Nunavik Commission begins consultation work

MONTREAL — The Nunavik Commission has begun its deliberations, working within the confines of a limited timetable, budget and mandate.

Over the next few months, its eight members will develop recommendations on the structure, operations and powers of a new government for Nunavik.

But unlike the Nunavut Implementation Commission, this appointed body won’t be expected to be draw up detailed blueprints for a new government.

Instead, after a sweeping consultation exercise, the commission will produce a set of broad guidelines to direct further negotiations.

“We are at an early stage,” said the Nunavik Commission’s co-chair, André Binette. “We are at the thinking stage.”

Last week the commissioners were in Montreal to visit southern-based Nunavik groups and consult with federal officials who are familiar with Nunavut’s evolution.

Binette, appointed by Quebec to chair the commission along with Puvirnitumiutaq Harry Tulugak, said Nunavik’s self-government will necessarily be different than other aboriginal self-governments.

“The case of Nunavik is unique. Nunavut was not in a province, and the Nisga’a government is an ethnic government,” Binette said. “Even the federal negotiators who worked on Nunavut said that there is not any precedent.”

The two chief commissioners said the sovereignist aspirations of the Parti Québécois government won’t affect or influence their mandate.

“There is no way that we’re going to have our hands tied by an issue of this nature,” Tulugak said.

But the commissioners are already sensing that their eight-month mandate may not be long enough for them to complete their work.

The commission is expected to request an official change in its mandate, so that it can spend a full year before tabling its recommendations to Nunavimmiut and the federal and provincial governments.

“To do a proper job we feel we don’t want to be rushed,” said commissioner Johnny Adams.

Shortly before the Christmas holidays, the commissioners held their first working meeting in Puvirnituq, where they also met informally with some local residents and students enrolled at colleges in the South.

Instead of suggestions for new government structures, bread-and-butter political issue such as the lack of housing, social problems, and the need for more economic development, dominated the discussions.

In Puvirnituq, commissioners also approved a travel schedule that will bring them into every Nunavik community for public consultation.

The Nunavik Accord will be distributed to all communities as a guide for discussion, but Binette and Tulugak said they expect to hear a wide range of opinions during the consultations.

“People will be concrete and practical and down-to-earth,” Binette said. “It’s up to us to be sensitive to their preoccupations.”

The commission also plans to solicit written briefs from associations or businesses.

Tulugak said that the commission will take into account the work of previous negotiators who developed proposed structures for a Nunavik government that included an a plan for an assembly made up of 20 elected members, and the creation of 10 government departments.

In 1991 a Nunavik-wide voted also approved a detailed “Nunavik Constitution.”

But Tulugak said the Nunavik Commission won’t be bound by any previous conclusions.

“We have to listen to what the Nunavik society says,” Tulugak said.

According to Paul Bussières, a former Makivik lawyer and Nunavik resident who is the commission’s co-secretary, the commission will visit every community in Nunavik at least once during the consultation period.

They will hold meetings in the evenings, with simultaneous interpretation in Inuttitut and English.

* From Jan. 19 to 28, the commissioners plan to meet organizations in Kuujjuaq and hold public consultations in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Tasijuaq, Aupaluk, Kangirsuk and Quartaq.

* From Feb. 21 to 29 they will be in Kuujjuaq, Kangirsujuaq, Salluit, Ivujivik, Akulivik and Puvirnituq.

* From March 13 to 17 they will be in Inukjuak, Umiujaq and Kuujjuaraapik.

After their tour of Nunavik is complete, the commissioners plan to meet for one week every month until they are ready to table their final report.