NDP leader Mulcair outlines party’s priorities for Nunavut

Thomas Mulcair, the national leader of the New Democratic Party and the leader of the official opposition in the House of Commons, speaks Sept. 2 in Iqaluit at a town hall event. Mulcair said that, if elected, an NDP government would call an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women within its first 100 days. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

Romeo Saganash speaks Sept. 2 in Iqaluit. Last week, Saganash did a tour of Nunavik, where he visited Kuujjuaq, Inukjuak, Ivujivik, Salluit, Umiujaq, and Kuujjuarapik-Whapmagustui to talk about housing, food security and other issues. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

Nunavut’s long list of social, environmental and infrastructure woes require a lot more attention than Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has given over the past eight years, New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair said Sept 2 in Iqaluit.

Iqaluit residents presented that long list to Mulcair in a continuous stream of questions at a town hall meeting, Sept. 2, at the city’s francophone centre.

More than 70 curious voters and supporters packed the centre to hear what Mulcair’s party would do differently, if elected to govern the country next year.

Concern about lack of government action, or any evidence that the Harper government pays much attention to the territory’s issues, echoed throughout the meeting.

Romeo Saganash, MP for Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou, provided details about policies related to aboriginal rights.

“There was another political leader in town last week,” said resident Geoff Ryan, pointing to Harper’s brief stop-over in Iqaluit last week as part of his yearly Northern tour.

“He scurried around town and made sure no one got to see him at all, unless you were a kid playing hockey,” he said to applause from the audience.

“Anybody who’s familiar with Nunavut knows that there’s a long list of major problems within the territory,” he said, pointing to the territory’s high suicide rate, education and health outcomes that rank the lowest in Canada, and overcrowded housing.

Although Mulcair singled out the Conservatives for doing little to help solve any of those issues, he was quick to say that some, such as the shortage housing, are the result of past Liberal government policies.

“In a country as rich as Canada, to have zero housing policy since the Liberals removed all federal spending in the area, it makes no sense at all,” Mulcair said. “This will be a priority for us, and Romeo and I understand that. It’s tragic and it has repercussions on people’s lives.”

Asked about the party’s answer to food insecurity in Nunavut, Mulcair put the problem in national perspective.

Some 800,000 children in the country “go to school in the morning without having had enough to eat,” he said. “Some don’t think it’s their responsibility — I think it is my responsibility.”

Nunavut’s social problems have deep roots, said resident Peter Dudding, adding he’s concerned that the Harper government is “seemingly vacating the whole social development field” at a time when it is most needed improve the health and living conditions of the country’s Inuit and other indigenous populations.

Mulcair said the Harper government took a good first step, with the NDP’s support, when it “pushed for an apology for residential schools.”

The policy of sending indigenous youth to residential schools continued into the 1970s, “so it’s not like [it’s forgotten] in the mists of time — we’re making similar mistakes today,” he said.

“We’re not taking care of them [indigenous youth] properly, we’re still not respecting their language and their culture” when government-run child and family services deal with children in troubled family situations, he said.

The NDP leader criticized the Harper government sharply on environmental issues, starting with its response to seismic testing for oil and gas in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, despite consistent opposition from communities along the coastline of Baffin Island.

Asked how he would handle seismic testing proposals, Mulcair said he would do what he has done in the past.

He recalled a similar situation in 2004, when he served as Quebec’s environment minister and set up an expert panel to study the potential impact of seismic testing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

“I imposed a moratorium on seismic testing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, because of the effect it would have on marine mammals,” Mulcair said.

His strict line on environmental protection persists to this day, he said, pointing to his party’s call for a moratorium on work to TransCanada Corp.’s seismic testing propsosal in the waters of the St. Lawrence, around Cacouna, Que.

Seismic testing — seabed exploration with the use of sonic blasts — “would completely derail the systems of marine mammals, and we’re very worried about that,” Mulcair told residents at the town hall meeting.

The party’s stance on seismic testing in the St. Lawrence “is not a question of belief or opinion,” he said.

“I consulted with scientists and experts and I said give me your best advice.”

On that note, he said the Conservative government’s treatment of scientific evidence is sketchy.

Nunavut’s own MP and environment minister, Leona Aglukkaq, “said publicly on some key issues that she doesn’t believe in the science of climate change,” Mulcair said

“She tried to correct herself, but she said she doesn’t believe in that,” he said.

“Mr. Harper doesn’t believe in science. He’s said that many times,” he added. “The scientists that he hasn’t fired, he’s muzzled. He doesn’t like anybody telling him what he doesn’t want to hear, whether it’s a scientist, whether it’s the chief justice of the Supreme Court, whether it’s the auditor general, whether it’s the director of elections.”

“You’re not allowed to be right, because Stephen Harper’s always right,” Mulcair said.

“The science should be allowed to prevail here,” he said of seismic testing. “It is dangerous for those marine mammals. And again, they’re going to hit the same wall. It’s going to require a recourse for the courts, because those are rights that exist for sustenance, for fishing, for harvesting. And they’re not being respected.”

Mulcair acknowledged Nunavut’s lack of transportation infrastructure. The federal and territorial government’s airport improvement project is a good sign of progress, even though it is “overdue,” he said.

But the territory needs a deep sea port to support the territory’s growing population, and keep the cost of living affordable for all residents.

Municipalities are struggling to keep their own infrastructure in line with the territory’s growing population, said Robyn Campbell, who asked Mulcair for his party’s take on the issue.

“We’re growing so fast,” she said of Iqaluit. “It’s really hard for our community to keep up.”

Mulcair answered that faulty math lies at the heart of the problem.

“Municipalities across Canada are asked to support the cost of close to 60 per cent of the infrastructure in the country, and yet they only have eight per cent of the tax base,” he said.

A first solution is to direct more of the nation-wide gas tax to municipalities, he said.

Secondly, the federal government should work more closely with Nunavut municipalities, “taking into account the distinctness of living here in the North and the fact that municipal infrastructure costs more, and requires more upgrading and repair.

“It’s a simple kind of reality that needs to be taken into account.”

The Harper government’s key shortcoming, he added, is that it “doesn’t apply the rules of sustainable development.”

Mulcair said his party has yet to find a candidate to run in Nunavut.

Asked about how the party’s policies will stand up in the next election campaign, Mulcair said the NDP’s role as the official opposition puts it in a position of strength.

“And we’re about to convert,” he promised.