Nunavik Inuit welcome new Liberal government

This July 1983 photo shows a young Justin Trudeau cutting a cake during a visit to Kuujjuaq. Makivik Corp. said Nov. 5 that the organization welcomes Trudeau’s federal leadership and its openness towards Indigenous Canadians. (PHOTO COURTESY OF MAKIVIK/ AVATAQ CULTURAL INSTITUTE, INST-MAK_AL02,035-011)

Makivik Corp. says it’s willing and ready to work with Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government, which includes the new Inuk minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Coast Guard: Hunter Tootoo.

Nunavik’s Inuit birthright organization said the new government, whose cabinet members were sworn in Nov. 4, shows the will of Ottawa to work with Inuit communities.

Among its offerings: two Indigenous cabinet members in key positions, with Jody Wilson-Raybould named as justice minister and Tootoo overseeing the fisheries file.

“This is an important portfolio for all Inuit in Canada,” Makivik President Jobie Tukkiapik said in a Nov. 5 release.

“We are a coastal people and increasingly with the modern economy our communities have been moving into commercial fishing. To have a minister who understands the northern and Inuit realities is a very positive and encouraging development.”

Along with cabinet appointments, the new government has also renamed the department, formerly named Aboriginal Affairs, to Indigenous Affairs to reflect a more current term to describe First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

The department was previously referred to as Indian Affairs until 2011, when the Harper government opted to use the term “Aboriginal.”

Makivik calls that a positive change.

“For a long time Inuit were fighting for Inuit specific programs and approaches that reflect our northern realties,” Tukkiapik said. “Too often the department saw our issues through a First Nations lens.”

Heading up that renamed department is Carolyn Bennett, who served as Liberal critic to Aboriginal Affairs in recent years.

Tukkiapik said Bennett understands the file well, and knows “what needs fixing.”

Makivik officials are writing to Bennett’s office requesting an early meeting to address the critical housing needs across Nunavik.

For the last few years, Nunavik — led by Makivik — has pursued the federal government to pay for a catch-up program to build enough housing in Nunavik to alleviate its housing shortage.

The birthright organization contends that the region’s housing deficit stems from a period in the 1990s that saw no new housing construction in Nunavik. Makivik has pursued the federal government in recent years for a catch-up program, with no success.

Unable to reach an agreement on the current round of housing funding, Ottawa had proposed a one-year agreement that would run from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. Makivik will now need to sit at the table with new federal representatives to hammer out of a deal that is good until 2020.