“If I were premier of Nunavut…”

We asked our readers to tell us what they think the Nunavut government ought to do — and they’ve responded. Here are the first of what we hope will be many contributions to this new section of Nunatsiaq News.

What would you do if you were premier of Nunavut?

Send your contributions to: Nunatsiaq News, Box 8,

Iqaluit NU X0A 0H0, e-mail to editor@nunatsiaq.com or

fax them to 1-867-979-4763.

Contributed by an anonymous civil servant, Iqaluit

If I were the Premier of Nunavut, I would…

Make staff memorize exactly what it was the people said they wanted when they were consulted prior to the coming of Nunavut.

Deliver those Inuktitut classes new folks were told they would have to take.

Invest in cross-cultural awareness training for southern employees to avoid them putting their foot in their mouths in the workplace.

Get the “kids” out of my office who were historically employed and get some pros who can make the whole thing look like it actually operates at a higher level.

Take public speaking lessons, look confident and actually write something worth saying.

Surround myself with many creative people who think outside the box; Nunavut is far from ordinary.

Drop the standard cautiousness and worshipping of rules and systems; replace them with learning to love the people and their dream.

Stop the whine from some ministers who hate the departments they were given.

Drill into the DMs a new idea; that they are civil servants and therefore “serve” those they come into contact with.

Reach out and build a team in the cabinet and strive to tolerate dissent well.

Remove the former mentor who refers to herself as a cork and put in someone who lets the premier actually be the decision-maker.

“Hold meetings with Inuit employees who are fleeing the GN in huge numbers to find out how the staff and systems are failing them.”

— Anonymous civil servant, Iqaluit

Wonder if anyone else has any better ideas and recruit them. Speak up, look interested, and stimulate discussion rather than react to it.

Really listen to what those most opposed say and have an inkling of what they are talking about.

Engage the public in honest, open dialogue; develop a way of engaging people at all levels in their own change, growth and development.

Show some emotion so people will know there is someone who feels as well as thinks. Seek out the most seasoned people who know more than you do.

Chuck all the stuffy, imported, complicated systems that are the fastest growing industry in the GN, which turn northerners right off.

Clear a path through the technocrats so the folks who actually plan to live up here forever have a chance to make their impact and direct the show.

Drop the notion that legal training makes a leader; vision, passion and common sense reach people best.

Abandon mindless dependence on procedure, policy and precedent; implement better substitutes such as think tanks, roundtables, citizen’s focus groups and town hall forums.

Confront closed-minded thinking that springs from people on high who are much more dedicated to damage control and “spin” than open government.

Break down barriers for lower-ranking civil servants (who usually know where the people are at) who are continually dissuaded by immediate supervisors, managers or directors from approaching higher-ups, which could result in better decision-making at the top.

Hold meetings with Inuit employees who are fleeing the GN in huge numbers to find out how the staff and systems are failing them.

Make Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit actually mean something in this government, and refuse to let people get away with their current “political correctness” approach to culture while really doing nothing to implement it.

Press senior bureaucrats and the minister of education until they yell “uncle” and get the courage to release the bilingual schools initiative (English/Inuktitut) they have been sitting on for half a year, too afraid to launch it in case the large white population in the Iqaluit ridings object.

Be a unifier; new people tend to overpower Inuit with their ways, including their unusual and slavish work-style; northerners place family and overall relationships higher; they vote with their feet when they are uncomfortable in a government that was supposed to be far more representative of their lifestyle.

Clear out deadwood — all those who think like Ottawa and Yellowknife and are having a most difficult time grasping that this was supposed to be different.

Supply a formal report card to the people on how we are really doing.

Build a professional communications section that understands it should regularly communicate and not impede communications.

Develop mentoring and training programs demanding excellence, literacy, efficiency, good supervisory and management skills, and refuse to prop up local people in an artificial manner that teaches them nothing about the real world of work while letting them rant in a spoiled, cranky and semi-racist manner.

Be brave.

Contributed by Rosie Naulaq, Iqaluit

If I were the Premier of Nunavut…

I would get a place to go to school for the homeless and for welfare recipients for them to learn how to become responsible for themselves and learn how to do budgeting.

“If I were premier of Nunavut I would open a land-based regional treatment centre for all ages, especially children and youth…”

— Rosie Naulaq, Iqaluit

Contributed by M. Inuuluk Napayok,

Whale Cove

If I were the Premier of Nunavut…

We would eliminate the use of snowmobiles for hunting purposes, and replace them with husky dog-teams.

Snowmobiles cause pollution, garbage, expensive parts, and deafening noise.

The dog team, on the other hand, provides companionship and direction. They can detect thin or dangerous grounds and they require no parts, only food and a good master.

We would eliminate southern education and replace it with Inuktitut-based education instead. Inuit are tired of sitting in front of the blackboard. How did Inuit come this far to survive? Someone must have taught them.

We would have our own Nunavut NHL hockey team with players from Nunavut because we’re capable — thanks to my friend Maniiq.

I would recommend to my minister of housing to abolish local housing directors in hopes there might be money from honorariums versus houses and recommend as well to have fixed rents according to the number of bedrooms and not by income.

“We would ban the use of firearms immediately, and replace them with harpoons, bow and arrow and spears.”

— M. Inuuluk Napayok, Whale Cove

We would have our own Canadian Inuit Broadcasting Corporation.

We would ban the use of firearms immediately, and replace them with harpoons, bow and arrow and spears. By doing this, we would implement a law that firearms are not allowed in Nunavut.

We would not have jails but elders with harsh words. Inuit never put human beings into cages and if they have illnesses, we have health facilities.

We would give the Keewatin roads to the south as they wish.

I would get Inuit employees to teach them traditional and modern skills because there are a lot of Inuit people who never went to school who have a lot of different skills that these unresponsible people can learn.

And there are a lot of unemployed hunters who can do land programs for those unemployed people too.

If I were premier of Nunavut I would open a land-based regional treatment centre for all ages, especially children and youth, whom the parents have given up on, and use the elders and Inuit counsellors and caregivers.

Those kinds of people would learn to not rely on other people so much, especially the children and grandchildren of elders because they are old enough to be responsible for themselves.