Inuit org bylaw forces mayor and councillors to resign in Kivalliq

The Kivalliq Inuit Association Board of Directors moved during a May meeting to enforce a 2014 bylaw stating KIA board members and employees cannot serve on hamlet councils. As a result, five people were forced resign over the past few months from hamlet councils within the region. The board is pictured here during a January meeting in Rankin Inlet. Back row from left: David Kuksuk, Peter Kattegatsiak Sr., Thomas Elytook, Hannah Angutialuk and Patricia Enuapik. Front row, from left: Donat Milortok, Jack Kabvitok, president David Ningeongan, vice-president Raymond Ningeocheak and secretary treasurer Donna Adams. (PHOTO COURTESY KIA)

Some hamlet councillors and mayors in Nunavut, affiliated with the Kivalliq Inuit Association, have been forced to resign from their positions after the regional Inuit organization decided to start enforcing a three-year-old bylaw.

The bylaw, which passed at an annual meeting in 2014, prohibits both board members and employees of the KIA from serving as hamlet mayors or councillors.

Rankin Inlet, Coral Harbour and Naujaat all saw one member resign while Baker Lake lost its two hamlet council leaders.

“The mayor and deputy mayor were KIA-affiliated so they had to step down,” said Lena Tapatai, who, as of a few weeks ago, is mayor for Baker Lake.

“I know the community is not impressed but we have to live with the consequences,” she said. “It is their bylaw and we had to go according to the KIA bylaw.”

The KIA decided to enforce the rule during a May 2017 board of directors meeting in Naujaat, after it was flagged as having fallen off the radar, said KIA executive director Gabe Karlik.

The rule was enacted to avoid conflict when issues arose where individuals had to choose loyalty to either the KIA or to their hamlet at meetings that brought together community representatives for consultation, such as at Nunavut Impact Review Board screenings and park committees, said Karlik.

At the time, the KIA implemented a grace period between the October meeting and December of the same year, 2014.

The KIA management then gave an updated deadline of the end of May 2017, though Karlik said that board members and employees were notified earlier in the year that the bylaw was being reviewed and could be enforced.

New to his position in December 2016, Karlik began looking into whether association policies and bylaws were being properly recognized, in advance of the fall annual general meeting.

“There’s been a number of incidents where the interests of KIA have conflicted with interests of hamlets or HTOs, or any other organization,” he said.

During the recent May in-camera meeting, board members discussed whether their colleagues, currently serving on hamlet councils in the region, should be permitted to finish their terms.

“They all agreed to leave the bylaw as is and to enforce it going forward,” even though two of ten KIA board members were directly affected by the enforcement, said Karlik.

He said staff turnover was likely to blame for an original lapse in bylaw enforcement.

As for the council members, most of them simply weren’t aware that they weren’t allowed to run for municipal office if they were also part of KIA, he said.

“I told the staff they did nothing wrong, they thought it was okay for them to run for hamlet councils and this was a decision from the board as a whole,” he said.

“They just had to make a choice,” he said.

A councillor who resigned from one community said he had checked with his KIA employers before running for council.

“I got elected, and a few months later I was asked to resign from my seat at council because of the bylaw,” said Panniuq Karetak, a KIA employee who became a councillor in Rankin Inlet in December.

In November of last year, he asked both the KIA’s executive director and lawyer if running for council was permitted, and got the green light. The people he asked no longer work for KIA.

After consulting old minutes from KIA annual general meetings, he said he questioned the process for how the amendment was passed as well as why it was put in place when other regional Inuit associations don’t have such a bylaw.

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s conflict of interest policy and election regulations do not restrict staff or board members from serving as a hamlet mayor or councillor, though to avoid concern, the organization would review the overlap in the case of a director, according to legal information provided by the QIA.

The Kitikmeot Inuit association restricts its executive director and departmental directors from acting as mayor of a hamlet, KitIA executive director Paul Emingak told Nunatsiaq News in an email. The association’s code of conduct allows other board members and staff to run for council.

Despite the apparent mixup, Karetak says he’s made peace with the change.

“Ultimately, the bylaw does exist, and as a KIA employee I must respect KIA’s policies and bylaws if I want to keep my job,” said Karetak.

While KIA staff and board members were informed of the enforcement, Nunatsiaq News found after calling several of the hamlets in the region that not everyone had the same information.

“We sent them [KIA] a letter asking for clarification on this issue but we haven’t gotten a response back yet,” said Rankin Inlet’s mayor Robert Janes, adding that the issue will be discussed further at the regional meeting of mayors in the fall.

“We have a section in our agendas where conflicts of interest can be declared and individuals just stay away from that particular issue during discussions,” said Janes, adding that it was likely smaller communities in the region that would be most restrained by this bylaw.

While not all communities are immediately affected, people will have to choose between council and the KIA board in the future, said Whale Cove SAO Ian Copland.

“The mayors in general would like more information from KIA as to the reason for the policy,” he said.