For Nunavimmiut, 2007 was a year of social failure and political successes

Youth ­protection fails Nunavik ­children

In June, the Quebec's human rights commission asked Jean Charest, the premier of Quebec and the province's youth minister, to "take personal control" of efforts to fix Nunavik's youth protection system and improve conditions for youth in the region.

The commission's devastating report said that "a large number of children are physically, psychologically and sexually mistreated," and found that the human rights of children are violated in Nunavik.

"Some children, despite their young age, are addicted to alcohol, drugs or other substances that cause serious physical or mental disorders," the report said.

Quebec said it would pump $5.5 million more a year into Nunavik's health and social services department, build $31 million in extra staff housing for health workers and respond to nearly all the 21 recommendations for action made by the commission.

Nunavik leaders urged parents to work with them so the region's children receive the love, attention and schooling they need to thrive.

"We must act, and we must act quickly, for the sake of our children," Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corporation, told Nunavimmiut in August.

Quebec money flows into Nunavik

Cabinet ministers from Quebec City and Ottawa committed about $200 million to Nunavik at the Katimajiit meeting on Nunavik's social and economic development, held Aug. 23 and Aug. 24 at the Katittavik cultural centre in Kuujjuaq. Most of that money comes from the Quebec government.

Premier Jean Charest and his ministers, opposition leader Mario Dumont, DIAND minister Chuck Strahl, and federal industry minister Lawrence Cannon attended the gathering, along with elected officials from every organization in Nunavik.

The largest amounts of money will go towards the construction and maintenance of social housing and community infrastructure. Other chunks of cash are aimed at lowering the region's high cost of living and improving access to high-speed internet.

As a result, the price of gasoline in Nunavik was lowered on two separate occasions by 16 cents a litre and elders received a $500 bonus to help offset the high cost of transportation.

FCNQ opts for credit unions

The region's co-operative network, Fédération des cooperatives du Nouveau-Québec, in collaboration with Quebec's powerful Desjardins credit union, plans to open a Nunavik financial services of the money announced at the Katimajiit meeting centre in every community, starting with the opening of branches in 2007.

By 2009, Nunavik's new credit union hopes to lure more than 3,500 accounts away from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce – the only chartered bank with a branch in the territory.

To reach its goal of becoming Nunavik's top banking institution, the new Nunavik financial services centre must woo away the business of the region's major businesses and organizations and raise capital.

New ­government inches closer

Nunavik moved a step closer to a new regional public government on Dec. 5, when Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corp., signed an agreement-in-principle with Quebec's native affairs minister, Benoit Pelletier, and Chuck Strahl, the federal minister of Indian affairs, in the Quebec National Assembly's Salon Rouge.

The AIP marks the start of serious planning for the amalgamation of the Kativik regional government, school board and health board into a new body called the Nunavimmiut Aquvvinga.

This new body will be headed by an assembly, the Uqarmarvik, made up of 21 members, seven more than the Kativik Regional Government now has, but several less than the combined boards of the three current organizations.

A final agreement on the new Nunavik government is likely to be completed within two years.

KRPF continues to struggle

The Kativik Regional Police Force endured more turmoil in 2007 as many police officers left Nunavik and efforts to recruit Inuit into the beleaguered police force failed.

Over the the year, negotiations for a new collective agreement and long-term funding with Quebec and Ottawa moved forward slowly.

The KRPF also saw some new developments: deputy chief Jobie Epoo took over as the new chief of police, and some police detachments received new trucks with flashy new logos, part of a planned makeover.

The KRPF's low point in 2007 may have been when police in Kangiqsujuaq saw their transit home fire bombed by rowdy kids.

The high point: in June, police in Salluit, a community of about 1800 people, made a huge bust: 18 pounds of marijuana, more than four grams of cocaine and a vial of a substance suspected to be speed, for an estimated street value of $800,000.

The quantity of the drugs made this seizure one of the largest made by police in Nunavik – if not the largest ever.

Harassment allegations at Nunavik House

Women from Nunavik alleged that a male employee of the region's patient boarding home in Montreal, Nunavik House, sexually harassed and threatened them at various times when they stay at the 55-bed residence in Montreal.

Unwanted sexual advances inside the Nunavik House were only part these women's worries at the patient home, located in the NDG neighbourhood of Montreal, in a seedy section of St-Jacques Street lined with cheap hotels and biker bars.

During the fall, Quebec's health department conducted an investigation of the Module du nord or northern module, which oversees Nunavik House and patient care for Nunavimmiut, looking at management, finances and allegations of harassment.

Beluga ­management in chaos

On Oct. 20, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed Hudson Strait to all beluga hunting after the zone's quota of 120 animals was exceeded.

Overhunting by Nunavik hunters from Kuujjuaq, Kangirsuk, Kangiqsujuaq, Salluit, Ivujivik and Purvirnituq meant the Hudson Strait's beluga quota was surpassed by 45 whales, which the federal department of fisheries called "very, very disappointing."

The communities of Salluit, which killed 33 belugas, and Puvirnituq, which killed 23, were the worst offenders.

These communities will likely see reduced quotas in 2008, with beefed-up DFO enforcement.

Starving polar bear spotted

In 2007, climate change moved on to the radar of many Nunavimmiut when a starving polar bear was spotted about 100 miles inland from Ungava Bay, in an area better known for black bears.

On Sept. 4, Nunavik Tourism's executive director, Allen Gordon, photographer Heiko Wittenborn and Wye Yoshida travelled by jet boat on the Caniapiscau River to Manitou Gorge in search of new fishing spots for Nunavik Tourism, when they spotted a white polar bear standing by the shore.

The polar bear was visibly malnourished, with fur hanging from its frame.

Will Nunavik get its own seat?

Nunavik stepped up its pressure for the creation of a new provincial riding for the region, to which Premier Jean Charest also pledged his support.

The sprawling Ungava riding, which includes Nunavik, stayed with the Parti Québécois during the March 26 Quebec election.

PQ candidate Luc Ferland won 4,555 of 11,126 votes cast, beating his closest contender, Liberal Party candidate Aline Sauvageau, by more than 100 votes.

A bumper year for minerals

Mineral exploration firms uncovered more rich deposits in Nunavik.

Azimut Exploration Inc. and Majescor Resources Inc. said their prospectors found "extensive" uranium-bearing minerals at the companies' South Rae property, 130 kilometres southeast of Kuujjuaq.

Canadian Royalties prospectors also found a new deposit for its future Nunavik nickel mine, to be built 20 km south of the Xstrata Raglan nickel mine.

Xstrata Nickel found an estimated 4.5 million more tonnes of nickel, copper and platinum ore near Nunavik's Raglan Mine.

The Association de l'exploration minière du Québec recently presented Xstrata Nickel with the "Development of the Year" award for the discovery of these "significant additional mineral resources" at Raglan.

In August, Xstrata said it would double production and its workforce at the Raglan mine by 2013, making it one of the world's biggest nickel operations.