Makivik boss faces two challengers

TODD PHILLIPS

Makivik president Zebedee Nungak says he’s not losing any sleep worrying about two rivals now gunning for his job.

About 4,000 Makivik beneficiaries across 14 Nunavik communities will cast ballots next Thursday to decide who should be at the helm of the organization that has a hand in almost all aspects of their lives.

The corporation that was set up to manage compensation money after the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement was signed in 1975, now deals with everything from women’s shelters and solvent abuse to self-government talks and running airlines.

In effect, the president of Makivik becomes the chief executive officer of a business consortium, the minister of social services, a constitutional negotiator, and the person who speaks on behalf of the approximately 8,600 Inuit of the region.

Longshot won last time

Nungak has been doing most of that talking since August 1995, when president Simeonie Nalukturuk stepped down citing personal problems.

Nalukturuk was the longshot candidate who had stunned observers when he toppled Senator Charlie Watt from atop the corporation in March 1994.

But Nungak says he’s not concerned that history will repeat itself next week. But he doesn’t think he’s unbeatable either.

“I am a politician with my eyes open,” Nungak said. “I don’t lie awake at night either worried about the fact that I might lose. I will make my case the best I can and let the people make their decision with their vote.”

Voters will decide whether to re-elect Nungak to a three-year term or instead opt for Adamie A. Kadjulik from Salluit or Lucy Carrier from Kangirsuk.

Nungak’s campaign plan

Nungak says he will ask voters if they’d like him to separate the business interests of the corporation from the land claims and self-government work.

That way he says the corporation might do a better job in dealing with those three distinct areas.

Wobbling along potholed roads

A big fan of Nunavut, Nungak often cites examples of how things work in Nunavut when explaining how he’d like to change things within Nunavik.

Nungak looks enviously northward towards his Inuit cousins who he says are driving toward Nunavut in a fully-gassed stretch limousine on a clear paved stretch of highway, en route to a planned destination.

“We are 150 miles behind them on a pair of wobbly roller skates on a gravel road full of potholes and mud puddles with deep slopes to climb with no prospect of a destination.”

Election not only issue

But the election won’t be contested until after days of debate on other issues of interest to beneficiaries.

There will be lots of talk about what the people of Nunavik should do about their future trapped within the troubled bowels of the province of Quebec.

“We have quite a lot of heavy thinking to do on the issue,” Nungak said.

Delegates will also try to sort out what to do now that self-government talks with the province of Quebec are going nowhere.

“It’s stalled. The government of Quebec has expressed absolutely no interest in discussing it since the last referendum,” Nungak said.

Ottawa has been talking with Makivik about transferring some powers and money, but the dreams of a Nunavik assembly and a self-governing territory have been pushed to the backburner.

Social issues pressure

Makivik leaders are also under increasing pressure to spend more land claims money to help sort out the social problems in the region.

Already, the organization will set aside about $864,000 of its $9 million a year budget paying for social programs like solvent abuse, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres, women’s shelters and women’s associations.

Nungak says Inuit are spending land claims money on areas that governments ought to take care of, but says leaders can’t simply wait for government help because the problems would just get worse.

“What are you going to do if the government refuses to put in one red penny to address a need that is crying in the communities?” he asks.

“We live in a weird jurisdiction… These things happen.”

The four-day meeting opens Monday April 7 and wraps up on election day Thursday.

Delegates will review the corporation’s finances and proposed budget, talk about unsettled land claims, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, inter-community trade and Nunavik Arctic Foods, wildlife management, justice and social issues, hear reports from the communities and talk about elders and youth concerns.