Kitikmeot Inuit to choose new president March 28

Charlie Evalik, the current president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, is seeking re-election March 28. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Joe Otokiak is running for president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, one of three candidates in the running for the top position in the birthright organization. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Inuit in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region can choose between at least two different visions for the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s future when they vote for a new president at the birthright organization March 28.

Competing for the position of president are:

• Vivienne Aknavigak;

• Charlie Evalik, the incumbent; and

• Joe Otokiak.

Evalik, 59, is running again on a campaign based on his experience as a negotiator and long track record of collaboration with communities, Inuit organizations, industry and government.

Evalik served three terms as KIA president between 1996 and 2005, before returning to the job in 2008.

“I’m experienced in the KIA operations and organizing and working with the other regions and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.,” Evalik said March 22 from Taloyoak. “I have good connections with all levels of government in terms of what programs and services we might pursue for the Inuit beneficiaries. That’s why I’m running again.”

Evalik wants to continue his work on bringing economic prosperity to the Kitikmeot through resource development, where more than 10 mining projects are in development.

Evalik points to the major agreements he’s negotiated: Inuit impact and benefit agreements with mining companies, such as Newmont, and the deal with Ottawa on the Distance Early Warning site clean-up.

He’d like to continue his work on these agreements and make sure they result in more benefits for Inuit, like jobs, contracts and scholarships, he said.

Evalik is also the chairman of the Nunavut Resource Corp., which wants to partner with mining companies to offer more employment, training and business opportunities to Inuit in the Kitikmeot.

This corporation plans to invest in gas, oil or mineral projects and bring them into production.

When the NRC owns these projects, Inuit will never again toil for low wages while billions of dollars in revenues flow out of the territory, Evalik has said.

Inuit economic self-determination depends on our ability to own and control resource development is Evalik’s message.

But the KIA also will continue to promote language and culture through various activities, he said.

And the KIA will focus on encouraging the Inuit language “because the younger generation is loosing that aspect of the Inuit culture,” he said.

If re-elected, Evalik also promises to work more closely in partnership with the communities because “one organization can’t do it all” — and he’s ready to visit communities more often, something that he said many, particularly in the eastern part of the Kitikmeot region, asked for during his campaign tour.

Joe Otokiak, 56, an interpreter and translator in Cambridge Bay, wants to lead the KIA in a new direction, to focus its attention and programs on promoting the Inuit language, culture and well-being.

“Language, culture need to be dealt with before economic oppprtunities can be pursued,” Otokiak said March 22 from Cambridge Bay. “Yes, economic opportunities are important, but people need to be healthy before they can take on those responsibilities.”

Otokiak wants to see more involvement in the KIA from elders, more focus on youth and additional efforts to improve the mental, physical and spiritual health of Inuit in the region.

“If we do go ahead and our Inuit people are not healthy those issues of difficult times that people are going through now are always going to be here,” he said. “The situation could be get worse. Life is too short and people need help. They’re in dire straits. You can have all the jobs and development you want, but if you don’t have healthy people they’ll get financial gain but in other areas they’re going to lose.”

Otokiak won the presidency of KIA in March, 2008, but resigned several weeks later, after it was revealed that he was serving a suspended sentence for assault.

Otokiak broke no rules by seeking office because the KIA only bans candidates who have been convicted of an indictable offense in the past five years, and Otokiak received a less-serious summary conviction.

Evalik ran and won in a Sept. 2008 by-election to serve the balance of that three-year term, receiving 30 per cent of the vote.

Nunatsiaq News was unable to reach candidate Vivienne Aknavigak, 51, a former economic development in Taloyoak, who has said she wants to see more social programs for youth and more support for workers in the mining sector.

This term of KIA president will last until March 31, 2014.

Eligible voters can vote cast March 28, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. .

Notices of polling stations have been posted in the region’s five communities — Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Kugaaruk.

Kitikmeot Inuit who are Canadian citizens, 16 years of age or older and enrolled or eligible to enroll under the Nunavut land claims agreement can vote in the election.