CBC radio still off the air in much of Nunavik

CBC’s Kuujjuaq headquarters is home to the regional week-day Inuttitut radio show, Tuttavik. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — Because CBC airwave broadcasts are hard to get in their region, residents of many Nunavik villages are forced to use slow internet connections to hear CBC radio’s Tuttavik show, the Kativik Regional Government heard Nov. 30

“Community members always ask why CBC isn’t on the air. We are losing vital information,” said Mary Pilurtuut, the regional councillor for Kangiqsujuaq.

In a region where radio connects people, many communities cannot tune into Tuttavik, which is broadcast from Kuujjuaq, or other regional programming over the airwaves.

One thing comes through clearly: Nunavimmiut want CBC radio broadcast throughout the region.

“It would be good for [CBC] to be more visible in our community.”

In Kangirsuk, regional councillor Mary Nassak said people try to get CBC online through their computers, but long buffering times makes this inconvenient.

CBC isn’t a complete stranger to Nunavik. Some communities in have receivers that pick up the radio network’s signal and reboradcast it.

CBC radio hit the local airwaves in the late 1970s, after the Inuttitut-language broadcaster Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. was established across Nunavik.

Nunavik was equipped with receivers – which pick up broadcast signals – but some of the region’s communities didn’t receive the transmitters that actually send the broadcast out to air.

Today, many Nunavik villages still do not have the equipment or technical support to broadcast CBC radio locally, especially in the region’s smaller communities.

Pat Nagle of CBC North’s Iqaluit told KRG delegates that the system to deliver TNI originally resided on a CBC channel, which is why some Nunavimmiut get a combination of CBC and TNI broadcasts.

But when TNI set up its own network, existing transmitters in the communities were abandoned.

“CBC never did own or operate those transmitters,” Nagle said. “So we find ourselves in the situation where we can’t do much with them. It’s the same problem we face in many small communities in Nunavut.”

Today, the CBC expands coverage as it’s able to, he said, but only on a case-by-case basis.

“And that hasn’t really happened much in this region,” Nagle said.

Providing communications services is not within the KRG’s mandate, but its chairperson, Maggie Emudluk, said the regional government can help by forming a working group to bring CBC broadcasts back to the region’s 14 villages.

While the group is not officially formed, it will likely include KRG executive councillors and representatives from TNI and CBC North.

“We are connected to the rest of the country through CBC,” said Maggie Emudluk. “As the regional government, we need to transmit information and we need to have the services available to do it.”

But William Tagoona, a CBC North producer in Kuujjuaq and co-host of Tuttavik, says the first thing the working group must do is approach different levels of government for funding.

“CBC services are not the same they were in the past because of budget cuts,” Tagoona said. “And we see the impact.

“We do our best not to expose the impact of those cuts, but services are already affected.”

In Kuujjuaq, the local station, 97.3 FM, is owned by the municipality, although the station transmits CBC’s Tuttavik and other broadcasts during the day.