GN, NTI team up for Nunavut devolution talk show

David Akeeagok, the Government of Nunavut’s chief devolution negotiator, with Premier Eva Aariak at a press event in May 2012. Akeeagok and James T. Arreak, the chief executive officer at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., will appear on a live phone-in show on the evening of Thursday, April 25 to be broadcast on APTN. The two officials will provide Inuit language information on devolution negotiations and answer questions from callers. (FILE PHOTO)

Spokespersons from the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. will head into a television studio April 25 for a live Inuit language phone-in show, where they will talk about devolution and explain how a devolution deal could help Nunavummiut become masters in their own house.

“We’re trying to provide information on devolution, especially to the Inukitut-speaking audience,” said David Akeeagok, the GN’s chief negotiator for devolution.

Akeeagok and James T. Arreak, the chief executive officer at NTI, will appear.

Nunavummiut may watch and participate by tuning in to APTN’s northern service at the following times on the evening of April 25: 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. eastern, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. central time, and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. mountain time.

“Our team message is to provide information in Inuktitut, an opportunity to inform the Inuktitut-speaking audience of what this word devolution is and what sort of future anticipations we have if we reach a devolution agreement,” Akeeagok said.

Devolution — “nammiminiqsurniq” in Inuktitut and “nanminiqhurniq” in Inuinnaqtun – means the transfer of authority from a central government to a lower level of government.

It’s through such transfers that the northern territories gained power over things like education, local government, health care and territorial airports.

But for the Nunavut government, devolution now means the transfer of a big power that provincial governments in Canada take for granted: the administration of public lands and a fair share of the resource wealth those lands may generate in the future.

“The principle is that we need this government [the GN] to have the control and administration of the land,” Akeeagok said.

To that end, NTI will join Nunavut and Canada as a full partner in devolution talks.

“NTI is a full partner. This will be a three-party negotiation, similar to Yukon and NWT, where aboriginal groups were involved in their devolution agreements,” he said.

The GN acknowledged its special relationship with NTI after a ceremonial cabinet meeting held April 11 in a snowhouse built behind the legislative building in Iqaluit.

In two special resolutions flowing from that meeting, the GN reaffirmed they are fully committed to working with Canada and NTI on implementing the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

And the GN also reaffirmed, in the light of devolution talks, that they remain committed to “the rights of Nunavummiut to control and manage their territory through the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.”

Akeeagok said this means that in any future devolution deal, NTI will play a big role.

“As a government, we view devolution as the next evolution of the land claim, where we have control and administration of the lands and resources that reside in Nunavut,” Akeeagok said.

Through the land claims agreement, NTI and the regional Inuit associations are private owners of about 20 per cent of Nunavut’s land base. Also through the land claims agreement, Inuit organizations are able to earn royalties from commercial resource extraction.

“In any discussions over the remainder of the land, they are a key player and they have lots to contribute in assisting in the numerous issues,” Akeeagok said.

For example, Akeeagok said, an important component of the land claim agreement is the regulatory regime, built on the family of public bodies known as “IPGs,” or institutions of public government.

Those IPGs include the Nunavut Impact Review Board, the Nunavut Water Board and the Nunavut Planning Commission, all of which are involved in overseeing the development and use of Nunavut’s lands and waters.

Two of those public bodies, the NIRB and the NPC, will get a clearer set of marching orders following the implementation of Bill C-47.

That law, dubbed the “Northern Jobs and Growth Act,” contains within it the substance of an earlier bill called the “Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act,” or “NUPPA,” which died on the order paper prior to the May 2011 federal election.

That new bill has passed the House of Commons and now sits before a Senate standing committee.

It represents the work of a legislative working group — made up of people from GN, NTI and the federal government — that began work in 2002 and gained valuable experience in Nunavut land and resource issues.

“The three parties were involved through that working group. That’s going to help shape the devolution agreement as we see it — having a good sound regulatory regime in Nunavut,” Akeeagok said.

As for what a Nunavut devolution agreement would look like, Akeeagok said that’s too early to say — the three parties must first work out a framework agreement to guide future talks.

NTI has re-confirmed Udloriak Hanson as its devolution negotiator and the federal government is represented by Dale Drown, a public servant from Yukon who once served as chief of staff to former Yukon premier Dennis Fentie.

Akeeagok said they’ve met “at least three times” to exchange information and share each other’s expectations.

Among other things, a future devolution deal would require the transfer of federal government positions to the GN that are now located at federal offices in Iqaluit and other parts of the country.

But Akeeagok said he couldn’t estimate how many, saying that will be worked out in future negotiations.

“I don’t want to create any expectations in terms of the numbers of jobs. That’s part of the negotiations,” he said.

Nunavut will also seek a resource revenue sharing arrangement with Ottawa for the 80 per cent of Nunavut public lands that Ottawa now manages through Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and other departments.

On the resource royalties issue, Nunavut now has some indication of what the federal government may offer, thanks to the recently unveiled devolution deal between Canada and the Northwest Territories.

The NWT’s proposed final devolution agreement, unveiled this past March during a visit to Yellowknife by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, must still be approved in a vote to be held in the NWT legislature following a consultation exercise.

Under it, the Government of the NWT would receive 50 per cent of resource royalties generated on public lands in the territory— up to a defined “maximum benefit.”

That maximum benefit is defined as five per cent of the NWT’s “gross expenditure base,” a number that’s used to calculate Ottawa’s annual formula financing transfer to the territory.

The NWT government has calculated that if that deal were in place for the 2012-13 fiscal year, they would have received an extra $69 million — with no reductions in their annual transfer from Ottawa.

And they say that because the NWT gross expenditure base grows in size every year, so will the maximum resource royalty payment grow — to as much as much as $100 million by 2020.

Following the NWT deal, Yukon, whose earlier devolution deal provided for resources royalties that were capped at only $3 million a year, was offered a similar deal, which they’ve accepted.

“Those are good indications of what may be offered to Nunavut,” Akeeagok said.

Officials will obviously use the NWT and Yukon devolution agreements as models, Akeeagok said, but he pointed out that “there is some uniqueness in terms of Nunavut that we will have to negotiate on.”

It’s likely however, that Nunavut devolution negotiations will take many years.

Premier Eva Aariak said last month that Nunavut is still in the “beginning stages” of working towards devolution. No negotiations on devolution have taken place since the appointment of Akeeagok and the chief federal negotiator last May, she said.