Makivik Magazine Issue 72

NUNAVIK notes
BOB MESHER X2
Eligibility and Enrolment
Procedures Amended
Makivik president Pita Aatami and then Minister Responsible
for Aboriginal Affairs Benoît Pelletier finalized amendments to
Inuit Beneficiary Eligibility Criteria and Enrolment Procedures
JBNQA Complementary Agreement No. 18 – Inuit Eligibility
at a signing ceremony held in Kuujjuaq on January 27 2005.
Representatives from the other JBNQA signatories, including
the Cree Regional Authority, Canada, Hydro-Québec, the Société
de développement de la Baie James and the Société d'énergie
de la Baie James, had previously signed the Complementary
Agreement.
The signing ceremony was the culmination of five years
of work, beginning at Makivik's annual general meeting in
Kuujjuaq when the members approved a proposal to amend
the provisions of the JBNQA that define eligibility criteria and
enrolment procedures for Inuit beneficiaries.
With the Complementary Agreement signed, the real work
has begun and preparations for the implementation of the new
enrolment procedures are underway. Coincidentally, on the
same day as the signing ceremony, Kaudjak Padlayat was hired
as an enrolment registrar for Nunavik. She will ensure that
enrolment committees are established, trained, and ready to
implement the new eligibility criteria and enrolment procedures.
The new procedures and criteria will actually come into effect
when the federal and Québec orders in council giving effect to
the Complementary Agreement have been adopted.
The new eligibility criteria and enrolment procedures
will allow more discretion for Inuit beneficiaries to control
who is enrolled on the register through the establishment of
enrolment committees in each Nunavik community mandated
to decide upon applications for beneficiary status based
on the new eligibility criteria. The
new criteria includes the following:
"...is an Inuk, as determined
in accordance with Inuit customs
and traditions, identifies himself
or herself as an Inuk and is associated
with an Inuit community."
In those communities where landholding
corporations exist, the
respective landholding's board of
directors and one elder will compose
the enrolment committee
and in those communities where
landholding corporations do not
exist, the enrolment committee members will be elected. A
Nunavik enrolment review committee will also be established
to hear and decide appeals from decisions of the local enrolment
committees.
The new system should be operational by the fall of
2005.
Nunavik's Nasivvik/ArcticNet
Research Advisor
The regional Inuit research advisor for the Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing
Environments and the ArcticNet Network of Centres in Nunavik is Sammy Tukkiapik.
He will assist university and government researchers in making the appropriate connections
with the communities and regional organizations, to develop Inuit led research
projects and to facilitate research in the regions on contaminants, climate change and
environmental health.
ArcticNet brings together scientists and managers in the natural, human health
and social sciences with their partners in Inuit organizations, northern communities,
government agencies and the private sector to contribute to the development and dissemination
of knowledge needed to formulate adaptation strategies and national policies
to help Canadians face the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization
in the Arctic.
Contact Sammy at (819) 964-2961, toll free: 1-877-964-2961, or email:
SATukkiapik@krg.ca.
ISABELLE DUBOIS
MAKIVIK mag a zine
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