Competition for ITK presidency a good thing

A competition for the helm of the national Inuit organization is welcome news — even if Inuit don’t get to vote directly for the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

We learned last week that Kevin Kablutsiak, a 47-year-old former CBC managing editor who has held senior positions at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Canadian North, is challenging Natan Obed, 49, who has been president of ITK since 2015.

ITK will pick its president at its board meeting in Cambridge Bay on Sept. 18.

Leading the organization that represents Canada’s 70,000 Inuit is a high-profile, highly paid job. ITK listed one employee who was paid between $300,000 and $349,000 in the most recent documentation that every charity files with the Canada Revenue Agency. Obed confirmed in July that it was him.

Back in 2021 he signalled that, if he won then, he would not seek another term as ITK’s president.

In July, Obed explained his reversal, saying that in turbulent times ITK needs “continuity” and a “veteran” as president. On the other hand, Kablutsiak is offering himself as the candidate of “renewal.”

As leader of a national organization, Obed has often represented Indigenous Peoples alongside the president of the Assembly of First Nations and the Métis National Council at formal events, such as Canada Day, swearing-in ceremonies of federal cabinets, and Pope Francis’s 2022 visit to Canada.

As the voice for Inuit in Canada, ITK represents Inuit in Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut in Labrador and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories.

It’s frequently the organization the federal government turns toward to allocate its funding among those four Inuit populations for programs like housing, fighting tuberculosis and other health and social programs.

We’ve watched Obed move easily among other national leaders, including prime ministers — particularly Justin Trudeau — premiers and cabinet ministers. One of the prominent roles Obed held was as part of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee, where he worked with the prime minister or federal Crown-Indigenous relations minister.

One of the biggest items on ITK’s agenda is development of the Inuit Nunangat University, a project that has been discussed for 15 years and appears to be making progress as various new funding sources have become available.

But unlike the election last December of Jeremy Tunraluk to the presidency of NTI or the February 2024 re-election of Pita Aatami as president of Nunavik’s Makivvik Corp., Inuit beneficiaries don’t vote for ITK’s president.

The president is picked by representatives of the four Inuit treaty organizations represented on ITK’s board.

It’s more like how a private company picks its chairman than how a political body elects a leader.

Both Kablutsiak and Obed will get a chance to make their pitch to the electors in September.

And that’s the good thing about a competition — it will push both Obed and Kablutsiak to articulate a strong vision of what ITK would look like under their leadership, in order to win over the electors.

A healthy contest gives the electors a choice between staying the course or opting for change with the confidence that whatever they do, the organization is poised to have a responsible, professional leader.