MLAs will pick speaker, premier, and cabinet this week

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Integrity, experience and education were among the key character traits MLAs were looking for as they prepared to choose a premier, speaker and cabinet this week.

Lively and enthusiastic, Nunavut’s elected representatives gathered in Iqaluit this Monday, eager to get their work started. It’s their first meeting since the Feb. 15 territorial election.

So far, they’ve been holding most of their meeting behind closed doors at the Iqaluit Cadet Hall.

Though officials from the Office of the Interim Commissioner had produced a draft agenda suggesting they elect a government next week, at a leadership forum scheduled March 10-12, Nunavut MLAs had other ideas

“I think we should be able to do that by the end of the week,” Rankin Inlet North MLA Jack Anawak said.

Anawak, former interim commissioner of Nunavut and a former member of Parliament, is among those who will likely seek Nunavut’s premiership.

“I think it’s important we should get down to business,” Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean said. “We shouldn’t dilly-dally.”

Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo said too many decisions have already been put on hold waiting for a premier and cabinet to be chosen.

“I don’t think we need two weeks to decide,” added Arviat MLA Kevin O’Brien.

After a qulliq lighting and a short aya-ya song and drum dance Tuesday morning, all but one of Nunavut’s 19 MLAs sat around tables at the Legion cadet hall to decide how they’ll proceed over the next two weeks.

David Iqaqrialu of Uqqummiut, in Cambridge Bay for another meeting, was expected to arrive in Iqaluit by late Wednesday.

Okalik gathering support

Iqaluit West MLA Paul Okalik said that if he were asked, he would challenge for the premier’s job.

“I’ve been getting support for premier,” Okalik said Monday evening as MLAs gathered for an informal dinner at an Iqaluit restaurant.

Okalik, though new to territorial politics, said he’s been helping create Nunavut since he was 20, when he worked with NTI’s predecessor, the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut, in negotiating the Nunavut land claim agreement.

“I’ve been there and defending it and helping create it,” he said. “I want to make sure it’s done properly.”

Others who have made their intentions known include NWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng of Cambridge Bay and Municipal Affairs Minister Manitok Thompson. The name of Nanulik James Arvaluk has also been thrown around as a possible premier candidate.

MLAs must be nominated by their peers in order to join the premier race. Each candidate will likely give a 25-minute speech, after which comes a question period with each MLA allowed up to four questions of the prospective candidates.

After a premier is chosen, MLAs decide who will sit in cabinet. First, however, they have to decide how many members should sit in Nunavut’s cabinet.

A public process?

It’s known yet if the premier and cabinet selection process will be held in public. The NWT legislative assembly has held public premier selection processes since 1991.

O’Brien, who, like four other Nunavut MLAs, will give up his seat in the NWT legislative assembly April 1, said he’s looking forward to a fresh start in consensus governing.

“We have the opportunity to start off on a new footing,” he said. “I think with new faces, it gives us the opportunity to move forward in an open, fair and objective manner.”