Why is the implementation contract important to you?

If Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Government of Nunavut get the kind of land claim implementation contract they’ve been seeking for the past four years, it could change the way that Inuit, especially young Inuit, are trained and educated.

That’s because they’re proposing a new way of carrying out Article 23, the section of the land claim agreement that says governments must do certain things to hire more Inuit workers.

When the proportion of Inuit working for governments is equal to the proportion of Inuit living in Nunavut, the job of carrying out Article 23 will be done.

To do that, NTI and the GN want the federal government, through a promise to be written into a new 10-year implementation contract, to pay for a massive Inuit training and employment plan.

That plan is proposed in a report issued two years ago, called Annauminiq. It says Ottawa should spend $10 to $20 million a year over 10 years on Inuit training.

If this happens, you and your children could find many more training and upgrading opportunities at Arctic College, and other places, than are now available.

NTI and the GN also want to use a new implementation contract to get more money every year for environmental watchdog bodies like the Nunavut Water Board and the Nunavut Impact Review Board.