NTI hits Ottawa with $1 billion lawsuit

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. launched a $1 billion lawsuit this past Tuesday against the federal government, alleging that Ottawa has violated the Nunavut land claim agreement by failing to carry out its implementation responsibilities.

NTI’s statement of claim, filed in the Nunavut Court of Justice as Nunatsiaq News went to press this week, contains a long list of allegations related to specific sections of the land claim agreement.

Those allegations accuse Ottawa of failing to provide enough money, at various times, to fund various parts of the agreement, and of failing to do other things related to implementation.

As relief, NTI wants the court to order the federal government to pay court costs, punitive damages, plus a billion dollars in compensation.

NTI’s last implementation contract with Ottawa expired in 2003. Talks aimed at a new one have so far failed, even after the conciliation work done by Thomas Berger in 2005 and early 2006.

See next week’s paper for more detail on NTI’s lawsuit.