Nunavut premier promises sharper focus on Inuit hiring

Nunavut Tunngavik general assembly delegates meeting at Nanook School in Apex this week. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna took time off from the legislative assembly Oct. 22 to reassure delegates at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s general meeting that he is serious about Inuit hiring in government, and that the Nunavut Inuit Training Corp. will help him do that.

The NITC, a new organization created out of a $175-million pot of money that NTI received through a $255-million legal settlement with Ottawa, is tasked with training Inuit for government jobs in Nunavut.

“We have started to implement the settlement agreement with the Government [of Canada]. The Inuit training corporation will bring new opportunity for Inuit to be provided better education,” Taptuna told NTI delegates at their general meeting in Apex, outside of Iqaluit.

Taptuna said the Government of Nunavut takes its responsibilities to uphold Article 23 seriously. That’s the article in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement that says governments should use affirmative action programs to increase the number of Inuit they employ.

To that end, Taptuna told the board he recently appointed an associate deputy minister to report directly to him on Inuit employment.

Taptuna said the GN has also implemented new requirements that will ensure companies doing business with the territorial government include Inuit job strategies in their tender submission proposals.

“We will hold departments to task and ensure they are taking meaningful steps,” he told NTI.

However, based on a series of statements by NTI delegates to the premier after his address, some issues related to Article 23 and Article 24 are unresolved.

“Bids to the GN are 90 per cent outside contractors. One of the reasons why there is a lack of money [locally] is because of this. The GN should award contracts to Nunavut businesses,” said Qikiqtani Inuit Association member Levi Barnabas, the chair of the Qikiqtaaluk Corp., the business arm of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.

“Contractors are not Inuit. Inuit can work,” said QIA’s secretary-treasurer, Joe Attagutaluk.

NTI President Cathy Towtongie relayed to Taptuna a conversation she had with a qualified Inuk nurse who was passed over for a hospital job, Towtongie said, in favour of a non-Inuk nurse.

“I asked her what happened and she told me it was non-Inuit helping each other,” said Towtongie, who told Taptuna she wants to see more affirmative action at the GN.

With the Nunavut Legislative Assembly currently in its fall session, Taptuna was pressed for time and unable to answer board members’ questions immediately, but promised he would respond to each question in writing at a later date.

Board members for the new training corporation were also announced at the AGM.

Taptuna, along with education minister Paul Quassa, will represent the GN on the board. Towtongie, NTI vice-president James Eetoolook and regional Inuit presidents PJ Akeeagok, Stanley Anablak and David Ningeongan, will form NTI’s portion of the membership.

“The GN is committed to improving Inuit employment and helping Inuit gain the skills they need to obtain meaningful employment in the territory and across the country,” Taptuna said later in an Oct. 22 news release.

“Minister Quassa and I look forward to working on the Nunavut Inuit Training Corp. to ensure all Inuit share in the benefits of Nunavut’s vast economic potential.”

The NTI’s annual general meeting, held over three days in Apex, wrapped up Oct. 22.