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KRG inks block-funding deal with province

Regional government gets more financial autonomy

JANE GEORGE

Photo: Benoît Pelletier, Quebec's minister for native affairs, and Johnny Adams, chairman of the Kativik Regional Government, sign the first blockfunding agreement for Nunavik. (PHOTO COURTESY OF LARRY WATT, KRG)

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Nunavik's regional government received more decision-making control over finances and public security last week, with the signing of two major agreements - one on block-funding, the other on policing.

Last Wednesday, at Nunavik House in Quebec City, Johnny Adams, chairman of the Kativik Regional Government, Ina Gordon, the KRG's corporate secretary, and Benoît Pelletier, Quebec's minister for native affairs, signed off on a block-funding deal called the "Sivunirmut agreement."

"The KRG's elected officials will now be able to divide the funding they receive according to regional priorities," Adams said at the signing ceremony.

The 23-year agreement is a major step towards simplifying the transfer of money between Quebec and the regional government.

"This agreement solidifies the partnership with the KRG, which has already been in place for several years," Pelletier said.

Pierre Corbeil, Quebec's minister for northern development, wildlife and parks, Jean-Marc Fournier, minister for municipal affairs, MNAs Geoff Kelley and Michel Létourneau, as well as the re-elected Makivik Corporation vice-president, Adamie Alaku, also attended the signing ceremony.

The Sivunirmut agreement is a follow-up to the billion-dollar Sanarrutik agreement on social and economic development, signed two years ago in Tasiujaq.

The Sanarrutik agreement called for the negotiation of a separate block-funding agreement for the KRG, to replace its many separate funding agreements with Quebec.

Block-funding gives the KRG a more unified annual budget, because the transfer of money from six Quebec government departments and organizations to the KRG will arrive in a one lump-sum of $27.5 million.

The money comes from the provincial departments of public security, municipal affairs, sports and recreation, environment, parks, and transport, as well as employment, social solidarity and family.

This amount will be indexed annually, based on Nunavik's population. Indexation means that total amount of money from Quebec to the KRG could go up by as much as five per cent every year.

On Friday, also in Quebec City, Adams signed off on a $46 million agreement for policing in Nunavik.

This agreement between the federal government, Quebec and Nunavik pays for the Kativik Regional Police Force's operations in the region.

The agreement - the second for aboriginal policing services in the region -had already been signed by Quebec, but Ottawa only recently approved it.

The extra money in the deal will provide new police stations for the six communities in Nunavik that are still using small, shabby, second-hand trailers for that purpose.

Under this new agreement, the number of KRPF constables also moves up from 42 to 54.

"We will receive around $8 million a year. It gives us security for the next four years until 2007. For us, it demonstrates that we've come a long way since '95, and the fact that we're starting to go where we want to go," said Brian Jones, the chief of the KRPF.

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