It starts with a bang followed by big bust in the “high” Arctic

January

* Nunavik police have a busy holiday season with about 50 arrests for municipal by-law infractions, and at least five arrests for impaired driving. Kuujjuaq’s New Year’s Eve celebrations alone draw more than 200 calls for police assistance. All criminal arrests involve alcohol.
* A mentally ill man holds police at bay for 20 hours in Puvirnituq, shooting at police and an elder. James Ivillaq, 20, is arraigned on charges of attempted murder, illegal use of a firearm, and evading arrest.
* Elders meet federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists in Mont-Joli, in an attempt to marry traditional and scientific knowledge. DFO researchers address suggestions Inuit have made about the disappearance of beluga. Scientists argue that noise, disease and killer whale attacks cannot account for the massive beluga population drop.

February

* A three-day snowstorm knocks out phone lines, but not Internet services, along the Ungava bay.
* The Kativik School Board’s long-awaited move north is delayed due to lack of money. In a statement, the school board expresses its dismay to Ungava MNA Michel Létourneau, who is also the minister for regional development. The KSB states the board has not been able to secure funds for the final stage of its move since 2001.
* The KSB issues another press release that condemns a plan to amalgamate institutions created by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. It also says Makivik Corp. lacks the authority to act on behalf of all Nunavimmiut in self-government negotiations.
* Statistics Canada says services top Nunavik industries and few Nunavimmiut make a living from fishing or hunting. Twenty-two per cent work in the health sector, 20.5 in public administration and 19 per cent in education, but only 30 out of 3,855 people surveyed say they survive on hunting or fishing alone. Nunavik’s unemployment rate is 14.7, twice the Canadian rate.
* Kuujjuaq officially opens the new Kaittitavik complex. The $8.5-million structure was finished in October 2002 and houses a 500-seat auditorium, a cinema, regional tourism offices and municipal offices.
* The Ungava Cup hockey tournament goes off without a hitch as the Kativik Regional Police Force seize illegal alcohol bound for Kangirsuk. In first place is the team from Kangirsuk, in second place, Kuujjuaq’s team.
* Nunavik’s Harricana snowmobile team is waylaid when its support crew is involved in a crash. The crash prevents them from repairing a skidoo broken down earlier that day.

March

* The Kativik Regional Government votes not to support Nunavik’s new-government negotiations.
* In Puvirnituq, police respond to a call involving three men. One man is gravely injured after being hit on the head with a seven-kilogram barbell. Two men are later arrested and taken into custody.
* Statistics Canada finds that Nunavik’s labour force has jumped by 27 per cent over the last decade, but few Nunavimmiut have levels of education that will let them take advantage of increased opportunities.
* During Makivik’s annual general meeting in Puvirnituq, Makivik beneficiaries vote to pick a new president in a three-way race between Annie Popert, Johnny Oovaut and the incumbent, Pita Aatami. Aatami is re-elected, with 64 per cent of 2,709 votes cast.
* Charlie Watt Jr. of Kuujjuaq wins the 2003 Ivakkak dog team race.
* Quebec offers $17.6 million in home-building subsidies that will be used to help Nunavimmiut build their own homes and free up more of the region’s social housing units.
* Ottawa agrees to give the KRG $1.8 million for its satellite Internet network.

April

* The Parti Québécois loses the provincial election on April 14, with the Liberal Party taking 76 of 125 seats. Michel Létourneau of the PQ keeps his Ungava seat.
* About 600 people in Nunavik participate in the provincial “Quit to win” smoking challenge sponsored by the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services from March 1 to April 11.
* The Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec shuts its money-losing co-op store in Kuujjuaq, although the co-op hotel and outfitting operations there will stay open.
* Inuit and Cree finalize an offshore agreement, signing an overlap agreement that covers wildlife management and resource use in the region’s shared waters and islands.

May

* A joint police operation led by the KRPF, the Sûreté du Québec provincial police force, the RCMP, other native police forces, Canada Customs and Canada Post results in the opening of more than 50 files in Nunavik and Nunavut and the seizure of 15 kilograms of marijuana, hashish, cocaine, 1,200 vials of hash oil as well as shipments of bootlegged alcohol. The drugs and alcohol have a Nunavik street value of approximately $800,000.
* Nunavik wins the gold medal for the highest participation is a Quebec-wide anti-smoking campaign. Tasiuaq wins the community challenge, while Aupaluk takes the school prize.
* The Quebec Superior court meets to determine whether to hear the school board’s request for an injunction blocking further self-government negotiations in December.
* DFO won’t increase the cap on Nunavik’s beluga harvest. It will remain at 210 in 2003 and some communities will have to travel for the hunt.

June

* The elders’ home in Kuujjuaq closes temporarily due to staffing problems and a need to restructure. The home’s coordinator begins planning for the move after staff fail to show up for the Victoria Day weekend in May.
* KRG employees say no to management’s offer for a new collective agreement. The union has been trying to set a five-year agreement since Dec. 11, 2000, but union members feel the wage offers and cost of living differential is insufficient. KRG management says a tight budget plus possible cuts leaves little room for negotiation.
* Andy Moorhouse decides to resign as president of the youth association, Saputiit, before running for mayor of Inukjuak. Jonathan Epoo becomes the interim president until the next election in the spring of 2005.
* Two men are arrested in connection with two separate violent deaths over a single 24-hour period in Puvirnituq. An illegal shipment of alcohol into the community is signaled as a contributor to the violence.
* The SQ swat teams are called to Kuujjuaraapik after an armed man barricades himself in a building for more than 12 hours. He finally gives himself up peaceably.
* Social housing rents in Nunavik are set to rise by 3.4 per cent, an increase that at most adds up to $13 a month. The increase is part of the annual rent increase for social housing across Quebec.
* Makivik and the newly elected Quebec government sign a framework agreement for negotiations leading to a new regional government for Nunavik.
* The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Institute of Aboriginal Health open a $1.5-million centre for Inuit health and changing environment at Université Laval in Quebec City. The centre will focus on environmental change and health, Inuit traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge and environmental public health.

July

* Ottawa announces funding for a runway upgrade at Kuujjuaq’s airport. The $2.5-million facelift will improve safety.
* Less than a week after the framework agreement is signed, a provincial judge upholds the KSB’s right to challenge the negotiations between Makivik and the federal and provincial governments in court.
* The beef ban in Southern Canada affects Nunavik’s outfitting season as the U.S. will only allow caribou hunters to return with finished hides and trophies.
* Makivik decides to fund a participant to trek to Mount Everest in 2005, and opens a competition to select a beneficiary to join a University of Ottawa research team.
* Makivik builds an inuksuk in a Quebec City cemetery in honor of Inuit laid to rest there. The sculpture resembles an inuksuk but it also takes the shape of a cross. A similar project is planned for Montreal.

August

* Québec releases a document on what environmental impact statements for the Eastmain and Rupert hydro-electric project should include. The $3.8-billion project, part of the controversial James Bay power development plan, will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity when it is completed in 10 years.
* The Eastern Arctic Games bring 300 athletes into Kangiqsualujjuaq from Aug. 4 to 10, with seven days of competition in traditional games and team sports.
* Nunavik’s member of Parliament, Guy St-Julien, says he will oppose a federal same-sex marriage bill, citing his personal values.
* Provincial vehicle inspectors impound 11 commercial trucks in Kuujjuaq for failing to meet safety standards. The KRPF invites inspectors from the Quebec licensing board after receiving numerous complaints.
* Pierre Corbeil, the new provincial minister for northern Quebec, and Jacques Chagnon, the minister of public security, tour Nunavik. They sign an agreement for a new halfway house in Kangirsuk, worth $3 million.
* Quebec’s new premier, Jean Charest, spends a weekend on a casual visit with Nunavik leaders, along with Corbeil and Benoit Pelletier, the minister for aboriginal affairs. During the visit, they sign an agreement creating Nunavik’s first provincial park, Pingualuit.
* A couple from Kangirsuk and their two children go missing while returning from a wedding in Kuujjuaq. Nunavimmiut, the Canadian Rangers and Canadian Coast Guard search for the lost freighter canoe. The overturned canoe with the body of translator-interpreter Martha Kauki is found on Aug. 21.

September

* The KSB requests a safeguard order against Makivik, so that it cannot reach an agreement-in-principle for a new form of government for Nunavik before the end of this year.
* Wildlife protection officers Vallée Saunders, David Watt and Mark Kootook capture two orphaned polar bears outside Kuujjuaq. The two bears are transported on to Quebec City’s zoo.
* Kuujjuaq’s Jaanimmarik School closes for two days due to a widespread infestation of head lice.
* The huge icebreaker Amundsen, named after Norway’s polar explorer Roald Amundsen, leaves Quebec City with a load of a scientific equipment and researchers: its destination, the Northwest Passage and the western Arctic.
* Police call off the search for a U.S. hunter who vanishes, seemingly into thin air, on Sept. 3, while on a hunting trip in Nunavik. James Rambone Jr., 51, of Foster, Rhode Island, is last seen early that morning when he sprints off in pursuit of a caribou over the rugged tundra near the Caniapscau River, 400 kilometres east of Kuujjuaraapik.
* The KRG celebrates its 25th anniversary during the regional council meeting in Kuujjuaq with a community party.
* The KRG council calls for improvements in search and rescue procedures in the wake of August’s loss of four people in their canoe.
* Michael Tooktoo, 29, of Kuujjuaraapik suffers life-threatening burns to 75 per cent of his body and internal damage to his lungs and other vital organs as a result a fire that occurs early on the morning of Sept. 28 at his residence.

October

* Quebec’s new health minister, Philippe Couillard, visits Nunavik to learn more about the region’s services and meet with local officials. He gets an earful from unionized health workers in Kuujjuaq who want the same retention benefits as nurses and doctors receive. Couillard pledges $2 million for a new Inuit health survey in Nunavik.
* Pregnant women in Kuujjuaq and Kuujjuaraapik receive a supply of healthy food thanks to a new Arctic Char promotion program.
* A ceremony at the Mount Hermon cemetery in Quebec City remembers Inuit buried there.
* Nunavik’s health board is under fire for permitting a $11,500 retreat to a fishing lodge owned by the brother of the chairman of the Inuutlitsivik health board for the Hudson Bay at the same time employees are told to cut back.
* Researchers report that beluga whale skin is loaded with a chemical that seems to slow the production of harmful cholesterol. Findings from a Laval study say this may explain why the death rate from heart disease in Salluit is 50 per cent lower than in the rest of Quebec.

November

* Incumbent mayor Michael Gordon wins in Kuujjuaq over Larry Watt, winning with 53.9 per cent of the vote. Gordon promises to bring a bylaw enforcement team to Kuujjuaq.
* New mayors include Michael Cameron in Salluit, Andy Moorhouse in Inukjuak, Ali Novalinga in Puvirnituq and Elijah Imbeault in Kangiqsualujjuaq. Robbie Tookalook returns in Umiujaq.