Administration

It has been one year since I took over as CEO of NTI. This has been enough time to evaluate the organization. I can report that NTI is at a crossroads in its development and the time has come to make strong decisions about its future.
When NTI was established in 1993, our mandate was to foster Inuit economic, social and cultural well-being through the implementation of the NLCA. We did this by setting up economic development organizations and channeling funds from the Nunavut Trust into them. We also negotiated the implementation of the government’s obligations under the NLCA to ensure they were implemented in a way that brought benefits to Inuit. These obligations included the
Nunavut Wildlife Act, the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti (NNI) Policy, legislation to support the NWB and the Surface Rights Tribunal (SRT). We negotiated an umbrella Inuit Impact and Benefits Agreement (IIBA) for territorial parks and we ensured that Inuit interests
were maintained in various transboundary agreements. We are currently negotiating several other IIBAs under NLCA Articles 8 and 9.
NTI and its partners have succeeded, by persistent lobbying of DIAND and DFO, to increase the turbot quota in Baffin Bay from 27 per cent to 68 per cent, and the shrimp quota from 19 per
cent to 41 per cent. This is far from where we want to be, but it is still an extraordinary achievement in the face of powerful fishing interests in the Atlantic Provinces.
NTI has also made itself politically influential by taking the lead in forming a coalition of every comprehensive land claims organization in the country and by putting on two national conferences on implementation in Ottawa.
NTI’s five-year effort to negotiate a new Implementation Contract was vindicated by Thomas Berger’s Final Report on the Implementation of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Thirty-two years after Berger won the landmark case in the Supreme Court of Canada that resulted in
Canada’s land claims process, Berger completed his report on the Government of Canada’s progress in implementing the country’s largest land claim, the NLCA. Berger was appointed conciliator last May when NTI, GN and Government of Canada negotiations to update the NLCA
Implementation Contract reached an impasse after four years. In his report, Berger said he is not pleased with the federal government’s progress.
Berger’s major recommendation called for the establishment of an Inuktitut and English bilingual education system in Nunavut from Kindergarten to Grade 12 as the only way government can meet the fundamental promise it made in the NLCA to increase the level of Inuit employment in the public and private sectors of Nunavut. He also recommended six short-term measures, including secure funding for an expanded Nunavut Sivuniksavut program, to boost Inuit
employment in the near future.
Berger’s report is a victory for Inuit. The report places the education system, which Berger called a failure, at the heart of the promise of Nunavut, and called for the Government of Canada and the GN to make sweeping changes to the school system in Nunavut. NTI has consistently told government the education system is not working – 76 per cent of our students drop out before completing Grade 12 compared to 25 per cent in the rest of
Canada. This English only education system is failing us and not serving our children
or the future of Nunavut.
One of NTI’s largest tasks this year was to represent Inuit interests under Article 32. This covers all the government activities which may impact on Inuit social and cultural lives. These include the complicated and difficult areas of education, language, health, justice, and many others. It has been NTI’s task to protect and pre-serve Inuit culture and language interests
as the GN wrestled with the task of delivering services and programs that are appropriate for Nunavut. This has not always been successful because the public service is largely made up of officials recruited in southern Canada who are not familiar with Nunavut or the GN’s obligations under the NLCA.
NTI’s mandate is broad and complex, and our attempts to monitor, influence, and consult with two governments on all of their activities has stretched NTI’s resources and caused the organization to expand while attempting to live up to our Excess and Shortfall Spending Policy,
which requires NTI to meet its financial commitments to the Nunavut Trust. NTI has grown significantly over the last few years and steps are being taken to develop a strategic plan that will guide our future for the long term.
It is troubling that the turnout for NTI elections has declined from 72 per cent in 1992 when the ratification vote was taken to 23 per cent in the most recent election for 1st Vice-President and Vice-President of Finance. This voter apathy is occurring in spite of significant Inuit achievements. This is a clear signal that the organization must change. The task is not going to be easy. Unlike all other land claims organizations, NTI does not have self-government
responsibilities, nor is it a corporation like Makivik Corporation, which actively runs businesses. Beneficiaries do not see us at work because NTI’s primary job is to influence government. This takes a long time and often the most effective work takes place behind closed doors in
negotiations with government, in lobbying efforts in southern Canada or in written articles and papers that do not appear in the Northern media.
The Board of Directors has instructed me to develop a strategic plan that will make NTI and its family of Inuit organizations more efficient while retaining its effectiveness. This has been my priority this year and the Board of Directors will present the options they have reviewed.