Will always support decentralization

I have always supported the concept of decentralizing government positions to communities other than the three main regional offices of Iqaluit, Rankin and Cambridge because of the need for all residents to see their government in operation and to benefit from full-time employment, training and business initiatives that it spreads to all residents and not just a few, like we had with the old GNWT, where Yellowknife benefitted but the other communities got the crumbs, so to speak.

We also knew that some civil servants would resist moving to another community because of family ties, or because they had personal property, such as houses that they didn’t want to leave.

But in the long run, I always felt that the residents of Nunavut come first and foremost, in that they share and benefit from the running of the Nunavut government. You have to understand that the Nunavut Employees Union will always look after their membership, in that they will secure and negotiate a package where the member will always get similiar jobs if they don’t want to move or will be given a fairly good severance package if no similiar job is available to them in their community and refuse to move. And additional training is in the package to ensure that the civil servant can maintain the same level of employment as per pay scale at all cost, so the economic situation of the full-time civil servant will always be looked after under their collective agreement with the Government of Nunavut.

My argument has always been for all residents and communities to benefit from the decentralized governement and not just a few. So I’ll always support the goals and objectives of the Bathurst Mandate that the premier, cabinet and the members of the Nunavut legislature follow in trying to meet that mandate and ensure that all residents benefit from Nunavut government programs, be they financial, economic, business, jobs or training for all residents of Nunavut.

Allen Maghagak
Lennoxville, QC
okonak@sympatico.ca