NIRB’s new executive director excited to bring daughter home

Dionne Filiatrault’s daughter says she can’t wait to move to Cambridge Bay.

That’s where the newly appointed executive director of the Nunavut Impact Review Board will be relocating when she takes on the role.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board, which assesses the impact of proposed development in Nunavut, announced Filiatrault as its new executive director on June 5. Her role was effective as of June 3.

Filiatrault’s adopted daughter, whose full name is Jacqueline Marie Gjoa Ublureak Filiatrault, has always gone by Ublureak or Ublu, the name given her by her biological family in Gjoa Haven.

“My first question to [my daughter] when this opportunity presented itself was, ‘Would you like to do this?’” said Filiatrault on Wednesday.

“Her first words to me, ‘I can learn my culture and learn my language?’ And just like that the decision was made. Done, we’re in.”

Just last week, Filiatrault said, the 11-year-old asked her mom how to spell her English name.

Filiatrault is a professional engineer with 28 years of experience providing regulatory and environmental advice in the North, according to the news release from the review board, and is well-known in the industry.

She got her start in 1995 during the early days of Nunavut, first as a consultant. She was hired by what would become the Nunavut Water Board in 1996. There, she worked to develop water regulations and approvals for the territory that would come to be in 1999.

Filiatrault spent more than 16 years with the Nunavut Water Board, which is based in Gjoa Haven, as a technical adviser, and eventually took on the role of executive director of the board.

In 2013, Filiatrault adopted Ublu, who faced multiple medical challenges, from a family in Gjoa Haven. Wanting the best care for her, Filiatrault moved to Edmonton, where she would be near Stollery Children’s Hospital.

In 2014, Filiatrault was hired to work as regulatory adviser for northern projects with WSP Canada Inc.

“I never really left the North, from a professional standpoint,” she said of her career, adding she’s especially excited about the Nunavut devolution agreement, announced in January.

“Nunavut is near and dear to my heart, and the overall vision and objectives of the agreement, which is Indigenous and specifically Inuit self-government and empowerment. To me, it’s exciting; it’s a success story.”

While Filiatrault expressed enthusiasm for the future of Nunavut, she acknowledged there are challenges that go along with growth that can put a strain on natural resources.

Over the past 10 years, she said, the level of work and number of decisions that all the boards, not just the Nunavut Impact Review Board, have had to make, “has been unprecedented.”

The plan now is for Ublu to finish out the school year on June 27 in Edmonton, then leave for Cambridge Bay in mid-August.

“She literally had one foot out the door here,” Filiatrault said.

“She asked, ‘Mom, Why can’t I just go to school there?’”

It’s more evidence why Filiatrault said she feels she’s making the right move.

“The stars have aligned,” she said.

“My daughter’s health is good, it’s an opportunity for my daughter to learn her culture and her language and be immersed in that.”