An appreciation of Elisapee Sheutiapik

I’ve had the privilege to work for some strong leaders at the Nunavut Association of Municipalities: Keith Peterson, Johnny Ningeongan, Lootie Toomasie and Elisapee Sheutipiak ,to name a few.

Today, however, I wish to express my sincere thanks to Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik — both as Iqaluit mayor and past NAM president.

Few are aware of the important ongoing lobby efforts of the past NAM executive: away from Nunavut, away from home. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) board meetings held four times a year plus AGMs and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance annual budget planning hearings were two types of forums that NAM leaders presented at from 1999 to 2008 that I am aware of.

Mayor Sheutiapik was the vice-chair of the FCM’s powerful “Northern Forum” committee for the three-plus years that she served as NAM president.

Few are aware of important contribution NAM has made towards the development of policies that FCM developed and adopted at the Northern Forum, which spoke to Nunavut’s needs These needs were articulated when FCM held its 2010 fall session board meetings here in Iqaluit in early September 2010.

In addition, Mayor Sheutiapik single-handedly lobbied the FCM board of directors to stage that fall session meeting here and successfully (and, again, single-handedly) quashed an effort to see the meeting changed from Iqaluit to another Canadian municipality.

When you consider that she was one of approximately 80 FCM board members sitting around the national table, this was, indeed, quite the coup!

Mayor Sheutiapik, you will be missed as a very able representative for Nunavut’s municipalities, this I am certain of.

Thank you for the time when I’ve had the honour of working with you as NAM’s president.

As a woman of Nunavut, it made me proud to see you effectively representing our territory.

And, kind thanks to Nunatsiaq News for printing this letter.

Lynda M. Gunn
Iqaluit


Email your letters to editor@nunatsiaq.com.

Nunatsiaq News welcomes letters to the editor. But we are under no obligation to publish any given letter at any given time.

In our print edition, we usually print letters on a first-come, first-served, space-available basis. In our online edition, we usually print letters as soon as we are able to prepare them for publication.

We edit all letters for length, grammar, punctuation, spelling, taste and libel. You may withhold your name by request, but we must know who you are before we publish your letter.