverty.

Many of the complaints directed at Aariak from NTI delegates can be found on the list of recommendations that came out of the report card process.

In a lengthy question an answer period, delegates also lobbed complaints about polar bear quotas, the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti policy that favours Inuit-owned businesses, tax rates and the lack of Inuktitut-speaking police officers.

The Premier also said the GN will roll out more changes to the way it communicates with media and the public. Aariak and cabinet ministers are now making bi-monthly appearances on community radio, and the GN and Premier’s website will both be overhauled.

And Aariak said she’s trying to make sure phoning a government office is less frustrating.

“I keep reminding every department they should be answering their phones,” she said.