Nunavik may get self-government framework for Christmas

ODILE NELSON

Government and Inuit representatives are quietly hammering out a framework agreement for Nunavik self-government, even as an injunction seeking an end to their negotiations makes its way through Quebec’s court system.

Donat Savoie, the federal negotiator for the self-government talks, acknowledged in an interview earlier this week that discussions between federal, provincial and Inuit delegates are making rapid progress.

“The framework agreement should be completed in a couple of weeks — if everything goes well,” Savoie said. “Then we have to get it approved by our systems… It should be signed before then [Christmas]. That’s the hope. But it’s like a lottery. With negotiations you never know.”

A framework agreement is the first step in any aboriginal treaty process. It outlines the areas of discussion for future negotiations and sets out a timetable for the completion of the process’s next step, an agreement-in-principle.

Formal negotiations for the Nunavik self-government framework began quietly this August after all three parties appointed the members of their respective negotiating teams.

Participants have been meeting a couple times a month since then, Savoie said, and the Nunavik self-government framework is now taking a firm shape.

Negotiators are under some pressure to see the agreement signed before the next provincial election expected in 2003.

In light of this, Savoie said the agreement will probably be done in two phases.

The first phase will likely outline four areas of discussion for the agreement-in-principle: the creation of a Nunavik assembly, the replacement of institutions created in 1975 by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement with new regional ministeries, the establishment of block funding and new powers for the regional ministeries.

The first phase will also contain a written commitment to negotiate a second phase.

Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corporation, confirmed Inuit negotiators also hope to sign the first phase of the agreement by the end of the year.

“We met with the minister [of Indian and Northern Affairs] last Friday and we discussed the possibility of signing it earlier, before Christmas,” Aatami said. “[From his reaction] we are hopeful the process will begin before then. But if it doesn’t we will be content as long as we start the process soon after the new year.”

Yet though negotiations are nearing completion, a court injunction laid by the Kativik Regional School Board to halt the proceedings still threatens to derail the process.

In November 2001, the school board filed a legal action against Makivik and the Nunavik organizations it represents in the self-government negotiations: the Kativik Regional Government, the Nunavik health board and the Kativik development council.

The board is upset negotiations are being based on the 2001 Nunavik Commission report, when two of the commission’s own members refused to approve its recommendations.

Both Makivik and the school board would not offer any comment on the injunction or its potential effects on self-government negotiations.

But Aatami acknowledged he could not discuss the injunction because it is an active case within Quebec’s court system.

Nunavik has been seeking a more autonomous relationship with the Quebec provincial government since the region settled its land claims agreement with the provincial and federal governments in 1975.

Though the James Bay and Northern Quebec agreement of 1975 established the administration of Nunavik and created a regional board of health, school board, government and development council, these institutions are closely bound to the Quebec government.

The intention of a Nunavik self-government treaty is primarily to create a new, more autonomous political system for the region.