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Around
Nunavut
June
11, 2004
Aboriginal leaders
question Conservative policies
The leaders of the First
Nations, Inuit and Métis people of Canada want Conservative Party leader
Stephen Harper to explain his view on Tom Flanagan, his senior advisor, and
author of First Nations? Second Thoughts.
In the controversial book,
Flanagan argues that assimilation is the best policy for Canadian aboriginals.
He opposes modern land claims, and says that "current public
policy... is flooding reserves
with money, enticing people back, enticing people to stay and weakening their
resolve to participate in Canadian society."
Flanagan, who is also the
national campaign chair for the Conservative party, has also called Canada's
Métis an "economically marginal, incohesive assortment of heterogenous
groups" that should not have status as aboriginal people.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
President Jose Kusugak said in a press release that he is not pre-judging Harper,
his party, or his platform.
"We want to know if
the new Conservative Party will recognize the legal and constitutional rights
of aboriginal people, or will it take the narrow, assimilationist 'melting pot'
approach that Flanagan advocates?"
June
11, 2004
Wildlife Act one step
closer
Work continues on the made-in-Nunavut
Wildlife Act, expected to come into force January 1.
On June 3, Nunavut Tunngavik
Inc., the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and Government of Nunavut signed
a document that outlines the way in which the three groups will determine the
regulations in the Act.
The regulations are the
detailed rules, such as quotas and seasons, that will come into play when the
Act is made law.
NTI, NWMB and the GN will
continue to work together to draft the regulations, and will also seek input
from regional wildlife organizations.
June
11, 2004
Statistics Canada
seeks interns
Statistics Canada and Health
Canada have room for four new interns in the two-year aboriginal internship
program.
Successful candidates
will spend 10 months each with Statistics Canada and Health Canada in Ottawa,
where they will learn about data analysis, interpretation and health data.
Applicants must have obtained
a university degree by June 2004, and be of aboriginal ancestry. The deadline
for applications is midnight on June 22.
For further information,
visit: www.jobs.gc.ca or contact Claire Thie at 613-951-1947.
June
4, 2004
Red tape delays Doris North mine
Miramar Mining Corporation will not start work on the Doris North mine until
2006, a company press release said this week.
The company cites the uncertainty of the federal election as one factor holding
up the proposed gold mine at Hope Bay. Permit delays are also holding up the
project.
The Nunavut Impact Review Board was to have held a final round of public hearings
on the project next week. Instead, they will hold the meetings July 11 to 16.
Miramar president and CEO Tony Walsh said he is "disappointed" with
the delay, but still expects NIRB to complete its review this summer. But more
delays could push the start date even further into the future.
"We continue to be encouraged that, after 26 months of meetings and input
from the public, regulators and other stakeholders, no party has asserted that
the mine should not be permitted for production," Walsh said in the release.
If the hearings are positive, DIAND will be next to give its rubber stamp to
the project, before the Nunavut Water Board begins its review.
June
4, 2004
GN and NTI renew partnership deal
Premier Paul Okalik and NTI President Paul Kaludjak signed a new deal governing
the working relationship between the government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik
Inc. last Friday.
The agreement, called Iqqanaijaqatigiit, comes five years after the Clyde River
protocol was first signed, and is intended to brings new clarity to the relationship
between the two groups, which have both evolved in the last five years.
Okalik is to table the agreement in the legislative assembly.
June
4, 2004
Arviat celebrates 21 high school grads
Twenty-one high school students graduated from Arviat's Qitiqliq High School
last Saturday, the second-highest number outside of Iqaluit, where 24 people
graduated on the same day.
In Cambridge Bay, 14 students graduated, also on Saturday, one of whom has
been blind since birth.
Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson offered Ashlee Otokiak, and the teachers who
helped him, a special tribute on the big day.
June
4, 2004
Nunavut's own journeyman carpenters
Six journeyman carpenters graduate from Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit today,
becoming the first carpenters to be trained in Nunavut.
The graduates are now eligible to write their Red Seal Interprovincial exams,
qualifying them to work in any province in Canada.
The graduates are: Jimmy Nattaq of Iqaluit, Lino Aqatsiaq of Igloolik, Alexander
Alooq of Rankin Inlet (originally of Baker Lake), James Karetak of Iqaluit (originally
Arviat), Jason Shingoose of Baker Lake and Christopher Lahure of Baker Lake.
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