Deal will lower Nunavik travel costs

KUUJJUAQ — Nunavimmiut will soon get subsidies to help them pay for airline tickets and gasoline.

Starting this fall, residents of Nunavik will get subsidies to help cover their gas purchases, as well as rebates on each airline ticket they buy.

The plan, which took the Kativik Regional Government a year to negotiate, will cost Quebec City about $1 million per year.

“It’s much better than what we were getting before — which was nothing,” says Johnny Adams, president of the KRG.

The money is intended to spur economic development and offset the high cost of living in Nunavik.

It also compensates Nunavimmiut for the so-called “road tax” they pay on gas, even though their region isn’t connected to Quebec’s road network.

Quebec already gives money to residents of isolated communities along the St. Lawrence River who are dependent on air and sea travel.

Under the deal, Transport Quebec will transfer $700,000 to the KRG in October. The KRG will then divide this money among the region’s 14 communities.

By Nov. 30, each municipal government will give each residents aged 16 and over a tax-free check for about $150.

“If you’re a family of five or six, it will make a difference,” Adams said.

For the half-year period between this September and the end of March, 2002, each Nunavik resident may claim up to $275 on airline ticket purchases.

In the full year after April 1, 2002, each Nunavik resident may claim 30 per cent of the cost of each airline ticket, up to a maximum of $450 per year.