Iqaluit-Sinaa candidates highlight housing, food access
Robin Anawak challenges incumbent Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster in territorial election
Robin Anawak, left, and Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster are running to represent the Iqaluit-Sinaa riding in the Oct. 27 territorial election. (Photos courtesy of Elections Nunavut)
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.
Incumbent Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster faces one challenger to keep her seat in Iqaluit-Sinaa — Robin Anawak.
The compact riding is home to Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Iqaluit Centennial Library, Unikkaarvik Visitor Centre, and The Snack diner, where each candidate sat down this week for an interview.
Brewster was elected MLA in 2021. Only 264 ballots were cast, out of 902 listed voters, for a 29 per cent turnout in that four-person race — one of the lowest voter turnouts in the territory.
“Part of the reason why people don’t turn out is because they don’t see themselves reflected in the work that’s being done,” Brewster said.
She has tried to approach that problem by echoing her constituents’ words whenever she articulated their concerns in public, she said.
“I probe the issues that my constituents have,” Brewster said.
Those include a lack of housing, food insecurity, and the need for easier access to mental health and addictions support, she said.
“I have a really good understanding of the government support systems that are in place to help people,” she said. “I know how to connect people directly with the people who are running the programs.”
Originally from Taloyoak, Brewster is an artist, harvester and mother of three.
She entered public life in 2019 as an Iqaluit city counsellor, including a stint as deputy mayor.
Prior to politics, she worked for almost 20 years in senior positions with the Health Department, engaged with policy development, research and special projects.
After soliciting feedback from constituents this week, she said she is preparing to release her platform soon.
Originally from Rankin Inlet, Anawak graduated from high school in Iqaluit in 1999. He returned to Iqaluit after completing a law degree in Ottawa.
“This is home now,” he said.
A married father of four, Anawak went on leave from his role as policy analyst with the Family Services Department to run for office.
“Having been a civil servant for many years, I’d like to think I have a good understanding of how the government functions,” he said, citing past positions with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the federal government.
Anawak said inadequate housing is at the root of many of the territory’s problems.
“Overcrowding leads to worse socio-economic outcomes across the board,” he said.
He also pointed to bureaucratic inefficiency as one major problem he’d like to tackle.
“The GN’s budget is now five times what it was in ’99, and we still face so many of the same problems,” he said. “I want to find ways to make it as easy as possible to get more of our people into training, into jobs, into opportunities.”
While going door to door, Anawak said he’s hearing residents raise an alarm about the large number of people on income assistance.
“If we provide the tools and the structure to support them, we will see more people actively engaged in our communities, in our economy, in training, investing in themselves and that will lead to better outcomes,” Anawak said.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! Each election, candidates lie about what they’ll do if elected. When elected, nothing happens. Best liar win the election. Utterly, utterly meaningless!
If you want to talk to residents about housing and mental health issues you should spend Friday afternoon around the B&W store. It is your constituentcy is it not?
So, it matters now to Mrs. Brewster? I wonder if she ever watches the live stream of the Legislative Assembly. Clearly NOT! For if she did, she would see herself on September 4th and 5th just a few weeks ago, sitting in the hearings of the “Standing Committee On Oversight of Government and Public Accounts” regarding the Auditor General Of Canada’s Report on NHC and NU 3000.
You see Mrs. Brewster is a member of that Committee. If she watched the tape, she would have seen herself asking absolutely not one single question of any importance to try and shed light on what the AG Report had detailed in over 66 findings and 10 recommendations. She would have seen herself dragging on with her commentary or her “let me go back to that” statements and no questions of any substance to try and understand how NHC and NU 3000 had gotten to this sorry state of failure. Or more importantly what needs to be done to fix it (don’t believe me? Go watch the recordings).
Both candidates raised housing but not one of them offered any concrete solutions or ideas or actions they would take. Especially not regarding the current NU 3000 failure. I am wondering if this space Nunatsiaq News is providing to all candidates is actually going to be used by any of the Candidates to state WHAT they actually plan to try to accomplish. Not just using the valuable space to remind everyone in Nunavut what we already know.
Mrs. Brewster, had the ideal forum and opportunity on Sept 4th and 5th to highlight what needed or should be done with NHC and NU 3000 to address the housing issue she now raises in this article. It is beyond baffling. Mrs. Brewster has known for a long time that NHC and NU 3000 was a mess. She didn’t do anything with that….and now that she is running again, she is raising it as an issue…my head hurts from this nonsense.
Message for the other candidates that will have the opportunity Nunatsiaq has afforded you. Use it to say something of substance so voter know what you PLAN to do instead of just telling us all what we already know are issues.
Remember, regardless of who you vote for. Get out and VOTE! A 29% turn out in the last election for this riding, is just really, really bad and we need to do better.
They should not be allowed to have cell phones in session. It is distracting, & none of them pay attention to the others. It leads to more contention between them. Please start checking the cellphones at the door, no exceptions. If there is an emergency someone will be able to contact and inform them professionally. ..
Practice respect and awareness during sessions, use active listening, take notes, stay on track. We learned this, it is an essential part of being Inuk. It is a HUGE lack of respect & FU to your coworkers to speak, then sit back down and hop on Facebook. Expecting others to listen to you, yet you have your head down reading twitter. We have some serious iPad kids on our hands, & we need to limit their screen time. Ever sad , no wonder nothing gets done & were all poor, hungry & unhoused.
We need to be able to vote “none of the above” and get new candidates.
I think we know what the issues are, I want to see how they plan on tackling the issues. I want to hear solution not listen what I already know..
Please talk about why your solutions would be.
Anyone that has worked with Robin knows there’s one clearly better candidate, and it’s not him. He’s all talk and no substance.
Janet was professional, dedicated and passionate in standing up for Nunavummiut over the past 4 years. She has been an excellent representative for Sinaa and deserves another 4 years.
How nice of Janet’s friend to write a desperation plea by tearing down Robin. Janet is the one who has no substance. What has she accomplished? Nothing.
I actually don’t know Janet personally, but she’s been an excellent advocate for LGBT Nunavummiut, for women, for children, and for the vulnerable in Nunavut.
She’s been a regular member whose role it’s been to hold the government accountable while working towards common goals. I think she’s done that work admirably.
My comments about Robin were my opinion based on my experience. I stand by them.
Don’t feed the trolls. None of these commenters live in Sinaa, and they’re afraid he’s going to become their Minister.
How many of Robin’s short-lived stints with the GN and Inuit orgs does it take to add up to “many years” of public service?
Janet is the clear and only choice. Strong voice, keeps government accountable, is a present, active and smart MLA.
You need to go read the third comment in the string and then spend the worst 10 hours of your life; watching the recordings of the Committee Hearings on Housing. You get to see there the incredible work MLA, Brewster was doing in regard to, quote you, “keeps government accountable, is a present, active and smart MLA”. The recordings tell the real story. Not a fictitious one you want to believe or promote. The 2 hours she spent asking non-questions, going on about everything and nothing and simply talking, was a complete and utter waste of time and achieved nothing of value. Nothing. And certainly held no one accountable. At ALL!
You can take solace though, as none of the other Committee members did any better.
I’ve watched the Legislative Assembly for the last four years and “accountable” could not be more wrong. Janet was insightful, well spoken, and brought an emotional honesty to the role that few politicians can.
This comment is so out to lunch that I assume it was written by Robin, who is likely upset people are criticizing him on this thread.
Sorry to disappoint you but I have “no horse in the race” in regard to these two candidates. Infact, if you go look at some of the other articles Nunatsiaq has agreed to published for candidates in other ridings you will find some of my comments there also (hard to miss my writing style and content). I am simply stating my position regarding these articles and candidates published by Nunatsiaq and for which I take a great interest. Anyone is entitled to agree or disagree with what I write. That is fair game. You are not however, entitled to “assume” who YOU think wrote them. In this case not the person you attempted to point the finger at!
Do better next time!
I live around Sinaa area and we never heard any news or what’s going on from Janet for while she was MLA for Sinaa
First, it would be valuable if Iqaluit or any other community with multiple MLAs could have a common riding. By this I mean that Iqaluit would have 4 MLAs on a common ballot and Iqaluit voters could pick the 4 who would best serve. This could also be the case in Rankin and Igloolik or Arviat where there are multiple MLAs for that community.
In that way we could pick quality people without being asked to vote “against” one or the other. I am NOT looking for parties but I would be interested in seeing MLAs work together for common values, and for experienced MLAs to support incoming talent.
Second, I’m not interested in voting AGAINST either of these candidates. I see value in their (relative) youth, diversity of experience and their considered opinions.
I see Janet growing in her role and gaining competence to challenge the foolishness we sometimes see from our officials and leaders. I think she would be even more effective if re-elected. The dude who is ranting about housing probably has knowledge that others do not and he has not shared. He should write a column and inform us instead of blasting others.
I see Robyn as having heart and brains to analyse and respond intelligently and creatively.
I can’t vote for both so my choice is Janet because I don’t want to invest another 4 years waiting to see if Robyn gets up to speed.
Janet is up to speed, her heart is good, her roots are in community.
IF Iqaluit had a common 4-vote constituency, I would have 4 votes and I would vote for both.
Please stop the flophouse/dry-house/etc. Whatever you want to call it. It does not belong in a residential neighbourhood. Change it to a student residence, elders residence anything except a wet-house in a residential neighbourhood right beside a children’s playground. I’ll vote for whoever promises to stop this madness.
Please folks dont vote for Janet – she w so out of touch with her constituents. She allowed a shelter to be built right by the KFC where a children park is ? Why is this area getting all the public housing and shelter ? Janet what have you done for your constituency since being elected ? Nothing ! Have we got a daycare in our neighborhood ? No ! It s time for you to leave !
I legitimately don’t know where to start with how uninformed this comment is.
The building is run by a society, the zoning is the decision of Iqaluit city council… Janet had no role to play in any of those decisions. If you feel strongly about the shelter being in your neighbourhood, the City of Iqaluit is the organization to blame.
As for building a daycare, that’s not something that one MLA, not even in cabinet, can decide on or make happen. Planning of major infrastructure takes years and is a money project so can’t be initiated by a regular member.
Your comment is like someone being mad at the Toronto Maple Leafs for a decision the Edmonton Oilers made.