Nunavummiut call for more federal money at industry talk-fest

ODILE NELSON

Nunavut cannot join Canada in a national innovation plan until the federal government helps fund its basic literacy, life-expectancy, housing and infrastructure needs.

This was the resounding message sent to Allan Rock, the federal minister of industry, by more than 30 political and business leaders attending the Iqaluit summit of “Canada’s Innovation Strategy” last Thursday.

“For all the Inuit who are very aware of the economic and social disparities between our world and yours in the South — a focus on ‘excellence’ that uses national criteria and that ignores the economic disparities between us and southern Canada — looks almost irrelevant to our lives,” Paul Kaludjak, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s vice-president of finance, said at the meeting’s opening.

The Iqaluit summit was part of a 34-city national tour designed to give Industry Canada regional insights on how to put Canada at the forefront of the global economy by 2010.

The national innovation strategy includes such goals as propelling Canada into the top five countries in the world for research and development by 2010, increasing the admission of master’s and PhD students at Canadian universities by an average of five per cent per year by 2010, and ensuring that high-speed broadband Internet access is widely available across Canada by 2005.

Attendees lauded the strategy’s national goals and made it clear they hoped to join Canada in its pursuit of business innovation.

But they also said if the federal government is serious about including Nunavut in its strategy, it had to do more to help the territory build the necessary education, skills and infrastructure to develop Nunavut’s economic potential.

Many called on Industry Canada to press the federal government for an economic development agreement, or “EDA.”

EDAs are long-term intergovernmental agreements in which the federal government agrees to provide annual economic development funding for an underdeveloped region.

“There’s a direct link between infrastructure, housing and all those kinds of things that might look like social issues but they actually bare directly on Nunavut’s economic growth,” John Lamb, NTI’s chief executive officer, said.

“The EDA is absolutely fundamental. A lot of what’s been said this morning, it is all good thinking but you can’t make bricks without straw or however the saying goes. You need the basics. And Nunavut, sure it can get better organized… But it’s just grossly under-capitalized — under- supported. And if it’s going to catch up to the rest of the country — if it’s ever going to become relevant to the kind of discussion of innovation…. there has to be a help-up by the bootstraps.”

Other attendees said the goals laid out in the national innovation strategy are simply irrelevant to life in the north.

“What concerns me is the federal government’s priority for education prioritizes a sort of elite education — a type of knowledge that feeds into southern priorities of science and technology,” Cindy Cowan, a coordinator of academic studies at Nunavut Arctic College, said. “We need strong support for college, college programs and retail apprenticeships and then we can talk about a bridge, a global leap to the world stage.”

Attendees also reacted strongly to Nunavut’s economic profile, which the Conference Board of Canada presented at the start of the meeting.

The forecast highlighted Nunavut’s current strengths, such as its young population, and rich fish and mineral resources. By 2007, after a small slump, it predicted a period of great economic growth for the region.

But many in attendance said that without some sort of federal support Nunavut will be hard-pressed to take advantage of these strengths.

Some said Nunavut’s youth are in dire need of basic literacy training and suicide-prevention programs to combat one of the highest youth suicide rates in Canada.

Others expressed frustration at outside companies owning more rights to the growing turbot fishing industry than Nunavummiut. Similar concerns were also expressed about future mining opportunities.

John Morin, Industry Canada’s representative at the discussion, said he would pass on these concerns to the National Innovation Summit later this fall.

But he admitted such basic needs as literacy or suicide-prevention programs may not fall under the strategy’s mandate or even federal jurisdiction.

He remained non-committal about the possibility of an EDA because he said that issue is the responsibility of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

“I heard loud and clear that there’s a desire to have one,” Morin said. “But I don’t work on that file and I haven’t done the analysis so I don’t know what an EDA would mean or entail. The fundamental question is not about the agreement, it’s about the money and how much money will be available.”

The National Innovation Summit will take place this November in Toronto.

Morin said he doesn’t know if a Nunavut representative may attend.