NNI turned over to Economic Development

David Simailak, the minister of Economic Development, told Nunavut Tunngavik’s board of directors this week that his department will now become responsible for carrying out the Nunavut’s government’s Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuti, or NNI, policy.

“No longer will NNI be solely a contracting procedure. It will become an economic tool that will be used not only to fulfill our land claims obligations, it will go far beyond that to truly equip Inuit-owned businesses to reach their full potential,” Simailak said.

NTI’s board met this week in Baker Lake, Simailak’s home community.

The NNI policy, worked out in negotiations between NTI and the GN, is the Nunavut government’s tool for carrying out its obligations under Article 24 of the Nunavut land claims agreement.

Under a cabinet decision issued Dec. 2, 2003, the NNI provides a seven per cent bid-price adjustment to Inuit firms, a seven per cent break to “local” firms, and a seven per cent break to Nunavut firms.

This means a company owned by Inuit residents of Nunavut, based in the community where the work is to be done, could get a 21 per cent price advantage over a non-Nunavut firm when bidding for a GN contract.

Other proposed changes, recommended in a comprehensive review of the NNI tabled last fall in the legislative assembly, have yet to be announced.