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November 13, 1992

After agonizing over the surrender of their aboriginal title, Inuit said Yes to the Nunavut land claims agreement in 1992, the last of a series of dramatic votes.

Alianaittuq! The answer is Yes

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

With files from Joyce McPhee in Ottawa

IQALUIT — Inuit have brought in their verdict on the Nunavut land claim agreement — and it's a massive Yes.

After an implementation plan for the land claim deal is worked out, the federal government is now able to bring in new laws to create Nunavut and enact the Nunavut land claim agreement.

"We'll begin building our children's future tomorrow. We're happy . And we're happy you're happy," an ecstatic James Eetoolook, the acting president of the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut, said after announcing the result in Iqaluit yesterday evening.

On November 3, 4, and 5, Inuit in every region went to the polls and voted Yes to TFN's land claim agreement in overwhelming numbers.

The final result in Nunavut was 69 per cent Yes. That takes into account the 1,843 people who didn't vote, and who had the same effect on the final result as people who voted No.

In Kitikmeot, 75 per cent said Yes, with an estimated turnout of 82 per cent. In Keewatin, 63 per cent said Yes, with a turnout of 80 per cent and in Baffin, 69 per cent said Yes, with a turnout of 78.1 per cent.

A roomful of TFN board and staff members, ordinary people, and journalists erupted with joy when Eetoolook delivered the news just after 5 p.m. yesterday.

Louis Pilikapsi, president of the Keewatin Inuit Association and the acting president of TFN when the final land claim agreement was unveiled last December, pleaded for reconciliation.

"Those who said Yes and those who said No are all the same in God's eyes," Pilikapsi said in Inuktitut.

Amittuq MLA Titus Allooloo, the chairman of the Nunavut caucus in the Legislative Assembly, called the announcement "a joyous occasion for all of Nunavut."

And, as he did at the Nunavut leaders' summit in Iqaluit last January, Allooloo made a plea for unity.

"My hope is that we can all work together to build a territory that will stand as a monument to all who have laboured to bring about this moment," Allooloo said.

Allooloo said in an interview later that Nunavut MLAs in the Legislative Assembly, will seek to play a major role in the Nunavut Implementation Commission. That's the 10-member body, set up under the terms of the Nunavut Accord, that will be responsible for designing the Nunavut government.

Allooloo said the Nunavut caucus now wants to contact Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon to get things going quickly on setting up the NIC.

Predictably, Siddon was also delighted by yesterday's result. "We can now move forward in this new partnership which has been forged between the Inuit in the eastern Arctic and the government of Canada," he said in a press release.

Tom Molloy, who has laboured for 10 years as chief federal negotiator on the TFN claim, said from his home in Saskatchewan last night that "he's very pleased with the acceptance level of the agreement. It indicates that what TFN negotiated in fact represents what the majority of people wanted in order to settle the claim."

"It will give them (Inuit) a greater say over their own affairs, so I think it will have an important impact on their lives because they will be the ones who are the decision makers."

Iqaluit MLA Dennis Patterson, who in the early 1980s was chairman of the Nunavut Constitutional Forum, heard the results on the radio during a meeting with deputy ministers in Yellowknife yesterday afternoon.

Patterson said he felt humbled and overwhelmed by the result. "This [Nunavut] was the reason I got started in public life. This was the reason I got involved 13 years ago and ran as MLA for Iqaluit... I feel humbled to have played an active role in making history."

As for the Nunavut Implementation Commission, he said that people who live in the Territories and who have intimate knowledge of the working of government should play lead roles in designing Nunavut.

Chesley Anderson, the vice-president of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, said in Ottawa that the result was "very positive."

"I think we had hoped for a strong positive vote, and the fact that indicators were pointing that way is a very good sign. And it's also a sign that Inuit, when they have negotiated something can back up the rationale behind that," Anderson said.

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