Nunavik voters continue to debate April 27 referendum

(updated at 10:15 a.m, April 27)

Today, voters in Nunavik and Montreal decide whether or not to embrace the Nunavik Regional Government.

The April 27 referendum asks eligible voters to answer this question, “Do you approve the final agreement of the creation of the Nunavik Regional Government?”

Over the past few days, debate among the 900 members of a Facebook page called “Nunavik and the NRG’s final agreement” has heated up, as posters discuss issues like block-funding, what some terms like “amalgamation” actually mean, the NRG’s impact on Inuit rights, and whether or not to vote.

Some members have complained the final agreement’s negotiators broke rules when they discussed the NRG publicly at a Makivik Corp. meeting in Salluit earlier this month.

According to referendum regulations, the negotiators were not to promote the NRG between March 21 and April 27.

Adamie Padlayat, the regional referendum director, says no rules were broken when negotiators Minnie Grey and Harry Tulugak addressed the Salluit meeting April 14.

Padlayat spoke to lawyers who attended the same meeting, who found that the negotiators “did not promote the “yes” side; they were only clarifying misinformation.”

Padlayat said there are 7,881 names on the referendum voters’ list.

But Nunavik residents who have not registered to vote can still cast a ballot today as long as they can confirm that they have been living in Nunavik since April 27, 2010.

Inuit voters who would like to register to vote last-minute should show their beneficiary card.

For the NRG to be ratified, the number of ballots cast in favour of the agreement must add up to 25 per cent plus one of all eligible voters.

So for the agreement to pass, 25 per cent of these 7,881 voters plus one, or 1,971, must vote “yes” to the NRG.

If 1,970 people were to vote “yes,” while no one votes “no,” the “no” side still wins.

That’s because 1,970 “yes” votes add up to fewer than the required 25 per cent-plus-one of the 7,881 eligible voters, a post on the Facebook page points out.

If 1,850 people were to vote “yes” on April 27, and 1,300 vote “no,” the “no” side wins, despite the fact that more people voted “yes.”

That’s because the 1,850 who voted “yes” represent only 23.7 per cent of the 7,881 eligible voters on the list, or 121 short of the 25 per cent-plus-one.

Of the 7,881 voters named on the referendum’s voter list, 1,058 live outside the region.

Polls open at municipal offices in Nunavik communities from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m..

And in the Montreal area, voters may also cast ballots at Makivik’s office, located at 1111 Dr. Frederik-Philips Blvd. in St. Laurent, from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m..

On April 25, polling officials visited elders’ homes in the region to allow residents there to cast ballots.

Advance polls were also open three days last week for voters in Nunavik communities and in Montreal.

Eligible voters at Xstrata’s Raglan mine and those in southern jails had a chance to vote, too.

The April 27 referendum results will either approve or reject the NRG model, which would see existing regional bodies like the Kativik Regional Government, the Kativik School Board, and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, wrapped into a single organization under a new elected body called the Nunavik Assembly.

The assembly would be made up of 20 members; a representative from each of the region’s 14 communities who would be elected locally, four executive council members and a leader, elected regionally, and one member from the Naskapi nation.

For more information or to follow referendum results, visit you can go online.