Nunavik: a timeline for the year that was

Cree leader Romeo Saganash won the federal riding of James Bay-Abitibi-Nunavik-Eeyou for the New Democratic Party on May 2, 2011. (FILE PHOTO)

Quebec launched its long-waited Plan Nord in 2011, its 25-year vision to develop the province north of the 49th parallel. Makivik Corp. President Pita Aatami and Kativik Regional Government Chair Maggie Emudluk attended the May 9 launch, which announced, among other investments, 300 new social housing units for Nunavik, plus 200 new units under a new home ownership program. (FILE PHOTO)

Geoff Kelley, Quebec’s native affairs minister was in Kangiqsualujjuaq on Aug. 8, 2011, when Quebec agreed to give Makivik Corp. $3 million as compensation for the dog slaughters of the 1950s and 60s. “It seems like such a long time ago, but the memories are still there,” Kelley said. “There was a high level of misunderstanding and miscommunication, and not much respect for the Inuit culture.” (FILE PHOTO)

Voters in Nunavik responded to the Nunavik Regional Government proposal with a resounding “No” in a region-wide referendum held April 27, where two-thirds, or 66 per cent of Nunavimmiut voted against the agreement. (FILE PHOTO)

For the people of Nunavik, the big political event of the year was the collapse of the Nunavik Regional Government proposal.

This would have given the region an elected assembly with a directly elected five-member executive, including a government leader.

The proposal also would have amalgamated most regional government bodies into a single regional government under the direction of the elected assembly.

The rejection of this proposal in a referendum held this past April casts a big cloud of uncertainty over the region’s future.

And though the Charest government’s Plan Nord contains the promise of job- and wealth-creating economic development, it’s not clear to what extent the Inuit of Nunavik will be able to participate in new mines and infrastructure projects.

January

• Negotiations between the Association of Employees of Northern Quebec and the Kativik School Board break off after the board makes an offer Jan. 20 that union president Patrick D’Astous calls “completely unacceptable.”

• Tommy Palliser, the Inukjuak man involved in the 2009 car-surfing incident that left one man dead, is sentenced to a 10-month prison sentence for his role in the death of Kevin Ducharme, 38, who fell from the top of an SUV that Palliser was driving in Montreal in August 2009.

• Two teenagers from Inukjuak are found after surviving four days on the land. Fifteen-year-old Willie Nastapoka and 17-year-old Kasudluak Kasudluak left Inukjuak by snowmobile to go polar bear hunting for the day on Jan. 28. They became separated before they’re discovered by searchers Jan. 31.

February

• The final agreement for the proposed Nunavik Regional Government is made public, while regional, provincial and federal negotiators embark on an information tour through each community in Nunavik.

• Staff and students at Kangiqsujuaq’s Arsaniq School miss three days of school while firefighters and maintenance workers try to find the source of a carbon monoxide leak in the school building. The event prompts regional authorities to ensure that local firefighters are equipped and trained to use carbon monoxide detectors.

• Nunavik school teachers overwhelmingly reject the Kativik School Board’s final offer Feb. 8. Members of the Association of Employees of Northern Quebec vote by a margin 88 per cent against the offer, while 85 per cent vote in favour of tougher pressure tactics — among them, a one-day strike.

March

• A federal election is called. In James Bay-Abitibi-Nunavik-Eeyou, the Bloc Québecois’ Yvon Lévesque seeks a fourth term as MP. But his campaign gets off to a rough start when he tells local media he didn’t plan on campaigning in Nunavik because of costly flights and unpredictable weather.

• Cree leader Romeo Saganash decides to run federally in James Bay-Abitibi-Nunavik-Eeyou for the New Democratic Party. His opponent Lévesque caps off the month by telling the newspaper Rue Frontenac March 31, that “some voters will no longer support the NDP now that the party is running an aboriginal candidate.” “I didn’t think I would hear things like that in 2011,” Saganash tells Nunatsiaq News. “It’s unfortunate that people still think like that.”

• Chez Doris, a Montreal women’s day shelter, hires Inuk social worker Annie Pisuktie for a three-year contract as an Inuit street caseworker, thanks to money from Makivik Corp.

• Quebec’s March 17 budget promises a total of $1.6 billion for the Charest government’s Plan Nord; $1.2 billion of that is intended for new infrastructure above the province’s 49th parallel.

• Fifteen dogs teams pull away from Puvirnituq March 28, as part of the 10th anniversary of Nunavik’s Ivakkak race. The teams will race 356-kilometres from the Hudson coast to the Hudson Strait community of Salluit.

April

• Nunavik teachers say yes to a new collective agreement March 30, moving their union one step closer to a deal in 2011.The agreement provides for the creation of a special education policy for students with special needs — a key sticking point in negotiations — as well as a move towards a modified school calendar in Nunavik.

• Veteran musher Peter Kiatainaq celebrates his fifth Ivakkak dog team race victory April 3, when he and his co-musher, son Peter Jr., and their dog team crossed the race’s finish line in Salluit after 30 hours on the trail.

• Nunavimmiut take to a Facebook group to debate the upcoming vote on the Nunavik Regional Government. Many say they haven’t been consulted enough on the final agreement.

• Voters in Nunavik respond to the Nunavik Regional Government proposal with a resounding “No” in a region-wide referendum held April 27. About two-thirds, or 66 per cent of Nunavimmiut vote against the agreement, which would have merged existing regional bodies like the Kativik Regional Government, the Kativik School Board, and the Nunavik regional board of health and social services, under the authority of the Nunavik Regional Government.

May

• Cree leader and lawyer Romeo Saganash is elected NDP member of Parliament for James Bay-Abitibi-Nunavik-Eeyou May 3. Saganash wins with 45 per cent of the vote, unseating the incumbent Bloc MP Lévesque.

• Quebec launches its long-waited Plan Nord, its 25-year vision to develop the province north of the 49th parallel. Makivik President Pita Aatami and KRG Chair Maggie Emudluk attend the May 9 launch, which announced, among other items, 300 new social housing units for Nunavik, plus 200 new units under a new home ownership program.

• A newly-formed coalition of Nunavimmiut calls on Makivik Corp. to hold a public assembly to discuss the region’s political future. The Inuit Citizens Assembly of Nunavik forms only weeks after the failure of the April 27 referendum on the Nunavik Regional Government.

June

• Quebec’s housing bureau, la Société d’habitation du Québec, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau and the KRG officially inaugurate Kangiqsualujjuaq’s new assisted living centre June 21 before a crowd of nearly 200 people.

• Michael Cameron, the president of the KMHB, issues a plea to Nunavik social housing tenants to pay their rent. In 2010, one in four tenants paid no rent at all. The KMHB’s audited financial statements for 2010 shows rent arrears for social housing units in Nunavik have swollen to $14 million since 2000.

July

• Kuujjuammiut vote to return retail beer sales to Nunavik’s largest community, as proposed by Kuujjuaq’s co-op association. Kuujjuaq hasn’t seen retail beer sales since 1996, when a string of alcohol-related deaths shut down sales.

August

• Quebec signs an agreement with Makivik Aug. 8 to recognize the dog slaughters that occurred in Nunavik during the 1950s and 1960s and their impact on the Inuit culture and way of life. The Quebec government will give $3 million to Makivik Corp. to protect and promote the Inuit language and culture and to pay for commemorative plaques in each of Nunavik’s 14 villages.

September

• A young woman in Tasiujaq is alleged to have suffered a sexual assault in the back of a Kativik Regional Police Force vehicle Sept. 19, after an officer places her there handcuffed, alongside an intoxicated man who is not handcuffed. The KRPF suspends the officer and launches an investigation into the incident.

• Inukjuammiut welcome a new monument unveiled locally Sept. 30, as part of a week-long event to commemorate the Inukjuak exiles and the community they left behind. Nineteen Inukjuak families boarded the C.D. Howe in 1953 en route to Resolute Bay, when they were relocated there by the federal government.

October

• Nunavik public health shares the results of its Nunavik child development study through a series of 60-second capsules on Youtube, filmed in both English and Inuttitut. The study found that the benefits of eating country foods outweigh the risks — with some exceptions for pregnant women.

November

• Makivik hosts representatives from each Nunavik community, who gather in Kuujjuaq Nov. 15 to chart a course for a future Nunavik government. Makivik President Pita Aatami says Nunavimmiut agree on one thing: they want control of their destiny.

• Nunavimmiut elect a new Kativik School Board council of commissioners Nov. 16, replacing all but three commissioners. Inukjuak commissioner candidate Johnny Kasudluak beats out incumbent commissioner and council president Alacie Nalukturuk.

• Nutrition North Canada officials hold a public meeting in Kuujjuaq Nov. 8, where many speakers tell them that the new subsidy scheme dropped too many “essential” items that were once subsidized under the old food mail program.

December

• First Air President and CEO Scott Bateman abruptly resigns from his job. First Air is owned by Makivik Corp. on behalf of the Inuit of Nunavik.

– Makivik Corp.’s top job is up for re-election. Kativik Regional Government director general Jobie Tukkiapik, Senator Charlie Watt and Nunavik Regional Government negotiator Harry Tulugak all jump in the race to unseat long-time President Pita Aatami ahead of the January, 2012 vote.

• Makivik President Pita Aatami says talks with the federal government on more housing for Nunavik have hit a standstill and will require mediation in 2012. The federal government says it has met its housing obligations to the region until 2012, but Nunavik leaders said current social housing construction policies do not meet the needs of Nunavimmiut.