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January 2, 2004
It starts with a bang followed by big bust in the "high"
Arctic
Nunavik 2003: Smokers
quit to win, tokers reined in
January
- Nunavik police have
a busy holiday season with about 50 arrests for municipal by-law infractions,
and at least five arrests for impaired driving. Kuujjuaq's New Year's Eve
celebrations alone draw more than 200 calls for police assistance. All criminal
arrests involve alcohol.
- A mentally ill man
holds police at bay for 20 hours in Puvirnituq, shooting at police and an
elder. James Ivillaq, 20, is arraigned on charges of attempted murder, illegal
use of a firearm, and evading arrest.
- Elders meet federal
Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists in Mont-Joli, in an attempt
to marry traditional and scientific knowledge. DFO researchers address suggestions
Inuit have made about the disappearance of beluga. Scientists argue that noise,
disease and killer whale attacks cannot account for the massive beluga population
drop.
February
- A three-day snowstorm knocks out phone lines, but not Internet services,
along the Ungava bay.
- The Kativik School Board's long-awaited move north is delayed due to lack
of money. In a statement, the school board expresses its dismay to Ungava
MNA Michel Létourneau, who is also the minister for regional development.
The KSB states the board has not been able to secure funds for the final stage
of its move since 2001.
- The KSB issues another press release that condemns a plan to amalgamate
institutions created by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. It also
says Makivik Corp. lacks the authority to act on behalf of all Nunavimmiut
in self-government negotiations.
- Statistics Canada says services top Nunavik industries and few Nunavimmiut
make a living from fishing or hunting. Twenty-two per cent work in the health
sector, 20.5 in public administration and 19 per cent in education, but only
30 out of 3,855 people surveyed say they survive on hunting or fishing alone.
Nunavik's unemployment rate is 14.7, twice the Canadian rate.
- Kuujjuaq officially opens the new Kaittitavik complex. The $8.5-million
structure was finished in October 2002 and houses a 500-seat auditorium, a
cinema, regional tourism offices and municipal offices.
- The Ungava Cup hockey tournament goes off without a hitch as the Kativik
Regional Police Force seize illegal alcohol bound for Kangirsuk. In first
place is the team from Kangirsuk, in second place, Kuujjuaq's team.
- Nunavik's Harricana snowmobile team is waylaid when its support crew is
involved in a crash. The crash prevents them from repairing a skidoo broken
down earlier that day.
March
- The Kativik Regional Government votes not to support Nunavik's new-government
negotiations.
- In Puvirnituq, police respond to a call involving three men. One man is
gravely injured after being hit on the head with a seven-kilogram barbell.
Two men are later arrested and taken into custody.
- Statistics Canada finds that Nunavik's labour force has jumped by 27 per
cent over the last decade, but few Nunavimmiut have levels of education that
will let them take advantage of increased opportunities.
- During Makivik's annual general meeting in Puvirnituq, Makivik beneficiaries
vote to pick a new president in a three-way race between Annie Popert, Johnny
Oovaut and the incumbent, Pita Aatami. Aatami is re-elected, with 64 per cent
of 2,709 votes cast.
- Charlie Watt Jr. of Kuujjuaq wins the 2003 Ivakkak dog team race.
- Quebec offers $17.6 million in home-building subsidies that will be used
to help Nunavimmiut build their own homes and free up more of the region's
social housing units.
- Ottawa agrees to give the KRG $1.8 million for its satellite Internet network.
April
- The Parti Québécois loses the provincial election on April
14, with the Liberal Party taking 76 of 125 seats. Michel Létourneau
of the PQ keeps his Ungava seat.
- About 600 people in Nunavik participate in the provincial "Quit to
win" smoking challenge sponsored by the Nunavik Regional Board of Health
and Social Services from March 1 to April 11.
- The Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec
shuts its money-losing co-op store in Kuujjuaq, although the co-op hotel and
outfitting operations there will stay open.
- Inuit and Cree finalize an offshore agreement, signing an overlap agreement
that covers wildlife management and resource use in the region's shared waters
and islands.
May
- A joint police operation led by the KRPF, the Sûreté du Québec
provincial police force, the RCMP, other native police forces, Canada Customs
and Canada Post results in the opening of more than 50 files in Nunavik and
Nunavut and the seizure of 15 kilograms of marijuana, hashish, cocaine, 1,200
vials of hash oil as well as shipments of bootlegged alcohol. The drugs and
alcohol have a Nunavik street value of approximately $800,000.
- Nunavik wins the gold medal for the highest participation is a Quebec-wide
anti-smoking campaign. Tasiuaq wins the community challenge, while Aupaluk
takes the school prize.
- The Quebec Superior court meets to determine whether to hear the school
board's request for an injunction blocking further self-government negotiations
in December.
- DFO won't increase the cap on Nunavik's beluga harvest. It will remain
at 210 in 2003 and some communities will have to travel for the hunt.
June
- The elders' home in Kuujjuaq closes temporarily due to staffing problems
and a need to restructure. The home's coordinator begins planning for the
move after staff fail to show up for the Victoria Day weekend in May.
- KRG employees say no to management's offer for a new collective agreement.
The union has been trying to set a five-year agreement since Dec. 11, 2000,
but union members feel the wage offers and cost of living differential is
insufficient. KRG management says a tight budget plus possible cuts leaves
little room for negotiation.
- Andy Moorhouse decides to resign as president of the youth association,
Saputiit, before running for mayor of Inukjuak. Jonathan Epoo becomes the
interim president until the next election in the spring of 2005.
- Two men are arrested in connection with two separate violent deaths over
a single 24-hour period in Puvirnituq. An illegal shipment of alcohol into
the community is signaled as a contributor to the violence.
- The SQ swat teams are called to Kuujjuaraapik after an armed man barricades
himself in a building for more than 12 hours. He finally gives himself up
peaceably.
- Social housing rents in Nunavik are set to rise by 3.4 per cent, an increase
that at most adds up to $13 a month. The increase is part of the annual rent
increase for social housing across Quebec.
- Makivik and the newly elected Quebec government sign a framework agreement
for negotiations leading to a new regional government for Nunavik.
- The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Institute of Aboriginal
Health open a $1.5-million centre for Inuit health and changing environment
at Université Laval in Quebec City. The centre will focus on environmental
change and health, Inuit traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge and
environmental public health.
July
- Ottawa announces funding for a runway upgrade at Kuujjuaq's airport. The
$2.5-million facelift will improve safety.
- Less than a week after the framework agreement is signed, a provincial
judge upholds the KSB's right to challenge the negotiations between Makivik
and the federal and provincial governments in court.
- The beef ban in Southern Canada affects Nunavik's outfitting season as
the U.S. will only allow caribou hunters to return with finished hides and
trophies.
- Makivik decides to fund a participant to trek to Mount Everest in 2005,
and opens a competition to select a beneficiary to join a University of Ottawa
research team.
- Makivik builds an inuksuk in a Quebec City cemetery in honor of Inuit laid
to rest there. The sculpture resembles an inuksuk but it also takes the shape
of a cross. A similar project is planned for Montreal.
August
- Québec releases a document on what environmental impact statements
for the Eastmain and Rupert hydro-electric project should include. The $3.8-billion
project, part of the controversial James Bay power development plan, will
generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity when it is completed in 10 years.
- The Eastern Arctic Games bring 300 athletes into Kangiqsualujjuaq from
Aug. 4 to 10, with seven days of competition in traditional games and team
sports.
- Nunavik's member of Parliament, Guy St-Julien, says he will oppose a federal
same-sex marriage bill, citing his personal values.
- Provincial vehicle inspectors impound 11 commercial trucks in Kuujjuaq
for failing to meet safety standards. The KRPF invites inspectors from the
Quebec licensing board after receiving numerous complaints.
- Pierre Corbeil, the new provincial minister for northern Quebec, and Jacques
Chagnon, the minister of public security, tour Nunavik. They sign an agreement
for a new halfway house in Kangirsuk, worth $3 million.
- Quebec's new premier, Jean Charest, spends a weekend on a casual visit
with Nunavik leaders, along with Corbeil and Benoit Pelletier, the minister
for aboriginal affairs. During the visit, they sign an agreement creating
Nunavik's first provincial park, Pingualuit.
- A couple from Kangirsuk and their two children go missing while returning
from a wedding in Kuujjuaq. Nunavimmiut, the Canadian Rangers and Canadian
Coast Guard search for the lost freighter canoe. The overturned canoe with
the body of translator-interpreter Martha Kauki is found on Aug. 21.
September
CLICK
PHOTO TO ENLARGE
The KRG celebrates
its 25th anniversary.
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- The KSB requests a safeguard order against Makivik, so that it cannot reach
an agreement-in-principle for a new form of government for Nunavik before
the end of this year.
- Wildlife protection officers Vallée Saunders, David Watt and Mark
Kootook capture two orphaned polar bears outside Kuujjuaq. The two bears are
transported on to Quebec City's zoo.
- Kuujjuaq's Jaanimmarik School closes for two days due to a widespread infestation
of head lice.
- The huge icebreaker Amundsen, named after Norway's polar explorer Roald
Amundsen, leaves Quebec City with a load of a scientific equipment and researchers:
its destination, the Northwest Passage and the western Arctic.
- Police call off the search for a U.S. hunter who vanishes, seemingly into
thin air, on Sept. 3, while on a hunting trip in Nunavik. James Rambone Jr.,
51, of Foster, Rhode Island, is last seen early that morning when he sprints
off in pursuit of a caribou over the rugged tundra near the Caniapscau River,
400 kilometres east of Kuujjuaraapik.
- The KRG celebrates its 25th anniversary during the regional council meeting
in Kuujjuaq with a community party.
- The KRG council calls for improvements in search and rescue procedures
in the wake of August's loss of four people in their canoe.
- Michael Tooktoo, 29, of Kuujjuaraapik suffers life-threatening burns to
75 per cent of his body and internal damage to his lungs and other vital organs
as a result a fire that occurs early on the morning of Sept. 28 at his residence.
October
- Quebec's new health minister, Philippe Couillard, visits Nunavik to learn
more about the region's services and meet with local officials. He gets an
earful from unionized health workers in Kuujjuaq who want the same retention
benefits as nurses and doctors receive. Couillard pledges $2 million for a
new Inuit health survey in Nunavik.
- Pregnant women in Kuujjuaq and Kuujjuaraapik receive a supply of healthy
food thanks to a new Arctic Char promotion program.
- A ceremony at the Mount Hermon cemetery in Quebec City remembers Inuit
buried there.
- Nunavik's health board is under fire for permitting a $11,500 retreat to
a fishing lodge owned by the brother of the chairman of the Inuutlitsivik
health board for the Hudson Bay at the same time employees are told to cut
back.
- Researchers report that beluga whale skin is loaded with a chemical that
seems to slow the production of harmful cholesterol. Findings from a Laval
study say this may explain why the death rate from heart disease in Salluit
is 50 per cent lower than in the rest of Quebec.
November
- Incumbent mayor Michael Gordon wins in Kuujjuaq over Larry Watt, winning
with 53.9 per cent of the vote. Gordon promises to bring a bylaw enforcement
team to Kuujjuaq.
- New mayors include Michael Cameron in Salluit, Andy Moorhouse in Inukjuak,
Ali Novalinga in Puvirnituq and Elijah Imbeault in Kangiqsualujjuaq. Robbie
Tookalook returns in Umiujaq.
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Nunavut 99
