Nunavik leaders get update on work to bring foster services north

With 263 Nunavik children fostered down south, community leaders are calling for more say over youth protection in the region.

Anthony Ittoshat, Nunavik’s chief negotiator for self-determination, describes how the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement must be amended to bring foster care services to the region. (Photo by Cedric Gallant, special to Nunatsiaq News)

The data was presented Wednesday at the Nunavik all-organizations meeting hosted by Makivvik Corp. in Montreal. Leaders from across the region are in the city this week to discuss various issues.

Self-determination over Inuit services is a major topic at the meeting.

Negotiators are working on changes to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement that would allow Nunavik Inuit to legally run their own youth protection program, said Anthony Ittoshat, Makivvik Corp.’s chief negotiator on the topic of self-determination.

“We are working on an Inuit-relevant government to be developed,” he said. “Let what the Inuit want be heard. This is something we have been saying for many years now, and this is what we’re working on.”

Established in 2019, Nunavingmi Ilagiit Papatauvinga provides family services as part of the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services.

Nunavingmi Ilagiit Papatauvinga is working to bring youth protection services to the region, independent from Quebec’s youth protection office.

Mina Beaulne, the organization’s executive director, presented a 10-year plan to establish a youth protection service and improve its service models. The plan would come with a $6.1-million annual budget, she said.

That includes early childhood services that aim to reduce the need to involve the province’s youth protection office, which would in turn prevent foster placements outside of the community and region.

In a speech Wednesday, Lesley Hill, the national director of youth protection, highlighted the need for this type of prevention.

“We need to support the work of [Nunavingmi Ilagiit Papatauvinga] but communities need to work together to see how to help those kids stay in the communities,” she said.

Hill highlighted the importance of self-determination and quoted the Youth Protection Act as a way for Inuit to have a say over child protection.

After a short break, Maggie Emudluk, the head of the Kativik Regional Government, criticized the Youth Protection Act.

“The Youth Protection Law has ruined our lives. No surprise we don’t trust the system,” Emudluk said, without elaborating.