On the doorstep of a new future

Nunavik residents may remember 2002 as the year when a series of major political agreements and negotiations-in-progress opened the door to a new future for the region.

The Makivik Corporation’s warm relationship with Quebec’s Parti Québecois government bore fruit in 2002, with the signing of the Sanarrutik Agreement on economic development, under which Quebec will give Nunavik more than $360 million over the next 25 years.

Makivik also took a major step toward resolving its longstanding aboriginal claim to the waters surrounding Nunavik when they and federal negotiators initialed an agreement-in-principle.

At the same time, Makivik negotiators quietly sat down with provincial and federal officials to work out a deal on a new form of regional government for Nunavik, based on the Nunavik Commission’s Let Us Share document.

Negotiators are predicting a new government deal soon, in spite of objections from Kativik School Board officials, who say the process has been undemocratic.

January

• Kuujjuaq’s Ikkaqivvik bar rings in the New Year with a new action plan to combat crime and public drunkenness. The bar now insists that patrons be sober when they walk in and, if patrons utter threats or misbehave, they may be barred from the premises.

• Shaomik Inukpuk resurfaces as the mayor of Inukjuak, just in time to greet a group of visiting officials from Québec City. Inukpuk had been serving a month-long suspension since December. Inukjuak municipal council suspended Inukpuk after he reportedly spent a business trip in Montreal boozing.

• Quebec’s minister responsible for the elimination of poverty promises Inukjuak residents that any new provincial anti-poverty strategy would include a provision for Nunavik. Nicole Léger makes the announcement after a brief visit to Inukjuak, where she talked with representatives from a woman’s group, the youth association and a food bank. Inukjuak has the highest percentage of welfare and unemployment insurance recipients in Nunavik — close to half of the adult population.

February

• Quebec Premier Bernard Landry initiates a spring cabinet shuffle to put a fresh young face on the assembly. The move leaves Nunavik without several longstanding supporters. Rémy Trudel replaces Guy Chevrette, 62, as minister of native affairs. Chevrette had served in the position since the mid-1990s. David Cliché, 49, who served as native affairs minister before Chevrette and once lived in Nunavik, quits when it becomes apparent he would lose his industry, science and technology cabinet post. Jacques Brassard, 61, quit because he would have lost his natural-resrouces portfolio. Michel Létourneau, the MLA for Ungava, becomes the new minister for Northern Development. Diane Gaudette replaces Robert Sauvé as head of the Sécrétariat des Affaires Autochtones.

• An early morning Valentine’s Day fire rages through Puvirnituq’s municipal garage, destroying 11 of the community’s essential vehicles. The blaze ruins three sewage trucks, two dump trucks, two support vehicles, a grader, bulldozer and school bus, and the community’s only garbage truck.

• Judge Daniel Bédard makes the Ungava coast’s first dangerous offender finding in the trial of Lucassie Kokkinerk, 33,of Quaqtaq. Bédard declares the man a long-term offender and sentences him to 26 months in jail for sexual assault on a minor. Kokkinerk had been before the court six times after turning 18.

• Kuujjuaq’s Junior May wins the 2002 Ivakkak Cup, beating Charlie Watt Jr., also of Kuujjuaq, by only two minutes. May completes the annual dog team race in 30 hours, 32 minutes.

March

• The year’s long conflict between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Nunavik hunters begins when a DFO biologist says that Nunavimmiut hunters exceeded the federal government’s 2001 beluga quotas. Mike Hammill warns that the eastern Hudson beluga population will die out within 15 years if hunters kill belugas at their current rate.

• The Kativik School Board announces that its move from Montreal to Nunavik may take up to seven years. The school board makes the announcement after Quebec’s education department suggests the KSB move its offices “piece by piece” to stay within the department’s limited budget. The school board had first asked for $45 million, but the Quebec education department says it will only spend part of its $17-million annual capital budget on the move.

• The Kativik Regional Government threatens to pull out of policing in Nunavik if the federal and provincial governments don’t agree to pay for 11 new stations in the region. Most police stations in Nunavik are trailers bought second-hand from the provincial police force in 1995.

• The Kativik Regional Police Force announces assaults in the region are increasing. Chief Brian Jones says there were 525 assaults in 2000 and 723 in 2001. During the first month of 2002, there were 56 assaults alone. Jones warns there will be nearly 700 assaults in Nunavik by year’s end if the monthly rate continues. He attributes the increase to drug and alcohol abuse.

• Makivik Corporation elects a new board and executive members. Markusie Qisiiq of Kangiqsujjuaq, Martha Kauki of Kangirsuk and Silas Berthe of Tasiujaq are re-elected to Makivik’s board. Adamie Makiuk of Ivujivik, Keny Assevak from Killiniq and Robbie Tookalak from Umiujaq win board seats by acclamation. Johnny Peters returns as vice-president of renewable resources.

April

• The provincial government and Makivik Corporation sign the Sanarrutik Agreement on April 9 in Tasiujaq. The economic development deal will see Quebec pay more than $360-million in tax-free, indexed transfers to Nunavik over the next 25 years.

• Makivik president Pita Atami reacts with astonishment after learning that Nunavut is upset over Nunavik’s offshore claim agreement with the federal government. The two parties initialed the agreement on March 26. Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik says he’s upset the offshore agreement-in-principle gives commercial fishing rights in Nunavut waters to Nunavik Inuit. Aatami responds by saying he does not believe the small quota guarantee is worth haggling over.

• Roda Grey, 52, walks more than 240 kilometres from Kuujjuarapik to Chisasibi to promote diabetes awareness. She spends six days walking through rain, wind and cold, staying in tents and fishing cabins along her route. Grey, a former nurse who has worked on Inuit health issues for more than a decade, says she wants Inuit to learn about the importance of a healthy diet and exercise.

• Quebec’s new provincial electoral map leaves Nunavik within the Ungava riding. This means there’s no possibility that Nunavik will ever have a seat in Quebec’s national assembly for at least 10 years . That could change if a special law is passed to change the riding’s boundaries.

• Beluga quotas are centre stage at Makivik Corporation’s annual general meeting in Tasuijaq. Paulusi Novalinga, the president of Nunavik’s Anguvigak Hunters, Fishers and Trappers Association, tells delegates he’s frustrated the Nunavik beluga management plan was approved but not respected by hunters.

May

• Makivik Corporation bans non-Inuttitut speaking Inuit from running in the organization’s board and executive elections. The birthright organization made the decision at its annual general meeting in Tasiujaq. The change upsets some Nunavimmiut who say the bylaw prevents qualified and passionate Inuit from running.

• NAV Canada unveils a new radar station near Kuujjuaq that will allow Montreal air traffic controllers to monitor aircraft flying within 250 kilometres of the community.

• A fire destroys Puvirnituq’s co-op. Two buildings worth at least $2.5 million are destroyed in the fire. Volunteers open a temporary store within 24 hours.

• Law enforcement officials arrest two men in Kuujjuaq for illegally harvesting a cache of falcon eggs. The eggs are worth thousands of dollars on the black market. Jeffrey Paul Lundrun of South Africa and Paul Charles Mullin of Great Britain are charged with six counts of illegal possession of eggs and hunting without a licenses and fined a total of $7,250, the maximum permitted by Quebec’s wildlife legislation.

June

• Bernard Landry gives a $7- million cheque to Makivik Corporation President Pita Aatami and KRG chairman Johnny Adams, at a posh dinner in Quebec City celebrating the signing of the Sanarrutik Agreement. The cheque is first of many payments the province will make under the deal over the next 25 years.

• In mid-June, the DFO cuts 2002 beluga quotas to 15 whales per community. The federal government also bans beluga hunting in the Ungava Bay and Eastern Hudson Bay areas. The next week the DFO offers $50,000 to angry Nunavik hunters to subsidize additional travel costs incurred by the new harvesting rules.

July

• Makivik Corporation and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association team up to investigate the Inuit dog slaughters of the 1950s and 1960s. The presidents of both organizations sign a joint letter to the Minister of Indian and northern affairs requesting a public hearing into the debate. The federal government maintains there are no records of the slaughter, but Liberal MP Guy St-Julien promises to send a petition on the dog slaughter to Ottawa.

• General Marc Caron, commander of the Canadian Forces in Quebec, arrives in Inukjuak to award Abraham Irqu, 72, with a medal for 53 years of service as a Canadian Ranger. The late Jimmy Johannes of Kuujjuaq was also honoured posthumously for his 42 years of services as a Ranger.

• Salluit hosts the Eastern Arctic Music Festival. The event draws participants from Coral Harbour, Cape Dorset, Iqaluit and Pangnirtung in Nunavut and Nunavik communities such as Kuujjuaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Kangirsuk, Puvirnituq, Kuujjuarapik, Inukjuak and Salluit.

August

• Elijah Snowball, 18, is charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 2 slaying of Aloupa Watt, 27. Alcohol was apparently involved in the Kuujjuaq incident. Snowball was only recently released from jail after being charged with assault causing bodily harm with a weapon.

• Kuujjuaq hosts the ninth general assembly of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in its newly constructed convention centre. The week-long summit draws delegates from across Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia. Work crews scramble to open Kuujjuaq’s centre in time for the ICC opening ceremony. Delegates end the summit by pressing the United Nations to ratify a draft declaration on indigenous rights and acclaiming Sheila Watt-Cloutier as their new president of the ICC.

September

• Johnny Adams wins a third term as chairman of the Kativik Regional Government. Regional councillors acclaim Adams to another two-year term but he only agrees to serve another year in the position.

• Makivik Corporation contemplates using a $50,000 payout from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to buy beluga muktuk from Nunavut for Nunavimmiut whose hunting practices are drastically altered by DFO’s 2002 harvest rules.

• Guy St-Julien, the Liberal MP for Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik, promises to oppose proposed changes to the territory’s federal electoral boundaries.

October

• After a massive two-week ground and aerial search, the body of a missing Inukjuak man is found by two young hunters. The pair discover the body of Joeadamie Inukpuk, a hunter who went missing the afternoon of Sept. 23, less than a kilometer outside of town. Inukpuk had died of exposure.

• Kuujjuaq’s mayor threatens to take the company that built its new cultural centre to court over faulty and incomplete construction. Michael Gordon lists a series of grievances against Progère Construction, including leaks in the centre’s ceiling and doors that don’t close properly. The company, however, says any fault lies with the municipal council.

• Makivik Corporation and the federal government sign the Nunavik Marine Region agreement-in-principle in Montreal. The agreement establishes a Nunavik marine region that will be overseen by shared management boards. But Nunavut officials continue to protest the deal, saying Nunavik should not have a constitutional guarantee to turbot fishing in Nunavut waters.

• The Quebec government and Nunavik’s Inuit leaders unveil an inuksuk on the National Assembly grounds. The traditional Inuit marker is meant to symbolize the growing understanding between the provincial government and Nunavimmiut.

• The Kativik Regional Government decides Inukjuak should be the site of the territory’s new jail. The centre will house 40 people who are either in remand or serving jail terms of less than two years. The KRG says the new jail should be ready by the end of 2005.

November

• The Nunavik health board reports that more than 80 per cent of Nunavik adolescents smoke. The staggering figure was taken from a region-wide report on dental hygiene. The report also finds 30 per cent of adolescents begin smoking when they are less than 10 years old and that 66 per cent continue their habit even though they know it causes gum disease.

• Donat Savoie, the federal negotiator for Nunavik’s self-government talks, predicts that Nunavik will have a self-government framework agreement by the end of the year. Government and Inuit representatives have quietly been hammering out the agreement since the summer — even as the Kativik School Board seeks to end the negotiations.

• After learning self-government framework negotiations are ongoing, the Kativik School Board forges ahead with a revived legal action aimed at freezing self-government talks. The KSB goes before a Quebec Superior Court judge to declare the talks illegal. But the judge rules the talks may proceed- although he also says the negotiations could be declared invalid at a later date.

• A mere 33 per cent of Nunavimmiut go to the polls to elect the Kativik School Board new commissioners. Six of the seven school board commissioners seeking another term are re-elected — including Sarah Aloupa who returns for another term as the school board’s president.

December

• Researchers from the University of Montreal, the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and Simon Fraser University discover the world’s oldest volcanic rocks near Inukjuak. The rocks are more than 3.82 billion years old.

• Puvirnituq opens its new co-op superstore. The new store, which contains a post-office, late-night convenience store, fast food restaurant and retail space for a future hair salon, replaces the former store that was gutted by a May fire.

• Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials join Inuit representatives from Nunavik and Nunavut to develop a recovery strategy for the area’s beluga population. The beluga recovery team meets for the first time in early December. At the meeting, Inuit representatives warn that the impending Species at Risk Act, which is now before the Senate, could bring an abrupt end to traditional beluga harvests in the Ungava and eastern Hudson Bay areas.