Security minister watching over Nunavik

Nunavik costs Quebec a lot for everything from new buildings to avalanche fences, but it’s money well-spent, says Jacques Chagnon, Quebec’s minister for public security.

“There are many needs in Nunavik but one thing I find very reassuring is how people spend money: it’s usually well invested. People are serious in how they manage their affairs. It’s very important for us, because even if we have to cut and look for ways to save money, we can be sure that money is well spent here,” Chagnon said in a interview on Tuesday via satellite phone from near the Payne River in Kangirsuk, where he had spent the morning fishing for char.

Chagnon spent several days in Nunavik earlier this week, visiting Puvirnituq, Kangiqsujuaq, Kangirsuk and Kuujjuaq.

He opened the Makitautik community reintegration centre’s new $3 million building in Kangirsuk and, while he was in Kuujjuaq, announced, on behalf of the provincial health minister, that Akulivik would receive a new $6.3 million community health clinic.

It was Chagnon’s second visit to the region since the provincial Liberals took over in Quebec in the spring of 2003, and Chagnon said he intends to return at least once a year.

“People need to know that we care deeply about all matters relating to their security in the North. We’re not only concerned about what affects the South, but what happens everywhere in Quebec,” Chagnon said.

In Nunavik, looking after public security may mean putting up fences imported from Norway to block snowslides or moving buildings out of the way of possible avalanches.

Chagnon’s department is also keeping a close eye on the impact of melting permafrost in the region.

“Today, it’s 25 or 26 degrees here by the Payne River, and this isn’t quite normal. The elders are surprised by the high temperatures we’re experiencing. Last year when I was in Kuujjuaq, it was 30 degrees. Everyone is surprised to see this,” Chagnon said.

Global warming may mean his department will undertake more intensive study of the effect of global warming on the permafrost and take preventive action, if necessary.

“We are very preoccupied by this. We’re following this closely and if we have to do something, we won’t hesitate to do it. Public security will be our first priority.”

Chagnon’s department also looks after policing in the region. This year Quebec renewed its financing agreement for the Kativik Regional Police Force, boosting the force by eight to 58 members and constructing new police stations in Aupaluk, Tasiujak, Kangirsuk, Kangiqsujuaq and Ivujivik.

The minister was in Kangirsuk to open the new 14-bed home for the Makitautik community reintegration centre, that serves offenders coming out of provincial detention or who receive short sentences.

Chagnon would like to see a similar facility on the Hudson Bay coast, perhaps built with federal money and open to federal offenders as well.

But despite his enthusiasm for Makitautik and a support for investment in Nunavik, Chagnon is not in favour of building a larger detention facility, called for by the 2002 Sanarrutik Agreement and in Section 20.0.25 of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement which says, “Inuit should not be, unless circumstances so require, detained, imprisoned or confined in any institution below the 49th parallel.”

The long-awaited detention centre was to be built in Inukjuak.

“It didn’t make a lot of sense. Imagine. It was to cost $50 million for 40 cells and $20 million to build a village so that people from the South could come to live and look after the detainees in Inukjuak.”

Chagnon said he supports Nunavimmiut serving time to be in Nunavik, but he wants to see training offered to local residents first.

“The first thing we should do is to train members of the Inuit community so that they can guard their own detainees. This to me seems important and fundamental. I would like to see a staff training program first be put in place and a detention centre,” he said.

All the employees at Makitautik are Inuit and, in Chagnon’s opinion, that’s the real advantage of a centre like Makitautik over a more conventional detention centre.

The proposed detention centre in Inukjuak was to resemble the provincial jail in Amos.

Chagnon also said he wants to clamp down on the organized crime working with KRPF, Sûreté du Québec and RCMP.

“People say we can’t stop it, well, maybe we can’t stop it, but we can certainly slow it down a lot,” Chagnon said.

And he’s also disturbed by reports of speeding all-terrain vehicles in Nunavik.

Over the past two weeks, ATV accidents have seriously injured drivers in Inujuak, Kangirsuk and Kuujjuaq.

“It’s a problem we see everywhere in Nunavik, and I’ve seen myself. We have to find a solution so the municipal authorities have a municipal by-law that will be respected,” he said.

Chagnon said he would speak to Quebec’s justice minister about providing more judicial back-up to the Northern Villages.