Taptuna names veteran Nunavut cop to vacant ADM job

Yvonne Niego will leave behind a two-decade career with the RCMP this fall to become the Government of Nunavut’s new deputy minister of justice. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna has appointed Sgt. Yvonne Niego of the RCMP to fill a vacant senior management job at Nunavut’s Department of Justice.

Niego will become assistant deputy minister of justice Sept. 21, a Government of Nunavut news release said July 3.

“Ms. Niego will be an invaluable asset to the Department of Justice. Her experience within our community and Nunavut’s justice system will make an impressive contribution to the senior management team” Taptuna is quoted as saying in the release.

She fills a spot vacated in September 2014 by Rebekah Williams, when Taptuna moved Williams into the deputy minister job at the Department of Family Services.

The top job at the justice department, deputy minister, is held by Elizabeth Sanderson, who Taptuna appointed in July 2014.

A media relations officer for Nunavut’s V Division, Niego has served more than 20 years with the RCMP.

Originally from Baker Lake, Niego was the first Inuk woman to complete RCMP academy depot training. She worked with the RCMP in Baker Lake in the early 1990s as a constable.

In 2005, she worked in Ottawa with the RCMP’s National Aboriginal Policing Service.

Three years later, Niego became the first Inuk woman to be promoted from corporal to sergeant, in 2013.

Right now, Niego is part of the RCMP crisis negotiation team and head of the RCMP Drug Awareness Program.

In October 2014, Niego received the International Association of Women Police Community Service Award.

The IAWP, at the time, said she was one of the country’s leading Inuit policing experts.

Senior managers at the GN — deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers and heads of Crown agencies — are appointed by the premier and serve at the pleasure of the premier.