Land claim orgs aren’t benefitting Inuit

In reading your article on the Iqaluit co-op’s inability to greatly lower prices for the Nunavummiut consumer, I was initially disappointed, as I too had high hopes that the co-op would help lower the costs we consumers are faced with in Nunavut.

Then I thought more about the issue and realized that any business venture, even one as worthy as a co-op, in itself can’t resolve the issue of high costs to its consumers, as they too are subject to high costs for freight and air transport. We all know the rationalization that our cost of living is so high because our economy relies wholly on fly-in services, Canadian North and First Air being the two airlines that service this need.

All overhead costs and the subsequent costs borne to the consumer start and depend on rates set by the airlines.

But what responsibility do these businesses have to us, in a competitive economy, to ensure that in their monopoly position they aren’t over-taxing our economy? The question highlights the problem Nunavut is faced with generally.

As a territory born out of the desire for an aboriginal land claims agreement, we are governed as a public government. First Air is owned by the Inuit of Makivik, whereas, Canadian North is owned by the Inuit of Nunavut and the Inuvialuit of the western Arctic.

Nunasi’s mandate is for the benefit of its Inuit shareholders. Nunasi’s uniqueness is based on its willingness to temper bottom-line considerations with concern for its shareholder’s environmental, cultural and social well-being.

These economic endeavours, which flow from under the land claim, don’t live up to Inuit citizen’s social, or cultural well-being. How do I as a beneficiary benefit from Canadian North, really?

Businesses that are set up through the land claim for beneficiaries need to consider more than the bottom line and offer benefits to all beneficiaries. For instance, perhaps I could receive a discount from land claim businesses, to incur a real benefit that I can feel.

In a move that could so easily be made, Nunavut’s quality of life and cost of living could be enhanced. Travel could be made more accessible, food and services could be affordable.

Kudos to Makivik Corporation, in that they support cultural and social economic well-being as well as turning a profit. They support Nunavik-wide cultural events, and offer fares that are accountable to their beneficiaries. It’s high time our Inuit political leaders and bureaucrats paid attention to this aspect of the land claim, and offered up real accountability to all Inuit.

The land claim currently only seems to benefit those individuals who work within the organizations, or those who apply and receive funding under special programs, while Inuit as a collective whole, are failing to receive any meaningful benefit.

Where there is the mandate and resources to do so, why is it not done? The old style of politics is apparently in vogue, where those with power are not inclined to run with accountability and integrity for the people.

Our leaders must return to governance with a “G,” and not continue to govern their own people as they were governed by others. Perhaps, the Competitions Commissioner of the federal Competition Bureau should look at the situation up here, to look at the unique economic dynamic here in Nunavut and consider if anything tangible can be done.

I go out on this note, in the hopes things will get better. I gave up my aboriginal title for this? To be faced with a Orwellian nightmare as in “Animal Farm”, where I can no longer decipher the faces of my aboriginal land claim leaders, from the non-representative Liberals of today?

Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy
Iqaluit