Iqaluit-Manirajak candidates talk public safety, youth opportunities
Adam Arreak Lightstone faces off against Gwen Healey Akearok for seat in legislative assembly
Adam Arreak Lightstone, left, and Gwen Healey Akearok, right, are the two candidates running in Iqaluit-Manirajak. (Photos by Jeff Pelletier)
Nunatsiaq News is publishing riding profiles ahead of the Oct. 27 territorial election. Keep your eye on our website to learn more about who is running in your area.
Crossing Iqaluit’s Four Corners intersection, you’ll see signs of the two-candidate race for MLA in the Nunavut capital’s core area.
Adam Arreak Lightstone and Gwen Healey Akearok are vying to represent Iqaluit-Manirajak in the legislative assembly, a constituency that includes government offices, businesses, a growing residential neighbourhood and part of Upper Plateau.
Lightstone, the riding’s two-term incumbent, is prioritizing public safety.
“Every summer there’s a steady sound of sirens across the city, and it’s obvious that crime and violence and vandalism has been increasing, and we’re at a point now where the RCMP are just over their heads,” he said in an interview.
Lightstone says the Government of Nunavut needs to increase its funding of the RCMP so police are fully staffed and resourced.
Amending the Nunavut Liquor Act to make it harder for people to purchase alcohol if they’re convicted of violent crimes or on court orders to abstain is another priority, he said.
Lightstone is also proposing increased monitoring of people on probation and better programming and services to rehabilitate people convicted of violent crimes, including sex offences.
Other priorities on Lightstone’s platform include improving employment, training, education and housing opportunities for young Nunavummiut to ensure they are not depending on income support.
Lightstone is leaning in on his eight years of legislative experience – which includes a stint as a minister before resigning – in asking voters for a third term, saying he has been an “effective member,” but there’s more work to do.
“The role of MLA is both challenging and rewarding, but also comes with a substantial learning curve, which spans farther than or beyond one single term,” Lightstone said.
Akearok is the scientific director and former executive director of the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre – an organization she co-founded in 2006.
Her platform focuses on improving education, health care, food security, youth opportunities and access to housing.
A post-secondary education act for Nunavut is a bill she would like to pursue as an MLA.
“That piece of legislation can help support our young people to stay closer — and anyone really to stay closer to home — and pursue more advanced training in a whole variety of areas,” she said.
“We have a number of organizations that are providing that without the ability to grant degrees effectively, and having that also opens up other avenues for funding for post-secondary as well.”
Akearok’s says her experience as a researcher, leader and advocate position her to be a successful MLA.
“I think I have a really strong record of action in our community in terms of advocating, building an evidence base for decision makers, for raising the voices of our community members on different topics,” Akearok said.
Both candidates have spent most of their lives in Iqaluit.
Lightstone pursued an education in finance, then worked for the Government of Nunavut’s Finance Department.
For Akearok, growing up and spending time around her mother, who worked at Qikiqatani General Hospital, led her to chose an education in science and health, earning a PhD in public health from the University of Toronto.
It’s time to pull-out EDO contracts under Municipalities particularly with mismanagements of administration/ finances to personal affairs of elected councilors. The CGS should considering take over the administration of Municipal finances where positions are tend to be filled without any QUALIFICATION’s! This is an on-going issue. Wait for the next financial deficit of Municipal affairs & its backward systems.
It’s TIN now, not CGS, as most of their staff will promptly tell you if you call them CGS still.
Increase the funding, seriously. I cant drive around ring road without passing 3 or 4 rcmp vehicles. I’ts the beer store, we all know it. Iqaluits cash cow has to go!
A reminder that MLA Lightstone was a member of this last government and an active member of various Committee’s charged with overseeing and ensuring Nunavummiut are properly represented and that government functions correctly, efficiently and effectively.
The idea that he believes quote, “he was an effective member”, means he clearly has a different idea than many, when he uses the work “effective”. Go watch this past September 4th and 5th Committee hearings on the Auditor General of Canada’s Report on NHC and NU 3000. What you will witness is a Politician being a Politician… who was anything but effective and seemed more focused on optics, appearances and cordiality than results. He also knew for some time that things were functioning poorly at NHC and NU 3000 but chose inaction over action. Even when given the opportunity on Sept 4th and 5th to actually use that forum to advance Nunavut and Housing throughout the Territory, he chose to pass.
Then his comment on funding for more policing, while appearing as music to the ears of those concerned with safety; it does not address or provide concrete solutions for reducing crime. You have to get to the root…if you pull a weed by the leaf, it just grows again and all you do is hurt your back doing it over and over again. You have to pull it out by the root. Other than that, you can spend a ton of money on weed killer, but you will never stop the propagation. You will just temporarily (emphasis on temporarily) suppress the spread. The root is the key!
The other candidate talks about ideas and again has missed the opportunity afforded by Nunatsiaq to give Nunavummiut’s anything concrete to understand what they would DO. Not what they think. Not what they and everyone else already knows needs attention but what they will work to DO…or at least try and get done. Concrete actions. Ideas are just ideas we all have them.
Remember, ask tough questions, expect straight and tangible answers. Then decide who deserves your vote. Regardless of who that is, grab a family member, or a friend and get out and vote. Offer an elder a lift to vote. Voting is one of the greatest privileges we are afforded. Use it!
Adam has disappointed me in his term as mla for my riding, when he became a minister he did not do very well, I was surprised by his lack of performance and knowledge while he was in that position, appointing people which put him in conflict, then as a regular member he could have some good questions but they were few and far between. Speaking with people from our riding this seems to be the common view, it a very strong member during his term.
We need change at the GN, and for change to be done we need strong leadership and I just don’t see it with Adam, he’s in the background who voices some concerns from time to time.
I will not be voting for him this time.
Adam says we need more cops
I think Iqaluit has enough cops
I lived in a town where in the winter its 10,000 people and in the summer it goes to 25,000
And the town only has 2 cops
Now how many does Iqaluit have already
We are policed enough