National Inuit org prepares for fall AGM, presidential election

Terry Audla wraps up the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami annual general meeting held June 6, 2012 in Kuujjuaq shortly after his election as president by 12 votes to one. Beside him is Duane Smith, ITK vice president and president of ICC Canada. Audla’s three-year term expires this year. (FILE PHOTO)

With incumbent president Terry Audla’s three-year term expiring this year, Canada’s national Inuit organization is preparing for an annual general meeting and presidential election this September in Cambridge Bay.

To that end, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami will formally open the nomination period next week, ITK’s director of communications, Erin Filliter, said July 13.

On July 20, ITK will formally issue a public call for nominations, with notices published in newspapers and a press release, she said.

Nominations for the president’s job close Aug. 17. The election date is set for Sept. 17, at an annual general meeting to be held in Cambridge Bay.

Audla won the president’s position at an ITK AGM held June 6, 2012 in Kuujjuaq, when he defeated candidate Robbie Watt by 12 votes to one.

Under ITK Bylaw No. 2, which serves as a kind of constitution for the organization, ITK must hold an annual general meeting no more than 15 months after its last AGM and no more than six months after the end of its last financial year, which this year fell on March 31, 2015. (See document embedded below.)

ITK’s bylaw sets out two ways of nominating candidates for ITK president:

• an Inuk individual may submit a written declaration of candidacy to the executive director, no fewer than 20 days prior to the election, with the signatures of 20 Inuit supporters, a cover letter, a passport-quality photo, and a $200 cheque; and

• any one of ITK’s four members may nominate an Inuk individual by submitting a written declaration of candidacy to the executive director, no fewer than 20 days prior to the election — with no stated requirement for 20 signatures.

ITK’s four members are: Inuvialuit Regional Corp., Makivik Corp., Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Nunatsiavut Government.

Each of those members must name no less than two delegates to attend an ITK annual general meeting.

That means the ITK president is usually elected by a group of 12 people: the four member presidents and the eight delegates they choose to attend the AGM.

Under the bylaw, ITK’s executive director serves as the returning officer for the presidential election.

But the organization’s last permanent executive director, Stephen Hendrie, abruptly departed the job this past March.

In an interview, Filliter did not give a reason for Hendrie’s departure. The top administrative job at ITK still lies vacant.

That means that for this election, ITK’s acting executive director, Peter Geikie, who had been serving as head of the Amaujaq National Centre for Inuit Education, will also serve this year as returning officer.

At the same time, Heather Ochalski has stepped in, for the time being, as acting director of the Amaujaq education unit.

Filliter said ITK will provide more detailed information next week about its presidential election.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) – Revised by-laws-OTT_LAW-3588734-V10