Maligarnit Qimirrujiit body will review Nunavut’s laws

IQALUIT — Premier Paul Okalik wants Nunavut residents — especially elders — to help his government decide how to reform more than 90 statutes that Nunavut has inherited from the Northwest Territories.

To do that, he’s setting up a four-person body called Maligarnit Qimirrujiit — the Nunavut Law Review Commission. Okalik says he’s hoping to appoint the commission at the next sitting of the Nunavut legislative assembly, which resumes Oct. 20 in Iqaluit.

Okalik made the announcement this Thursday, at a gathering in Apex.

“I’m looking forward to appointing the commission and hearing from the communities and having a really significant voice for elders,” Okalik said this week.

Okalik said the commission, which is to report directly to him, will provide elders and community residents with a strong voice in changing Nunavut’s laws to make them work better for Nunavut residents.

Under the Nunavut Act, the new territory of Nunavut inherited duplicates of all the laws of the Northwest Territories on April 1.

Okalik says many of those statutes badly need revision.

“Wildlife legislation is one example,” Okalik said. “Some it goes back to the 1960s and needs to be brought into line with the land claim agreement.”

The commission will also look at specific areas of law reform that Okalik may ask the commission to work on from time to time, especially after he hears from MLAs.

“What I’m doing right now is consulting regular members [of the legislative assembly] to see what their priorities are,” Okalik said.

Above all, Okalik said, he hopes that Maligarnit Qimirrujiit will provide a way for elders to exert real influence on the Nunavut government.

“They’ve waited long enough,” Okalik said. “This is one way to ensure that the elders can have a role in our government.”

The statutes that Nunavut has inherited from the NWT exist only in English or French.

But under a project started a year and a half ago by Nunavut’s justice department under the Office of the Interim Commissioner, a set of Inuit language summaries of each of Nunavut’s laws should soon be ready. Okalik said this will help unilingual Inuktitut-speaking elders understand the laws they’ll be asked to review.

Commission members may also travel to communities to seek the views of residents, Okalik said, and may use space in hamlet or housing association offices in their home communities to help them with their work.

Maligarnit Qimirrujiit’s head office will be located in the chief commissioner’s home community.

The government is now seeking four Nunavut residents to serve on the commission, which will wind up its work by December 31, 2001.

The commission’s job is to:

Identify laws received from the Northwest Territories that are not consistent with community needs and desires in Nunavut, or
Encourage public discussion on how the laws of Nunavut can best support Nunavummiut;
Communicate to government the concerns and ideas of Nunavummiut on Nunavut’s laws and make recommendations for how they could be changed to better serve Nunavummiut.
Okalik says the commission will work with Rebecca Williams, Nunavut’s assistant deputy minister of justice, and will meet every four months. After each meeting, they are to prepare a report for him.

One of the four commissioners will serve as chief commissioner of Maligarnit Qimirrujiit and perform the functions of an executive director. The chief commissioner will be paid at a rate of $275 a day, while the three ordinary commissioners will be paid $250 a day.

Okalik said, however, that he isn’t able to say exactly how much money will be set aside for the commission’s annual budget. “We’re still looking at that,” Okalik said.

The deadline for the receipt of applications from Nunavut residents wishing to serve on Maligarnit Qimirrujiit is October 22. Anyone interested may contact his or her MLA, or Rebecca Williams at the Nunavut Department of Justice in Iqaluit.