NTI: let Nunavut decide pilot project

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. has shot down the GNWT’s so-called Keewatin pilot project as a poorly planned, regressive experiment that could undermine Nunavut’s territorial government.

Citing ill timing and a lack of consultation, NTI board members meeting in Cambridge Bay last week demanded that the proposal be shelved until after division of the NWT in 1999.

That would give the Nunavut government the time it needs to properly consider to its own community empowerment policy, NTI President Jose Kusugak said.

“We have the luxury of time right now,” Kusugak said. “Why rush everything before it’s understood?”

Massive transfer of programs

At issue is a proposal by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to transfer responsibility and funding for numerous GNWT programs to Keewatin municipal governments.

The proposal, which has the support of several mayors in the region, would shift tens of millions of dollars into the hands of hamlet governments under the GNWT’s community empowerment policy.

Under the pilot project, a new regional “communities association” would be created to manage the territorial government’s money.

Nunavut Tunngavik’s was not the only groups to raise concerns about the proposal this week.

Education officials concerned

Noel Kaludjak, the chairman of the Keewatin Divisional Education Council, worries that residents have not being adequately consulted about the proposed devolution of powers.

“We’re being fast-tracked,” Kaludjak said. “They want us to go ahead without proper consultation. We’re being fast-tracked all the way.”

In the last days of the Legislative Assembly’s winter session, the project also became a political flashpoint for the GNWT.

“It’s not a matter of opposition to the idea,” Kaludjak said. “It’s the timing of the idea.”

After reviewing the proposal, NTI said such a move would “significantly alter the structure and authorities” of the Nunavut Assembly, possibly undermining the principle of two-level, decentralized government in the new territory.

Althoug Kaludjak said he also agrees in principle with the transfer of greater decision-making authority to the community level, he has told MACA that it’s not up to him alone to support or reject the pilot project.

“They have to consult with district education authorities in each community,” Kaludjak said. “They cannot just come to me as chair of the Keewatin board and tell me to sign some agreement. I cannot do that.”

Thompson unaware of NTI’s position

Responding to questions about the pilot project in the Legislative Assembly earlier this week, Minister Thompson said she was unaware of NTI’s opposition, and indicated that the proposal was “going ahead.”

No comprehensive proposal has yet been submitted to cabinet, and the project is apparently still in its early planning stages.

Still, NTI leader Kusugak wondered aloud why the GNWT had picked the Keewatin to conduct a large-scale experiment in community empowerment a year away from division.

“If you are in charge of the whole territories, why not do the experiment in a place like Inuvik?,” Kusugak suggested. “Do it in Fort Smith or in a place like Eureka that isn’t developing a new form of government.”

Kusugak also chastised MACA for allegedly misrepresenting NTI’s views on the Keewatin proposal.

In particular, he denied having endorsed the pilot project in Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Manitok Thompson’s presence during last year’s Baffin leaders’ meeting in Pangnirung.

“I did talk to her, but I talked to her about the same level of community empowerment that Cape Dorset was talking about,” Kusugak said.

“I think the [Keewatin] pilot project is very very different from the one proposed for Cape Dorset.”

The NTI board has fired off a letter to Thompson, urging her to delay the pilot project — and all other community-empowerment initiatives.