‘If it is about Nunavut, it should be done by Nunavut’
2 long-time leaders reflect on devolution agreement
Retired Nunavut leaders James Eetoolook, left, and Dennis Patterson witnessed Thursday’s signing of the devolution agreement between the territorial and federal governments and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (Photos by Livete Ataguyuk)
Two men who worked for years to help Nunavut stand on its own say witnessing the signing of the devolution agreement with the federal government and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on Thursday was a landmark event.
James Eetoolook, now retired, was a vice-president of NTI for 29 years and one of the original signatories to the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
Former Nunavut senator Dennis Patterson retired at the end of December after 14 years representing Nunavut. Before that, he was an MLA and premier of the Northwest Territories, which at the time included the land that would become Nunavut.
Both were impressed by the importance of the moment — and by watching Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sign the document in Inuktitut.
The agreement — the largest land transfer in Canadian history — allows Nunavut to assume control over the vast majority of Crown lands within its boundaries. It’s expected to create jobs and open the door to the potential of millions of dollars flowing into the territory from future resource development.
Eetoolook was asked to be a witness at the signing ceremony, held at Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit Hotel, of the signing on behalf of Nunavut.
Interviewed in Inuktitut, he said: “I was happy and excited [about] this agreement we signed. It gives more independence for Nunavummiut in controlling resource development in Nunavut.”
He noted it also gives Nunavut more decision-making power over how the lands can be used and that will have a positive impact on the territory.
“We will have to not wait for Ottawa to make decisions,” said Eetoolook, adding that was the intention right from the start when land-claims negotiations with the federal government got underway.
He called the day “historic.”
Patterson told Nunatsiaq News he thinks of the devolution agreement as “decolonization.”
“It was never appropriate for our lands and resources should be managed remotely from an unaccountable federal minister,” he said.
“This is on the principle, if it is about Nunavut it should be done by Nunavut. And there is nothing more important than our wildlife and our land and resources.”
An important part of the agreement, he said, is that it was signed by NTI as well as the federal and territorial governments.
He said he’s hopeful the agreement will “signal a new era” of co-operation between NTI and the GN.
“It is no secret that there is some tension now in certain areas between NTI and the GN,” Patterson said.
The original vision for Nunavut, he said, was of co-operation and collaboration.
Patterson also called the agreement the “end of a very long journey,” considering he was involved in early devolution negotiations when he was N.W.T. premier in the 1980s.
“For me, it’s progress and concluding a chapter that I was involved in,” he said.
“I was very happy to make the journey here and observe it all.”
As for the event, Patterson said it was “appropriately solemn.”
Solemn in marking the hug step forward for Nunavut and constitutional development, he said. Joyful, he said, “Because it promises a better future for people of Nunavut, who are now going to have an equal voice like every other territory and province in managing their own lands and resources.”
We Inuit have to step up more now and do our part to make things better for ourselves. We can’t expect others from thousands of miles away to do it for us.
Thank you Trudeau and all the others that have worked on this over the years.
Your thanks is misplaced as jt really had nothing to do with this. The people to thank are those who dreamed of Nunavut, worked towards creating Nunavut and eventually negotiated a Nunavut agreement.
‘If it is about Nunavut, it should be done by Nunavut’ this is rich coming from Patterson, I really hope the next Senator is from and actually lives in Nunavut.
Even in this he says he is glad he travelled to the signing.
I guess he hasn’t heard how hilarious and dysfunctional the Government of Nunavut is.🤪🤣
Really guys? You guys love to criticize but hate being criticized. Inuit are hypocrites. Right down to their hunting. You inuit say miners are a threat to animal life. When it’s really the Inuit who hunt more than they could bite.
Why don’t you really tell us how you feel Northerner, I’m sure you vote Cons too, guys like you don’t help anyone but yourself.
Dennis lived in Nunavut throughout his tenure as Senator. Get your facts straight.
https://sencanada.ca/en/sencaplus/people/senator-patterson-who-helped-create-nunavut-retires-after-a-career-of-northern-advocacy/
Even in the attached article he says “I am going to settle in my home province of B.C. in retirement.” so he even says BC is his home. That says a lot.
“Dennis visited Nunavut throughout his tenure as Senator. There I fixed it for you Kenn. He hasn’t lived here in over a decade
Now they say that now. All the health workers and social workers had been talk about what they did. They try to give now. Don’t want to be what damage have been done and they will say what doing that using their problems to get away with it and if they get trouble they will make excuses and they didn’t understand and they say there qualify for that. Hope karma will hot them so hard.
This is yet another Nunavut BS story. Real management of the territory for Inuit is meaningless without professional Inuit to do those jobs. Thirty years on from that Nunavut agreement how many Inuit have the following qualifications: doctor, dentist, mining engineer, marine biologist, chartered accountant and so on? No, I’m sorry but these grandstanders have nothing to be proud of and much to be ashamed of.
There are many templates from around the world, notably in Asia, where Third World peoples have risen to the First in a single generation. By such measures as housing, employment and employability, suicide, crime and imprisonment conditions have never been worse for the marginalized than they are today.
While Eetoolook and Patterson’s words are commendable, I fear that when the rubber hits the road in three years time few if any of these folks will be make themselves available for comment or be able to stand up and proclaim the devolution agreement a success. The reasons are myriad. Very few (if any) of the currently affected federal employees in Nunavut will leave the security and certainty of the federal public service to embrace the dysfunction of the Government of Nunavut. The most critically important functions require specialized education and training that Inuit will, by and large, be illegible to undertake so those functions will be contracted to southerners who don’t even living in the territory just so the GN can keep the lights on and the doors open. Vastly under and/or unqualified individuals will be given the lion’s share of the senior management positions resulting in mismanagement, chaos and industry uncertainty which will ultimately result in lawsuits and legal action from mining companies and other proponents as lengthy and unreasonable delays affect company bottom-lines. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
It has been a bit unsurprising how long it has taken Minister Vandal to make decisions on Nunavut development matters while he was Minister. After all, there are so many things for him to consider.
How liberals are doing in the polls and whether their environmental base is happy with them or not. Whether the liberals are facing negative news on the economy and need to be bolstered by some positive industry news. Whether Trudeau is off on a foreign junket or meeting where he may face criticism on either not doing enough to protect the Canadian Arctic, or going against the wishes of locals here. Whether deciding one way or another will feed into a negative narrative the Conservatives or NDP is flogging them with. Whether making a pro or anti-development decision up here will help or hinder the Liberals on other files such as Alberta gas pipelines, carbon taxation, foreign relations with China, the US or Russia…things like this.
In short, CIRNAC has to consider and weigh almost everything under the Sun before deciding on a Nunavut development matter, besides what is actually happening in Nunavut.
Let us be under no illusion – the capacity of the civil service to actually manage things is only part of the issue here. Having a Nunavut Minister only have to worry about our constituents has the potential for making things immediately and dramatically better.
Careful Bertrand, you’re letting your partisanship show as well as your ignorance with respect to the Nunavut regulatory process. The responsible Minister is required by legislation to respond to all regulatory matters before him within a time frame specified by that legislation. There has never been a case of a federal Minister (either Liberal or Conservative) that has been unable to issue a decision within those time frames, despite your fanciful assertions to the contrary. Time will tell if that remains the case once the GN takes over but I am betting it will not.