May 2, 2008
Nunavik to wait longer for own provincial seat
A proposal for a new Ungava riding includes Inuit and Cree communities
Nunavimmiut can expect to wait a little longer to realize their long-standing dream of a stand-alone Nunavik riding and their own member in Quebec's legislature.
This week public hearings got underway on Quebec's latest plan to revise the province's electoral map.
The proposed map doesn't give Nunavik its own riding, called "Nunavik," although it is a timid step in that direction.
The map shows a new riding called "Ungava" that still includes Nunavik and all James Bay Cree communities except two, Waswanipi and Ouje-Bougamou.
These are sliced off and put into the Abitibi East and West ridings, along with several non-native communities that now lie within the Ungava riding.
Right now, the Ungava riding includes both Inuit, Cree and non-native francophone communities in the South.
Luc Ferland, the member for Ungava in Quebec's legislature, the Assemblé nationale, said he didn't like the changes proposed for the riding because he favours splitting Ungava in two.
Ferland wants to see an electoral riding created for Nunavik, called Nunavik, and another one called "Eeyou Istchee" for the Cree and the so-called Jamesians, non-native people who live in the James Bay region.
"I have always supported the creation of a riding for Nunavik, but the balance of the territory of Ungava should also be a exception," he said in a telephone interview from Quebec City.
With its 22,593 voters, the current Ungava riding is already an exception to Quebec's rule that says each of its 125 electoral districts should have a voter population of between 32,000 and 53,000.
However, with slightly more than 10,000 voters, Quebec's Magdalen Islands have had their own provincial riding for years.
Charest has promised to give Nunavimmiut their own riding on numerous occasions. At last August's Katimajiit meeting in Kuujjuaq, Charest said Nunavik would soon elect its own member to the national assembly.
And last December, at the signing of the agreement-in-principle on self-government in Quebec City, Charest said he would create "a northern riding" for Nunavik.
Charest said the riding for Nunavik would "consecrate the link between Inuit people and all of Quebec."
But the most recent electoral map only calls for more ridings around Montreal and fewer in the regions of Quebec to give more balance among the ridings.
Political pressure prompted the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest to try and scrap the map less than a month after it was proposed. They wanted to cancel the province-wide public audiences, but the Action Démocratique Party vetoed that move late last week.
After the public hearings wind up, the electoral map will be adjusted and proclaimed in November - before the next Quebec election.
To see the new Ungava riding please go to: www.lacartechange.qc.ca/ lacartechange/en/index.asp.
