Municipal officials keen to start marrying Nunavik couples

Puvirnituq mayor Aisara Kenujuak, right, thinks having municipal elected officials authorized as marriage officiants could help more Nunavik couples to marry. Statistics Canada has said Nunavik has the highest proportion of single-parent families of any geographic area in Canada. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Nunavimmiut who plan to marry may not have to look any further than to the members of their local municipal council for someone to help them tie the knot.

Church ministers and justices of the peace used to be the only people who could officiate marriages at one time, but local mayors and councillors can also perform marriages with the proper permit.

Puvirnituq mayor and regional councillor Aisara Kenuajuak said at this week’s meeting of the Kativik Regional Government council that this might make it easier for many Nunavik couples to plan their wedding.

“There are a lot of couples living together and not married,” Kenuajuak told regional council Sept. 13. “Marriage has become very expensive and maybe that’s why we don’t see them.”

According to Statistics Canada, common-law unions are generally more common among young people and couples living in Quebec, where more than 30 per cent of all families are common law. That number is even higher in Nunavik — about 40 per cent, and the Nunivaat Nunavik statistics program says only nine couples married in the region in 2009.

Stats Can also said Nunavik had the highest proportion of single-parent families of any geographic area in Canada in 2002 — 25.6 per cent — a situation that likely remains unchanged today.

Kenuajuak may start joining couples in matrimony now that he knows that he – or any of his councillors – can get a permit to perform marriages through Quebec’s justice department.

That would have been helpful to Kenuajuak 40 years ago, when he and his wife decided to marry.

In April 1971, they asked a visiting priest from Inukjuak to perform the ceremony. He agreed to do it – the following morning.

The couple married, although neither of the couple’s parents were able to make it to the wedding on such short notice.

In Quebec, municipal elected officials, along with ministers, Superior Court clerks and notaries, can request authorization from the justice department to perform marriages, said Catherine Fortier-Pesant, the head of the KRG’s legal department.

But, first, he municipal council first needs to adopt a resolution and forward to justice department, she said.

Then Quebec’s civil registry office will forward applicants a permit, a process that could still take a few months.

Once someone is authorized as an officiant, they must ensure both bride and groom are at least 18 years old, unrelated and consent to the marriage.

Along with permit, Quebec’s civil registry office sends instructions on how to process the union.

But Michael Cameron, regional councillor for Salluit, warns that the job can come with a lot of paperwork.

He has performed three marriages as a designated justice of the peace.

“The marriage [ceremony] is a lot shorter than the paperwork that has to be done,” he said.