Rivals pledge new jobs

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

A former mayor from Hall Beach and a long-standing champion of traditional Inuit knowledge from Igloolik are among four candidates battling to unseat Amittuq’s incumbent MLA Enoki Irqittuq.

Both challengers are campaigning to bring new jobs to the region, which includes Hall Beach and Igloolik, and put more decision-making power into the communities’ hands. Each cite the failed Education Act of the previous government as a reason for running, and argue the Government of Nunavut has mostly neglected the opinions of their communities.

Aware of the government’s upcoming financial squeeze, the two challengers also highlight a need for a smaller government to fund future spending. They believe the government has spread itself too thin, and according to one candidate, ignores the Inuit traditionally “wholistic” approach to getting things done.

Having worked as mayor of Hall Beach for two years, candidate Levi Kaunak said he’s seen how government foot-dragging on funding has hurt his community. Although the hamlet is completing its five-year capital plan, Kaunak said territorial funding has yet to be confirmed. Based on the gap in promises and delivery, Kaunak suggested the past MLA, Irqittuq, didn’t do enough for his constituency, and should step aside for someone who would.

If elected, Kaunak said he would look to establish a five-year capital plan for the entire constituency; improve air service to the region; and increase subsidies for local businesses.

“All businesses that have been running in the past have not been moving forward,” Kaunak said. “If the government was investing in them, they [the local businesses] would be expanding.”

Kaunak, 37, also has plans for the hot topic of housing. He wants to revoke recently changed rent rules because they were made against the wishes of Hall Beach residents, and have been “creating a lot of social problems for the community.” Kaunak says that before the change, the government took into account whether tenants lost their jobs or not, and would lower rent accordingly. Now, if a tenant gets laid off or quits, rent stays the same, he said.

“Nobody can keep up with that,” Kaunak said.

Louis Tapardjuk, an Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit advisor to the legislative assembly who claims the former government did nothing to advance Inuit culture, has focused most of his campaign on boosting the use of IQ (Inuit traditional knowledge) in government decision-making.

Tapardjuk, 51, has devoted a large part of his working life to culture issues, through work with the Inullariit Elders’ Society, as president of the Baffin Inuit Regional Association in the 1980s, and as co-chair of a government task force on IQ.

Tapardjuk said he was running because he hasn’t seen the results of promises made by the last government about integrating Inuit traditional knowledge into its day-to-day workings.

The biggest failure, he said, has been in education.

“The level of education is not satisfactory at all,” he said. “The quality of education offered to Inuit is not the same as the quality offered down South.”

Tapardjuk said the best solution for education woes in Igloolik will be to start an Inuktitut-only school. He said besides teaching students in Inuktitut in every subject in every grade, the school would have spin-off benefits of jobs for the community, which he said are at a premium compared to other communities.

“It’ll get young people to appreciate their culture,” Tapardjuk said of establishing an Inuktitut school.

To fund such a major capital undertaking, Tapardjuk targeted perceived waste in the current number of government departments. Tapardjuk, who helped start up Qikiqtaaluk Corp., said the government would save money by operating on “wholistic” principles espoused in Inuit culture. As an example, Tapardjuk questions the relevance of the department of sustainable development. He points to its involvement in the Wildlife Act, and the opposition the act faced in the communities, suggesting the act would have gone over much smoother if wildlife had been handled from a cultural point of view.

“The political intentions were good on IQ, but actual delivery was … nil,” Tapardjuk said.

Besides Amittuq’s incumbent candidate, Enoki Irqittuq, Kaunak and Tapardjuk are running against Solomon Allurut of Igloolik, and Paul Hauli of Hall Beach.