The scandals, the screwups, and ugly slanging matches

If there's one thing that made 2007 special, it's this: the reasons behind the Government of Nunavut's numerous failures were laid bare for all to see, but only for those who chose to face them.

There's one continuing news story that makes this plain: the story of the Nunavut Business Credit Corp. and its administrative and financial collapse. (See Top Ten News Stories, page 3.)

This story encapsulates nearly everything that's gone wrong with the GN since April 1, 1999: sloppy, incompetent governance, a starry-eyed but inflexible devotion to decentralization, management practices that drive skilled workers to seek better employers, and a paranoid aversion to constructive criticism.

As for the good news stories of 2007, nearly all are rooted outside of government.

One good news story is mining – but only because the GN has the good sense to stand back and let the private sector do its work. The acquisition of Nunavut mining properties by global players such as Newmont, Zinifex and Agnico-Eagle gives Nunavummiut reason to hope for new jobs and new lives within a brighter future.

On the other hand, the widespread dysfunction exposed within Nunavut's environmental management boards raises serious doubts about the Nunavut land claim agreement's ability to protect the environment.

January

• Citing the threat posed by global warming, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces a long-awaited proposal aimed at listing the polar bear as a "threatened species." Climate change activists applaud but most Inuit hunters oppose the proposal, which could threaten Nunavut's $2.9-million-a-year sports hunt.
• Nunavut's chief coroner reports that 29 people died by their own hand in 2006, making it the second-worst year for suicide in Nunavut's history. About a quarter of the dead are women. Halfway through the first month of 2007, two young Iqaluit mothers continue the trend by hanging themselves.
• Covered by blue tarps, the bodies of three young men killed by gunfire lie frozen on a Cambridge Bay street for an entire weekend. The bodies can't be touched until RCMP major crimes investigators, who wait out a blizzard in Yellowknife, arrive to gather evidence. Two other residents are wounded in the same incident. Christopher Bishop, 21, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
• One bottle, one life: Adrien VanEindhoven, 32, of Rankin Inlet, is sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for at least 12 years after being convicted of second-degree murder in the April 2004 death of Leanne Irkotee, his common-law spouse. Enraged by the loss of a 66-ounce vodka bottle, VanEindhoven punched her, bit her, kicked her with steel-toed boots and stabbed her through the heart with a steak knife.
• Thwarted ambition: Jack Anawak, Nunavut's Liberal MP between 1988 and 1997, declares he wants his old job back. Later in the year, the Nunavut Liberal Association chooses Kirt Ejesiak instead. Due to confusion over deadlines, Anawak's name doesn't even appear as a candidate for the nomination.

February

• A preliminary GN study suggests the Davis Strait polar bear population is healthy, having risen from about 850 animals in the early 1980s to about 2,100 now. This gives the GN new evidence for use against those who want the polar bear listed as an endangered species.
• Saying that Canadian North's bid was evaluated in an unfair manner, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal orders the federal government to re-tender a five-year $175-million food mail contract won by First Air in 2005. That decision is overturned later in the year by the Federal Court of Canada and First Air keeps the contract.
• The Nunavut Association of Municipalities and the GN figure out how to allocate $26 million in federal municipal infrastructure money. But because there's not enough money, all communities make do with less than they want.
• Two Swedish politicians co-nominate Sheila-Watt Cloutier and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore for the Nobel Peace Prize. Later in the year, Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change win the award, but Watt-Cloutier is left out.
• Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. acquires Baker Lake's Meadowbank gold mine.
• An audit report leaked to Nunatsiaq News reveals the GN's motor vehicles office is in a serious state of administrative disarray, with a huge backlog of unfinished work dating back to September, 2005. The auditor says the small motor ­vehicle office staff don't get enough support from senior managers.

March

• Organizers unveil plans for Qanuippitali, a massive study that will survey the health of Inuit in Nunavut, Labrador and the Northwest Territories over two years. The project receives $10.6 million from Ottawa's International Polar Year fund.
• The Nunavut Employees Union lambastes the GN's 2007-08 budget, unveiled March 7 by finance minister David Simailak, saying the GN is incapable of solving Nunavut's mounting problems.
• About two weeks after the tabling of the GN's budget, Jim Flaherty, the federal finance minister, announces the Conservative government's 2007-08 budget. In it, Ottawa gives Nunavut $23 million to help fix its ailing financial management system, and a revamped territorial financing formula that pumps another $28 million into the GN's coffers for the current fiscal year.
• MLAs take aim at a $1.2 million-a-year office space lease renewal between the GN and Enokhok Corp., a company connected to ex-finance minister Kelvin Ng. They refuse to pass the CGS department's budget until the GN provides information justifying the lease renewal.
• Good intentions, poor results: The GN abandons a botched attempt to recruit nurses from India and the Philippines after the $3.5 million experiment fails.
• A majority of MLAs, mostly from the Baffin, vote to dump a $300,000 report recommending new electoral boundaries for the legislative assembly. Kitikmeot MLAs oppose the decision, saying the proposed new system would have eliminated the highly unpopular dual-region Akulliq constituency.
• The Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. unveils ambitious plans for new services such as internet phone and videoconferencing. Three months later that plan grinds to a halt when Qulliq Energy Corp., citing unresolved business issues, bars NBDC technicians from installing new equipment on its sites, which all sit within property controlled by the QEC.

April

• Members of Nunavut's Liberal association choose Kirt Ejesiak, an Iqaluit business person, as their candidate in the next federal election. The incumbent Liberal MP, Nancy Karetak-Lindell, said late last year that this term will be her last.
• The GN releases draft versions of two proposed new language laws: a revised Official Languages Act and a new law called the Inuit Language Protection Act. Later in the year, these proposed new laws, Bills 6 and 7, get first and second reading in the legislative assembly.
• Business trumps the environment? The Nunavut Water Board collapses internally after its respected executive director, Philippe di Pizzo, is summarily fired. To protest against his firing, the board's entire technical staff quit their jobs. Disgruntled staff say di Pizzo was dismissed because under his direction, the water board rejected Miramar Corp.'s Doris North water licence application. But business interests, backed by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, say the water board delayed the job-creating mine for no good reason.
• Premier Paul Okalik tells an audience of mining company executives that he stands with them in opposing regulatory processes that impede mineral exploration and development.
• The Nunavut Association of Municipalities warns that Nunavut communities may be left out of the coming mining boom unless they get help to prepare from the federal and territorial governments. They also push for a share of resource royalties following a devolution agreement between Nunavut and Ottawa, a position that enrages Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik.
• The GN backtracks on its polar bear population estimates for western Hudson Bay, and asks the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board to lower the hunting quota for the 2007-08 season.
• Mark King Jeffrey 26, pleads guilty to second-degree murder in the brutal 2002 stabbing death of 13-year-old Jennifer Naglingniq at her home in Iqaluit. Jeffrey killed the girl by driving a kitchen knife through her aorta, after stabbing and slashing her numerous times. In May, Justice Earl Johnson sentences Jeffrey to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 14 years.
• Pauloosie Paniloo, 64, who served as MLA for Baffin Central between 1983 and 1987, dies April 20 while on a Canadian Ranger patrol.
• Mary Panigusiq Cousins, 69, the renowned editor, teacher and translator, dies in Ottawa.

May

• Nunavut Arctic College ends its 25-year relationship with McGill University of Montreal and chooses the University of Regina to accredit and help run the Nunavut Teacher Education Program.
• As the school year draws to a close, one in every four Nunavut teachers seek teaching jobs elsewhere.
• Four months after his release from prison on marijuana trafficking and money laundering convictions, Ed deVries, Nunavut's Marijuana Party candidate, is charged again with trafficking in a controlled substance, as well as conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance and breach of undertaking.
• After only 11 months on the job, Ron Brown quits as deputy minister of health and social services. Premier Paul Okalik replaces him with Alex Campbell, the ninth boss to be thrown into the troubled health department since 1999.
• The grudge match continues: Premier Paul Okalik clashes with delegates attending the annual general meeting of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities in Iqaluit. NAM wants a say in how Nunavut prepares for resource development, but Okalik says no.
• The three northern premiers issue a 20-page "northern vision" document containing motherhood statements about the environment, aboriginal land claims, climate change and their desire to extract more money from Ottawa.

June

• Premier Paul Okalik's mouth gets him into big trouble at a social gathering in Labrador. "What is that fucking bitch, Lynda Gunn, doing here?" he's overheard saying, in reference to the executive director of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities. Okalik, faced with demands that he resign, issues a series of shamefaced apologies. In September he endures a vote of censure in the legislative assembly.
• Hunter Tootoo, MLA for Iqaluit Centre, continues raising questions in the legislative assembly about the Kivalliq Business Development Centre and the Nunavut Business Credit Corp., a subject he's pursued since October of 2006. He asks David Simailak, the economic development minister, to explain why the KDBC spends $10 in legal fees for every $1 they give out in loans and why there are discrepancies in their various reports and financial statements.
• The day that devolution died? Paul Mayer, the federal government's ministerial representative for Nunavut devolution, recommends a careful, step-by-step approach to the devolution of responsibility to Nunavut for public lands and resources. In his June 12 report, he says Nunavut's biggest problem is its shortage of skilled professionals, which damages the quality of governance and raises questions about Nunavut's ability to handle more responsibility. An enraged premier Paul Okalik attacks the report, saying Nunavut is building expertise and that Ottawa should spend more money to help train Nunavummiut.
• The federal government proposed listing the Peary caribou as an endangered species.
• The Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, says in a report that the GN's student financial assistance scheme delivers cheques in "a timely manner," but also says the GN does little to collect an estimated $4 million in outstanding loans, $2 million of which is in the bad debt category.
• The third annual Alianait Arts Festival kicks off in Iqaluit with art exhibits, film showings and a popular series of concerts featuring more than 50 performers from Nunavut, southern Canada and the circumpolar world.
• The Qikiqtani Inuit Association dumps all over the GN's proposed new language laws, saying they want them either withdrawn or rewritten to give Inuktitut precedence over English and French.
• The White Stripes attract 600 delirious rock fans to Iqaluit's AWG arena, part of a tour that takes them to the three territorial capitals.
• The Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. sues Qulliq Energy Corp. after QEC bars technicians from installing new equipment on QEC property. QEC wants NBDC to start paying to house its internet equipment on QEC land, but NBDC alleges it's entitled to subsidized tenancy agreements on QEC sites worth only $1 a year.

July

• Pam Hine quits her 60-to-70-hour-a-week job as deputy minister of Community and Government Services, saying she doesn't have 15 hours a week to learn Inuktitut. Hine becomes the Yukon's deputy minister of education.
• Tagak Curley, the MLA for Rankin Inlet North, says Paul Okalik should resign as premier and that if he doesn't, MLAs should remove him. In September, MLAs decide to pass a motion of censure against him for his obscene outburst in Labrador, but they stop short of removing him as premier.
• Stephen Harper, the prime minister, announces the federal government will build eight special patrol boats for use in the Arctic, at a cost of $3.1 billion. On Aug. 10 , he announces that existing infrastructure at Nanisivik will be expanded into a naval refueling station, but he's silent on the issue of a deep-water port for Iqaluit.
• Police-reported crime numbers from Statistics Canada show Nunavut's crime rate dropped in 2006. But this appears to conflict with numbers from the Nunavut Court of Justice, which show a sharp rise in the number of criminal files that year.

August

• A fire causes $2.2 million worth of damage to Cambridge Bay's nearly empty health centre, which closes for six weeks.
• Members of the armed forces along with the Coast Guard, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada and the Government of Nunavut take part in a naval exercise in Lancaster Sound called Operation Nanook.
• A GN study finds that about 120 Nunavummiut carry the rare HLTV-1 virus in their blood. Of these, the GN estimates about three or four of them may develop fatal illnesses such as leukemia.
• Peter Ittinuar, 57, who represented Nunatsiaq riding for the NDP and the Liberals between 1979 and 1983, declares that he may be interested in seeking the Green Party nomination in Nunavut, should a federal election be called.
• The Qanuippitali health survey gets underway when the Coast Guard vessel Amundsen drops anchor off Sanikiluaq. Over the next two years, surveyors will study the health of Inuit living in Nunavut, Labrador and the Northwest Territories.
• Stephen Harper completes a whirlwind tour of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut with quick stops in Resolute Bay and Nanisivik. He confirms the location of a Canadian Forces training centre in Resolute Bay.
• Feeling overlooked by the federal government, City of Iqaluit officials explore the idea of a privately funded deep-water port for Iqaluit.
• Chuck Strahl replaces the highly-respected Jim Prentice as minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
• Documents obtained by Nunatsiaq News show that at least two of Nunavut's government-funded business loan organizations, Nunavut Business Credit Corp. and Keewatin Business Development Centre, run their own affairs as badly as their numerous non-paying loan clients. This is partly confirmed later in the year, when the Auditor General of Canada issues a devastating report on the NBCC.
• Arctic Bay hunters ban filmmakers from the floe edge in Admiralty Inlet after a embarrassing article about their narwhal hunt appears in National Geographic. One tour operator complains this move will cost them $200,000 in lost business.

September

• Researchers with Environment Canada reveal shocking findings about the decline of the Arctic Ocean's permanent ice cover, saying that by August of 2007, the ice cap was already 20 per cent smaller than in 2005. They predict the Arctic Ocean will see completely ice-free summers in only 20 to 30 years.
• The "Wild Vikings," a rowdy gang of Norwegian adventurers, are deported from Canada after sailing near Cambridge Bay.
• MLAs vote unanimously to censure Paul Okalik for the obscene remarks he directed at Lynda Gunn in June. "My late mother taught me to be a better man," Okalik says.
• The GN backs away from its 2006 position and supports a reduction in the polar bear quota for western Hudson Bay, from 56 to 38 animals a year.

October

• Red-faced officials with the Nunavut Housing Corp. announce that 44 truckloads of building materials missed the last sealift ship, leaving contractors without enough material to start construction on 178 social housing units. The corporation says their contracted marshalling firm was overwhelmed by the amount of material they were required to handle.
• The West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset celebrates its 50th anniversary with the launch of a coffee table book and a special art exhibition in Toronto.
• The Qikiqtani Inuit Association gives final marching orders to its long-awaited "truth commission," which will look into the killing of Inuit dogs, the relocation of Inuit into settled communities, and other events of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It's headed by James Igliorte of Labrador, the first Inuk in Canada to serve as a provincial court judge.
• During appearances before the legislative assembly's Ajauqtiit committee, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. dump all over the GN's proposed language law package. But in the following month, Louis Tapardjuk, the culture and language minister, declares that it's unlikely the GN will agree to further amendments.
• In an angry diatribe aimed at the Tory throne speech, Paul Okalik attacks the federal government's approach to devolution: "They're just putting up these artificial barriers so they can keep their cushy jobs in Ottawa and exploit our resources," Okalik says.
• After 11 years and $64 million, the Qikqtani General Hospital "opens" in Iqaluit. But it's likely that much of the building and equipment will sit empty due to staff shortages.
• The Inuit Broadcasting Corp. proposes the creation of an Inuit language education channel, similar to TV Ontario or Télé-Québec.
• Johnny Kusugak, Nuna­vut's commissioner of official languages, announces that he will resign his job as of Dec. 13, saying he wants to move to Rankin Inlet to keep his family together.
• The Nunavut Trust declares that the entire land claim compensation fund has been restored, and now sits at $1.3 billion.
• Newmont Mining Corp. launches a friendly bid to take over Miramar Mining Corp., owner of the lucrative Hope Bay gold fields in the Kitikmeot.

November

• Fiasco time at the GN: Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General of Canada, issues a devastating report on the Nunavut Business Credit Corp., issuing a denial of opinion on the organization's messed up financial records. Fraser said as much as $5 million in NBCC loans may be unrecoverable. David Simailak, the finance and economic development minister, fires executive assistant Chris Lalande and accepts the resignation of the NBCC's chair and two other board members. In December, Simailak also resigns, following revelations that he has interests in two companies that in 2005 borrowed $2 million from the NBCC in contravention of territorial law. The recriminations are expected to continue into 2008.
• Ed Picco, the education minister, tables a long-awaited bill that would create a new Education Act for Nunavut. The new law would create a bilingual education system by 2019 and require $14 million a year in new spending. About $1 million of that would go to district education authorities and help pay for the creation of a Nunavut-wide education body.
• The people of Nunavut mourn Cst. Douglas Scott, 20, who dies of gunshot wounds Nov. 5 in Kimmirut after responding to a complaint about a drunk driver. Pingoaktuk "Ping" Kolola, 37, of Kimmirut, is charged with first-degree murder, and a nation-wide debate ensues over the safety of RCMP members working in remote northern communities.
• Leona Aglukkaq, the health minister, tables a recruitment and retention strategy that would see 12 more nurses hired from outside Nunavut and 30 trained within Nunavut. But there is no money attached to the strategy. That's revealed near the end of the month, when the GN tables its opening wage bid in collective agreement talks with the Nunavut Employees Union.
• Four sealift barges sit frozen in sea ice at Rankin Inlet after the Northern Transportation Company Ltd. fails to get two of them to Baker Lake on time.
• Lawyers from opposing sides duke it out after a women's hockey cup purportedly designed by Nunavut artists and paid for by former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson falls victim to an messy intellectual property dispute.
• To no one's surprise, Miramar Mining Corp. gets a water licence for its Doris North gold mine, issued by a freshly-staffed, development-friendly Nunavut Water Board.

December

• Ethics reversal? After declaring earlier that David Simailak, the erstwhile finance minister, was not in a conflict of interest over two NBCC loans that in 2005 went to companies he partly owns, Robert Stanbury, the integrity commissioner, announces near years' end that he'll probe the situation. But by then Simailak had already quit the cabinet.
• Coming hard on the heels of Simailak's resignation, yet another embarrassment for the GN: Alan McDowell, comptroller of the NBCC since April of 2006 and now the organization's acting CEO, turns out to have been facing four criminal charges laid before the GN hired him. In March 2006, McDowell, who maintains his innocence, was charged with two counts of fraud and two counts of theft under $5,000. After this information made the news, the GN suspended him with pay.
• Nurses in Iqaluit demonstrate for higher pay and better working conditions, saying the flight of full-time nurses from Nunavut threatens patient safety.
• The Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. says they're not ready to sign a mediated agreement aimed at resolving their longstanding dispute with Qulliq Energy Corp. The NDBC's officials say they don't have enough cash to pay their staff – but they're not willing to raise the monthly rates paid by their 3,700 subscribers.
• The Nunavut Employees Union rejects the GN's opening wage offer, the first money offer made since the start of talks in late 2006.
• Louis Tapardjuk, the culture and language minister, declares that he won't cave in to critics who want major changes to the GN's two proposed language laws.
• Leo Audlakiak, 43, of Qikiqtarjuaq, is charged Dec. 19 with one count of second-degree murder in connection with the death of Joemie Qiyuqtaq, 28, also of Qikiqtarjuaq. Audlakiak is held in custody until his first court appearance, set for Jan. 8 in Iqaluit.