Ann Hanson named commissioner of Nunavut

Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, a well-known Iqaluit resident who served as deputy commissioner of the Northwest Territories in the 1980s, has been appointed to serve as commissioner of Nunavut, replacing Peter Irniq, whose term recently expired.

Hanson, 58, was born on Qakutut, an island near Kimmirut. She went to schools in Iqaluit, Qamanittuaq (Baker Lake), and Toronto, as well as St. Francis-Xavier University, the University of Windsor and Nunavut Arctic College.

In 1964, she worked in the office of Gene Rheaume, the Liberal member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories, working as a secretary and interpreter-translator.

In 1973, Hanson became the first editor of Inuksuk, a community newspaper that later became Nunatsiaq News. Later in the 1970s and early 1980s, Hanson’s voice was well-known to listeners of Iqaluit’s CBC radio station, where she worked as an announcer and producer.

Hanson also worked for the GNWT as a counsellor and community development worker. As a volunteer, she helped start several organizations, including a juvenile court committee, an elders’ group, an Inuit cultural group, and an organization called the Qinuajuaq Society, which brought elders and youth together.

In the late 1980s, she served as deputy commissioner of the Northwest Territories.

The commissioner of Nunavut is, legally, the chief executive officer of the territorial government, but since the 1980s, the commissioner’s job in the northern territories has been mostly ceremonial and symbolic, similar to provincial lieutenant governors.

Commissioners are appointed by the minister of DIAND, after consultation with the territorial government.