‘Send your kids to school’, says Arviat mayor at Inuit Nunangat University announcement
Available land, infrastructure, and Inuktitut fluency among reasons for Arviat being chosen as host
Arviat Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr. speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 11, announcing that the Kivalliq community will host the main campus of Inuit Nunangat University. Arviat was selected for its available land, infrastructure, strong Inuit language fluency, high youth population, and community readiness. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)
Updated on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, at 12:45 p.m. ET
Arviat Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr. urged parents to get their teenagers ready for school after it was announced Wednesday the main campus for Inuit Nunangat University will be built in his community.
From left, ITK President Natan Obed, Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell, KIA President Kono Tattuinee, NTI President Paul Irngaut, Nunavut Premier John Main, and Arviat Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr. attend a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, announcing Arviat as the location for the main campus of Inuit Nunangat University. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)
“Send your kids to school so that they could attend the university,” he urged.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed made the announcement alongside other Inuit leaders Wednesday at the the organization’s Ottawa office.
The choice of Arviat to host the Inuit-led institution — the first university in Canada created, governed and operated by Inuit and expected to open in 2030 — was made after a year-long site selection process.
“The decision was never about just choosing one community over another,” Obed said.
“The decision was to try and find the best possible fit for the university we’re trying to build.”
Eight communities were short-listed: Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet and Arviat in Nunavut; Puvirnituq and Kuujjuaq in Nunavik; Inuvik in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region; and Nain in Nunatsiavut.
Obed said Arviat’s detailed proposal stood out because it showed preparedness, available land, infrastructure and a history of Inuit-led education.
“In Arviat’s proposal, there were specific blocks of land that [had] already been identified for the main campus and construction,” Obed said.
“Many of our communities don’t have the ability to imagine the physical footprint of the university that would go into their aviation, infrastructure, water and sewer, or even land management.”
Obed pointed to Arviat’s size and strong Inuit culture, saying the university could “live in harmony with the community in a better way than perhaps it could in a community of 500 people.”
The ITK board settled on Arviat in late January. It’s Nunavut’s third-largest community with a population of about 3,000 people with one of the highest percentages of youth population in the country, according to an ITK news release.
Savikataaq said Arviat is prepared to support the project and welcome students and educators from across Inuit Nunangat.
“Inuktitut is still very strong in Arviat, as [it] is a street language,” he said. “We are glad that when people start coming to Arviat, they’ll learn the language.”
He said, “To the education system, please be prepared for an influx of [students] and attendance going up. This university will really boost many things that we are not aware of right now.”
The main campus is expected to open in 2030, serving roughly 100 students with 80 faculty and staff. No construction start date was announced.
As well, ITK plans to establish satellite campuses, or regional knowledge centres, to ensure access for Inuit living in other regions.
Obed said ITK will begin another search to determine where those centres will be located. The goal is to have them operational when the main campus opens.
The university is expected to combine in-person instruction in Arviat with courses taught online and at the regional centres.
Inuit Nunangat University requires between $160 million and $200 million in total funding to become operational by 2030.
So far, it has $102 million — a $50-million donation from Mastercard Foundation and $52 million from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. Another $50 million is expected but not confirmed from the federal government.
The university is also expected to benefit from $50 million for student housing and $35 million for programming provided through the Nunavut Agreement Implementation Contract, a $1.5-billion, 10-year funding deal signed last March with the federal government.
Obed said that while Inuit Nunangat University was mentioned in the 2025 federal budget, there was no “explicit dollar figure” attached.
“This is a nation-building exercise, and we do hope that the federal government will see it this way,” he said.
Obed said the university will not restrict enrolment based on ethnicity, though Inuit students are expected to make up much of the student body.
The institution is not intended to compete with established universities offering four-year professional degrees.
“This is a particular type of learning opportunity for a particular type of student,” Obed said.
The announcement was originally to be held at Rideau Hall with Gov. Gen. Mary Simon attending. It was relocated to ITK’s office following the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. on Tuesday in which nine people died.
Correction: This article was updated from its original version to report that Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is the source of $52 million in funding for the Inuit Nunangat University.
All jokes aside, this is great for Arviat. The community can be the most realistically linked to the Manitoba highway network and is growing quite rapidly. Arviat the next boom town.
This must be a joke?
3 professors walk into a bar in Arviat , Oh wait , there is no bar !!
Congratulations Arviat! I wish you and your community and the new university a prosperous future. Well done – now the actualisation of a long and dearly held dream unfolds. One step at a time, it will come to pass. Undoubtedly.
So this place will have 80 employees and 100 students? Are they planning to have all students to all have individual teachers/professors or what?! That is such a waste of tax dollars! The government better look into figuring out because 80 staff and only 100 students will be a major strain to our yearly government funding.
How many people will just be sitting around doing nothing but collect 84k-109k salary per year? Man our government paying plane tickets from baffin will be a huge drain because tickets just from Iqaluit to rakin alone is $1900! Imagine our government wasting far more to have people from further north attending because north baffin to Iqaluit already cost over 2 grand.
Nunavut will be dirt poor and unable to afford anything but hey at least we have the world’s dumbest money sink once its opened.
84-109k? In what world? Who would offer such incredibly insulting salaries to professors of medicine and engineering? Multiply that be factor of five and you’ll be in the right ballpark. 89-109k would be starting salary for the custodians.
Yes salaries would be way above $104K but they wouldn’t be for professors of medicine or engineering. Medical and engineering schools have to be accredited by national agencies. Is that going to happen?
100 students on the rolls, about half that in classrooms after 2 weeks and half of that graduating.
Your numbers are optimistic in the extreme.
Contact ITK and NTI these questions directly.
Uneducated, unskilled and unemployable Inuit cost Canadian taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars per person, per year.
Educated, skilled and working Inuit pay significant taxes that help support public services across our great Country and in our territory.
Providing post secondary education to Inuit inside Inuit Nunangat is the biggest favor anyone can do for the Canadian taxpayer.
Avram. No one disputes that one of the main avenues to increasing and stabilizing a local Inuit work force is through education. The issue is that the education system, structure, curriculum, recruitment, retention, etc, etc.. within Nunavut needs to be addressed first. Most importantly however, is that education needs to very important to the people. It has to be viewed as an absolute and critical requirement to bettering one’s life. It has to be prioritized. The harsh reality is that is not the case currently in Nunavut.
One cannot wish and talk something into existence by announcing a new shiny toy called a University and think that it will just magically address any of the existing issues. The start has to be on fixing what you already have before building something else. Especially when it’s going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No one doubts that education is the key to a stronger Nunavut. Unfortunately the powers that be, seem to have their priorities backwards and seem not to be listening to Nunavummiut who clearly want other serious issues dealt with before building a University. Again, as has reaped itself often in the last 25 years, the Premier, GN and ITK have failed to read the room. They love cameras and press coverage more than results.
Did Lori, Nunavut’s only member of parliament not attend by choice or wasn’t invited?
I see , Natan Obed , didn t miss , his photo op .
Just in case anyone is still trying to make this about location they should stop as the vast majority of comments in this article and the one from yesterday are not questioning Arviat as a suitable location.
What is being questioned repeatedly is the need for this University and the spending of that enormous amount of money which would best be used on other much higher priority issues. Then you have the President of ITK Natan Obed making a ridiculous statement like the following which undermine the seriousness of the said University. Quote, “The institution is not intended to compete with established universities offering four-year professional degrees”. “This is a particular type of learning opportunity for a particular type of student,” Obed said. So, what and whom is it for then? If the goal is to have Inuk students to fill the void that is currently filled with workers from outside the territory and you are looking only at Nunavut for the sake of this comment, it needs:
1. Social Workers
2. Teachers
3. Nurses
4. Lawyers
5. Engineers
6. Accountants
All of those require a “recognized” University degree. The type of degree one receives from an accredited University somewhere in the world. The other Elephant in the room in Nunavut is the following. Education actually has to be a priority. It has to be valued. It has to be foundational. It has to be unquestionable. It has to have major push and support at all levels from the GN to the Hamlets to the parents. Unfortunately, we all know this is NOT the case. So where are these 100 students coming from? Those same Students that will be needed year after year to support and justify the cost of operating such a facility.
Then you need to factor in who is part of the faculty and administration. Everyone knows that recruiting and retaining teachers and administrators in Nunavut is a major, major challenge. So where are these 80 Faculty and administrators coming from?
Additionally, and without going into detail; any community/hamlet that host this “University” (word used lightly) will require a significant amount of upfront capital investment and sustained operational budgets at all levels to ensure that the 100 students and 80 faculty can get the housing, services and support they will need year after year. Where is that money coming from? More Government funding?
But let’s not consider any of this. Let’s just do a press conference and photo op and talk about a new dazzling thing to distract Nunavummiut while the real issues remain like a herd of giant elephants in the room that everyone sees but wants to ignore.
This is great!!! But where are all students and staff going to live?
Don’t worry, we’ll put all 3 of them in the Beachouse
My idea is to give an exception to students and faculty to allow them to drink even if arviat stays like a dry town. Maybe even a student lounge that is licensed but only for students and staff
Why is everyone so worried about alcohol availability when the actual reason behind this University is EDUCATION. Its not a place to go party. It is a place to go and learn the inuit way.
I wish I could afford to smoke what they smoking
Imagine if the people making these decisions actually looked at the children in the communities. Hmmmm how many are attending school on a regular basis, how many have the support they need in academics let alone social and psychological issues? Why are we building at the TOP when we haven’t supported the beginning stages of education with proper preschool and kindergarten programs? You need a strong base before you build the top. Stop masking the education system in Nunavut. It is in a crisis. It follows the Alberta curriculum and fails to develop a strong program based on Nunavut history, Inuit skills and tradition.
You had me until your last sentence.