Kitikmeot residents want Akulliq riding dumped

The boundaries for his riding, which is split between two Nunavut regions, needs to be changed, John Ningark, MLA for Akulliq, told delegates at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY— People in the Kitikmeot want to be heard — and part of that means electing an MLA to the Nunavut legislature whose allegiance isn’t split between the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions.

That’s what delegates and board members attending the Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay said Oct. 5 to John Ningark, MLA for Akulliq, whose riding includes Kugaaruk in the Kitikmeot and Repulse Bay in the Kivalliq.

The KIA has passed resolutions at each of its annual general meetings since 2006 asking for the Nunavut electoral boundary commission to “strongly consider more electoral districts in Kitikmeot that may include Kugaaruk and Taloyoak as one electoral district.”

“We wanted our voices to be heard but they [the Nunavut boundaries commission] didn’t listen,” said KIA board member Bobby Lyall of Taloyoak.

The legislative assembly is now seeking names of people who wish to serve on a new electoral boundaries commission, which will be headed by a current or retired Nunavut judge. Once appointed, the new commission is expected to recommend a new electoral map before the current assembly’s term expires.

At this week’s KIA meeting, Ningark told KIA delegates and board members that he’s not in favour of maintaining the boundaries of the current riding— and will fight to see it changed.

Ninagark and others at the KIA meeting agreed that they want to see a new riding for Taloyoak and Kugaaruk, as well as separate new riding for Gjoa Haven, whose population is catching up fast with Cambridge Bay.

Ningark said the current Akulliq riding is difficult to visit because travelling between Kugaaruk and Repulse Bay requires two one-night stopovers— in Rankin Inlet and in Yellowknife.

“My travel budget is just about exhausted,” he told the meeting.

Ningark wasn’t the only member of the legislature to visit the KIA meeting on Oct. 5.

Cambridge Bay MLA and finance minister Keith Peterson also spoke, reassuring delegates that he won’t allow the millions of dollars lost by the Nunavut Housing Corp. to influence the delivery of important programs in health, education and housing.

Peterson said he’s “prepared to run a deficit,” if the three per-cent cuts he’s asked all departments to make doesn’t produce the money the GN needs for a balanced budget.

A restructuring of the housing corp. is also being looked at, Peterson said, because the GN must regain Ottawa’s confidence.

Some KIA delegates complained that newcomers have taken over local housing corporations and that housing construction — once done by local companies with local labour — is now farmed out to contractors from outside Nunavut.

Louis Tapardjuk, Nunavut’s minister for culture, elders and youth, also made an appearance at the KIA meeting, where he mainly heard complaints about how elders have problems accessing money from CLEY and than hanging on to the money that CLEY hands out.

It’s often used by the hamlets for other uses, elders said.