Qikiqtani Inuit Association makes Nauttiqsuqtiit guardians full-time positions
Grant money allows for funding of full-time positions until 2026
Nauttiqsuqtiit guardians from Arctic Bay pose on the cover of a 2019 Qikiqtani Inuit Association report. The association is making the part-time guardians positions full-time for the next three years. (Photo courtesy of the QIA)
Qikiqtani Inuit Association is making land guardian positions that are part of its Nauttiqsuqtiit program full-time in five communities until 2026.
A resolution to direct funding from the federal government’s Harvesters Support Grant was approved at the association’s general meeting in Iqaluit on Jan. 20.
QIA is receiving $4.5 million in total through this grant, from which $4 million will be applied to make 25 guardians — five each in Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay, Arctic Bay, Clyde River and Pond Inlet — full-time employees over the next three years.
Rosanne D’Orazio, assistant executive director for operations and benefits at QIA, said the federal money is being directed to Nauttiqsuqtiit because the main goal of the Harvesters Support Grant is to increase access to country food across Inuit communities.
“This fits very well within Nauttiqsuqtiit, and so at our executive meeting we decided to use the [Harvesters Support Grant] money as money to enhance the Nauttiqsuqtiit program,” she said.
D’Orazio said the change is helpful to guardians, especially since long hunts mean they work more than the part-time hours they are currently being paid for.
“It’s been somewhat tricky in order to be a part-time employee and to go out on 20-hour hunts and live a harvesting lifestyle,” she said.
“We thought it would be a good use of these funds to increase their hours to full-time hours,” D’Orazio added, “because one of the visions of this program is to provide full-time benefits to community members who harvest — so they’re paid equal salaries [the way they would] to work in a mine or having any other job.”
She said the association is now working to secure more money to expand the Nauttiqsuqtiit program across the remaining eight Qikiqtani communities.
53k per year each.
hey, they finally got a contract, from the mine by the roundabout. which is why this guardians was created wasn’t it.
No, this is not connected to Baffinland nor the Nuluujaat Land Guardians —The Nauttiqsuqtiit Guardians (land stewards) comes from the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area IIBA between QIA and the Federal Government, and is part of QIAs Blue Economy approach to food sovereignty. Check it up on QIA website.
my apologies.
What are they guardians of? do they have a time they will recorded the information they get while out on the land? I will be very interested to know what they see and where.
If they are paid to hunt while out are they giving all that inuksuit to the communities? or are they also selling it and getting double paid?
*inuksiut
No, we don’t sell the meat. We give it away to single mothers, the elderly, the infirm, and guys who sit at home playing video games.
Check the facebook sell swaps. Lotsa caribou meat and fish are sold on that social media site.
Not by the Nauttiqsuqtiit, if you’re in Iqaluit and QIA is giving away free country food, it came from us.
Why don’t you ask them and find out instead of posting here?
Any Nullujaa Land guardians?
-The GN has Wildlife Officers and small vessels in each community.
-The GN also has a research vessel stationed in the region, with several crew.
-DFO has several enforcement officers for the region.
-Environment Canada has several enforcement officers for the region.
-CIRNAC has several enforcement officers for the region.
-The GN has tourism and health officials that play a role in checking cruise ships.
-All communities have RCMP detachments, with several officers and mobile equipment.
-QIA has several land inspectors for IOL in the region.
-Parks Canada has several Parks Wardens for the parks in the region.
-Nunavut Parks has several Parks Wardens for the territorial parks in the region.
-The Coast Guard has ships and aircraft and hundreds of sailors that patrol the waters up here.
-The Coast Guard Auxiliary is in place in several communities.
-The Canadian Armed Forces has ships and aircraft with hundreds of personnel that also patrol the waters up here and are available for Search and Rescue.
-The Federal Government has permanent research facilities in 2 of the communities in the region.
-The companies that charter the ships are often required to have observers on the ships.
-The Nunavut Boards have monitoring staff that can and do visit sites.
-Now, to top it off, the QIA also has 25 Guardians.
Easily, with support staff in the south, maybe a couple thousand tax paid staff positions.
There are just under 200 unique vessels and 1 operating mine in this area of the Northwest Passage, with most of the activity happening during the open water season. A small but good fraction of this are the government vessels mentioned above.
So, my question is, when a ship eventually comes by, do all these guys have to play a giant game of rock/paper/scissors to decide whose turn it is to go out and check it?
All these current positions you listed, how many of them arte filled by Inuit?
Is it not great to have more jobs in Nunavut especially in these communities?
Or do you want these positions in the south?
I am losing my patience with these anti Inuit imposters on our land any time there is some progress for Inuit and getting some control back and all they ever do is try to dismiss and diminish the progress. Your pre last century world was left behind in the last century so if you do not enjoy living amoung us Inuit, there is a flight out every single day.
I’m losing patience with all the faux radicals I have to live with who seem only to be able to rail against the perceived grievances that fuel our persecution complex. Qallunaaq this and colonialism that.
I’m glad these guys are getting paid because they offer much more in the way of services and solutions than people like you do here; I wish we didn’t have to spend EVEN MORE on things were already paying a bunch for. We might be able to accomplish something if we stopped re-inventing the wheel a dozen times a year.
And to preempt what I assume is your typical response, I’m Inuk and born in Iqaluit.
Easy to say you’re an Inuk online
Are you Oscar Leroy? I am glad your tax dollars are paying for everything.
Great news! Congratulations to the communities and to QIA! Any new employment is great news! Keep up the great work.
Just another waste of taxpayers money.
How so?
The H.T.O. can always do it as it has existed longer than this “Nauttiqsuqtiit guardians”. Don’t need another one. use the money elsewhere where it’s needed the most.
Who is stopping them? It doesn’t have to be either or.
So what’s your solution? You have seem to know a lot
Your man made lake and gazebo in Ontario was more of a tax payer waste, a lot of things are a waste down south that you take for granted but creat some jobs up north is not a waste , it’s about time, Canada is not just on the boarder of the US.
Hate to break it to you, but the entire government of Nunavut, all the Inuit orgs, every venture funded by them, are all eventually payed for by the Federal government.
If you want to harp on ‘misused taxpayer dollars’, how about you start talking down on all the overpriced executives, specialists, and contractors hired by the GN from Southern Canada? Instead of these guardians who actually PROVIDE for their communities.
Get Real.
Tells someone to get real after insinuating that those dastardly southerners don’t contribute or provide.
Maybe it’s different in some communities but I see our southern born compatriots contributing a lot; often more than us.
so where is the country food its supposed to provied it dont happen in resoute n grise fiord dont even have employees
This is just starting, give it some time.
Why not create this for all regions of Nunavut and not make other regions left out not only Qikiqtani they should include Kivaliq and Kitikmeot Regions
QIA negotiated this with the federal government Parks for the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation, they put in a lot of work to get this for those communities, without this work Parks would have hired seasonal Parks employees probably from the south which is their normal practice.
Other regions need to take the initiatives to get something similar. Your KIAs need to put in the same effort and hard work.
The KIAs have been blistering away at any suggestion of trying to protect any area of significance coming from the communities so might be best to dedicate your energy to your own RIA and replace those boneheaded folk leading them.
Our KIA is just interested in building a road for the mines, that’s more important for them.