Parnasimautik gathering in Kuujjuaq looks at education, jobs, mining

Regional and local organizations, high school students and other residents of Kuujjuaq filled the town hall Nov. 5-7 to take part in Parnasimautik consultations, which have toured through the region for the last 18 months. (PHOTO BY ISABELLE DUBOIS)

Leanna Angnatuq, 17, said she was almost too nervous to get her words out at the recent Parnasimautik consultations held in Kuujjuaq Nov. 5 to Nov. 7.

She and her classmate Piari Gentes volunteered to act as youth representatives at the three-day meeting, not realizing what it would be like to speak in front of dozens of people.

But they managed to speak up by offering each other support.

“I wanted to learn more about what’s going to happen in my future,” Angnatuq said. “So I talked about education and employment and how we need to prepare ourselves for college [and] bring more post-secondary opportunities here.”

That’s an issue Angnatuq hears about a lot from her friends and classmates.

For Gentes, 16, who recently moved to Kuujjuaq from southern Quebec, he’s concerned about what a northern mining boom will means for Nunavik communities.

“I want my future children to breathe this same air I do and to drink clean water,” he said. “I know Nunavik needs more money, but we don’t want to screw up the land for the good of people in other countries.”

And those were only some of the topics discussed in Kuujjuaq this week, as Parnasimautik visits the last few communities in a consultation process that has travelled across Nunavik over the last year and a half.

Parnasimautik, which means “what you need to be prepared,” is the process by which regional organizations will draft a home-grown development plan – Nunavik’s response to Quebec’s Plan Nord, or as its been rebranded by the Parti Québécois government, Le Nord Pour Tous (the North for all.)

Building on Plan Nunavik, Parnasimautik aims to create a comprehensive vision for the development of the region – one it plans on delivering to the province in 2014.

For Kuujjuaq teacher Véronique Gilbert, who took her Secondary 5 students to the events this past week, the Kuujjuaq consultations offered important lessons.

“Most of the students were really interested hearing about the region’s history,” she said. “It’s important for them to understand the past so they can be part of the future – even if they don’t understand what part they have.”

One of Gilbert’s students asked participants why Inuit don’t have better access to high level or management positions — a common concern for youth as they look towards their own careers.

“We understood that we really have to make decisions now to make sure that our children are looked after,” said Kuujjuaq mayor Tunu Napartuk, who co-chaired the consultations.

But Napartuk also acknowledged that Kuujjuammiut are not all on the same page as to how the region should move forward.

He pointed to a discussion on mining, which drew a full range of responses: some Nunavimmiut feel that the presence of the mining industry is inevitable and the region must move to prepare itself, while others say the industry is totally unwelcome in Nunavik.

“As much as jobs are needed in our community, the protection of our environment is very important too,” Napartuk said. “We have to decide at which spot we’re going to meet up.”

In addition to helping share a regional vision, the Parnasimautik consultations in Kuujjuaq provided many ideas that could benefit the community, Napartuk said – ideas that he hopes will continue to grow at a local level.

Parnasimautik is close to wrapping up its 18-month regional tour, with the last of its consultations planned for Umiujaq, Chisasibi and Montreal.

Following those last events, regional organizations will gather all the feedback they’ve received and put that into a report, which will be presented to the Quebec government.