Schools reopen in Nunavik, but frustration among parents is growing

Teachers’ strike affects 4 school days, finished Tuesday afternoon with no movement in negotiations

Teachers’ union president Larry Imbeault stands with union members striking for better premiums and living conditions for teachers in Nunavik. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

By Cedric Gallant - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Nunavik students returned to school Tuesday afternoon after a four-day teachers’ strike that took a toll on some families in the region.

Jazzmine Arreak is a single mother of two children, a six-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl. Both attend school in Kuujjuaq.

Arreak had to take days off work as a community justice co-ordinator with Makivvik’s justice department to take care of her children during the strike because she could not “concentrate nor focus,” she said in a phone interview.

“Anaana this, Anaana that,” she said, adding that taking care of both kids made it impossible to work from home.

Arreak said she had the option of finding a babysitter, but lamented that she’d have to pay out of pocket because of the labour dispute between the teachers’ union, Quebec Treasury Board and Kativik Ilisarniliriq school board. Negotiations have been ongoing since October 2022 and the teachers’ contract expired in May 2023.

“We won’t get reimbursed for this,” she said, adding she believes the quality of education provided in Nunavik schools is much worse than in Nunavut, where she lived for a year from 2023 to 2024.

Her daughter, who attended Grade 3 in Iqaluit, was upped to Grade 4 in Kuujjuaq, “but everything she is learning in Grade 4 she has already learned in Iqaluit,” said Arreak. “She is repeating the whole same grade.”

She said her youngest child has missed eight to 10 days of school since the school year started in August due to a lack of substitute teachers.

She believes an unlimited strike by teachers would be less onerous for her to deal with than on-again, off-again school.

“If you’re going to be closed, be closed,” she said, instead of having to schedule weeks off and weeks on work.

Meanwhile, the strike action that started Jan. 16 appears to have had little effect on negotiations.

The treasury board and Kativik Ilisarniliriniq have not offered a reply or reaction to the union’s latest proposal since the three sides last met on Jan. 15, said Larry Imbeault, president of the Association of Employees in Northern Quebec, in a French interview.

“We had zero communication on their part,” he said. “For us, it is a total lack of respect, it is contempt, I think it is disgusting coming from the school board.”

He said it feels as though “they don’t care” if students miss days of school.

“If they don’t make a move, we won’t move,” Imbeault said of the school board and treasury board.

The union has two major priorities for a new collective agreement — improve staff bonuses, which have not been updated since 2001; and ensure sufficient water is available in staff housing.

Imbeault said teachers were “outraged” when they learned on Jan. 20 that the treasury board and Kativik Ilisarniliriniq have not responded to their proposal.

The union will discuss its next steps during a meeting Wednesday but an unlimited strike is not yet being considered, Imbeault said.

“It is too soon,” he said about that option.

Nunatsiaq News attempted to contact Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, but it did not offer a comment on the situation.

 

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(6) Comments:

  1. Posted by Andrew on

    “Why do we want to do all of this?simply because there is people living in the north who need public services, who are counting on good administration of their affairs, and who have a right to participate in that administration” J.C.

    KRG for the water issue. KI for the bonuses. On all of us Inuit for leaders we vote.

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  2. Posted by what the la f on

    rich people protesting among poor population with all there benefits.

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  3. Posted by Name only on

    Our school has no, 0, substitute teachers, it is more than a few years without the subs. And to make things worst the kindergarten and other teachers are regularly absent

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  4. Posted by pissed off on

    As mentioned before in a article last month: the teachers strike is complaining about the lack of water services to the teachers homes in Nunavik. Here we go, playing the blame game. The teachers are probably one of the richest teachers in Nunavik or Nunavut. The more they get, the more they want. Gimme Gimme Gimme. Yes, there are water shortage’s within the Nunavik communities when there are blizzard like conditions in each Nunavik community but you don’t hear about the Inuit or First Nations complaining about the water shortage’s because of the water truck operators for the town municipalities cannot drive during blizzard conditions. Some teachers says: its the town municipalities fault because they do not have enough water truck drivers in certain communities and this lies the problem. Stop blaming all communities in Nunavik. Blame or mention those communities in Nunavik that has a lack of water truck drivers. Stop blaming all Inuit because certain teachers are used to having water streaming through water pipes as they do in the south. This lies the problem where Inuit and First Nations do not like the anglo/francophone peoples teaching our children. Its time for them to grow up. Stop blaming others for your misfortunes!!!!

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    • Posted by Hmm on

      Some communities have sewage and water issues all year long and not just during blizzards. Teachers having a place to drink and poop is the minimum to provide. Inuit should expect more of their NV. They have grown so accustomed to poor services that they believe the situation is normal or unavoidable. Invest in real infrastructure. And hire real managers, not board committees and fake directors easily swayed by smooth talkers and trips to Montreal.

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  5. Posted by These educators can’t be for real! on

    These educators from down south are coming across as not being educated at all. Striking about bonuses, and water. What a bunch of losers. First off, if they have no water the whole village has no water. Secondly about bonuses, they are provided with amazing benefits that most citizens only wish they could have. These striking educators are coming across as a bunch of trouble making, selfish, silver spoon fed children. They are up here to educate the children, not act like children.

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