The greatest show in town

The Nunavut legislature adjourned its third session on Tuesday last week, bringing to an end a three-week sitting during which members of the legislative assembly asked more and better questions than they ever did in the past.

The legislature’s daily proceedings are no longer broadcast around Nunavut on APTN, and only a few visitors turned up to listen.

That’s why most Nunavummiut will never know how well their MLAs and cabinet ministers performed, including what they said and how they said it.

If they had, the would have seen notes passing continuously between members, rancorous exchanges between vocal MLAs such as Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo and various cabinet ministers, Akulliq MLA Steve Mapsalak’s wonderful sealskin vest emblazoned with a white star and a polar bear, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s huge wardrobe of stylish jackets, and fists pounding on desks.

Tootoo, James Arreak, Levi Barnabas, Tagak Curley, and Keith Peterson were the most vocal, using up most of each day’s one-hour question period.

Aglukkaq, Education Minister Ed Picco and Olayuk Akesuk — the minister then responsible for the environment, transportation, housing and economic development — fended off the greatest number of questions.

Picco generally produced the most solid answers of the three, while Aglukkaq and Akesuk demonstrated a knack for the standard cabinet minister’s non-answer: “I will look into the member’s concerns.”

Levinia Brown, the minister of Community and Government Services, and David Simailak, the minister of Finance, rarely fashioned ready answers to any question.

Hot topics included:

* money (never enough);
* housing (not enough, the wrong kind, too expensive);
* jobs and training (not enough);
* GN staffing (not enough Inuit);
* infrastructure (old, substandard);
* medical travel and health care (badly organized);
* power and fuel (too expensive);
* climate change and bird flu (scary, dangerous);
* and polar bear management (where more Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is needed).

Curley, the MLA for Rankin Inlet North, always spoke off-the-cuff from his own handwritten notes, rather than relying on written questions produced with the help of legislature staff. He mentioned the need to promote IQ several times.

Pangnirtung MLA Peter Kilabuk — the best speaker of all, and the member with the best voice — also picked up on the call for more IQ in what sounded an awful lot like a campaign speech.

“I say we, as a government, have been silent for too long already,” Kilabuk said in a reply to the commissioner’s address delivered on the sitting’s final day.

“It is time to promote pride, togetherness, openness and sharing of responsibility. I think it is time to show our support to the Inuit culture, languages, practices and beliefs with this government leading a team. Then, we can truly start measuring our successes and failures of the plan we will build…”

Because of the rules of the house, Premier Paul Okalik could only listen to Kilabuk’s speech and not respond to it.

But, during an interview later in the week, Okalik said that if Kilabuk has a plan, he should have told everyone about it already.

“He was part of the government for seven years, and I never saw his plan,” Okalik said.

Okalik said the GN relies on a group of elders for advice on how to use and promote IQ.

“We’re trying to do our part,” Okalik said. “But when you talk about it, you can talk about it forever, and not offering any solutions is something I hear way too much.”

Okalik said he’s happiest in the legislature when everyone works together, although he said criticism is still a necessary part of consensus government.

“We have good members in the house who are very vocal, and they offer solutions. I really like that part because that gives you the opportunity to present solutions. [But] when they’re just criticizing forever, you lose your point of focus, because, if they’re not offering anything, then what’s the use? The people on the other side think that they can do a better job on any given day.”

Okalik said the GN can’t solve every problem or, for example, build up Inuit employment, without making sure people are trained and qualified: “I believe that will definitely improve the situation we are in today.”

But he said the new budget, with its tax breaks for mining and tourism businesses, should give a boost to economic activity in Nunavut.

“We continue to make progress in small steps.”

The legislature is off now until June 6, when MLAs will meet again for a mid-term review of cabinet, a process that might see some cabinet ministers removed and new ones chosen.

During the first assembly, MLAs held a mid-term review in the fall of 2001. This review is scheduled just a few days before the third session of this assembly reconvenes on June 9.

It’s open to the public: don’t miss it.