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In The Legislative
Assembly
March 11, 2005
Language awards
Louis Tapardjuk, Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, awarded four language awards during Language Week.
Miali Elise-Coley of Iqaluit won the Youth Language Award for her work as youth representative at the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.
Mark Kalluak of Arviat won his award for translating the New Testament of the Bible into Inuktitut, and serving as the editor of the Keewatin Echo in the 1960s and 1970s.
Nursing student Gloria Mimialik of Iqaluit won her award for her traditional skills such as cooking and sewing, and for encouraging fellow students to use Inuktitut medical terms.
Manasie Evic of Pangnirtung won the elder language award for passing on traditional knowledge to youth. Evic has recorded elders’ stories for the local school and teaches youth how to raise dog teams.
March 11, 2005
This government makes no sense
“A lot of people in the communities are not too sure of what the government does,” said Uqqummiut MLA James Arreak in the legislative assembly on March 4.
“Are they just there to answer questions? People just ask them questions. Don’t they answer questions? People are curious how our government works and who the ministers are and what their portfolios are and where they work and why they are the ministers of the particular department.”
Arreak suggested the GN work towards being more visible and accountable to the people of Nunavut.
March 11, 2005
Nunavut teachers abroad
Students at the Nunavut Teacher Education Program could wind up in Norway next year.
Two teachers at Nunavut Arctic College visited the Sami University College in Kautokeino, Norway, where Sami students are training to become teachers.
“The Verddet exchange program will allow Nunavut student teachers to see for themselves how another indigenous teacher education program is meeting the challenge of providing culturally appropriate education and first language instruction,” Education Minister Ed Picco said last Friday.
The University of the Arctic and Foreign Affairs Canada are supporting the project.
March 11, 2005
Income support grows five per cent
Fewer Nunavummiut who rely on income support will be feeling hungry this year.
The proposed 2005-06 budget for the Department of Education includes a five per cent increase in the food allowance for people receiving income support.
This year will also be the first year income support clients will not be required to declare their co-op dividends as income. That means that co-op earnings will not be deducted from the income support they receive.
These changes will cost the government $1.6 million in 2005-06.
March 11, 2005
Qulliq prepares for Kyoto protocol
The Qulliq Energy Corp. has two projects planned that will help meet Canada’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto accord.
Iqaluit will save over three million litres of fuel and cut almost 9,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions once a project is completed to capture waste heat from the power plant and use it to heat buildings. A similar project in Rankin Inlet will save almost one million litres of fuel and cut 2,716 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The combined reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is the equivalent of 11,642 Nunavummiut participating in Canada’s one tonne challenge, said Energy Minister Ed Picco. The one tonne challenge is an advertising campaign that encourages Canadians to use less energy.
Both of the projects will be completed by 2007.
March 11, 2005
Clyde River mini mall unlikely
Nunavut’s minister of economic development provided an unenthusiastic response to a petition for a mini-mall in Clyde River.
Instead of offering funding, he provided a list of telephone numbers of agencies who might be able to help get the project started.
“I expect that the community’s [economic development officer] would be working closely with the community on this project,” David Simailak wrote in his response. “The CEDO should be assisting with research to access various funding sources at all levels.”
Uqqummiut MLA James Arreak brought the petition for the mall to the Legislative Assembly last November.
March 4, 2005
Cash for seal skins
Seal skins from Nunavut sold for a whopping $70 each at the December 2004 auction in North Bay, Environment Minister Olayuk Akesuk said Tuesday.
That means the GN’s fur price program, designed to help hunters, has actually made a profit.
“As a result, I have obtained authorization from the financial management board to provide Nunavut seal harvesters with a one-time second payment of $10 for every seal skin that was delivered to our wildlife offices for the 2004 North Bay auction,” Akesuk told the legislative assembly.
Cheques will be sent out as soon as the paperwork is done.
March 4, 2005
Take a pill, Wente
Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente has no right to call Canada’s north a “welfare ghetto,” Iqaluit East MLA Ed Picco told the legislative assembly on Monday.
Picco was responding to a Jan. 6 article in which Wente slammed the Newfoundland government for its efforts to strike a resource-sharing deal with the federal government.
Rural Newfoundland, along with our great land north of 60, is probably the most vast and scenic welfare ghetto in the world, Wente wrote.
“The economic stimulus from Ms. Wente’s supposed ghetto is well welcomed by the thousands of people employed in the South because of... the people north of 60,” said Picco, originally a Newfoundlander.
“I say pipe down, Margaret Wente, and take a pill... The only ghetto here is in Margaret Wente’s head. And, Mr. Speaker, that’s a big hole to fill.”
March 4, 2005
Improved gas on the way
Snowmobilers with spark plug problems will soon get relief.
In the legislative assembly on Monday, Peter Kilabuk, minister of community and government services, said that Shell Canada will deliver improved fuel treated with a special additive, to the affected communities.
Rankin Inlet East MLA Tagak Curley, Hudson Bay MLA Peter Kattuk, Arviat MLA David Alagalak, and Quttiktuq MLA Levi Barnabas had all raised concerns about gas fouling spark plugs more than usual, making some hunters afraid to go out on the land.
“Sanikiluaq is a traditional community and my constituents are dependent on a reliable supply of gasoline,” Kattuk said.
March 4, 2005
Made-in-Nunavut public housing
The Nunavut Housing Corp. has come up with its own design for public housing in the North, Housing Minister Peter Kilabuk announced Tuesday.
The housing corporation asked elders, youth, tenants and community leaders for input into the new design.
As a result, they designed a single-story five-plex where each apartment has two exterior doors, large storage areas, and a country food preparation station with a sink and cutting surface.
The design can be scaled to include eight units or two, and is made with energy efficient materials.
The new design will go into use in 2005/2006.
March 4, 2005
Inuk warden for BCC
Lew Philips of Arctic Bay was appointed warden of the Baffin Correctional Centre, Justice Minister Paul Okalik announced Tuesday.
Philips was the first Inuk regular member of the RCMP and has 27 years of experience in Nanisivik, Igloolik, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit.
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