Tell us what Nunavut’s Next 25 will look like
To celebrate the territory’s 25th anniversary, Nunatsiaq News gives readers a chance to win a $500 gift card by predicting the future
An Inuksuk overlooks the harbour in Pangnirtung in September 2023. As Nunavut’s 25th anniversary approaches, Nunatsiaq News invites its readers to look into the territory’s future to predict what the next quarter-century has in store. The paper is giving writers a chance to win one of three $500 gift cards for sharing their visions. (Photo by Corey Larocque)
When a person turns 25, we usually think of them as being all grown up — a young adult on their way to becoming whatever they’re going to become.
So, as Nunavut hits the quarter-century mark, Nunatsiaq News wants readers to predict the territory’s future. And we’re giving them a chance to win one of three $500 gift cards for doing it.
There hasn’t been a lot of hoopla around what is a pretty significant milestone — the 25th anniversary of the official creation of Nunavut on April 1, 1999.
That’s why we’re inviting readers to write a short article (between 100 and 250 words) to share their vision for Nunavut over the next 25 years.
How many people will live in Nunavut in 2049? Will housing keep pace with that growth or will multi-generational households and overcrowding still be a thing — along with all the challenges they bring?
Will young, educated Nunavummiut still look to the south or will there be opportunities at home? Will elders be able to be cared for in the territory, or will many of them still need to go south?
How will economic activity like mining and shipping affect traditional ways of life? And will climate change still permit hunting and fishing the way they’ve been done for centuries?
Where will the Government of Nunavut get the employees it needs to meet the growing demand for health and education, when it struggles so mightily to meet today’s demand?
There are so many questions to ponder. There’s so much change on the horizon over the next 25 years.
Today’s high school students will have elder status in their sights by the time Nunavut marks 50 years.
Our “Nunavut’s Next 25” writing exercise is similar to the My Corner of Our Land contests we ran leading up to Nunavut Day in 2023 and 2022.
To enter, please send your thoughts about Nunavut’s Next 25 to editors@nunatsiaq.com. Use the subject line “Nunavut’s Next 25” so it’s easy to find them in our inbox.
The submissions will be published online in the week leading up to the April 1 anniversary. We’ll publish as many as we can in the March 29 and April 5 print editions of Nunatsiaq News.
All the entries received by Friday, March 22, at 5 p.m. ET will be entered in a draw for one of the $500 gift cards from a Northern or Arctic Co-op store.
Submissions must include the writer’s name, which will be published. Please include a headshot (a selfie is fine) that can be published with the article.
It would be great to include a photo from your part of the territory that shows what you’ve written about.
Finally … a reminder to readers that, apart from the occasional contest, Nunatsiaq News welcomes letters to the editor all the time. They’re published online in our Letters section and in the print edition.
We want the paper to act as a sort of virtual gathering place, where people can read about what’s going on and then go to read other people’s thoughts and reactions about these topics.
Letters to the editor can range from 50 to 400 words. They should mention the Nunatsiaq News story or editorial the letter is responding to. Please include your name and a way to contact you to verify your authorship. Please send letters to the editor to editors@nunatsiaq.com.
Plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme chose.
There’s your winner, Nunatsiaq. Nothing will be more accurate than that.
On n’a qu’a transporter 1000 maisons portables dans le prochain bateau et il n’y aura aucun sans abris.
Inuit elders are no longer being sent south.
Every Inuk elder lives in their own 2-bedroom house.
They are cared for 24×7 by their children, their children’s partners and their grandchildren, all of whom live in the other bedroom.
Dream on
Though it s hard to tell
Though your fool in yourself
dream on.
Song by the rock band ” NAZARETH” in 1982
I think many didn’t read that final sentence correctly. I really hope each elder doesnt have their entire family living in the 2nd bedroom. But i do hope the other parts can be try… I want that for me as i will be one of those elders.
Belly up. Broke and hand the reins back to Yellowknife and Ottawa.
Who is the guy in Pajamas trying to run this turf?
Like SCTV. 🤣
Hilarious.
You ” HOSER”
More handouts please 🙏
I know right? I saw….
WE are by nature hopeful creatures thinking that things will go well later on. Indigenous are less and indigenous culture is less concerned with class and knowing your place in class based systems (Europen culture). There are indications that more people know that a thin sliver of people decide for the rest of us things such as what news need be suppressed, what wars are to be fought, what freedoms we are allowed, etc. The pressure on governments are enormous to submit to the will of the the business/commercial class. How that is managed and who we elect to manage it will determine what the next 25 years will turn out. Best regards Nunavummuit one and all! An optomistic note is that activist Scotman, George Galloway of The Workers Party is relected to a seat in the British parliament this week. The established order is showing its age and cards in response to a popular leader/representative.
I have heard that Bill 21 the Harms Reduction Act or something similar before the federal parliament is another suppression on our freedom disguised and sold as a child predator protection bill. It is insidious and is aligned in the same function/use of the extreme quashing of protesters with horse mounted police in Ottawa in 2022. When COVID rules were not to be questioned with bank accounts seized, protesters jailed. It has been judged illegal an over-reach of authority by our courts 2 years after the fact.
Voter turnout will be less than 25% in every level in Nunavut elections because most of us now believe separating from NWT was a mistake and a lie from our politicians and leaders.
We will have highways.
We will have more non-beneficiaries than beneficiaries.
We will have a population of 100,000.
Our capital city will actually be a city (or Township).
We will have flying ski doos.
And Toronto fans can finally celebrate.
Does the Government have a crystal ball or ouja board? WTF?
Nunavut can’t pay taxes or pay for their own education.
With 10,000 Nunavimiut coming of age by 2030 and, for example, Baffinland having only 15 percent Inuit in its labour force, there’s obviously been something terribly wrong with the education system—starting in the early grades. Inuit were supposed to be educated and trained for the jobs in their own land.
I think it goes to a deeper level than the education system honestly
It will be interesting, more and more young Inuit are getting some sort of education today and understand the western way of thinking and doing things, which I think will help Nunavut move in the right direction after two decades of moving backwards.
More training for trades in all three regions to help provide local capacity in Nunavut, more Inuit in key manager and director positions in the GN.
Better support for those that want to go on to higher education in the south, a small university for the north where students don’t have to travel to a foreign country (southern Canada 😅)
The next generation of Inuit reclaiming Inuktut and proud to use it everywhere from schools to Government, fisheries for inshore and offshore expanded on and having Inuit captains and crew helping to grow Nunavut’s economy, more jobs going to qualified Inuit in all sectors growing the Nunavut economy and much less money flowing out of Nunavut.
A lot of work ahead of us but it can be done. Never mind the naysayers and the pessimists, we have changed enormously as a society and culture in such a short time period but look at us today, still work to be done and it’s possible with the right people to lead and help us.
Ken
I hope your right. though I am not sure that the increase in the number of educated young Inuit is proportional to the numbers that should be getting educated. and right now does graduating from High school mean the same thing it did 25 years ago? will it mean more or less in 25 years time. I have high hopes for my grandkids.
We will only speak English. Inuit will contemplate whether it’s good to drill for oil or gas. We will go back to our old way of traveling. Which is by dog team. We will call electric vehicles garbage. No good for nothing because the battery drains when we drive 100 meters out of our driveway in this bitter cold. More and more Inuit entrepreneurs.
No one may get the chance to discuss ‘true-facts’ about oil and gas past 2024. If they do, they’ll face fines and imprisonment. This is, if parliament accepts the recently read NDP private member’s bill C-372.
Talking about the ‘true-facts’ about oil and gas, or advertising oil and gas, becomes the criminalization of speech.
(On a side note, the new Liberal Bill C-63 wants to regulate the internet. Criminalizing speech, thought and discussions with fines and jail… up to life.)
If Nunavut’s MP votes yes for Bill C-372, then is Nunavut future toast? Even if the Bill fails, it seems the wanted future of Nunavut is dark, painful and no free speech. Unless voices of push back immediately grows strong.
Mass formation. If and only if. Come 2030 the world will have no oil. Go ahead 20 years into 2050, gasoline will be gone in this world. 2030 is in 6 years. 2050 is in 26 years. If the voices grow strong, the world will face the music. Let the violin play behind me.
Failure of leadership federally through and through. Freedom for us is bad top down state commercial alliance aka fascism is the future.
To “Mass Formation”:
See section 6 of the proposed Bill, showing that scientific and educational work, and more, on the promotion of fossil fuels would not apply to the previous section 5(a). i.e. scientific and educational discussion on the promotion of fossil fuels would not be disallowed under the proposed Bill. I don’t share the tone you do when you start off your text with “No one may get the chance to discuss ‘true-facts’ about oil and gas past 2024.” I personally find it to be misleading, fear-mongering and damagingly unnecessary.
HOWEVER, I do believe I share a concern similar or even identical to yours when I continue to read the proposed Bill. Let me explain what I interpret:
A person promoting the use or production of a fossil fuel would be punished under the proposed Bill, as outlined in section 8(b), specifically “in a manner that states or suggests that a fossil fuel or the practices of a producer or of the fossil fuel industry would lead to positive outcomes in relation to the … Canadian or global economy…”
Sounds to me they will punish individuals who DISCUSS the economic benefits of fossil fuels. Now THAT’S prohibiting and penalizing the discussion of fact. In this case, what I’d suggest is to quash any dialogue that would go against the gov’t plans based on the rise of practices that ostensibly are or carbon neutrality.
I gave myself a headache reading my final sentence, so here is an edit
Instead of: ” In this case, what I’d suggest is to quash any dialogue that would go against the gov’t plans based on the rise of practices that ostensibly are or carbon neutrality.”
I’d like to say:
My guess is that any pro-fossil fuel dialogue and resulting influences could dampen the plans of those banking on the shift from fossil fuels to renewable. Thanks
Not good.
Dystopian style. Eskimo “Mad Max”.
A road/railway connecting Churchill to Rankin and roads connecting Kivalliq communities. With this, airfare and goods would likely drop because of the new transport options. And because of the developments, communities will grow and Rankin will be the new capital.
Nunatsiaq News will be heavily censored by the establishment and governments that Or it will banned completely for being truthful.
Ah yes, the old fear mongering act, sounds like an old right wing tactic, myFREEDOM! lol I always get a kick out of these funny comments that sprout up from under a rock.
US and Canadian policy are one and the same, That and Julian Assange is on a 10 year long R&R at his own undertaking, Right?
The house that $$$$/riches built is a house that will collapse under its own weight. As people fleeing the city of Toronto share with the rest of us there is little joy to be found in a city where your time is all taken up in hustle and work to pay the bills, to keep a roof over your head. There is a lesson in there for the capital of Nunavut, Iqaluit here. As a few thrive in these conditions it creates two classes the haves and have nots. As time goes by those become cities of slum neighborhoods. Costs need to be kept in check, throwing $$$$ at every problem does not work in the end., it creates only more division and problems that come with it.