Anawak to confirm DM jobs next week

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Next Wednesday, Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak will confirm the names of the11 people he’s hired to run the Nunavut government’s bureaucracy.

Anawak said the 11 people have already been “pretty well” hired. But he said his office wants to complete negotiations with them on their pay and benefits packages before making an official announcement.

“We just want to make sure that everything is in place before we make the announcement,” Anawak said.

The eleven successful applicants were culled from a list supplied by Caldwell and Partners — a southern recruiting firm called in to help the interim commissioner’s office — and from people who applied directly to Anawak’s office.

Anawak said that about 300 candidates applied for the deputy minister jobs.

Using a variety of reliable sources, Nunatsiaq News has been able to corroborate the names of nine of the 11 people hired for deputy-minister-level jobs within the Nunavut government.

Who are they?

Here are the nine northern residents expected to get deputy minister jobs within the government of Nunavut. Three of the nine are Inuit, and two are women.

* Deputy Minister of the Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs:Joe Kunuk, a former Iqaluit mayor and longtime GNWT civil servant is expected to get this job — the most powerful post within the Nunavut bureaucracy;

* Clerk of the Legislative Assembly:John Quirke, another longtime GNWT civil servant who now works for the Nunavut secretariat;

* Deputy Minister of Justice:Nora Sanders, who is now an assistant deputy minister of justice with the GNWT in Yellowknife;

* Deputy Minister of Community Government, Housing and Transportation:Mike Ferris, who is now the Baffin’s regional superintendent of municipal and community affairs;

* Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services:Ken MacRury, the Baffin’s former regional director, currently employed as interim chief executive officer of the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board;

* Deputy Minister of Personnel:Marius Tungilik, a longtime GNWT civil service who now works in the office of the interim commissioner;

* Deputy Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth:Peter Ernerk, a former MLA and cabinet minister who is currently in a training program at the Prince of Wales heritage Centre in Yellowknife;

* Deputy Minister of Public Works:David Kravitz, who is now principal secretary to Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak;

* Deputy Minister of Sustainable Development:Katherine Trumper, who is now the assistant deputy minister responsible for Nunavut within the GNWT’s Department of Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development.

Finance, Education to be run by southern hires

Nunatsiaq News has been unable to corroborate the names of the two people who will be hired to run the education and finance departments.

But we’ve confirmed that Nunavut’s Department of Finance and Nunavut’s Department of Education will each be run by deputy minister candidates hired from southern Canada.

Anawak said most of the eleven deputy ministers should be able to start work in Iqaluit by April 1, 1998, when they’ll begin the work of building their respective departments.

He also said some of the candidates who didn’t get deputy minister jobs may be offered assistant deputy minister positions.

Other sources say that Nunavut’s deputy ministers will likely be paid salaries that range from $105,000-$145,000 a year, plus benefits.

With files from Annette Bourgeois