New council will speak for Nunavut’s disabled people

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Davidee Angnakak may have to use a wheelchair to get around, but that hasn’t stopped him from leading a productive life.

The Pangnirtung resident hunts regularly and sells sealskins to help provide for his family.

But now, Angnakak is using his abilities to help people who can’t see, hear, or move easily to find work and fulfillment.

Angnakak is president of the Nunavut Council of People with Disabilities. The nine-member council is a new advocacy group for people across the territory who live with disabilities.

“The people with disabilities don’t have enough education and they don’t have enough jobs. I would like to create jobs,” Angnakak said through an interpreter.

It’s estimated that there are more than 100 people in Nunavut with disabilities.

Though their numbers are small, their need for help remains as great as it does for people in the South who have disabilities .

Help can come in the form of small gadgets such as smoke detectors for the hearing impaired that signal danger with a light instead of noise, said Meeka Kilabuk, who is doing administrative work and fund raising for the new council.

Other forms of help could include accessible housing for people who can’t move easily, she said, or it can simply mean acceptance from the community in which they live and consideration when job opportunities arise, Kilabuk said.

The council plans to help people with disabilities access government programs that already exist. And it wants to spark more public awareness of the barriers that people with disabilities face and how they can be removed.

The council has also begun to lobby the Nunavut government for help.

“They have been forgotten, they have not been served.” Kilabuk said. “We’re hoping the Nunavut government will be the group that will pay attention to their needs.”

Last week, the council presented Culture Minister Donald Havioyak with a 200-page report outlining recommendations and concerns from people with disabilities in Nunavut.

In exchange, Havioyak presented the fledgling council with a cheque for $90,000 to help kick-start its operations.

The council’s recommendations were developed a year ago at a meeting of disabled persons from across Nunavut. Nunavut Council of People with Disabilities and its report were created as a result of that meeting.

The report pinpoints problems that need government attention and others that may fall upon the private sector to fix.

For example, Kilabuk said people with disabilities should be allotted social housing units with as few stairs as possible.

Private companies also need to think about the special needs of disabled people, Kilabuk said. That could mean having accessible buildings, or in the case of airlines, having wheelchairs available so that passengers may board and exit planes easily, Kilabuk said.

Havioyak said the report will likely become the backbone of his department’s policies on people with disabilities.

“We will review it and use it as our document for future purposes. My department can say ‘these are the things that people with disabilities are addressing to us — let’s try and meet those,'” Havioyak said.

“Some things may work, some things may not, but it’s a start,” he said.

Havioyak said his department is now working to create policies to address disabled people’s needs. His department will turn to the council for advice, but Havioyak said the policy may include things such as easy access to government buildings.

The council is now working to open a headquarters in Iqaluit. Right now, Kilabuk is working out of temporary space donated by Qikiqtaaluk Corp.

A new office will act as an information centre for people with disabilities and will eventually have staff to run programs, Kilabuk said.

The council has worked out a draft budget and is applying to the federal government for core funding.