Okalik sticks the needle into Nunavut cabinet

Paul Okalik, the MLA for Iqaluit West, has thrown numerous questions at cabinet ministers since the Nunavut legislative assembly reconvened on March 4. (FILE PHOTO) 

Whenever there’s a chance to needle members of Nunavut’s current cabinet, former premier Paul Okalik, now a regular MLA for Iqaluit West, grabs it.

Speaking March 5 at the current sitting of the Nunavut legislature, Okalik asked repeated questions challenging ministers’ actions on a variety of issues, from the presence of mould in buildings to wildlife management and the purchase of tea balls from Northmart for $20,000.

Okalik pressed Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk Premier Eva Aariak for more information about what her government plans to do to avert a ban on the export of polar bear trophies from Nunavut.

“Why, I state that our own Government of Canada is allowing these fanatics to dictate free trade to Inuit, and we are just accepting that? I would like to ask the premier: how and what are you doing to protect us,” Okalik said.

“Will our premier just turn the other cheek and accept their position… Will this government take this lying down in the future when more obstacles are thrown at our feet?”

Aariak response, that her government was “committed” to dealing with the issue, didn’t satisfy Okalik.

“Whenever something this close to our hearts is impacted and the basis for that decision is unfounded, then this government attempts to resolve the wildlife management issues,” Aariak said.

But this wasn’t a detailed enough response for Okalik during question period and he kept on badgering Aariak for more details.

But in the end, he had to settle for Aariak’s assurances.

“We just don’t sit back, it is evident. Our culture, our subsistence, and economic opportunities touch on that because we are working on this issue continually,” Aariak said.

Okalik also asked Daniel Shewchuk, the environment minister, whether the GN would seek compensation for hunters who will lose income as a result of international boycotts.

During question period, Okalik also peppered Lorne Kusugak, the minister responsible for Community Government and Services about what the GN has done to deal with mould inside the Trigram building in Iqaluit, home to various government offices.

Kusugak told him the mould had been dealt with in December.

But Okalik said dealing up mould in buildings requires structural work, not just a clean-up.

“So are there any plans to relocate these employees for their own health and safety?”

But Kusugak assured Okalik the building was “mould-free.”

“Just for your information, the Office of the Health and Workplace Safety Inspector is actually located in the building and that individual is responsible for the health and safety of employees, and it was deemed a safe environment in which to work,” Kusugak said.

But Okalik wasn’t convinced, saying this is not the first case where there has been mould in the Trigram building,

“It returns and it will return. I can bet you that will happen because once it forms, it doesn’t go away,” Okalik said.

The GN doesn’t “want to see anybody, including ourselves or employees of anywhere and Nunavummiut, to be working in a hazardous environment,” said Kusugak, who promised to keep “very close tabs on the situation and report to my colleague and those interested if the situation should anything change at the Trigram building”

As for the purchase of the tea balls from Northmart, Aariak said she needed to “need to conduct some research into this question” and took it on notice.