Former Nunavik health board chair sets sights on Makivik leadership

Makivik presidential candidate Alasie Arngak is pictured here in 2011 signing a health funding agreement when she served as chair of the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services. (FILE PHOTO)

Alasie Arngak says Nunavik’s Inuit birthright corporation needs to turn its attention to the well-being of its elders and youth.

That’s what the Kangiqsujuaq woman hopes to do if elected as Makivik Corp.’s president on Thursday, Jan. 18. Arngak is one of five candidates running for the role. It’s her first run for a position on Makivik’s executive.

“It’s a really big organization, but it hasn’t been active to the people of Nunavik,” she said. “There’s so much to be done.”

Argnak said, if elected, she also hopes to encourage better collaboration with other regional organizations in Nunavik to deliver on programs and services.

“There’s not much collaboration with the Kativik School Board (Kativik Ilisarniliriniq), Kativik Regional Government, the health board or Avataq (Cultural Institute),” Arngak said.

“And we need it. Our communities are isolated from each other and we need more support.”

Arngak said there are pressing social issues in the region, especially among Nunavimmiut youth, who make up about three-quarters of the region’s population.

“We have youth houses and gymnasiums, but there could be more activities,” she said. “Anything that will bring youth to be more active, instead of using drugs and alcohol.”

Arngak said that is an especially high priority in Kangiqsujuaq, where the local youth house was partially destroyed in a recent fire.

Arngak said Makivik Corp. should also play a bigger role in helping high school graduates access more funding and support to enroll in southern college programs.

On the opposite end of the age spectrum, Arngak said Nunavik’s elders are struggling to make ends meet. They pay too high taxes, Arngak said, and if elected, she would make a point to lobby for a tax exemption among seniors.

“I’m very close to our elders and I talk to them a lot,” Arngak said. “They’re struggling. I think Makivik has the right to work on that.”

Arngak also hopes to improve communications at Nunavik’s Inuit birthright organization, where she said the current five-member executive does work well together.

For the most part, Arngak said the organization is mainly represented by one executive member—its vice-president of resource development, Adamie Delisle Alaku.

“If there’s no communication in that organization, it’s not going to go anywhere,” she said. “And we are in a crisis.”

Arngak’s experience in Nunavik politics includes serving as a board member and chair of the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services for roughly two decades.

In 2011, Arngak and then-executive director Jeannie May were investigated for alleged credit card misuse at the NRBHSS, though the health board never publicly concluded any wrongdoing and Arngak stayed on as a board member.

She has also served on Kangiqsujuaq’s education committee and as a board member for the local daycare, wellness committee and landholding corporation.

Arngak is running in a five-way race for president, which ends Jan. 18, when Nunavimmiut go to the polls.

The role of president is the only one of five executive positions up for election this year. Makivik executives are elected to three-year terms.

The other president candidates are incumbent president Jobie Tukkiapik, Charlie Watt, Lucy Grey and Jackie Williams.