Quebec Inuit enter new era of land-claims agreement

DWANE WILKIN

In this remote community of 600 on the southern shore of Ungava Bay, Quebec Inuit leaders ushered in a new era in Nunavik’s development this week.

Since December, when Hydro Quebec made its last $1 million compensation payment, Makivik’s financial future has been entirely in its own hands.

The significance of this milestone was not lost on delegates to the birthright corporation’s annual general meeting in Kangiqsualujjuaq this week

Pressure to spend

In his opening remarks to community representatives, board members and a small delegation of elders, Makivik president Zebedee Nungak referred to the great challenge facing this 22-year-old organization: to preserve its $91 million compensation fund.

At the same time, he said Makivik must respond to growing demands to do something about social issues.

Nunavut closely watched

There were other pressing concerns raised during the week-long meetings at the Satuumavik School, and often Nunavut was invoked as an example worth following.

That happened on Wednesday when delegates expressed a desire to combine Nunavik’s local hunting, fishing and trapping associations into a regional wildlife management board.

And it was raised again during discussions over access to benefits under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement: Nunavingmiut still have no say as a community in who may become eligible for beneficiary status.

High unemployment, coupled with a high birthrate, continue to challenge Makivik’s economic development initiatives.

Most of the 8,600 people in this vast territory, a region covering 660,000 square km, a third of the surface area of the province of Quebec, still live below the poverty level, a problem magnified by the high cost of living in the North.

Where’s the jobs?

A survey conducted by the Kativik Regional Government recently concluded that simply to maintain Nunavik’s current low level of employment, 25 per cent more jobs than currently exist would have to be created by the year 2000.

Self-government talks with the Quebec government came to an abrupt standstill in 1995, following Nunavik’s overwhelming rejection of the Parti Quebecois’s sovereignist option.

Makivik’s relationship with the province has been strained since then.

No representatives from Quebec or Ottawa bothered to make an appearance this week in Kangiqsualujjuaq.

No government presence

The gradual disappearance of a federal presence in Nunavik was itself a point of concern at one point during the meeting, a subject that elicited a promise from Makivik’s leader to lobby for the return of some of these services.

“We’re electors, taxpayers and citizens of Canada and Quebec. We’re entitled to these services from both levels, we have to remind them of that,” said Nungak.

Though Nunavik Inuit have filled a number of jobs at the local government level over the past 15 years, the shrinking public sector alone cannot be expected to provide necessary employment levels.

Makivik’s own venture into community-based meat processing has been a disappointing failure so far.

The corporation hopes to focus job efforts this year on an experimental furniture assembly plant in Salluit, and on developing a commercial outfitting industry.

First Air makes money

Makivik’s largest subsidiary, First Air, continues to generate lots of money for the Corporation.

But now, confronted with tragic social problems that continue to plague their communities, profit margins in themselves don’t seem to offer a great sense of cultural security.

It was clear, when the meetings had come to a close, that communities want Nunavik’s birthright corporation to show a more active interest in these issues at the local level, perhaps evening loosening their purse strings for social spending.

The recent hiring of a travelling Inuk crisis counsellor has been received enthusiastically, and according to the corporation’s annual report, this program will be expanded to meet demand.

Last year, $275,000 in donations was allotted for crisis-intervention centres in Umiujaq and Inukjuaq, $125,000 for a rehabilitation centre in Kuujjuaq and $50,000 for the Women’s Association in Puvirnituq.

Makivik has budgeted $864,919 this year for spending on social issues. That’s up from about $550,000 last year.

Snow delayed the arrival of some delegates to this tiny former trading post, 550 km south of Iqaluit.

Phone-line glitches sometimes tested the patience of participants, but the only serious complaint conference organizers heard was that the meeting should never again be scheduled in April, when most delegates would rather be hunting than sitting in a school gymnasium.