NTI will fight feds to break stalemate: CEO warns

Nunavut’s land claim organization has upped the ante in their stalled efforts to get the federal government to speed up their implementation of land claim obligations.

John Lamb, Nunavut Tunngavik’s CEO, said in his annual report that his organization will start using legal and political means to force the federal government to meet their end of the deal.

He said they needed to apply more pressure to the department of Indian and Northern Affairs because they’d been dragging their feet since the last 10-year agreement on implementation expired last year.

Lamb noted that NTI’s wrangling with Ottawa contributed to an unexpected deficit a couple of years ago, adding to upwards of $500,000 in legal and consultant fees.

“That’s spending a lot of beneficiaries’ money,” he said.

Stephen Traynor, INAC’s acting regional director-general, said he was constantly reminding Ottawa of their “big… and small” obligations under the land claim.

“We’re trying to do our best and hopefully we will come to some sort of resolution in the next year,” he said.