Former Clyde River Mayor Jerry Natanine is running to be president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in the May 27 presidential byelection. (Photo courtesy of Clara Noah)
Jerry Natanine’s vows to transform Nunavut if elected NTI president
Former Clyde River mayor says he will campaign ‘the old-fashioned way’ — via community radio stations
Nunatsiaq News is publishing profiles of the 10 candidates in Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s May 27 presidential byelection.
Jerry Natanine vows to transform the way Nunavut is governed if elected president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
“I’m a proponent of self-government,” said the 57-year-old former Clyde River mayor in a phone interview. “I want NTI to run everything and be the government of Nunavut.”
Under this proposed system, NTI would control the territory’s grocery stores.
“The price of food is just going to keep rising because that is the way of capitalism,” he said. “If we make regulations to limit profits of food providers and food carriers, we may bring the price of food down.”
He said he would build an all-season road between Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord. Bridges connecting the islands would be paid for by the federal government, he said.
Natanine also said he would extend Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s Steensby railway to every community in Nunavut and use it to deliver food. He would build on the company’s existing infrastructure at the Mary River mine and use it as a distribution centre. Again, Natanine would have the federal government pay for a network of highways and rail lines connecting Mary River with all 25 Nunavut communities.
On land, he would launch taxi-van services. On water, he would develop a program for youth to build kayaks and hunt narwhal.
He would also pump more value into the char fishery by creating and running facilities to process canned and smoked products.
In education, he wants to introduce Mandarin language instruction because China is the economic driver of the future, he said.
All the while, Natanine promises to host a monthly NTI transparency podcast.
“I will review the annual reports since 1999 and show where we’ve spent money, doing what, and on whom,” he said.
Natanine served three terms as a hamlet councillor and was mayor for two nonconsecutive terms, from 2014 to 2016 and 2018 to 2020.
However, Natanine’s most prominent political victory came between his two stints as mayor.
In 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada quashed a five-year seismic testing project east of Baffin Island, in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. Natanine was an appellant, alongside the Hamlet of Clyde River and the Nammautaq Hunters and Trappers Organization, which he chaired.
Following public life, he became the hamlet’s senior administrative officer. He retired in 2023.
Although Natanine will use NTI’s $5,000 travel bursary to reach voters, most of his campaign will be done remotely, he said.
“My plan is to do it the old-fashioned way and contact the community radio stations,” he said.
Natanine lives in Clyde River with his wife, Christine, who works as an administrative officer at the Clyde River Health Centre. They have two daughters, Clara Noah and Ulluriaq Natanine, and six grandchildren. Natanine’s son, Abraham Natanine, died six years ago.
pretty heady dreams. he probably been smoking too much high grade. LOL. connect mary river train line to all 25 communities. and the fed will pay for it. talk about self entitled.
Thanks NN, I needed that laugh 😂. Looking forward to the non hilarious, serious candidate profile of Mr. Natanone.
I want to say that if this is his true platform and if he gets lots of votes it shows that we really dont want anything real out of NTI… but I am scared that I might not be far off.
I haven’t had a good laugh like that in a while. Qujannamiik Natanine.
Does Jerry need to be NTI president to do those things though? Couldn’t he technically rally communities together to get the HTO’s on board to do canneries and fish processing in all HTO’s by setting up a shared entity? I don’t know like Baffin fisheries perhaps? His ideas sound like exactly what they are: IDEAS. Nothing about how they will materialize, nothing about capacity, nothing of substance, without an actual implementation plan or community backing its all just ideas.
Can the next candidate please stand up?
Thank you, next…
Mandarin.
Mandarin?
Mandarin!
holeh. smarten tf up jerry.
Too much bucfu for this guy lol
So Mr. Greenpeace 2017 wants to crisscross the whole territory with roads, bridges and railroads?
Everything not hunted or fished that we eat comes from agriculture.
Nunavut has no agriculture. Some people in Nunavut can therefore be forgiven for not knowing how agriculture works, including Mr. Jerry “Chong” Natanine.
Food for Inuit in Nunavut does not actually come from stores in our communities. This food in reality comes from farms in Canada and around the world.
Agriculture globally is conducted on the basis of supply and demand; if a type of food is abundant it is cheaper, and if it is scarce it costs more. Nunavut cannot change the economic basis of food production in the world.
Nunavut has no say in weather or environmental conditions such as limited groundwater that dictates crop yields, which limits supply, increasing price.
Nunavut has no say in what is happening in the Persian Gulf to affect agricultural food inputs such as fuel and fertilizer. Less available farm inputs means higher farm costs, which must be passed on to buyers.
Nunavut has no say in the deportation of California’s farm labor, where 50% of Canada’s fresh food imports come from. No-one around to pick the crop limits supply, increasing prices.
Nunavut has no say in the Russia/Ukraine war, which has upset agriculture production in one of the biggest grain belts in the world. Less available grains, higher price.
Nunavut has no say in what Canadian farmers grow, for what price, and to whom. Canadian ranchers are growing less beef, limiting supply, increasing prices.
Nunavut cannot prevent farmers from going out of business due to poor business conditions, which is reducing production, reducing supply, increasing prices.
Nunavut has no say in what prices Canadian food wholesalers set. If wholesalers cannot buy food cheaply, they pass on higher costs to retailers.
Nunavut has no say in what Canadian food processors produce, and for what price.
Nunavut can influence the cost of food transportation into Nunavut via sea and air. The Government of Nunavut already does this through its marine and air contracts.
Nunavut has a small influence on the Nutrition North program if the previous NTI President could get her act together. However, NN is not only for Nunavut, has a small budget, and can only defray a fraction of the food costs of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians this program serves.
Building and operating government run retail outlets cannot and will not significantly reduce the price of food paid by Inuit in Nunavut.
The cost of stores in the north is a small component of the food distribution system and are insignificant compared to other factors.
Mr. Natanine, you will have better luck getting the feds to build bridges between GF and RB, which will, BTW, dwarf Confederation Bridge.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Literally “I have a bridge to sell you”
“I can’t tell if this is a political platform or a late-night brainstorm after three energy drinks.” or “Why stop at railways to every Nunavut community? Might as well throw in a space program too.” or “Visionary or delusional depends entirely on how many billions of federal dollars you imagine falling from the sky.”
Whats wrong with him?