Carney, Obed stress stronger Inuit-Ottawa partnership during Kuujjuaq visit
Prime minister responds to recent comments about leadership seeking other partners
Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed deliver opening remarks Tuesday before co-charing a meeting of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee in Kuujjuaq. (Photo by Dominique Gené)
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa must maintain a positive relationship with Inuit, in response to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed’s June 19 comments that Inuit should seek other partners for Arctic defence if the government does not respect them.
“[Obed] and I have very good relations,” Carney said Tuesday morning in Kuujjuaq, before he co-chaired an Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee meeting alongside Obed.
The agenda for the one-day meeting included the Inuit Child First Initiative, tuberculosis elimination, access to housing and Nutrition North reform. It was not open to the public.
During remarks before the meeting, Carney said it’s important to co-ordinate with Inuit as partners on these issues.
“Those immediate priorities need specific interventions, but also system change, which is one of the values of the [Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee],” he said.
Carney called the partnership crucial to Canada’s efforts to strengthen Arctic sovereignty and security.
He said Ottawa’s more than $40 billion in planned Arctic defence spending must be developed in partnership with Inuit.
“This is your homeland,” Carney said.
Obed also praised the partnership committee for helping advance shared priorities over the past nine years but said there’s room for improvement.
“We do not take Canada’s leadership or partnership for granted in engaging with Inuit,” Obed said, adding a call for the federal government to continue to work with Inuit on Arctic policies.
“Inuit are the foremost experts on the Arctic. We know our lands, waters, environment and communities best,” he said. “We stand with Canada as proud Canadians.”
Carney is the first prime minister to visit Kuujjuaq since Stephen Harper in 2008.
Back in February, Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty announced that Ottawa will spend $27 million over five years to try to eliminate tuberculosis in Inuit communities.
Last year, Nunavik reported 117 cases, the highest number since the regional health board started keeping records.
Gull-Masty also announced a $115-million extension of its Inuit Child First Initiative, which provides support for Inuit children and youth, as well as a one-time $30 million “top up” of the Nutrition North subsidy, a federal program that lowers the price of groceries in the North.
That was a quick round trip – was that even necessary? A bit boring.POlitic for doing politic, nothing grounded in reality, disconnected from both Obed and Carney, blablabla.
Thousands of gallons of jet fuel and carbon spewed into our environment to send a handful of people there for that little visit. Why not a zoom call… Come on guys!!!
wheres the premier? wheres NTI? Obed doesnt speak for nunavut. this was just to shut him up. make him feel important. make him feel like hes part of the show.
They have better and more important things to do than placate obed.
what is placate! I didn’t go to prep school haha!
Kenn Harper I believe it was informed us of Obed’s word pablum style. More of the same is about all we’ll be hearing from him for the next few years. ITK has a good opportunity to break the away and be a leader, to open channels of communication with Arctic peoples of the East. Obed and ITK under his watch will not go there, you can bank on it. Military priorities and with it rule is the determining factor globally and more so in the Arctic recently. Cooperative healthy relationships between Arctic peoples does not and will not happen with the military deciding where we stand. No progress will come any time soon across the north under the weak leadership of Obed. More pablum please!
virtue signallers (posing as trolls): bring it on!
shamelessly show us your ignorant thoughts. Happy Canada Day!
you do know that there are other parts of Inuit Nunangat outside of Nunavut, right?
Yes…….but, Natan isn’t trying to push the leaders of those regions aside. The empower struggle and the money is in Nunavut.
Canada has given Ukraine $25 Billion since 2022, that’s roughly 80,000 to 150,000 affordable housing units, could you imagine that many units being built across the whole North. and we are getting $40B for Security now, anywise all those houses would be all turn apart by now from public housing. lol
That’s one perspective.
Another perspective is that lack of money was never the root of the housing shortage and Nunavut 3000 is exposing some of the real problems.
That is correct, it finally exposed how incompetent our GN is for a lot of people, for the rest of us we have been trying to expose this for a long time, no matter how much money our GN has it’s never enough and it’s actually not a money thing, our GN is so incompetent it cannot do what’s needed to be done and to get things done.
Take the failed housing President, he got promoted for doing such a horrible job, now repeat the a number of times over the years since the GN has been operating, it gets us to this point today.
Our GN has an annual budget of roughly 3 BILLION dollars, per year for a population less than 40 thousand. Auditor general year after year points out what is wrong with the GN but their reports get shelved and there is no addressing issues or correcting them. Our transient government needs an overhaul as it’s only continuing to go down this incompetent road.
Easily Itimidated by a world banker, guess Obed’s pokerface is a little weak
ITK is not a government and they dont provide services to Inuit. I don’t see any provincial or territorial leaders at the meeting. One would think all the money should be going to the governments responsible for their jurisdiction. Yes lobby for Inuit but put the money where it belongs. I believe the only Inuit government structure is the nunatsiavut government and in that case it works. Inuit in nunavut chose to have public government and for the last 25 years have always had Inuit majority members of parliament. No other government in Canada has 50 percent Inuit working in public service; nunavut should see this as a huge accomplishment but need to thrive for more. More inuit teachers and social worker’s are badly needed. Put money into that which will benefit communities directly. Involve the jurisdiction and more can happen.
Where’s the cheque, what no photo-op for the cheque.