Perhaps the most eyecatching thing about the budget is property taxes, which are set to increase by 4.62 per cent. The most controversial at the council meeting Monday evening? Transit fares.

Michelle Wolf was charged with one count of assault after an incident in a classroom at Sakku School in Coral Harbour in 2023.

The federal government has turned to Inuk leader Aluki Kotierk, the former president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., to lead a review of its Nutrition North Canada food subsidy program.

Northern Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced Kotierk’s appointment as the minister’s special representative Tuesday in Ottawa.

The review will give northerners the chance to have input on lasting improvements to Nutrition North, Kotierk said.

“Northerners have the knowledge and experience to determine what works best for their communities,” she said in a news release issued after the announcement.

Her new position is independent of the federal public service, whose bureaucrats manage the federal subsidy program that uses government funding to lower the relatively high market prices for food in the North.

Kotierk will report directly to Anandasangaree, a news release issued after the announcement said.

Her mandate will be to meet with national and regional Indigenous organizations, retailers, transportation providers and others involved in ensuring the supply of food in the North.

The purpose of her review is to evaluate Nutrition North’s effectiveness.

“We are delivering on our commitment to improve access to healthy and affordable food for all northerners,” Anandasangaree said in the news release.

Last October, then minister of northern affairs Dan Vandal said the federal Liberal government would conduct a review of the program in the face of criticism that the money the government puts into the subsidy program isn’t used properly.

Vandal said a special representative would be appointed early in 2025.

Ottawa created Nutrition North in 2011 in a bid to make essential foods more affordable and more accessible to people who live in 124 isolated northern communities, including all 25 municipalities in Nunavut and 14 in Nunavik.

Over the years, there have been complaints that retailers take the government’s subsidy but don’t pass along the full savings to their northern customers.

The NDP, including Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, have said the government should give the money directly to northerners — instead of to retailers — to ensure the full subsidy amount reaches the people it’s intended to help.

On Wednesday, Idlout said in a written statement that Kotierk’s work must be “swift with strong actions” to ensure the program helps to alleviate poverty.

Idlout said Kotierk is well respected, adding she wished her the best in “getting to the bottom of how badly the Liberals have mismanaged” Nutrition North.

Kotierk, who is originally from Igloolik, had been president of NTI, the Inuit rights-holding organization in Nunavut, for eight years. She did not seek a third term in last December’s presidential election, clearing the way for Jeremy Tunraluk to succeed her.

The Nunavut government has been assured that airline service for Nunavummiut will not be affected after Canadian North was tentatively sold to a Winnipeg firm for $205 million.

“We look forward to engaging with Exchange Income Corp. and Canadian North throughout this transition to ensure air services remain reliable, accessible and sustainable,” David Akeeagok, the minister of Economic Development and Transportation, said in the legislative assembly Tuesday.

Exchange Income Corp. is a Winnipeg firm that already owns Calm Air and Keewatin Air, both operating in Nunavut. It announced a deal Monday to buy Bradley Air Services Ltd., which operates as Canadian North, for $205 million from Makivvik and Inuvialuit Regional Corp., the two Inuit organizations that own the airline.

The acquisition does not include the route between Kuujjuaq and Montreal. Makivvik will maintain ownership of that route and flights will be transitioned to Air Inuit, Makivvik’s other airline, starting Oct. 1.

The sale is yet to be finalized and requires approvals and other “closing conditions” which are expected to occur later this year, Exchange Income Corp.’s news release said.

None of the Nunavut Inuit associations had the opportunity to consider acquiring Canadian North, Akeeagok said in response to a question by Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Janet Brewster at the Legislative Assembly.

Brewster expressed concerns about a southern-based company monopolizing the airline industry serving Nunavut.

“We have a very small air market and population in Nunavut, and that’s the reality,” Akeeagok said.

Shelly De Caria, Canadian North’s president and CEO, declined to comment for this story.

Police in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., are investigating what they're calling a suspicious death in the community, after they found the body of a 29-year-old man in a residence.

The federal government is appointing former Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) president Aluki Kotierk to oversee an external review of the Nutrition North subsidy. 

Randall Blake of Fort McPherson, N.W.T., has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with a house fire that killed a young woman in the community in 2023.

The Ukrainian Canadian Association of the Yukon is holding a candlelight vigil in Whitehorse on Tuesday evening to mark three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

RCMP in Fort Good Hope say the death of a 29-year-old man who was found deceased on Monday is being treated as suspicious.

Kativik Regional Government senior adviser Guy Yango updates council members on the creation of the Public Security Committee, announced in November. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

The Kativik Regional Government is building a mandate for its new public security committee, which is being created in response to the death of Joshua Papigatuk last year at the hands of police.

“Ever since the incident that happened in Salluit, we had a lot of conversations on how to respond and what actions to take,” said Guy Yango, senior adviser for Kativik Regional Government, during a KRG council meeting Monday.

Nunavik Police Service officers shot and killed Joshua Papigatuk and injured his twin brother, Garnet Papigatuk, on Nov. 4 during an altercation. Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des Enquêtes Indépendantes, is investigating.

The incident led to protests in Salluit and beyond.

Yango updated council on the work to create the public safety committee, saying representatives from KRG and Makivvik Corp. met earlier in February to “talk about structure, composition, and accountability measures.”

The committee will include two representatives each from KRG, Makkivik and the Nunavik Police Service, and two permanent observers, which could be former police officers or members from the public.

Planning is still in “initial stages,” Yango said, adding the next meeting has not yet been scheduled.

“There is still an awful lot of stress and bad feelings in the community,” said Stephen Grasser, Salluit’s KRG council representative.

“It is hard for us to respond and really meet the needs of that family until we get the report from the [police watchdog].”

Salluit representative Stephen Grasser says the village is still under stress after police shot and killed resident Joshua Papigatuk last November. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

Grasser said he wants the report to be released in Salluit in Inuktitut, French and English.

“That is the only way I think the family and the friends of the two brothers will get some level of satisfaction that justice is being served,” he said.

Grasser, alongside the rest of council, said he intends to vote this week on a resolution that would request the watchdog to release the report in Inuktitut.

Nunavik police Chief Jean-Pierre Larose expressed support for the committee.

“We need your suggestions, we need your input, we want to be better,” Larose told council members.

“The incident in Salluit disturbed us, as you, as everybody. Let us work together and try to increase our trust, increase our relations.”

Ideas were floated at the council meeting to improve relationships. One would see officers play hockey in the community. Another was to have community members and police officers go hunting on the land together, without the police uniform.

There were also calls to create an independent body to oversee policing in Nunavik. Deputy Chief Jean-François Morin said that there has been an open position for a civilian adviser at the Nunavik Police Service for years.

“We have tried to approach people,” he said.

“Our goal was to have a civilian person from Nunavik to help with the relations between the police and the different organizations, and it is something that we still have interest in finding a candidate for.”

Larose said it would be good to have that ombudsman attached to KRG, which could help Nunavik police navigate communication with communities when major events happen like what occurred in Salluit.

Randall Blake pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the December 2023 death of 22-year-old Clara Blake. He will be sentenced in Fort McPherson this summer.

A jury acquitted Robin Williams of six violent offences last month. Now, the Crown has stayed the remaining eight charges Williams was facing.

Tununiq MLA Karen Nutarak wants the Health Department to bring paramedics back to communities to help backfill vacant health-care positions.

The Health Department rolled out the measure in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to widespread nursing shortages. Paramedics were sent in pairs to communities where health centres were closed due to this issue.

“Having the paramedics working in our communities was working,” Nutarak told Nunatsiaq News in an email Tuesday.

“The department often changes what is working in the communities.”

She pointed to the fact that in Pond Inlet, the health centre’s extended hours are suspended until March 17 due to a lack of staff. Appointments can still be made between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Nutarak raised the issue Feb. 20 in the legislative assembly.

“Paramedics are very beneficial to the community,” she told Health Minister John Main when asking why they’d been pulled from Pond Inlet.

Main responded that the Health Department moved last year to “a more structured approach” in deploying paramedics.

“The use of paramedics began as a response to staff shortages and as a way to make sure that we can keep our health centres open and keep services available,” Main said.

Now, directors within each region will identify which communities need paramedics. From there, they submit a request to the paramedic contractor for staff for that specific community.

Hamlets with historically higher emergency care visits, high nursing vacancies and risks of severe service disruptions, are among the factors considered when deciding where to send paramedics, said Chelsea Halvorson, spokesperson with the Department of Health.

“It’s not working,” Nutarak said of the change. “Why change what was working well?”

She said every community has nurse staffing issues and it’s not uncommon for health centres to reduce services to care only for emergencies.

“Often new employees like to change things within their control to what they think is good for the people of Nunavut,” Nutarak said. “Often they are wrong.”

In the legislative assembly, she also highlighted the need for physicians in Pond Inlet and asked Main when the hamlet’s health-care positions will be fully staffed.

“We do have ongoing challenges with our staffing of the mental health nurse positions, not just in Pond Inlet but in many locations,” Main said in response.

He said job sharing, using casual staff and having 20 physicians who travel among the communities are ways health-care needs are being addressed for communities without a resident physician.

A cruise ship employee charged with child pornography offences last year has seen the charges against him stayed and has returned to his home country of Mauritius.

“Though late, I was granted justice,” Akshay Somaroo said in a written statement to Nunatsiaq News through his lawyer Lauren Shadley.

He also thanked Shadley, his family and the Canadian justice system in the statement.

Somaroo, 31, a Mauritian national, was arrested Sept. 1 in a joint operation carried out by the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency with support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

RCMP alleged one photograph of an underaged male was found by border services officers on the cruise ship World Explorer after it arrived in Frobisher Bay, according to court documents.

Somaroo was charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of importing child pornography.

Prosecuting lawyers filed the stay of proceedings Feb. 7 on Somaroo’s case, putting a halt to court proceedings with no presumption of guilt or innocence. If, after a year, the Crown does not resume prosecution, the charge is “deemed never to have been commenced,” according to the Criminal Code of Canada.

On every file, the prosecution “applies the decision to prosecute test, which requires a reasonable prospect of conviction, and public interest to prosecute,” Nathalie Houle, communications adviser at the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

“A stay of proceeding being entered by the prosecution means that the PPSC concluded that the decision to prosecute test was not met.”

Shadley filed a motion in January arguing Somaroo’s rights under Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms were violated as a result of the search that led to his arrest.

Section 8 ensures everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. The motion was set to be argued in court on March 6.

Somaroo was released from custody the same day the stay was filed. By then, he had spent approximately four months in an Iqaluit jail.

The first-ever Joel Tetso Memorial Hockey Tournament will be held in Fort Smith, N.W.T., from March 14 to 16. It was created to honour Tetso, who died in a plane crash in January 2024.

Three construction seasons after the Government of Nunavut announced its Nunavut 3000 housing plan, territory has about 350 completed housing units and another 500 under construction.

“The investment’s there, contracts are signed, so they’re getting built,” said Eiryn Devereaux, president of Nunavut Housing Corp.

Devereaux gave an update Feb. 18 on the progress toward the GN’s $2.6-billion goal to build 3,000 units in Nunavut by 2030. The government announced the plan in October 2022. Devereaux’s update came during a panel discussion on housing challenges at the Aqsarniit Trade Show and Conference in Ottawa.

Nunavut Housing Corporation told Nunatsiaq News in November that it had completed 394 units as part of Nunavut 3000. Nunatsiaq News asked Nunavut Housing Corporation on Feb. 19 to clarify Devereaux’s numbers against the higher number the corporation previously provided.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 25, the housing corporation has not provided a response.

The housing corporation is the recipient of the largest share of the GN’s 2025-26 capital spending plan, released Oct. 24. It is getting $109.7 million out of $353.8 million of estimated capital projects.

Since Nunavut 3000 was unveiled in 2022, 855 building permits have been approved, followed by construction work. The total amount spent so far comes out to approximately $600 million, Devereaux said.

The housing corporation is responsible for 633 of those builds, worth about $440 million.

Nunavut Housing Corp. and NCC Development Corp. are directly responsible for construction of nearly half of all the planned homes, approximately 1,400 of which are to become public housing units.

The corporation is aiming to bring construction materials for 120 to 140 new units in the 2025 sealift season, Devereaux said.

But along with building new units, the corporation is hoping to bring more Inuit into the skilled labour force though training, Devereaux said.

About 75 per cent of skilled labour is imported from the south.

“There’s huge potential if we were able to achieve that in terms of money recirculating into the economy, so hopefully, that’s the next big thing that’s on the radar,” he said.

Devereaux spoke at the panel along with Clarence Synard, president of NCC Development Ltd., and Patrick Payette of Ikajurtigiit Solidarity Coop.

The trade show ran from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20.

A new Inuit-led initiative is improving access to local weather data in Nunavut with the launch of Silanga.ca, a website dedicated to sharing information from community weather stations.

The website was developed by Silanniarviit, a group of community members who act as weather station managers. The platform, which went live last week, aims to enhance safety and decision-making for people travelling on the land, ice and water.

“It’s the communities that had asked for this type of weather service,” he said.

“We’re all like-minded individuals who would like better weather information systems for our local people to determine when to go out on the land or waters.”

The network consists of stations in Igloolik, Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet and Grise Fiord, with Sanirajak expected to be added soon. The locations of the stations — which consist of equipment protected in a metal case, installed on a tripod that’s about 3.5 metres tall — were chosen by community members based on their travel routes and traditional harvesting areas.

The effort began in 2022 when community members expressed the need for weather stations to be located in areas where people hunt, camp, and travel — far from the airport-based stations that provide most existing weather data, said Andrew Arreak, a regional operations lead for SmartICE in Pond Inlet.

The stations were designed with Arctic conditions in mind. They are equipped with tools to measure wind speed and direction, as well as temperature and humidity sensors. A solar-powered battery system ensures year-round operation, and data is transmitted hourly via satellite.

The website features an interactive map, displaying information from community-maintained weather stations. But data is provided on a best-effort basis and accuracy is not always guaranteed, the website advises.

To address this, community members actively monitor and maintain the stations. They record conditions, take photos, and verify data accuracy.

“By documenting when we go to these stations, we are recording what the conditions are like in the area, so we can know that they are accurate,” Arreak said.

Andrew Arreak, the community weather station network manager in Pond Inlet, works to install a weather station on the land. (Photo courtesy of Derek Mueller)

The initiative also focuses on training local technicians to deploy and maintain the stations.

“It provides a bit of income for our technicians and educates them on why we have these weather stations, how they work, and who they’re for,” Arreak said.

David Didier, a coastal geography professor at the University of Quebec at Rimouski, worked with Terry Noah, owner of Ausuittuq Adventures, to install Grise Fiord’s first trial community weather station on Sept. 1.

Grise Fiord’s landscape and location on the southern coast of Ellesmere Island influences local weather, so additional stations are planned for in the area to provide more accurate wind and wave-impact assessments.

“Sharing with the youth knowledge about the land, having better understanding of the weather and how it affects the coast, as well as being able to better predict what will happen in our hunting areas is one of the goals,” Didier said.

He worked closely with Noah on past research projects in Grise Fiord, including studying coastal erosion and its impact on the community in 2021.

As Silanga.ca continues to develop, Arreak said he is optimistic about its potential.

“The website is still in progress, and we’re improving it,” he said.

“It’s also in Inuktitut as well as English, which strengthens our language for younger generations who are now using digital tools more often.”

The initiative has received funding from the federal Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada’s Indigenous Community-Based Climate Monitoring program and ArcticNet.

However, maintaining and expanding the network remains a challenge.

“Funding is a big deal to run these stations,” Arreak said. “It ensures they are maintained and that our technicians receive an income for their work.”

On Feb. 17, Arreak and other community members gathered in Iqaluit for a weeklong workshop focused on enhancing community weather monitoring. The event provided a platform to discuss the project, exchange knowledge and collaborate on future improvements.

As more communities take interest, both Arreak and Didier said they hope the project can expand further.

Councillors are again mulling how to address Yellowknife's ageing drinking water infrastructure. The cost to replace an existing pipeline has nearly doubled.

A woman's medical records were unlawfully accessed time and time again over a period of months by two siblings at the NWT's health authority, a report states.

Sandra Noel was born in Inuvik and adopted as a baby. Next month, for the first time, she and her two biological sisters will be in the same room together.

Some residents in Tłı̨chǫ communities get to move into new homes this year through a partnership between NWT Housing and the Tłı̨chǫ Investment Corporation.

Ottawa and the GNWT agreed fresh conservation funding, saying they will work with Indigenous governments and organizations to protect more of the territory.

For the first time, Carcross/Tagish First Nation elders and land guardians helped plan and execute annual Canadian Armed Forces exercises in the Yukon.

A dispute over the validity of a Gwich'in Tribal Council board meeting in Edmonton earlier this month is headed to NWT Supreme Court.

A jury found Robin Williams not guilty on six charges of assault. On Monday, the Crown prosecutor stayed the remaining eight charges against Williams for assault and sexual assault. Williams says the case has had a devastating impact on his life.

In court documents obtained by CBC, the plaintiffs say that a Feb 3. board meeting amounted to an attempted “hostile takeover” of the Gwich’in Tribal Council by Frederick Blake Jr. and other board members who were present.

A Winnipeg firm that owns several northern airlines has announced it plans to buy Canadian North, the airline that serves the Arctic.

Exchange Income Corp. said it made a deal to buy Bradley Air Services Ltd., which operates as Canadian North, for $205 million from the two Inuit organizations that own the airline. It announced the plan in a news release issued Monday afternoon.

Nunavik-based Makivvik, one of Canadian North’s two co-owners, announced in its own news release that it is selling its share of the airline. Inuvialuit Regional Corp., which co-owns the airline, announced in a social media post it was doing the same.

“Having a strong parent company with roots in northern aviation is critical to our success,” said Shelly De Caria, Canadian North’s CEO, who is quoted in the Exchange Income Corp. release.

Exchange Income Corp. also owns Calm Air and Keewatin Air, which both operate in Nunavut.

“Combining our aviation resources, knowledge, and assets with the team at Canadian North, will lead to increased efficiency and enhanced service levels in the region,” said Mike Pyle, Exchange Income Corp.’s CEO, in his company’s release.

Not included in the acquisition is the route between Kuujjuaq and Montreal, with Makivvik maintaining ownership of that route.

Makivvik said it plans to transition those flights to Air Inuit, its other airline, starting Oct. 1.

“Air Inuit’s recent introduction of modern jets will ensure a high standard of service is maintained, and the Inuit of Nunavik will continue to have a voice in the airline services that support their region,” a Makivvik news release said.

The purchase is not final. Both Makivvik and Exchange Income Corp. said the closing of the sale requires regulatory approvals and other “closing conditions,” which are expected to occur later this year.

Bradley Air Ltd. has been under the ownership of Makivvik since 1990, when it operated as First Air.

In 2019, Canadian North and First Air merged.

The Inuit organizations that own Canadian North say they have agreed to sell the airline to Winnipeg-based Exchange Income Corporation for $205 million.

Nunavut’s finance minister tabled a budget Monday that he said reflects the territory’s “unwavering commitment” to improving the lives and well-being of residents. 

Canadian Rangers in Igloolik are searching for a teen who has been missing since Saturday.

Shawn Kukkik was last seen walking behind the high school and up the hill toward the hamlet’s inuksuk, George Qaunaq, chief administrative officer for the hamlet, said Monday.

Kukkik was expected home on Saturday evening, he said.

“The search is still going on by [search and rescue] volunteers. We haven’t seen him since Saturday around 4 to 5 p.m,” David Quassa, Kukkik’s father, said in a text message to Nunatsiaq News on Monday.

“He just turned 19 this month, he plays Fortnite and online games with his friends,” he said, describing his son.

In a photo posted on social media, Kukkik is shown holding an award.

“[That’s] him receiving his highest math awards late last year,” Quassa said.

On Monday, Aggu MLA Joanna Quassa recognized the Rangers in the legislature for their efforts in the search for Kukkik.

Quassa’s riding includes Igloolik, and she is also Quassa’s sister-in-law and Kukkik’s aunt.

The Canadian Rangers have been searching since 9 a.m. Monday, Quanaq said.

“They have already searched all of the cabins around the island” and other common locations.

“If that isn’t successful by nightfall, with the help of firefighters they will be going door-to-door,” he said.

Nunatisaq News contacted the RCMP for comment on the search, but did not receive a response Monday afternoon.

Nunavut’s budget for the coming fiscal year forecasts a $124-million deficit while increasing spending on health and family services programs.

Finance Minister Lorne Kusugak presented the government’s spending plan for 2025-26 in the legislative assembly Monday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters, Kusugak said he does not believe the deficit will have a “long-term negative impact” on the government.

“We’ve built up enough surpluses over the years, I believe, to begin to tackle some of these deficit situations that we bring forward,” he said.

The main focus of spending in Monday’s budget involves operations and maintenance, which combined will cost almost $2.3 billion.

The budget calls for about $3.3 billion in spending. That includes operations expenditures, such as day-to-day costs like salaries; the GN’s $350-million capital plan that was announced in the fall and includes various purchases, renovations and construction projects, as well as money set aside for unexpected shortfalls or emergency spending.

The GN is expected to take in $3.1 billion in revenue. Approximately 75 per cent of that consists of $2.4 billion in transfer payments from the federal government.

In his budget speech, Kusugak touted the $580 million the GN plans to allocate to health care this coming fiscal year, which he said is a $66-million increase in spending for the Health Department. That includes $25 million for paramedic services — an $11.5 million increase — and $134 million for out-of-territory hospital and physician services, an increase of $20.4 million.

The budget also increases spending on elder care, community health centres and travel for health-care workers.

The Department of Family Services will see a nearly $33.5-million funding increase through the operations budget, bringing its total to $228.5 million.

Much of that “is to address the department’s perennial operations and maintenance deficit,” Kusugak said in his speech.

Other departments set to spend more on their operations include Education at $289.5 million, up from $279.7 million, and Nunavut Housing Corp. at $285 million, an increase over last year’s $269.3 million.

The budget also factors in the two new government departments that are set to be established this year.

The new Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will have a $262-million operating budget.

The Department of Community Services will operate with $162 million and include the establishment of Service Nunavut, a “one-stop shop” where residents will be able to access government services, Kusugak said in his speech.

These two departments will replace the departments of Community and Government Services, as well as Economic Development and Transportation. The change takes effect April 1, the start of the government’s new fiscal year.

This is the final budget Kusugak will table as part of the current government ahead of the Oct. 27 territorial election.

“It’s never easy to be dealing with trying to put a budget together,” Kusugak said to reporters.

“It would be important to make sure that we at least get most, if not all, the things we want to get done before … before the next eight months are up.”

Jody Wilson-Raybould is set to deliver the keynote address at the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce's Trailblazers Symposium ahead of International Women's Day.

Celine Mantla says it has been a very difficult time for her since that day when RCMP knocked on her door to say her son Germaine had been hit by a vehicle. A trial is now underway for a woman accused of dangerous driving causing Germain Mantla's death.

Nunavut RCMP say they have found no criminality in the deaths of two young people at Naja Isabelle Home in Chesterfield Inlet. 

Four properties belonging to Range Lake Developments are on the list, with 2023 tax arrears totalling over $100,000. That number makes up just over half of the town's total tax arrears for 2023, including both residential and commercial properties.

Canada’s Arctic Ocean represents an “enormous economic opportunity” but exploiting that potential wealth must be balanced with conservation.

That was the message panelists at last week’s Aqsarniit Trade Show and Conference in Ottawa stressed during a discussion on ocean innovation on Feb. 20.

“By 2030, the ocean economy globally will outpace the growth of the broader economy,” said panel moderator Nancy Andrews, who added it could be worth US$3 trillion by then.

More offshore oil and gas drilling, seabed mining, offshore wind and tidal energy, and aquaculture are drivers of this growth, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international group of 38 member countries, in a 2016 report called The Ocean Economy in 2030.

The panel discussion, called “Accelerating Ocean Innovation in the Arctic,” was presented by Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, an industry-led ocean innovation organization that supports development of new ocean startup companies.

The organization has set an ambitious target of five times growth in the sector by 2035.

The ocean, or “blue,” economy is currently worth $44 billion. They hope to grow that amount by 500 per cent to $220 billion annually by 2035.

“It is an unbelievable opportunity for the people who live in the Arctic and the people who run the Arctic,” said Adam Fisher, associate deputy minister for economic development at the Government of Nunavut.

The panel was tasked to consider what this growth could mean for the Arctic Ocean in particular.

Panelist Harry Flaherty, president of the Qikiqtaaluk Corp., said the most important component to think about is conservation.

“Us Inuit that live in the North, our main concern will always be conservation, the well-being of wildlife, the air we breathe, the ocean we travel within,” he said. “That is within the mandate of the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation.”

He said he feels achieving this amount of growth is not a “lofty goal,” but is contingent on receiving increased investment from the south.

Increasing investment would open up “huge economic development opportunities in the ocean economy, in fisheries, tourism, marine transportation, mining and defence,” Flaherty said.

The Government of Nunavut is still struggling to reach a deal with the federal government to fund a health services program covering medical boarding homes and dental care for Inuit, says Health Minister John Main.

Speaking in the Nunavut legislative assembly Feb. 20, Main told MLAs his department has found itself in a “difficult situation” with Indigenous Services Canada for a funding agreement for the Non-Insured Health Benefits program.

The comments came up when Rankin Inlet North-Chesterfield Inlet MLA Alexander Sammurtok pressed Main about the possibility of building a medical boarding home for patients travelling through Rankin Inlet — something he’s asked the GN about many times in the past.

For the boarding home, Main said his department is still working on a feasibility study.

“The plan would be to take that study to Indigenous Services Canada, who pays for the boarding homes, and use that study to say, ‘Look, this is what’s need and let’s work together to make it happen,'” Main said, adding the federal government would be responsible for operating a boarding home in Rankin Inlet, if one were built.

Main then went on to give a broader update on discussions between the GN and federal government regarding funding for the program.

“I’m sad to report that we are again running into delays and barriers to securing a contribution agreement for the upcoming fiscal year for non-insured health benefits,” Main said.

“It’s very concerning, because it’s tens of millions of dollars of expense.”

The non-insured health benefits program is a “federal responsibility,” Main said. Therefore, he stated, Ottawa needs to cover “100 per cent” of its cost.

“We want to use the Nunavut government dollars for things that Nunavummiut need,” Main said.

“We don’t want to be covering bills on behalf of our federal partners.”

Main declined to speak further on the issue when asked by reporters after the sitting.

He said he would have more to say this week.

Main made similar comments about a year ago in the legislative assembly. At the time, he threatened to send administration of the Non-Insured Health Benefits program to Ottawa.

Main announced in May the two sides had reached a $190-million interim deal, which is now set to expire next month.

Indigenous Services Canada has not responded to Nunatsiaq News’ request for comment.