Nunavik Commission officially named

MONTREAL — The names of the eight commissioners who will make recommendations on a new form of government in Nunavik have finally been confirmed.

The announcementt came exactly two weeks after the signing of the Nunavik Political Accord that set up the Nunavik Commission.

The commission will spend the next eight months developing recommendations on the new government’s structure, operations and powers before submitting its report.

It will be co-chaired by Harry Tulugak and André Binette.

Tulugak, a former mayor of Puvirnituq and long-time political activist, is currently executive assistant to Makivik Corporation President Pita Aatami.

Binette is a lawyer specializing in constitutional and aboriginal law. He has advised Quebec government on several occasions and assisted the secretariat of the Commission on Issues Relating to Québec’s Accession to Sovereignty in 1991 and 1992.

The other members of the commission include:

Johnny N. Adams, a commercial pilot, former mayor of Kuujjuaq and current chairman of the Kativik Regional Government. In 1990 Adams received the Quebec Government Municipal Merit Award;
Diane Guimond, a political analyst and bureaucrat from Quebec’s municipal affairs department who has drafted policies dealing with the decentralization and organization of municipal powers. In 1990 and 1991 she also advised the Bélanger-Campeau Commission on the political and constitutional future of Quebec;
G»rard Duhaime, researcher and professor at Universit» Laval, where he heads Groupe d’études inuit et circumpolaires or GETIC, an institute devoted to Inuit and circumpolar study. Duhaime is also chairman of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association. Several of Duhaime’s studies directly deal with the social and economic development of Inuit in Northern Quebec. He’s also leading an international research project called “Sustainable Development in the Arctic, Conditions for Food Security,” involving 40 researchers from five northern countries;
Annie May Popert, an educator and former director general of the Kativik School Board. During the the 1970s she served on Makivik’s executive, and as secretary-treasurer of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada;
Marc-Adelard Tremblay, a former anthropology professor at Université Laval who helped set up GETIC. Tremblay has received many awards, including the Order of Canada, six honorary degrees and has published more than 25 books and over 200 articles;
Jules Dufour, a professor of geography at the Université du Québec in Chicoutimi, has participated in many commissions dealing with natural resource development. Dufour was a commissioner for the federal review panel on the Great Whale hydro-electric project from 1992-95. He is also a member of the Quebec organization for the protection of endangered species, the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund, and member of a world commission on national parks.