Nunavut’s new dictators?

If it’s a pissing match in the press that Nunasi Corporation is after (Letters, June 6 Nunatsiaq News) I guess we will have to accommodate.

Beneficiaries should have been informed that the benevolent dictators, known as birthright corporations, are never to be criticized or questioned. Whenever anyone criticizes them, they’re told, “It’s not the Inuit way to criticize and fight.”

Would someone please tell me when it became the Inuit way to meet in secret with federal government bureaucrats, to sign secret deals to shut out all other Inuit firms, from participating in ownership.

What in the world makes birthright corporations think that they alone can deliver training programs or produce certified journeymen? What about all the training programs sponsored over the years by the co-ops, the housing associations, the hamlets and Arctic College?

The Nunavut Implementation Commission came up with a decentralized model of government, for which we are truly grateful. On the other hand, the birthright corporations have made damn sure that the cash flow isn’t decentralized.

The mandate of NCC is to build, own and maintain the infrastructure for the Nunavut government. This means millions of dollars will be siphoned out of the communities and into regional centres.

I do have my blinders off, and I for one am sick and tired of the condescending, benevolent attitude of birthright development corporations.

All that’s happened since the Land Claims Agreement is that birthright corporations are taking over as new dictators. When we will be allowed to look after our own destiny?

William G. Umphrey
General Manager
Toonoonik Sahoonik Co-op Ltd.
Pond Inlet