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Framework deal may not mean more power for Nunavik

Expert says draft document’s wording is sketchy

ODILE NELSON

A recent draft of Nunavik’s new government framework agreement, obtained this week by Nunatsiaq News, does not guarantee additional powers for Nunavimmiut.

Though the draft, dated Jan. 10, 2003, does state the new government may be "innovative" and should not be "unduly restricted" by any policies that may conflict with the idea of a new government, it falls short of declaring extra powers as an objective of future negotiation.

Nor does the draft say that Nunavik’s new form of government must be based on the 2001 Nunavik Commission’s Let Us Share report, a document that recommends an "entirely new form of autonomous government for Nunavik," as well as an elected Nunavik assembly with certain law-making powers.

Instead, it says only that the new form of government "could" be based partially or completely on Let Us Share if the negotiating parties so choose.

Negotiators from Makivik Corporation, the Quebec government and the federal government have been working on the deal since August 2002.

Yet Brad Morse, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa who has represented both the federal government and aboriginal groups in other aboriginal treaty negotiations, said that although the agreement’s wording was surprisingly "sketchy," it should not concern Nunavimmiut.

"One has to appreciate what this is and it’s simply, as it is called, a framework agreement. So it is just a document that carries the approval and signature of the three parties, saying we are going to keep talking and these are some key principles that are going to guide our negotiations to come," Morse said. "It’s true that it does not guarantee there will be more powers or more money than is currently the case. But I think the objective behind the agreement is very much to do this."

Morse pointed out that the agreement is not legally binding, so it cannot truly guarantee any objective. The agreement will not be binding until it has passed through the agreement-in-principle phase, and all three parties sign a final agreement.

The framework agreement has been the subject of much debate between Makivik and the Kativik School Board in recent months.

But the agreement only became public after the Kativik School Board sought an injunction against Makivik in November.

The school board is asking a Quebec court to impose a freeze on talks between Makivik and the Quebec and federal governments. It claims Makivk does not have the mandate to represent Nunavimmiut at the table.

The school board is worried that the framework agreement will not guarantee current levels of education services and funding in the region.

It claims the agreement simply rearranges the furniture in Nunavik, because it proposes to amalgamate the school board, the Kativik Regional Government, the health board and the regional development council into a "Unified Entity," but does not propose additional powers.

Morse acknowledged that the draft agreement contains vague wording that could potentially weaken the current quality and level of existing public services within the region.

For example, one paragraph in the draft document states any new government in Nunavik will maintain the quality and level of services — but only after taking into account the "economic realities" of Quebec and Canada.

But he said the school board’s worries might stem more from the fear of change than a true threat to the region’s education system. If what the school board seeks is a funding guarantee from Makivik and the other negotiators, Morse said, the organization is seeking something it does not even enjoy now.

"There’s nothing that guarantees what the school board has right now will be kept up under the current government," Morse said. "School boards get their budgets cut sometimes."

Even if such a guarantee were in the document, Morse said such promises could be broken, because the agreement itself has no legal legs to stand on.

Even the final legal agreement will not be signed without the ratification of Nunavimmiut, Morse said. Until there is a legally ratified agreement, he said, all the arguing between Makivik and the school board achieves is to create the perception of a fractured region.

"What is clear to me is, the more infighting that goes on in Nunavik, the weaker the Inuit will be in their negotiations. Therefore the less likely it is to be successful in the negotiations or at least to achieve the kind of objectives they’ve been articulating for quite a while," Morse said.

The three negotiating parties have been fine-tuning the agreement’s wording since this draft was printed in January.

A final draft was to go before an Inuit technical advisory committee this week in Kuujjuaq.

However, sources told Nunatsiaq News the meeting has since involved all negotiating parties. The Kativik School Board maintains it was not invited to the meeting.

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