Nunavik leaders celebrate first Quebec payout

QUEBEC CITY — To celebrate their recent billion-dollar deal with Quebec, Nunavik leaders toured the provincial legislature’s posh digs, made a toast to continued partnership with Premier Bernard Landry, and then ate in the legislators’ dining room.

Landry seized the opportunity to tout the deal as a mark of Quebec’s good relations with its 11 native peoples. He evoked the image of many peoples, or nations, united in one common country — Quebec.

But for Nunavimmiut, the celebration’s high point came after dessert, when Landry handed a Quebec government cheque for $7 million to Makivik Corporation President Pita Aatami and Kativik Regional Government Chairman Johnny Adams.

This money is earmarked for community and economic development projects in Nunavik.

It’s the first payout of the more than $360 million worth of tax-free, indexed transfers that the deal promises to deliver over the next 25 years.

Quebec’s cabinet recently gave their official approval to the Sanarrutik Agreement, which was signed with Quebec on April 9 in Tasiujaq and ratified last month by Nunavimmiut.

According to its terms, next year’s cheque for community and economic development will be worth $8 million. Over the next 23 years, the value of the annual cheque will nearly double, to $15 million.

To cement the new deal, an inuksuk will be built in front of Quebec’s legislature, the assemblé nationale. Stones from every community in Nunavik will circle the inuksuk. They will be carved in syllabics and roman orthography with the names of each community.

The inuksuk will stand between the statues of two deceased heroes of Quebec nationalism and sovereignty, Jean Lesage and René Lévesque.

Quebec’s native affairs minister, Rémy Trudel, said the inuksuk would be a tangible symbol of change.

“We have gone by that historical period when we spoke about the Eskimos of the North, to the full recognition of the Inuit nation in the Nunavik territory,” Trudel said.

Trudel said the proposed inuksuk would also serve as a signpost for Quebec lawmakers.

“It will remind us every day of the path that should be followed, namely one of dialogue and respect,” Trudel said.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be more than a symbol. It’s going to give us more direction on how to go to the national assembly for the development of the region,” Adams quipped at a press conference for the unveiling of the virtual version of the inuksuk.

Trudel also announced that Quebec’s power corporation, Hydro-Québec, will spend $6.3 million this summer to study the Nastapoka River, the Whale River, the George River and the Caniapiscau River.

The deal says Hydro-Québec will spend $50 million over the next four years to study Nunavik’s waterways to see if they can economically produce electrical power.

If only the Caniapiscau River is developed, it could mean an additional $28 million a year in revenue for Nunavik.

However, money isn’t everything Nunavik expects Quebec to make good on in the future.

While in Quebec City, Adams and Aatami repeated their call for Quebec to respond to Nunavik’s long-standing needs — for tax breaks, a seat in the national assembly, and progress on self-government negotiations.