Gjoa Haven candidates talk housing, mental health, tourism

Gjoa Haven candidate Paul Puqiqnak wants to see support for home ownership, as well as more community-focused infrastructure in Gjoa Haven. (PHOTO COURTESY PAUL PUQIQNAK)

Gjoa Haven incumbent Tony Akoak says he pushed for a mental health facility and housing support during his first term as MLA and will continue to focus on these areas if he is re-elected. (FILE PHOTO)

Housing and mental health support are high on the priority list for Gjoa Haven candidates as the community’s four contenders finish their final week of outreach prior to the Oct. 30 territorial election.

And incumbent Tony Akoak says he already has a head start on these issues.

“I was working on getting a mental health facility into this community,” Akoak said, adding that the facility would serve “close by communities, like Taloyoak and Kugaaruk.”

After a series of tragic events, the western Nunavut community of about 1,300 people is in critical need of mental health support, Akoak said Sept. 15 during the last sitting of Nunavut’s fourth legislative assembly.

Akoak says mental health is at the forefront of his platform.

Akoak said he is also focusing on housing, which has seen some improvement in his hometown. Akoak, who was first elected in 2013, said the community has more staff units and public housing now, and that 25 more units are going to be built.

“But we still need more housing for Gjoa Haven,” he said.

Tourism was another issue constituents asked about during a community radio call-in show, he said.

Gjoa Haven has seen an increase in tourism since the discovery of the two Franklin shipwrecks: the HMS Erebus in 2014 and the HMS Terror in 2016.

“Tourism is being dealt with locally, which I’m really happy about, but if they do need my help, they can always come to me and I will bring their issues forward to the House if I do get re-elected,” Akoak said.

Akoak called his time as MLA a learning experience that he’s thankful for. “I’d like to do more for the community,” he said.

Challenger Paul Puqiqnak is running for MLA for the first time, but he’s not new to the community’s political scene.

Puqiqnak is a long-time member and current vice chair of Gjoa Haven’s district education authority, and has served as a hamlet councillor and as deputy mayor.

He said his father, Uriash Puqiqnak, has been his political mentor. Uriash was the first Netsilik MLA after Nunavut became a territory, at which time Taloyoak and Gjoa Haven comprised one constituency.

“I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps,” he said.

Like Akoak, Puqiqnak said he wants to see an emphasis on mental health support and housing.

If elected, he plans to push for more government support for home renovations for both homeowners and public housing. He also wants to see more public housing units built.

“The infrastructure is much needed,” he said.

Puqiqnak said he also wants to see more programming tailored to bringing together elders and youth.

“Like everyone knows—the youth, and our community—we’re losing our language. I’d like to push for more traditional programs in our community: evening programs in the community for our youth and our elders,” he said. “I’d like to help the youth and elders get together.”

He also wants to see a proper youth centre made available for daily use: “The youth need a place to call their own.”

Puqinqnak would lobby for a swimming pool in the community, as well as an expansion of the community hall, repairs to the aging arena and a new building for the hunters and trappers association.

Joseph Aglukkaq is running to become Gjoa Haven’s MLA for the third time, and he said housing is his priority, too.

“I believe a lot of problems are arising because of lack of housing,” Aglukkaq said.

Even though new units are on the way, he said that “it’s still not enough.”

He said many units in the community go to southern staff, while some have burned down, and other private homes have been repossessed and sold to corporations.

“Those are boarded up,” Aglukkaq said, even though many families live in overcrowded homes with high rent.

“We have to make the rent more affordable,” he said.

A past hamlet mayor, Aglukkaq has also been part of Gjoa Haven’s hunters and trappers association and its district education authority. He has also served on boards for housing and the food bank, and he spent a term as a community board member on the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.

Aglukkaq is currently facing a charge of possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

The RCMP allege Aglukkaq was found with 450 grams of marijuana—about one pound—on Sept. 1. He was scheduled to appear in court in Gjoa Haven Oct. 23. The allegation has yet to be proven in court.

Like Puqiqnak, Aglukkaq wants to see more community infrastructure, such as a youth centre, a swimming pool and a new building for the hunters and trappers association. He also wants to build a community freezer, start a daycare and find a solution for the sewage lagoon that “stinks up the whole town,” he said.

As MLA, he said he would fight for increased Inuit employment in his community, especially within senior roles, and work to increase the territorial minimum wage.

“Most people are living pay cheque to pay cheque,” he said.

Economically, “we need to start looking at resources that are not mining,” such as fisheries development, he said.

Aglukkaq also wants the polar bear hunting moratorium for M’Clintock Channel lifted.

And he’s calling for a public inquiry into the fatal shooting of a man by an RCMP officer. This death, he alleged, “could have been prevented. The RCMP have to do a better job.”

The fourth candidate, James Taqaugaq Qitsualik, was out of town and could not speak to Nunatsiaq News by press time.