Quassa: Nunavut should set voting age at 16

SEAN MCKIBBON

IQALUIT — The president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. says the territorial government should adopt his organization’s minimum voting age — 16 — for all elections in Nunavut.

“I think it would show the rest of Canada that Inuit are unique,” Quassa told the Nunavut legislature’s Ajauqtiit standing committee last Friday.

Quassa appeared before the committee to suggest that NTI and the Nunavut government form a working group to investigate the possibility of having one central agency to run all elections in Nunavut.

During the last sitting of Nunavut’s legislative assembly in Rankin, the Ajauqtiit committee suggested that an independent elections agency be formed to handle all elections in Nunavut.

Quassa said if all Nunavut voters could vote at the same age, it would make things easier for the proposed agency.

Hunter Tootoo told Nunatsiaq News several weeks ago that one of the attractive things about the idea was that the agency would be able to save money through economies of scale, and that a permanent elections staff could build on their experience from previous elections instead of constantly starting with a new batch of inexperienced scrutineers and elections officers.

Another advantage the two organizations sees is the ability to cross-reference their voters’ lists and find people who they might have missed.

John Lamb, NTI’s director of implementation, said there may be some privacy issues that could prevent a straight exchange, but he said these issues could probably be straightened out.

“There are some issues that have to be worked out to be sure, but the benefits are just too attractive to dismiss,” Lamb said .

But committee member David Iqaqrialu, the MLA for Uqqummiut, said there are some matters that the two organizations should not treat the same way.

“Non-residents have to be treated as equals. As long as they reside in Nunavut then we are happy to have them here. I’m sure your bylaws differ slightly from ours. There are some things we can never really come to terms on. The Inuit have to have a separate organization,” Iqaqrialu said.

“I’m sure we could probably sort out where the similarities are and where the differences should always remain,” Quassa said.

Quassa told the committee that in the last NTI election there were a number of problems. He said some people didn’t know where to vote, the names of some eligible beneficiaries did not appear on the voters’ lists, while in other instances some people were on the voters list more than once.

He also said that there was some concern over the idea that the Chief Electoral Officer is only allowed to vote in the event of a tie.

“This is disenfranchising a beneficiary,” Quassa said.

The chairman of the committee, Hunter Tootoo, invited Quassa and NTI to participate in a meeting with Elections Canada officials that the Nunavut government has planned for the end of June.