Nunavut’s year of maturity

Nunavummiut may remember 2002 as the year they came face to -face with not only the limits of their new government — but also its possibilities.

During the bad gasoline fiasco, Nunavut residents saw their government recognize a serious error and take responsibility for it.

But as they watched the government’s education bill flounder its way through the legislature, Nunavut residents learned that good intentions alone aren’t enough to guarantee success in government.

It was also a year when Inuit beneficiary organizations took unpredented measures to improve accountabilty and to repair their tarnished reputations.

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association rebuilt itself from the ground up and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. took firm action to control the wayward Nunavut Social Development Council.

January

• Jerry Ell files a lawsuit against Manitok Thompson, the MLA for Rankin Inlet South-Whale Cove, alleging that “malicious” actions by Thompson cost him a $100,000 contract as a consultant on the construction of the proposed Rankin Inlet health centre.

• Ell seeks $150,000 in general and punitive damages, and says in his statement of claim that his contract with Sakku Investment Corp. was terminated after Thompson raised concerns about Ell’s involvement in the construction while he was still a candidate in the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. presidential election.

• Cathy Towtongie, Thompson’s sister, won the election.

• Abraham Tagalik, president of Qikiqtaaluk Corp. quits his job after the corporation awards a contract for the proposed new Baffin Regional Hospital to Nunavut Construction Corp. He had been on the job for less than three months.

• Resolute Bay businessman Aziz Kheraj is sworn in as mayor of the community after beating incumbent George Eckalook by a single vote.

Resolute has one of the highest voter turnouts in the territory, with 85 per cent of registered voters coming out to cast ballots. A recount is requested three days after the election, but doesn’t change the results.

Kheraj, who owns the South Camp Inn, has lived in the community for 23 years and has run for the major’s position twice previously.

“I think people wanted a change, and I think we got the 35-and-under vote,” he says.

• First Air reduces its flight service between Yellowknife and Cambridge Bay, cutting the number of flights from three to two.

Keith Peterson, the mayor of Cambridge Bay, says he is stunned by the new schedule. “We’re way over here in the far reaches of Nunavut, so one of the things we need to be part of Canada and to be part of Nunavut is good connections to transportation,” he says.

Peterson received about 40 phone calls from residents the week of the change, asking him to lobby the airline to reinstate the third flight.

• Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s language commissioner, presents a legislative assembly committee reviewing the territory’s Official Languages Act with a list of recommendations aimed at strengthening Inuktitut.

She proposes to clear up the confusion about whether Inuinnaqtun is a dialect of Inuktitut or a language of its own by classifying it as a dialect. She also recommends broadening the scope of the language law, giving it power over municipal bylaws and court decisions.

• The Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Association completes a feasibility study and business plan aimed at opening a mill to spin the under fur of musk oxen into yarn.

The HTA has been sending musk ox hides to a mill in Prince Edward Island, but the cost of sending the hides across the country is prohibitive.

Much finer and softer than sheep’s wool and cashmere, musk ox fur, called qiviut, is the best luxury fibre in the world.

• Lt. General George Macdonald, the vice-chief of Canada’s defence staff, says that Northern Canada could be a possible alternative to Greenland, as part of U.S. plans for a National Missile Defence system.

Macdonald says that if Greenland stops the U.S. from using the Thule air base, Americans will look to Alert, on the tip of Ellesmere Island.

He makes the controversial comments during a conference on climate change, sovereignty and the security in Ottawa in late January.

February

• An inquest into the death of an inmate at the Arviat Correctional Camp makes several recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.

Bruce Aasivaaryuk, 25, was checking traplines when a blizzard blew in. His frozen body was found less than 10 metres from his snowmobile the next day.

The coroner’s jury recommends that correctional camps be set up less than 20 kilometres from the nearest settlement and have at least two forms of transportation available.

Correctional camps are on-the-land programs based on traditional Inuit knowledge. They often replace jail time for Inuit offenders. Most camps have two inmates at a time. The Arviat camp accepts up to six inmates at a time.

• Sheila Fraser, Canada’s auditor general, criticizes the government of Nunavut’s reliance on long-term leases during a presentation to the legislative assembly’s standing committee on operations Feb. 5.

She says MLAs need more information to properly scrutinize spending decisions.

She adds that decentralization is aggravating the GN’s shortage of experienced financial managers, and that as a result inexperienced people are working without support in decentralized communities.

Bob Vardy, the deputy minister of finance, agrees with the auditor’s critique, but says that the GN is working with Arctic College to train more Nunavummiut.

• The Qikiqtani Inuit Association initiates a lawsuit against former president Meeka Kilabuk to reclaim at least five months of back rent.

Kilabuk, who was president of QIA from December 2000 to September 2001, refuses to leave QIA staff housing until the board agrees to review her suspension and firing.

• Palluq Susan Enuaraq, the New Democratic Party candidate for Nunavut in the 2000 federal election, and her official agent, Elisapee Sheutiapik, are charged with failing to file legally required election finance documents under the Canada Elections Act.

Enuaraq finished second to Nancy Karetak Lindell, the Liberal Party candidate. She was accused of failing to send a declaration regarding her electoral campaign return to her official agent.

Sheutiapik faces a charge alleging that she failed to provide the documents to the chief electoral officer, and a second charge alleging that she failed to return unused tax receipt forms for election contributors.

• Government House Leader Kelvin Ng introduces legislation intended to enrich the pension plans of MLAs. The subject had been under discussion in behind-closed-doors cabinet meetings since the middle of 2001.

• Jeannie Manning of Cape Dorset is committed to trial for second-degree murder in the death of Davidee Adla, following a preliminary hearing in Iqaluit. A publication ban is imposed for the Feb. 25 hearing.

Since her arrest in September, Manning had been held in custody, most of the time at the Territorial Women’s Correctional Centre in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.

• Nunavummiut attend the first of a series of public meetings across the territory as part of the consultation process behind creating a made-in-Nunavut Wildlife Act. Many express concerns about polar bear quotas, export permits and nuisance ravens.

The new act will replace existing legislation inherited from the NWT.

March

• Retired Inuit broadcaster Jonah Kelly, Cape Dorset carver Ohito Ashoona, and Rankin Inlet hockey star Jordin Tootoo receive National Aboriginal Achievement Awards at a gala presentation on March 10.

Kelly is selected in the media and communications category, Ashoona in the arts and culture category and Tootoo in the youth category.

• Nunavut MLAs vote for an enriched pension plan on March 5, despite protests from Nunavummiut who want more money for education, infrastructure and social services.

A group of picketers gather at the legislative assembly building in Iqaluit with signs saying “MLAs’ pension more important than health care?” and “Greedy MLAs go for another money grab.”

After four hours of debate, MLAs pass the new law, which will see the legislative assembly spend an estimated $2.7 million over the next four years to provide larger pensions to MLAs who opt in to the plan.

The three Iqaluit MLAs: Paul Okalik, Hunter Tootoo and Ed Picco, as well as Quttiktuq MLA Rebekah Williams, vote against the plan.

• The board of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. vote to revoke the Nunavut Social Development Council’s status as a designated Inuit association, and re-create it as a department of NTI.

NTI president Cathy Towtongie reveals the news to NSDC officials during a board meeting in Coral Harbour in early March. She sits stone-faced as acting president Tommy Evic makes an emotional appeal to her to change or at least delay her decision.

Towtongie stands firm. “We do not really have social development in place right now,” she says.

• The Nunavut court of appeal overturns Nanulik MLA James Arvaluk’s not-guilty verdict, and orders a new trial.

Arvaluk was charged with assault causing bodily harm against his former girlfriend in connection with an August 2000 incident.

Justice John Edward Richard, in overturning the verdict, says that Justice Howard Irving made errors of fact and law when he handed down his not-guilty verdict on June 20, 2001.

• Population figures released by Statistics Canada show that Nunavut’s population grew faster than any other province or territory in Canada between 1996 and 2001.

It increased by 8.1 per cent from 1996, and stands at 26,745. In the same period, Canada’s population increased by only four per cent.

• The GN insists there is nothing wrong with gasoline in the Kivalliq and Baffin regions, despite numerous complaints from hunters.

The hunters say their snowmobiles are breaking down and that the gas is a different colour than usual. The GN said its own tests show that there is nothing wrong with the fuel, though more tests remain to be done.

• The hamlet of Coral Harbour pays $25,000 to NorthwesTel to become the second community in Nunavut to receive local dial-up access to the Internet. But problems with the community’s aging satellite system mean only four people can sign on at any given time.

NorthwesTel says it plans to upgrade the community’s switch, which would allow 100 people to dial up at a time.

April

• Rueben Sangoya of Pond Inlet is sentenced to five years in jail for a July 2001 shooting rampage in the community.

Sangoya ran amok for three hours, firing at two RCMP officers, a local boy, and a six-year-old child.

He pleads guilty to endangering lives by discharging a firearm, pointing a firearm, and mischief. The endangering charge comes with a four-year minimum sentence.

• First Air drops its weekly flight from Yellowknife to Resolute Bay, reducing the availability of jet service to the Nunavut community by one-third.

The decision was a result of the drop in passenger and freight traffic after the closure of the Polaris zinc mine on Little Cornwallis Island.

“They want to concentrate on the eastern market, fill up the flights, lowball the contracts and basically screw the Northerners,” said Resolute Bay businessman and mayor Aziz Kheraj.

• The GN conducts a second round of tests on gasoline in the Kivalliq and Baffin regions to determine if the fuel is contaminated.

In March, an analysis of the gas showed the supply is missing a key ingredient that helps keep engines clean. But there was no proof that the problem was directly responsible for damaged snowmobile engines, pistons and carburetors.

The March test pits one snowmobile with gas from the 2002 supply, against another with gas containing the key additive. The snowmobiles, pulling qamutiks, drive 800 miles from Rankin Inlet to Baker Lake.

The trip isn’t enough to provide conclusive answers, so the two snowmobiles make a second trip on April 19, travelling 1,000 miles to Schultz Lake, near Baker Lake. This time they would use fuel from the Kitikmeot supply as the control.

• Bill 1, the proposed Education Act receives second reading in the legislative assembly, setting off a flurry of criticism that it’s actually worse than the act it’s replacing.

“By hastily adopting something now we run the risk of throwing out something that works, recognizing it needs improvement, and replacing it with something that is worse,” said Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo.

May

• Finance Minister Kelvin Ng announces the GN’s 2002-03 budget, which includes personal and corporate tax cuts, and a $157-million, or 26 per cent, revenue increase for the department of health and social services, and a projected $16 million surplus. Doug Workman, president of the Nunavut Employees Union criticizes the budget as “masking core deficiencies,” especially in health and social services.

• Goo Arlookto, 38, dies suddenly of natural causes. The former deputy premier of the Northwest Territories was working as a consultant for the Qikitaaluq Wildlife Board at time of his death.

• Bill Riddell, a justice of the peace, scolds the justice department for failing to provide remand facilities for accused women in Nunavut who should be held in custody until trial. His comment follows the release of a 24-year-old Iqaluit woman with a lengthy criminal record.

• Pam Kapoor, the acting executive director of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO), visits Iqaluit looking for a Nunavut representative to sit on their board.

• Jacopie Avingaq of Igloolik wins the 370-kilometre Nunavut Quest dog team race from Clyde River to Pond Inlet in 31 hours and 52 minutes.

• David Kritterdlik, the mayor of Whale Cove, voices his support for a road linking Nunavut to southern Canada, during a Nunavut Association of Municipalities meeting in Ottawa.

• Cpl. Joe Amarualik of Resolute Bay returns home after leading 30 Canadian Rangers to the North Pole on a sovereignty mission. While at the pole, Amarualik gets a call from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien thanking the group for their efforts.

• Premier Paul Okalik hints that Nunavut Transportation Company Ltd. may be on the hook for Nunavut’s bad gas. NTCL bought and shipped the inferior gas, which damaged or destroyed hundreds of snowmobiles, ATVs and outboard motors.

• The Alberta Research Council releases a report that concludes what Nunavummiut already know: gasoline in the Baffin and Kivalliq is bad. The report says the fuel lacks an additive that prevents the build-up of engine deposits.

• Kivalliq Wildlife Board members say they want financial compensation from the GN for the money they’ve spent on engine repairs as a result of the fuel supplied by the GN.

• Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault says Ottawa can’t fix all of Nunavut’s ills, after a meeting with mayors during a Nunavut Association of Municipalities conference in Ottawa.

• The Nunavut Court of Justice has only two of the three judges promised at the time of the territory’s creation. An expert on Canadian judicial affairs says the delay is “way too long.”

• A GN-commissioned study says that two years after the government began carrying out its decentralization plan, job vacancies and morale in decentralized communties are at an all-time low. The report says 131 of 340 jobs were still vacant. Despite the problems, David Akeeagok, assistant deputy minister in charge of decentralization, says the GN will not back away from decentralization.

• Iqaluit RCMP seize 200 prints valued at $20,000 in an art fraud investigation.

• Pangnirtung’s Ida Karpik, 63, dies from heart surgery complications. The printmaker was known for her drawings depicting wildlife and traditional Inuit life.

• Education Minister Peter Kilabuk says French will no longer be taught as a second language under the new Education Act. The act says French will be taught as a third language.

• Health representatives from 13 Nunavut communities meet in Iqaluit to discuss widespread health concerns, such as suicide, teen smoking and the demand or medical translators.

• Gjoa Haven’s co-op warehouse burns to the ground. RCMP say youths broke into the warehouse and started the blaze with matches. Two weeks of the community’s food go up in smoke.

• The health department commits to turning the Pulaarvik day program in Iqaluit into a 24-hour mental health facility by the fall. The facility will be the first of its kind in Nunavut.

• Iqaluit hosts a symposium on mental health and the law.

•Researchers from Montreal’s University Health Centre say contaminants found in Arctic country food cause reproductive defects in lab rats. However, research funding dollars have been used up, and no follow-up study is commissioned.

• Gjoa Haven hunters travel to the nearby Gulf of Boothia and harvest three polar bears. Gjoa Haven hunters were banned from hunting polar bears in the M’Clintock Channel in 2001 according to the “dangerously” small polar bear population in the area.

• Premier Paul Okalik visits Sanikiluaq for the first time since Nunavut’s creation to hear community concerns about proposed hydroelectric projects flowing into Hudson Bay. Okalik is joined by Hudson Bay MLA Peter Kattuk.

• Fuel distribution in Nunavut is plagued by hidden subsidies and inefficiencies, says an report called Ikuma II: Meeting Nunavut’s Energy Needs. The report recommends that Nunavut create a new Crown Corporation to had handle functions now done by the Nunavut Power Corporation and the petroleum products division of the GN.

• Transport Desgagnes is charged with dumping waste into Frobisher Bay under the Arctic Waters Pollution Act. The company denies any knowledge of the spill, whichoccurred while one of their vessels was anchored in the bay on Sept. 25, 2001.

• Jacqueline Simms is named director of NTI’s new social development department. NTI disbanded the original NSDC in March 2002 and dismissed all of its board members.

• Finance Minister Kelvin Ng says the GN has a “moral responsibility” to reimburse hunters and other people affected by the Nunavut’s bad gasoline. Ng expects the reimbursement will amount to several hundreds of thousands of dollars. NTCL, the company supplying and delivering the fuel, is not asked to contribute to the compensation package.

• The territory’s capital city is caught in a development squeeze as the GN finds itself in a hiring freeze because of a chronic housing shortage.

• About 375 NorthwesTel employees walk off the job over a contract dispute. Management fill-in for striking workers.

• A Nunavut Court of Appeal judge rejects Edward Horne’s appeal to have his five-year sentence reduced. Horne was convicted of 20 counts of sexual assault involving school-aged children while he was a teacher in Baffin communities in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

• Respected hunter and elder Josie Papatsie dies of natural causes at the age of 72.

The longtime Iqaluit resident worked closely with the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association, the Iqaluit Housing, Authority and Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik.

• Sustainable development Minister Olayuk Akesuk owes more than $10,000 in back rent to the hamlet of Cape Dorset, according to disclosure statements filed with the GN.

The Integrity Act requires MLAs to disclose liabilities greater than $10,000.

• The long-awaited Nunavut Addictions and Mental Health Strategy is released and paints a bleak picture of the challenges facing the GN. The report, tabled by health minister Ed Picco, points to the territory’s disproportionately high suicide and crime rates along with widespread funding shortages.

• Kivalliq residents express frustration at the government’s attention to hydroelectric projects instead of building a road linking Nunavut to the south.

June

• Plans for cleaning up the Nanisivik mine site get underway. CanZinco Ltd. a division of Breakwater Resources Ltd., says they will likely burn and bury most of the buildings. However, they say they’re open to other suggestions.

• Iqaluit hunters say they don’t want a mandatory hunter-training program written into the new “Nunavut-made” Wildlife Act during a second round of public meetings to create a new bill.

• Calm Air resumes service to the Kivalliq. Coral Harbour and Repulse Bay see the re-introduction of flight service Monday to Friday.

• Andrew Atagotaaluk is named the first Inuk bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic.

• Increased security after the the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City means Nunavummiut traveling outside the territory need photo ID cards.

• Nunavut Sivuniksaavut board members say they want to extend their one-year program by another year.

• Nineteen NorthwesTel employees picket in front of the company’s Iqaluit office. The unionized employees have been on strike since May 27.

• Producer John Houston announces the Snow Walker will not be filmed in Nunavut. At one point the film, based on Farley Mowat’s book, was scheduled to be shot near Rankin Inlet. Houston cites a lack of financial incentives as the reason for pulling out.

• Arctic Bay residents plead with Breakwater Inc. to leave Nanisivik mine’s infrastructure intact. Residents want the company to leave equipment, vehicles and buildings behind for the community to use.

• Igloolik and Hall Beach hunters win the bowhead whale hunt for 2002-03.

• Scientists discover fossilized plants believed to be 420 million years old on Bathurst Island.

• The first payouts to Nunavut residents affected by bad gas are issued. The GN’s compensation package pays 75 per cent of what it cost owners to repair their snowmobiles.

• The GNWT and GN provide $3.2 million for treatment for 16 men, some from Nunavut, who were abused by former school teacher Ed Horne in the 1970s and 1980s.

July

• Breakwater Resources’ clean-up plan for Nanisivik Mine receives a failing grade from three organizations monitoring the plan. The GN, NTI and DIAND say Breakwater needs to pay more attention to an environmental clean-up plan.

• Mark Evaloarjuk of Igloolik, one of Nunavut’s veteran politicans, dies of natural causes. Evaloarjuk represented Amittuq in the Northwest Territories legislature, and served for many years as speaker of the Baffin Regional Council.

• Transport Canada releases a report saying the sinking of the Avataq, captained by Louis Pilakapsi, was an accident waiting to happen.

• Clean-up crews hired by the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation head to Resolution Island to remove PCBs at the former US military site.

• Nunavut has the youngest population in Canada, according to Statistics Canada’s 2001 census. The average age is 22.1, about 15 years younger than the national average of 37.6.

• IBC’s Takuginai is named best aboriginal language program at the sixth annual Telefilm Canada/APTN awards.

• Environment Canada’s Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Observatory on Ellesmere Island is closed indefinitely due to a lack of funding.

• The RCMP opens a new two-person detachment in Repulse Bay and reopens a detachment in Grise Fiord.

• About 380 striking NorthwesTel employees — 19 from Nunavut — head back to work. Union members accept a contract giving workers an eight per cent wage increase over the next three years.

• A Statistics Canada report says Nunavut is the only jurisdiction in Canada where violent crime is more common than property crime.

• David Nowdlak remains in a coma after sustaining a severe beating in the 300-block of Iqaluit on July 13.

• Entrepreneur Michael Murphy announces his plans to build a 65-seat movie theatre in Pangnirtung. Murphy expects the theatre to open in the fall.

• A dozen Nunavut youth head to Ottawa to participate in a National kayaking competition. It’s the first time athletes from Nunavut have participated in the competition.

August

• Kenn Borek Airlines resumes flights to Resolute Bay 10 months after the airline stopped servicing the area.

• Finance Minister Kelvin Ng lobbies Ottawa for infrastructure funds to build hospitals, health centers and road and port projects.

• Premier Paul Okalik opposes Alberta’s attempts to promote an anti-Kyoto consensus at a gathering of Canadian premiers in Ottawa. Okalik refuses to side with Alberta premier Ralph Klein who wants Ottawa to soften its position on reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

• The HMCS Goose Bay, a Canadian forces minesweeper, sails into Frobisher Bay as part of a post Sept. 11 national security exercise.

• The ninth general assembly of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference kicks off in Kujjuuaq. NTI president Cathy Towtongie warns fellow Inuit delegates that more attention must be paid to suicide rates, crime, addictions, violence and abuse in their respective communities.

• Fourteen hunters from Igloolik and Hall Beach harvest a 46-foot bowhead whale about 24 kilometres north of Igloolik.

• Tankers carrying a fresh supply of gas for the Baffin and Kivalliq regions start arriving. Cape Dorset and Iqaluit are the first communities to get their pumps filled.

• Tanya Nowdlak buries her father Davidee Nowdlak who was brutally beaten on July 17 in Iqaluit. He died on Aug. 6. A 17-year-old youth is arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

• Sanikiluaq residents release a country food cookbook. The book is distributed to Sanikiluaq homes in conjunction with the 2002-03 prenatal nutrition program.

• About 30 Resolute Bay residents sign a petition to oust mayor Aziz Kheraj. Concerns are raised over Kheraj’s unwillingness to write a letter to the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation urging them to hire Resolute Bay residents for the Polaris mine clean-up.

• Pond Inlet starts planning for a new airport large enough to support jets and scheduled flights between High Arctic communities. The existing airport is too small and too close to town, residents say.

• Hundreds of barrels of contaminated soil will remain on Resolution Island for another year due to a scheduling glitch. The soil at the former military radar site is contaminated with PCBs, lead, cobalt and petroleum.

• For the first time in its three-year history, the first-year nursing program at Arctic College’s Iqaluit campus is full.

September

• Terrence Tootoo, 22, the first Inuk to play professional hockey, commits suicide at the house he shared with his brother Jordin in Brandon, Manitoba. Shortly before that, Brandon city police had arrested Tootoo and charged him with impaired driving.

In July, Terrence had been signed by the Roanoke Express of the East Coast Hockey League in Roanoke, Virginia. His brother Jordin is now playing for Canada at the 2003 world junior championship tournament in Halifax.

• Inuit leaders attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, complain that the the Arctic is ignored at the conference.

• A government of Nunavut report finds that many senior municipal employees don’t have the skills to carry out their basic duties.

• The Nunavut version of a national report on Canadian health shows that the people of Nunavut suffer the lowest life expectancy in Canada when compared to all other provinces and territories, and the highest rates of cervical cancer, lung cancer, chlamydia, and tuberculosis. “It should be a national embarrassment,” Health Minister Ed Picco says.

•On Sept. 30, zinc production at the Nanisivik Mine comes to a hault.

October

• Lawyers representing Nunavut’s francophone association say that in its current form, Bill 1, Nunavut’s proposed Education Act, violates French-language minority rights guaranteed by the Charter.

• On Oct. 4, Queen Elizabeth II visits Iqaluit. During her two-and-a-half hour visit, she extends her blessings to Nunavut, the newest territory in her realm. “Your land is indeed your strength,” the Queen says in a nationally-televised speech from Nunavut’s legislative assembly chamber.

• Inuit and northern political leaders say they’re disapointed with the Liberal government’s much-anticipated throne speech, which contains no references to the needs of Inuit or the northern territories.

• A rebuilt and reinvigorated Qikiqtani Inuit Assoication emerges from its annual general meeting with a new social development department and a commitment to pay more attention to social issues.

• The Nunavut government refuses to endorse a proposal to start a for-profit diagnostic clinic in Rankin Inlet that would use a laser-computer technique to scan for breast cancer.

• Numbers released by Statistics Canada show that one out of every four families in Nunavut is headed by a single parent, and that 31.3 per cent of families are headed by couples living common-law.

• Premier Paul Okalik introduces Nunavut’s first human rights bill.

November

• CanZinco Ltd., the owner of the Nanisivik Mine, says a $17.6 million security bond they’re required to post as a guarantee that they will clean up the closed mine site is too high.

• Nunavut MLAs pass a new elections law. The nomination period is cut to only five days, and the campaign period is cut to 35 days.

• The government of Nunavut announces that it’s negotiating a deal with a Labrador-based firm, the Woodward Group of Companies, to ship fuel to Kivalliq and Baffin communities. The GN will save $19 million over the next three years by dropping the Inuit-owned Northern Transportation Company Ltd. in favour of Woodward.

• Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault says Nunavut isn’t ready to manage its own oil, gas or mineral resources, or to recieve a resource-revenue sharing agreement from Ottawa.

•The Nunavut government announces a $143 million capital budget.

December

• Nunavut leaders respond favourably to the Romanow report on the future of health care in Canada, especially a recommendation to create a $1.5 billion fund for remote and rural health care.

• A judge finds Jeannie Manning of Cape Dorset guilty of manslaughter in the stabbing death of her lover, Davidee Adla, on Sept. 1, 2001. Manning will be sentenced this spring.

• Ivan Kilabuk Joamie is released from custody after being charged with first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Jennifer Naglingiq of Iqaluit. Crown prosecutors stay the charges, saying the evidence doesn’t justify a prosecution.