Six years is enough for Jose Kusugak

SARA MINOGUE

The field is open for a delegated election to choose a new president for the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, now that the man who held the job for the past six years has said he “definitely” won’t seek a third term.

Jose Kusugak will step aside on July 7, the last day of ITK’s annual general meeting in the Inuvialuit community of Ulukhatok (Holman), NWT, when ITK’s board of directors will vote for a new president to serve a three-year term.

The job is open to any Inuk aged 18 or older, who can find at least 20 other Inuit to sign an application for candidacy, and $200. Inuit may nominate candidates before 5 p.m. on June 16.

Not all Inuit get to vote in the election. Each regional Inuit organization – Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Makivik Corp., the Labrador Inuit Association and Inuvialuit Regional Corp. – chooses three voting members to send to the ITK meeting.

Those 12 delegates will elect the new president.

Each regional Inuit organization decides whether to send elected representatives as voting members, or to choose non-elected people from their executive.

Anyone who wants to run in the election must pay their own way to Holman. ITK will reimburse candidates for expenses up to $1,200 – a fraction of the cost of a round-trip flight from Iqaluit with First Air, which starts around $3,500. That trip also requires spending two nights in Yellowknife en route.

The $200 deposit is returned to any candidates who receive at least 10 per cent of the vote in the election.

Kusugak is pleased with the results of his six years in office, saying ITK has “made some progress” on the housing issue and the Inuit specific secretariat, which was finally created in April 2004.

“I think mainstream Canadians now know Inuit are Inuit and not First Nations,” Kusugak said.

He also said he tried to make ITK’s head office in Ottawa “welcoming to northerners,” and pointed out that about half of the 45 or so employees there are now Inuit.

Kusugak said his immediate plans are to return to Rankin Inlet, and spend the spring and fall at the cabin with his family and grandchildren.

Candidates’ applications are available on ITK’s website, at www.itk.ca.

In addition to its press release, ITK is working with each region to ensure all of the regional organizations are promoting the election, said ITK’s chief electoral officer, Richard Paton.