Kugluktuk re-elects incumbent mayor in rescheduled election

Kugluktuk Mayor Ryan Nivingalok, centre, and former Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna cut the ribbon at the new public works building in Kugluktuk in February 2017. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GN)

Voters in Kugluktuk re-elected mayor Ryan Nivingalok to a second term earlier this week.

All of Nunavut’s communities, apart from Iqaluit, hosted municipal elections Dec. 11.

But in Kugluktuk, the polls were closed mid-day after the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut intervened.

The office had received a complaint for a resident a few days earlier, alleging the election material put out by the hamlet was printed only in English and not Inuuinaqtun, the Inuktut dialect spoken in the Kitikmeot community.

It took the hamlet a few months to translate its material and re-open the nomination period.

On March 5, incumbent mayor Nivingalok won his second term easily with 174 votes, ahead of candidate Valerie Miyok, who finished with 93 votes and Philip Evaglok, with 16.

Kugluktuk voters also elected four new council members: Miranda Atatahak, Larry Adjun, Nadene McMenemy and Danny Zita.

Voter turnout was low at 36 per cent.

Nunavut hamlets have typically held staggered council elections each year. But legislation passed last year by Nunavut MLAs will set fixed election dates for hamlets and other elected bodies in the territories.

That means that starting in 2019, all municipalities will hold elections on the same day, the fourth Monday of October.