March 14, 2008
Around Nunavik
Councillor challenges renovation plans for community arenas
The Kativik Regional Government executive says there was no favouritism in giving this year's arena renovation projects to Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kangirsuk, Puvirnituq and Inukuak- four communities whose regional councillors hold executive positions on KRG.
 |
"I'm not very happy," said Salluit's councillor, Adamie Papigatuk, at last month's KRG council meeting in Kuujuaq. "These are all the communities of the executive."
But Maggie Emudluk, the chairperson of the KRG, assured the council that regional government executive members do not try to gain anything on behalf of their home communities and remain impartial.
Frédéric Gagné, the department head of the KRG municipal and public works department, said the projects chosen for 2008 were selected for their simplicity, not their location.
A new three-year $27 million program to build or renovate 12 sports and recreational facilities in Nunavik kicks off this summer with these four projects.
This year the arena in Kangiqsujalujjuaq will receive $2.4 million in renovations, the arena in Kangirsuk $2.7 million in renovations, the arena in Puvirnituq $2.7 million in renovations and the arena in Inukjuak $540,000 in renovations.
A new employment liaison agent to help Montreal Inuit get jobs
The 1,000 Inuit who make their home in the Montreal area will soon have an employment liaison agent to provide them with services.
The agent will work at a downtown Emploi-Québec office.
Quebec will provide the Kativik Regional Government's employment and training department with $150,000 for this new position over three years, starting on Apr. 1.
The liaison agent will serve all Inuit living in Quebec, including those who originally come from other Inuit regions in Canada.
Evictions may be in store
At their meeting last month in Kuujjuaq, Kativik Regional Government councillors learned that social housing tenants who refuse to pay rent may face eviction.
Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau manager Watson Fournier said the housing bureau's "scare tactics" weren't working with social housing tenants who don't want to pay rent.
The KMHB is owed about $8 million in rent arrears.
"We have given people chances," said Fournier.
Some tenants who owe money are not ready to cooperate with the housing bureau, Fournier said, so its board of directors is rethinking its policy on evictions.
Created in 1999, the KMHB is the region's largest landlord: it manages about 2,000 social housing units in 14 communities.
A fast-track for Puvirnituq's airport
The $20 million expansion of the Puvirnituq airport is a top regional priority, says the committee looking at the improvement of airport infrastructure in Nunavik.
Airport expansion in Puvirnituq will allow jet service to the Hudson Bay community of 1,200.
The expansion project involves an extension of the runway, the construction of a new terminal building and enlargement of a pad to allow the parking of a jet, says a document tabled at last month's meeting of the Kativik Regional Government council in Kuujjuaq.
A $1 million extension of the Puvirnituq runway apron is scheduled for this summer.
Quebec has already committed $8 million into the Puvirnituq expansion project. The airport capital infrastructure program is to cover the balance.
Salluit and Kangiqsujuaq are also expected to need larger airports due to additional traffic from mining and tourism, the committee on airport improvement says.
More than 20 years after the construction of airports in Nunavik, most are in need of repairs. The repairs come with an estimated price tag of about $450,000 for each terminal and $100,000 for the garages.
Runway lighting systems also need to be replaced and emergency kits updated, the committee says.
Plea for local cultural coordinators in Nunavik
Charlie Arngak, president of Nunavik's Avataq Cultural Institute, was in Kuujjuaq last month to promote the hiring of local cultural coordinators in Nunavik to the Kativik Regional Government council.
"We want to help keep our language and culture and the way to do it is to work together," Arngak said.
Community money from the 2002 Sanarrutik fund which put more than $5 million a year in economic and social development programs under the KRG can be used to hire these local cultural coordinators, Arngak suggested.
These committees act as a liaison between elder and the community.
"These committees are aimed at keeping our culture and language alive and visible through the organization of traditional skills and language," Arngak said.
But the volunteer cultural committees need a coordinator to assist with paperwork, he said.
Salluit bucks pro-mining trend
At last month's environmental hearings on Canadian Royalties' proposed Nunavik Nickel mine, the Qaqqalik Landholding Corporation, which manages Inuit-owned lands in and around Salluit, delivered a blistering 13-page brief to the Kativik Environmental Quality Commission.
The landholding body said the mine's impacts would include:
- increased levels of airborne dust at Deception Bay - "a serious health hazard and impediment to people exercising traditional activities;"
- more risk of contamination from spills and open pit mines that will become "permanent scars on the environment;"
- disturbances to marine life and sediments from the construction of another wharf at Deception Bay, which the community has "always opposed," and to rivers from the possible release of effluent into the Povungnituk River watershed;
- doubling of transport ship trips into Deception Bay, increasing the possibility of accidents and increasing dangers to hunters from the "constant reopening" of ice trails;
- possible water contamination due to the use of calcium chloride to reduce dust and from mine effluents - "any failure of design or theory could represent a catastrophe to the environment and to the people;"
- disturbances to wildlife, including the destruction of fox dens, possible changes to caribou migration, and disturbance to endangered birds of prey - "a continued presence of humans in the vicinity will force these birds to move;"
- disruptions to aquatic life and sea mammals, including damage to fish grounds, beluga seals, along with illegal fishing, which the landholding alleges to have already occurred; and
- construction of more roads and another airport, which would bring more harmful outside influences.
