Key Takeaways:
- Aluki Kotierk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., wants the current government paradigm to terminate.
- Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., representing around 30,000 Inuit in Nunavut, intends to press ahead with self-government talks.
“What we had like to see is better services for Inuit in Nunavut that embrace Inuit worldviews and eliminate the current public-sector paradigm,” said NTI president Aluki Kotierk. Even though the Nunavut government was constituted in 1999 by the Nunavut Act to serve the territory’s mostly Inuit population, this is not the case.
But, as widespread poverty, need, and a high rate of suicide reveal, that hasn’t worked out after 22 years, according to Kotierk.
“All of these different indicators that influence whether or not people’s lives are improving remain disturbingly low. As a decision, it forces us to consider whether there is a better method to address the needs.” “When we interact with the Nunavut government or request certain programs, we are repeatedly often, ‘But this is a public government.'”
As a result, she added that NTI, responsible for protecting Inuit rights under the Nunavut Agreement, would have to search for other ways to address Inuit requirements. At its annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet, Delegates voted a resolution to that effect on Nov. 16.
The Nunavut Agreement has not been fulfilled.
One way the government has failed Inuit, according to Kotierk, is by failing to implement some of the articles of the Nunavut Agreement, which was signed by Inuit and the federal government in 1993 and established land and other rights for Inuit in the territory.
Article 23, for example, is concerned with Inuit employment in the public sector. According to the article, Inuit employment should reflect around 85 % of the territory’s Inuit population of 39,000 people.
According to a presentation about self-government given at the annual general meeting, the goal has never been achieved. According to a June report from the territory government, Inuit make up only 50% of the Nunavut government employees and 20% of senior management.
According to Kotierk, this impacts how services and programs are designed and maintained and the well-being of Nunavummiut. Therefore, the resolution asks the organization to seek such negotiating mandates from the federal government as a starting step.
Source: CBC NEWS
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