Editorial

Next week, the usual gang of Nunavut politicians will congregate inside Iqaluit’s parish hall for the latest in a long series of Nunavut leadership summits, the first of which was held six years ago in Iqaluit.

This time, Nunavut leaders will have achieved yet another historic first, another landmark on the high road to Nunavut. For the first time, they’ll have held their first official closed-door meeting. For the first time, they’ll have met to talk about your future – without inviting you to hear what they have to say.

On Monday evening – January 12 – employees at Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak’s office will hold what they’re calling a “public forum,” to give leaders a chance to “meet the community.”

But the real meeting will start Tuesday, January 13 and continue the following day. And you’re not invited.

Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart, who’s put a lot of energy into making herself look earnest and concerned and well-informed about Nunavut, plans to show up. By her side she’ll have Nunatsiaq MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell.

Whiloe she’s there, Stewart will get a chance to listen to her best-known Nunavut employee, Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak. Anawak will likely come to the table to report on the work he and his staff have done so far, in the form of a “Nunavut government implementation plan.”

Without a doubt, this will the meeting’s biggest agenda item.

NTI President Jose Kusugak and NWT Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo will represent the other two parties to the Nunavut Accord, along with three other members of the NWT legislative assembly’s Nunavut caucus and three other members of NTI’s executive.

NIC Chief Commissioner John Amagoalik will chair the gathering. Two other NIC commissioners – from the Kitikmeot and Keewatin regions respectively – will also sit as participants.

Last month, Arlooktoo tried to explain why he and his bashful buddies don’t want you to hear what they plan to talk about: “If every single word is being recorded, I know it’s difficult for some to say what’s really on their minds.”

Perhaps he was referring to the soul-searing trauma that most politicians must endure when they inadvertently catch themselves telling the truth in public.

But perhaps there are other reasons for the secrecy. One reason may be is that Jane Stewart plans to deliver some unwelcome financial news. Another is that the interim commissioner’s plan, developed by former Ottawa bureaucrat Bruce Rawson, may differ radically from everyone else’s plans.

If that’s the case, Nunavut leaders may have to negotiate a new plan. And if Stewart can’t make the necessary financial commitments, it may turn out to be a cheaper plan.

Since last October, the GNWT has been lobbying Ottawa for more money to pay division related transition costs that don’t appear to be covered by the $150 million that Ottawa promised in 1996.

In a document they call a “transition action plan,” Yellowknife officials calculate that Ottawa may need to fork out as much as $135.8 million in extra transitional money. If not, “the orderly creation of two new governments could be in jeopardy,” the report says.

If Stewart plans to tell Nunavut leaders – and the GNWT – that she’s unwilling to ask the federal cabinet for more transitional money, there may turn out to be many public positions on which Nunavut leaders may find themselves “going back.”

Who knows? That may mean big adjustments to the NIC’s decentralized model of government, a re-scheduling of the Nunavut time line and many other changes.

That may mean a different Nunavut than we thought were getting a couple of years ago.

But get a chance to find out what Stewart plans to tell Nunavut leaders, and how our leaders choose to react to her.

Nor will you be able to properly assess the positions of several elected officials who are coming up for election in just over a year. That includes NTI President Jose Kusugak, whoses term expires in March next year, and, of course all the Nunavut MLAs who plan to be there.

We can only hope that when they emerge to announce the outcome of the meeting, Nunavut’s leaders will choose not to lie or obscure the truth. If it’s bad news, they must give it to us straight.

Any public official who’s too insecure to do that in public should get out of public life. JB