Qanukkanniq: Start with the simple stuff

When Eva Aariak contested the Nunavut premier’s job this past Nov. 14, she told MLAs that, if elected, she would order a sweeping review aimed at producing a report card on the Government of Nunavut.

The basic idea, she said, is to find out what works, what needs improvement and what isn’t working at all.

She kept her promise. Not long after the start of her mandate, she announced the Qanukkanniq GN Report Card Project.

To get all the research and consulting work done, the GN hired a team headed by Piers McDonald, a respected New Democratic Party politician and labour leader who served as premier of Yukon between 1996 and 2000.

McDonald’s team includes three former deputy ministers from Yukon, including John Walsh, whose resumé includes a stint as boss of all bosses at the GN — deputy minister of the executive.

And to help them communicate in the Inuit language, the team hired Mary Ehko Wilman, who’s just about the best person you could possibly hire for such a purpose. Wilman brought in four more Inuit-language speakers as consultants.

There’s no doubt that Aariak hired a talented crew to get the job done, perhaps the best possible group that could have been put together on such short notice.

This is fortunate, because they’re supposed to get their work done in just four months. McDonald’s group didn’t get their marching orders until this past May and must produce a “completed report card” for the legislative assembly by Oct. 1, about 10 days from the day this editorial was written. By Nunavut standards, that’s equivalent to working at the speed of light.

There’s much that a jaded observer could criticize about this process. One problem is that the main benchmark they’re using is the 2004 Pinasuatavut document. This was an updated version of the 1999 Bathurst Mandate, most of which consists of a utopian wish-list describing what Nunavut ought to get done by 2020.

That’s a big problem. How do you actually measure a thing by a standard that may be meaningless? The Qanukkanniq questionnaire, for example, asks people to evaluate whether the GN is “sharing Nunavut’s resources with land claim organizations.” What does “resources” mean? What does the question mean? Don’t ask us. We’re as mystified as as you are.

We also don’t know how much weight the team will give to information-gathering methods like public meetings and questionnaire responses compared with how much weight the team will give to more objective sources of information, such as statistical surveys and Auditor General’s reports.

While one public meeting might give you a fair sampling of public opinion, your next public meeting might degenerate into a playground for cranky old men where the biggest loudmouth gets to set the agenda.

And nearly all public meetings tend to feature uninformed feelings rather than informed opinions. This means any “information” acquired at a public meeting must be balanced by reliable evidence.

But even after taking all that into account, Aariak’s report card project promises to provide a useful guide for making improvements to the GN. It’s also clear that many Nunavut residents want a more capable and reponsive territorial government.

Aariak recognized this past November:

“When I look around me today, though, the energy and enthusiasm, which were so much part of us leading up to Nunavut, have apparently gone missing. Many Nunavummiut are moving away from their interests in government. Others are moving away from their personal hopes and dreams. Too many are moving away from their responsibilities.”

This is an assessement that echoes what many Nunavummiut felt at the time,

But this doesn’t justify hopeless pessimism. Though it may not look like it, the GN is better funded and better staffed than in 1999, and is now able to benefit from 10 years worth of hard-earned experience. There really is good reason to hope.

Our suggestions for improvement? Start with the simple stuff first — things the GN already has the capacity to do better now.

Take health cards, for example. If you lose one, you have to contact a health department office in Rankin Inlet to get service. How do you find this office?

The phone book offers no help and neither does the department’s website. Click on a link called “Contacts” and you get a page that says “Oops! The page you are trying to visit no longer exists.” Click on a link called “FAQ” and you get a page filled with white space.

If you’re lucky, you may find a phone number that someone at the other end is capable of answering, though it’s rare that a GN telephone is actually answered by a functioning human being. Eventually, somebody will send you a health card application form — via fax, an obsolete, inefficient technology that’s used way too often in Nunavut.

Lesson Number One for the GN: learn how to answer your phones and improve your appalling presence on the internet, a medium to which most Nunavut residents now have access.

Here’s another example. It should be possible for an employee of, let’s say the Department of Community Government, to go to a public meeting in, let’s say, Kugluktuk, and express an opinion about the quality of health care or social services. They should be able to do this without having to worry that some insecure politician or bureaucrat will take their job away the next morning.

Lesson Number Two for the GN: respect basic human rights, such as the right to freedom of expression. To do this you don’t need a new “strategy” or “funding program.” All you need to do is respect the Charter of Rights and follow your own stated policies.

Here’s another example: This past summer, numerous residents in numerous communities came down with swine flu — within a bizarre information vacuum. Remember, influenza is a disease that everyone on the planet catches at least once. It’s not acquired through unconventional sex acts or wreckless drug use. It’s not a source of stigma. There’s no rational justification for withholding information about how many people may be sick with swine flu in any given community.

Lesson Number Three for the GN: treat the people of Nunavut like adults. JB