Nunavut’s year in review: October — December

October

— On October 1, the last of the Grey Nuns leave the tiny community of Chesterfield Inlet. “People couldn’t really believe we were actually leaving,” Sister Laurette Allard tells Nunatsiaq News from her new home in St. Boniface, Manitoba. “Before, another nun would always come to replace us when we left. This time, it was different.” The entire community turns out at the airport to say good-bye to Sister Laurette and Sister Denise Gauthier. These two elderly Grey Nuns are the last members of the religious order, which provided health and educational services to the region for 68 years, to serve the Kivalliq region.

— RCMP find an Iqaluit man dead in his apartment. Shoatee Joannie, 39, died from a blow, or blows, from a blunt object. Almost three months later no charges have been laid, despite a massive police investigation during which RCMP sent DNA samples to Ottawa for testing.

— It was an joyous occasion as Nunavut MLAs and dignitaries from legislatures across Canada officially open Nunavut’s new legislative assembly in Iqaluit. “We have not only inherited our traditional Inuit values, but the strength and sureness that Inuit had so long ago,” master-of-ceremonies Peter Irniq tells those present. “It will be a modern system of government, similar to those shared by our fellow Canadians, that is what Nunavut strives for. We want to be a partnership with Canada.”

— A plan to bring a PCB incinerator to Iqaluit dies when the company proposing the controversial incinerator loses an all-important government contract. The loss, also hits the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. which would have entered a joint-venture with the proponent.

— One of Nunavut’s best-known artists, Irene Avaalaaqiaq from Baker Lake, is honored with a Doctorate of Laws degree from the University of Guelph.

— One man’s amazing memory leads to the return of two stolen Inuit figurines to the Canadian Museum of Civilisation. During the 1970s someone took the tiny carvings, around 1000 years old, from the museum. But no one even noticed they were gone until Doug Stenton, executive director of the Inuit Heritage Trust in Iqaluit, spotted them as he was flipping through a Toronto gallery’s promotional brochure. The two figurines are now back at the museum.

— Iqaluit East MLA Ed Picco endorses the creation of a capital commission for Nunavut. The commission would co-ordinate capital-related planning and development activities in Iqaluit.

— The Nunavut Construction Corp. comes under fire when Arviat Mayor Ralph King says the company does not hire enough local workers. NCC fires up its public relations machine and says 13 of the 20 workers in Arviat are indeed local Inuit hires. NCC also says that 65 per cent of its workforce is comprised of Inuit beneficiaries.

— One sentence in a consultant’s report drives home the plight of Nunavut’s smaller communities. The report on Clyde River’s debt crisis states: “In some cases the future viability of the community’s future existence may have to be reviewed.” A government official later states the closure of Clyde River, and other communities like it, is not being contemplated. Clyde River is struggling under a debt load and little economic development. The contentious sentence is later deleted from the final version of the document.

— Police investigate the death of Iqaluit resident Edwin Daly, know locally as “Fast Eddie,” and conclude that he died of natural causes.

November

— Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Nunavut government sign the Clyde River Protocol, an agreement that sets out ways in which NTI and the Nunavut government intend to work together. The agreement is named after the site where NTI first attempted to hold its annual general meeting, but because of a lengthy bli ard in Clyde River, the meeting was held in Iqaluit instead.

— Bob Vibert, a former worker at a Rankin Inlet group home for physically and mentally handicapped adults, complains that patients there have been subjected to physical abuse, verbal abuse, and neglect. The allegations include physical abuse and neglect The home is run by a for-profit corporation called Kivalliq Consulting, Management and Training Services Ltd., a company that was started in the 1980s by Caroline Anawak, the wife of Nunavut’s justice minister, Jack Anawak. Keith Best, the chair of the Keewatin Regional Health and Social Services Board conducts an investigation, but after a preliminary review says he doesn’t expect to find any wrong-doing.

— Plans to re-open the Lupin gold mine in the Kitikmeot has local residents dreaming of mining jobs. The Echo Bay mining company estimates that 325 positions will be created. About 400 people were thrown out of work when the mine closed two years earlier.

— The Nunavut government and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. strike a joint working group to develop new contracting and procurement policies for the Nunavut government. The new policies are supposed to reflect Article 24 of the Nunavut land claim agreement.

— First Air is convicted of transporting dangerous goods on a flight from Yellowknife to Taloyoak Six propane tanks on board the Hawker Siddley 748 put the flight’s passengers at risk, a Transport Canada inspector says. The airline pleads guilty to five charges and pays $105,000 in fines.

— George Hickes, born in the Kivalliq region north of Rankin Inlet, is named speaker of the Manitoba legislature, making him the first Inuk to serve as the speaker of a provincial legislature. Hickes, a member of the New Democratic Party, has sat in the Manitoba legislature for for almost 10 years.

December

— Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik names a four-person law review commission — called Maligarnit Qimmirujiit — to recommend changes to the many laws that Nunavut has inherited from the GNWT. The commissioners are expected to finish their work by Dec. 31, 2001.

— A 32-year old Boeing 727 completes a routine landing in Iqaluit, following an uneventful trip from Montreal via Kuujjuaq, when members of the five-person crew smell smoke in the cockpit. They then bring the plane to a standstill and declare an on-ground emergency. The crew and eight passengers leave the aircraft chutes without suffering any injuries. De-icing fluid on the runway may have caused the smoke.

— Recommendations aimed at reforming Nunavut’s corrections system are released by a special committee that reports to Justice Minister Jack Anawak. The report recommends the construction of a new federal-territorial correctional institution in Nunavut by 2006, more programs for Inuit offenders, more community-based alternatives to prison, and more training for corrections staff. The same week, the Nunavut Social Development Council also releases a report — which recommends ways

— Pelly Bay changes its name to Kugaaruk. After discussions about the proper spelling and some confusion over the administrative process, the east Kitikmeot hamlet adopts the new name.

— Paul Quassa regains the presidency of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. Quassa signed the Nunavut land claim agreement on behalf of Nunavut Inuit in 1993, but left the organization after a number of alcohol-related controversies and brushes with the law. Promising to give beneficiaries cash dividends from compensation money, Quassa beat out Cathy Towtongie and incumbent president Jose Kusugak for the job.