The devolution agreement: What exactly is Nunavut signing onto, anyway?
Deal signed Thursday by GN, NTI and federal government to take effect in April 2027
It’s a deal – Federal Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk celebrate after they signed the Nunavut devolution agreement Thursday afternoon at the Aqsarniit hotel in Iqaluit. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
In what is heralded as the largest land transfer in Canadian history, Nunavut is set to assume control of a vast majority of its Crown lands through devolution, an agreement that promises to bring jobs, money and more decision-making power to Nunavummiut.
The territory is the last jurisdiction in Canada to reach an agreement like this with the federal government, after Yukon did it in 2003 and N.W.T. in 2014.
The agreement itself is more than 200 pages. Here’s a look at what’s inside.
The ‘final pen’
The most obvious change that’s coming as a result of devolution is that Nunavut will have final say over development in the territory.
Right now, that “final pen,” as Premier P.J. Akeeagok called it in a recent interview, belongs to the federal minister of northern affairs.
Projects will still go through the Nunavut Planning Commission, which looks at conformity issues, as well as the Nunavut Impact Review Board, which analyzes potential environmental and societal impacts.
That said, there will be minor adjustments to appointments to these boards, to give Nunavut more of a say.
For example, currently two Nunavut Impact Review Board members are appointed by a federal cabinet minister, four are appointed by a federal minister on the recommendation of Inuit organizations, and two are appointed by a territorial minister.
After devolution, the federal and territorial ministers will retain their power to nominate two members apiece. But the four others will be appointed by a territorial minister from nominations submitted by Inuit organizations.
Final say on the board’s chairperson will shift from a federal minister to territorial minister as well, after consultations with their counterparts.
The Nunavut Planning Commission and Nunavut Water Board will see similar changes to their appointment processes.
Show me the money
When the Northwest Territories signed onto its devolution agreement, it came with millions of dollars in resource revenues.
Since 2015, N.W.T. has collected an average of $90 million each year in royalties from the territory’s diamond mines alone. Just under 40 per cent of that money is shared with Indigenous groups.
In Nunavut, there will be no resource royalty bonus after devolution because all of the territory’s operating mines sit on Inuit-owned lands where royalty agreements with local Inuit are already in place.
Post-devolution, Nunavut and Canada have two options for sharing royalties. The simplest allows the GN to collect $9 million a year in royalties from future projects before it starts to see deductions to the federal government’s annual territorial transfer payment.
Nunavut will also take on responsibility and liability for ensuring land is remediated after development as well.
People power
While some federal employees stationed in Nunavut will continue their roles under the GN post-devolution, those headquartered in Ottawa won’t. This will create approximately 100 new positions in the territory.
The federal government is kicking in $67 million to help the territorial government prepare for devolution, and a lot of that work is going to include training and development for those new hires.
The devolution agreement keeps in mind Article 23 of the Nunavut Agreement, which concerns the number of Inuit who work in Nunavut’s public service. Article 23 states that number should be representative of the entire population, which is roughly 85 per cent.
To that end, the GN is expected to offer training and education opportunities to help Inuit fill these new roles.
A snail’s pace
Apart from the fanfare this week, Nunavummiut actually won’t see any changes until April 1, 2027, when devolution is scheduled to take effect.
That’s by design, said Akeeagok.
He said leaders looked to N.W.T.’s experience with devolution in 2014. The jurisdiction took nine months to prepare, work that included creation of a new Department of Lands.
“We did learn a lot from the experience of the N.W.T.,” said Akeeagok.
“How quick the transition was, which was a lot quicker, I think, than what we’re going through with here.”
Part of the work will be mirroring several pieces of federal legislation around mineral and onshore oil and gas development in Nunavut.
Once these laws are adopted, Nunavut MLAs will have the opportunity to update them however they see fit.
Expect this process to take quite a lot of time, if the N.W.T. experience is taken as an indicator.
There, a decade after devolution, this work continues.
Nunavut is signing on to trouble.
Finally try to give the land before you guys gets find out what social workers and office workers doing. Try to make it there doing their work. Excuses and try to use what you just sign.
This is an enormous-historic day for the Inuit of Nunavut, and, we Inuit should all be very proud of this occasion. It is an major achievement when you consider our history. It is another giant step the Inuit are taking in the preservation of our strong traditional history, and at the same time, a giant leap into achieving control and management on multiple fronts -our lands and resources.
You need to understand, this process was initiated by Mr. Tagaaq Curley and the people of the Aivilik region. Mr. Curley’s movement lead to the creation of the Inuit Taparisat of Canada, known today as the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the creation of the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut which eventually changed it’s name to the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Born out of these organizations is the “Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project (mid 1970’s)”, the NWT Division Plebiscite (early 1980’s), the “Nunavut Agreement in Principle” and the jurisdictional boundaries plebiscite to which the Inuit of Nunavut supported (early 1990’s). Following the support of the “agreement in principle”, the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Agreement were signed, leading to the creation of the Nunavut Territory & Government in 1999.
All of these major events were, within their own time frame -giant leaps, major achievements by Inuit who were once nomads just trying to survive.
We all know that through the years leading up to this day, it wasn’t an easy-smooth path. There were enormous challenges, mistakes, broken lives-homes and sacrifices. Through it all, we are here today witnessing another major event for and by the Inuit of Nunavut, From here, we will be taking baby steps that will in eventuality turn into another giant leap. And yeah, there will mistakes sacrifices but on top of that, achievements and milestones, just like today.
There is an saying, “It is better to try and fail than not try at all”. Today’s events shows you…”we haven’t failed yet”!
We continue to press forward just as our elders did.
By Inuit and the government of Canada.
All the best in your new endeavour. Read some of the agreement which appeared unnecessarily convoluted. Hope not!
Being a “real” Eskimo, I no understand. But really good at making harpoon heads and throat singing.😝
My understanding is….,”This is no longer…blame Qabloonaaq agreement and take responsibility for your own actions.”
Ready to rumble?
Do this on your own.
This is a major achievement for our territory, but as we move forward and we fully understand the benefits it will bring, yes we will have more National parks, protected areas, and waterways, but 50 percent of water, natural resources , oil and gas are up here, and while we cry about resource development, it’s going to happen because the younger generation will demand a lifestyle that the rest of Canadians enjoy.
Where are the proven oil reserves in Nunavut?
So bigger NTI board member bonus’ then, nothing goes back to the common inuk
This is an agreement between the Governments of Nunavut and Canada. Not NTI.
Alright its finally done now we need to prove that this is purely a good thing. A lot of people have been working hard to make this happen (hopefully not all of them are to old now to keep working on bring it home), and hopefully more of us will be able to fill the roles that are needed to succeed.
I hope our young people and parents understand that for Devolution to actually work, they need to be willing to gain and push for education and training.
Land Inspectors, Water quality specialists, Permafrost specialists, Civil or other Engineers that can review plans for facilities, economists that can review financial statements and figure out how much security is necessary or royalties to be paid. GIS or other IT specialists to run the mineral claim system. Geologists. Geo-technicians. All needed.
If all GN ends up doing is having to hire people from down south to do this work, there is no value added.
There will be no increase in trust and understanding of our regulatory regime. No new sense of ownership of the ground rules for development, or increase in public credibility.
The clock is ticking and NS is not going to cut it. Young Inuit, seriously consider technical and science programs at a University level. This is your opportunity.
This is just another nail in the coffin of our country. I thought we were all Canadians but I guess not. You have your tribe I have my tribe and other people have their tribes. Eventually you get conflict between tribes, that’s how it always ends up. We could have been a great and powerful country with tremendous wealth for everyone but we will never get there because of this tribalism.