Baker Lake Mayor Kevin Iksiktaaryuk gave notice Tuesday that he has resigned from the hamlet’s leadership role.

In a letter addressed to the municipal council and the community, Iksiktaaryuk cited “ongoing responsibilities, high expectations, and stress” as reasons for stepping down.

Iksiktaaryuk won a two-person race for mayor in 2023 after former mayor Richard Aksawnee announced he would not seek re-election. Iksiktaaryuk also ran for mayor in the 2019 election and previously served as a council member from December 2017 to October 2019.

In his letter, he said he did not expect the mayor’s position to become a “full-time commitment” and found it difficult to balance the part-time role with his career and family.

Iksiktaaryuk listed ongoing and future projects to be undertaken by the community’s leadership, including construction of a new community library, men’s shelter, emergency services garage and police detachment.

The need to reform bylaws, such as council procedures and indemnities, as well as lands administration, was also mentioned in his letter.

Under Nunavut law, when a municipality faces a vacancy in the mayor’s office, councillors can vote to either appoint a new mayor or hold a byelection.

Nunatsiaq News could not reach Iksiktaaryuk and the hamlet office Tuesday about the mayor’s resignation and how the hamlet will fill the vacancy.

The health leadership council being replaced by a public administrator said the change was made without its input. Multiple MLAs, meanwhile, backed the move.

In a letter posted to the hamlet's Facebook page on Tuesday, Kevin Iksiktaaryuk said he's leaving the job.

Jeremy Tunraluk, the newly elected president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., spent the day after Monday’s election accepting congratulations and charting out his presidency.

“It’s a very emotional day,” he said Tuesday morning, less than 12 hours after the votes were counted. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”

Tunraluk won the top job at NTI, the organization responsible for ensuring obligations to Inuit under the Nunavut Agreement are met, by a 515-vote margin.

He took 5,730 votes, winning over second-place finisher Cathy Towtongie’s 5,215 votes. Andrew Nakashuk came third with 3,628 votes and Nicole Camphaug finished fourth with 2,092 votes, according to unofficial results posted on NTI’s website Tuesday morning.

The day after the election, he met with Premier P.J. Akeeagok, who dropped by the NTI office in Iqaluit to offer his congratulations.

“I told the Premier, we’re not always going to agree,” said Tunraluk, a 38-year-old former secretary-treasurer at the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the same organization Akeeagok led before he became premier.

“Looking to the future, I would like to work side by side with the government.”

Hanging over their emerging relationship is a lawsuit NTI filed against the Government of Nunavut in October 2021, arguing the territorial government is not providing Inuktut language education to the same extent as English and French instruction.

In November, the GN asked the Supreme Court of Canada to kill NTI’s lawsuit, after the Nunavut Court of Appeal ruled the matter could go to trial.

Tunraluk said he wants to offer a second chance in the form of another last-ditch round of negotiations before heading back to court.

“If we can work things out and avoid going to court, I would like to,” he said. “If we’re able to slow things down and make sure the language law is actually able to serve Inuit better, we can work things out. That’s my attitude — is to work together.”

According to Monday’s unofficial vote count, Tunraluk’s support was heavily weighted in the Qikiqtani region, where he led voting in eight of 13 communities.

By comparison, he won two of the Kivalliq region’s seven communities, and didn’t win any of the five Kitikmeot region communities.

But that won’t influence Tunraluk’s approach to the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions, he said.

“I grew up being told that I need to treat everybody the same, no matter what region,” he said. “These things don’t matter to me. I’m not the type of person to hold any grudges.”

His recipe for addressing what were the most prominent issues of the campaign — transparency and accountability — is to meet early and often with residents of the communities.

“I would like to meet with all the hamlet councils, the (hunter and trapper organizations) and with residents of these communities and make sure we listen to each community,” he said.

During the campaign, Tunraluk visited Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, as a way to bridge the gap he perceives between NTI and Nunavut’s Inuit beneficiaries.

The campaign is over but Tunraluk’s commitment to tour all the communities continues, he said.

“When I was campaigning, I would tell people, I would tell everybody — the radio, the newspaper — everybody, that I will be visiting each community or have a team visit each community and listen to the people and what they, what they need,” he said.

Regular financial reports are also a priority, he added, along with accessibility.

“I will have to be working really closely with the presidents and the vice-presidents of our regional Inuit associations and make sure that they’re able to come into my office and speak to me,” he said.

“It’s been a good campaign, and the number of voters indicates that we are moving forward and we will make sure that we’re getting closer to Inuit.”

Two people are facing charges after police seized drugs from a Hay River trailer court home alongside guns believed to have been stolen.

A media briefing held Tuesday on on the release of the environmental assessment report for the proposed Tin Can Hill site outlined what lies ahead for the polytechnic university.

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The N.W.T. government has announced it will dissolve the leadership council that oversees the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority and replace it with a public administrator.

A leadership council that presided over the operations of the NWT's health authority is being removed and replaced by a single administrator.

Elections took place in 10 N.W.T. hamlets on Monday, with some mayor and council seats up for grabs.

Leaders in the Sahtu region of the N.W.T. are starting to talk to Food Banks Canada and Nutrition North about setting up food banks in their communities as a way of dealing with the high cost of groceries - something made worse by cancelled barges over the last two summers.

Jeremy Tunraluk of Arctic Bay, Nunavut, was elected president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. with 34.4 per cent of the vote on Monday night. 

Levi Barnabas was re-elected vice-president of Qikiqtani Inuit Association Monday, winning 64 per cent of the votes against two challengers.

The unofficial election results are published on the association’s website.

Barnabas received 4,722 votes, over three times more than second-place finisher David Qamaniq, who got 1,491 votes. Jaco Newkingak came in third with 1,313 votes.

Barnabas was the incumbent vice-president and a former speaker of the legislative assembly. He was elected for a four-year term.

Adamee Itorcheak was elected secretary-treasurer as well, receiving 4,287 votes. Other candidates were Jason Kaernerk, with 1,807 votes, and Cornelius Kadloo Nutarak with 1,407 votes.

QIA is the organization promoting the rights of Inuit in Qikiqtani Region.

The secretary-treasurer post was vacated by Jeremy Tunraluk, who was elected president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Along with vice-president and secretary-treasurer, Inuit beneficiaries in Qikiqtani also elected community directors in Arctic Bay (Kataisee Attagutsiak), Grise Fiord (Larry Audlaluk), Pangnirtung (Billy Etooangat), Qikiqtarjuaq (Rosemary Metuq), Kinngait (Martha Jaw) and Resolute Bay (Sarah Salluviniq).

Voter turnout in Qikiqtani increased significantly compared to previous years with 63 per cent of Qikiqtani Inuit casting a ballot.

At QIA’s last elections in 2022, the association’s president and community directors were elected with 20.6 per cent voter turnout.

This year QIA’s vice-presidential elections ran alongside the presidential elections for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

NTI came up with several initiatives to boost voter participation for its election, including offering a $100 voucher to Inuit beneficiaries who showed up at the polls.

Residents in eight hamlets across the NWT went to the polls on Monday. We're tracking results here as they come in.

An Iqaluit man was sentenced to five years in prison Monday after a jury found him guilty of sexual contact with a minor.

In June 2022, Cody Rennie, who was 31 years old at the time, communicated with and picked up a 14-year-old girl at Joamie School, Justice Mia Manocchio said, while delivering her sentence.

The victim’s name is protected by a publication ban.

In their submissions, Crown prosecutor Emma Baasch called for Rennie to be handed a six-year prison sentence while Stacey Purser, Rennie’s lawyer, suggested two years.

“I’m sure you can be fully rehabilitated, sir,” Justice Mia Manocchio said in sentencing Rennie to five years.

The judge said she had to go with a higher sentence within the allowable range, as the law requires her to be “tough” when it comes to sexual offences against minors.

On top of the prison sentence, Rennie, who is now 34, was handed a lifetime prohibition on possessing weapons.

Rennie was himself a victim of sexual abuse as a child, court was told, and was previously convicted of sexually assaulting three Iqaluit boys under the age of 14 in 2009.

In 2012, Justice Neil Sharkey sentenced Rennie to 18 months for the offence, saying he believed Rennie’s remorse was real and didn’t think it was “necessary to send [Rennie] to a federal penitentiary to ensure a safer Nunavut.”

Jeremy Tunraluk is the new president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. after taking 34 per cent of the votes cast in the organization’s four-way election, according to unofficial results posted on NTI’s website Monday night.

Tunraluk, who was born in Arctic Bay, is the secretary-treasurer for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association as well as a musician.

He took 5,730 votes, a 515-vote lead over second-place Cathy Towtongie’s 5,215 votes. Andrew Nakashuk finished third with 3,628 votes and Nicole Camphaug came in fourth with 2,092 votes.

Tunraluk is set for a four-year term at the helm of the organization responsible for ensuring obligations made to Inuit under the Nunavut Agreement are kept.

Unofficial results for all communities were posted by 12:30 a.m., three hours after the last polling stations closed in the Kitikmeot Region.

Tunraluk beat out three other candidates vying to replace Aluki Kotierk, the outgoing president who didn’t run for a third term. Kotierk, who held the job for the past eight years, was first elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2021.

The other candidates were Rankin Inlet’s Towtongie, who held NTI’s presidential post from 2001 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2016, when she was defeated by Kotierk.

Nakashuk is from Pangnirtung and serves on the boards of directors of Qulliq Energy Corp. and the Nunavut Planning Commission. Camphaug, the executive assistant to NTI’s CEO, is from Iqaluit.

Voter turnout appeared much higher Monday than in the last presidential election in 2021, when about 17.6 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

To boost turnout in this election, NTI offered a $100 voucher for a gift card to Inuit beneficiaries who cast a vote. While NTI has not calculated the total voter turnout for this election, community turnout rates provided by the organization ranged between 53.6 per cent in Kugluktuk to 83.5 per cent in Coral Harbour.

This is a developing story. Nunatsiaq News will have more information on the election results later Tuesday.

Midwives can't access a payment of up to $2,000 that helps other NWT healthcare workers bring friends and family to visit if they work over Christmas.

The owner of a Yellowknife electrical services company, Naka Electric, is going to court over Northland Utilities' rebrand to Naka Power.

Dene National Chief George Mackenzie says "the real work" will now begin after First Nations chiefs agreed to include the NWT in a child welfare settlement.

"Having a strong vision is crucial for success." This is Yellowknife's new tourism vision: read the city's tourism strategy for the next four years.

Yellowknife's A&W is set to close at the end of the year. A Teen Burger will soon be 700 km away, minimum. But A&W closing is also about more than that.

Some Whitehorse shop owners say they're fed up with break-ins, property damage and theft, which they believe has been on the rise in the last few years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A Yellowknife resident who filed a complaint against a city councillor says she feels the city’s disciplinary options for elected officials are too limited. 

A memorandum of understanding, signed on Friday, stems from the Ross River Dena Council's proposal to create an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) that would be roughly 41,000 square kilometres in size.

A six-percent property tax increase in 2025 was approved unanimously on Monday by Yellowknife city councillors after last week's deliberations.

Recent flight cancellations in Fort Smith, N.W.T., have been causing frustration for residents, particularly those who rely on air travel for critical medical appointments.

The chief of Deh Gáh Got'îê First Nation says a new 60-bed supportive housing facility coming to Fort Providence, N.W.T., will be a place where women, 2SLGBTQI+, and children can heal and rebuild their lives.

The ruling, issued in writing Friday, closes the latest chapter in what’s become a more than two-year-long legal battle over the proposed Kudz Ze Kayah mine and marks another partial victory for Kaska Nation. 

Yellowknife's downtown A&W will close at the end of the year, its owners said in a Facebook post. They had previously listed it for sale.

The territory's chief public health officer issued an advisory in early October recommending that residents who received dental care in several communities on certain dates last March and April get tested for HIV, hepatitus B, and hepatitus C.

Yellowknife's A&W is set to close its doors at the end of December.

A “conflict” Crown lawyer will prosecute an Iqaluit man facing six charges, including assault, forcible confinement and four weapons offences in connection with an alleged incident last year.

Michael Hatch, 36, was charged in October and released with conditions, according to court documents.

In an Iqaluit courtroom Monday, Justice Paul Bychok adjourned the case to Feb. 17, the next date that a “conflict” Crown prosecutor will be in court.

A conflict Crown is a prosecutor not affiliated with the Nunavut regional office of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, spokesperson Nathalie Houle said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

“The PPSC engages a conflict Crown when a regional office is in conflict due to a connection with an accused,” she said.

“Depending on the nature of the conflict, we may engage another PPSC prosecutor, or a provincial Crown outside the PPSC.”

Houle said she was not able to provide further details because it is an ongoing case.

Contacted by phone and asked about the case and the possible connection between Hatch and the Nunavut justice system, Hatch’s lawyer Scott Cowan said he could not comment.

The charges against Hatch stem from an incident alleged to have taken place in Iqaluit in September 2023.

In addition to the assault and confinement charges, Hatch is accused of pointing a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, unauthorized possession of a firearm, and possessing a weapon for the purpose of committing an offence.

Hatch was released on bail, according to a court release document. He has not entered a plea. Monday was the third time he was scheduled to appear in court since the charges were laid in October.

Conditions of his release include that he’s to have no contact with the alleged victim, that he remains under the supervision of a surety, abstains from alcohol, and follows an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Neither Hatch nor Cowan were in court in Iqaluit for an appearance Monday. Lawyer John Yannakis appeared as an agent on their behalf.

The Gwich'in Tribal Council and six individual members of the Gwichya Gwich'in Council argued there were several "election irregularities" and there was "oppressive" conduct that has taken place. 

Dr Kami Kandola says she has not received any reports of communicable diseases connected to dental procedures where equipment was not properly cleaned.

A Nunavut group home that is under investigation by the Department of Family Services is now facing pressure from residents in Cambridge Bay to close down.

A man in Puvirnituq is under arrest after police say he attacked two people with a pocket knife inside a residence on the weekend.

On Saturday at approximately 12:40 p.m., a 35-year-old man who police say was intoxicated allegedly attacked the two occupants of the home, causing non-life threatening injuries to their faces, said Nunavik Police Service deputy Chief Jean-Francois Morin in an email Monday.

Emergency services were contacted soon after the attack and police officers arrested the man after bystanders pointed out the suspect to them.

Morin did not provide the suspect’s name when Nunatsiaq News asked. The man has been charged with two counts of assault with a weapon, one count each of uttering death threats, resisting arrest, and mischief.

The man’s first court appearance was to be by telephone on Monday afternoon.

Elections for mayor and council are happening Monday in several N.W.T. communities.

Aurora College says the contribution from Actua will allow it to expand its Stem Outreach Program and add an outreach technician position.

Pond Inlet’s hamlet council has voted not to host cruise ship visits next year after Parks Canada took over a community hub local artisans and staff use to serve tourists.

“It felt like we were getting kicked out,” said Dave Stockley, the hamlet’s chief administrative officer, in an interview last week that also included deputy Mayor Joshua Idlout.

Parks Canada started using the Nattinak Visitors Centre in mid-July, Stockley said, in an agreement with the territorial government, which owns the building.

The move has disrupted critical community operations and displaced two hamlet employees.

“We were all shocked,” said Idlout about how the deal went down.

Nattinak Visitors Centre serves as a cultural hub in Pond Inlet and the operational base for the hamlet’s growing business of catering to cruise ship visitors.

Stockley said local artisans set up shop in the centre during cruise season to sell their carvings to tourists. Small businesses will sometimes work out of the space as well, especially during the cruise season.

After months of negotiations over use of the centre, hamlet council voted Dec. 2 to “disengage” from the management of the cruise ship tours in 2025, according to a motion provided to Nunatsiaq News from the hamlet.

“Cruise ships will no longer be able to stop at Pond Inlet,” said Stockley, estimating the loss of cruise visitors will amount to about $500,000 in lost revenue.

Parks staff signed a memorandum of understanding on May 1 with the Government of Nunavut to utilize office space within the Nattinak centre, said Margaret Friesen, a spokesperson for Parks Canada, Dec. 5 in an email.

“Parks Canada has been sharing this space with hamlet employees during cruise ship season. This collaboration has increased the centre’s operating hours and provides further opportunities for hamlet members and visitors to enjoy the facilities and community programming,” she said.

Stockley refuted this, saying the hamlet’s economic development officer is displaced and the building’s internet connection is disconnected.

The Government of Nunavut offered revised terms under a new memorandum of understanding in August that would allow Parks Canada and the hamlet to share the facility, but the hamlet rejected those terms, Stockley said.

Certain points, such as use of an entrance taken over by Parks Canada, remains unresolved.

The hamlet has made repeated requests to the territorial government for an explanation of Parks Canada’s occupation of the facility, Stockley said.

The hamlet is seeking:

• a clear explanation of the decision-making process behind Parks Canada’s move into the centre;
• a plan to address displaced employees and essential operations;
• and a commitment to return the centre’s operation to the hamlet or that an equivalent facility be located to “mitigate the financial and cultural losses.”

“I hope we fix this soon or it is going to be a big loss for the community,” Idlout said.

The building is owned by Nunavut’s Department of Economic Development and Transportation and operated by the Department of Community and Government Services.

Nunatsiaq News reached out to the Department of Community and Government Services for comment and was redirected on Dec. 6 to the Department of Economic Development and Transportation.

The Department of Economic Development and Transportation did not respond by press time.

Users of Microsoft Translator’s Inuktitut translation tool can now listen to the text they’re translating.

Microsoft Canada and the Government of Nunavut announced Dec. 5 that Inuktitut text-to-speech is available now on Microsoft Translator.

“With just a phone or a computer, text can come to life in Inuktitut,” said Chris Barry, president of Microsoft Canada, in a presentation at Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit hotel.

The feature comes out of a partnership between Microsoft and the GN.

It builds on the rollout of Inuktitut translations in 2021, followed by the additions of Inuinnaqtun and romanized Inuktitut in 2022.

“My name is Taqqiq, I can read text,” said one of the voices users can choose in Inuktitut, during a demonstration.

Taqqiq is the artificial intelligence-generated male voice option. Siqniq, a female voice, is also available.

Many people undertook the “painstaking” work to build this software, Barry said in an interview.

The work included reviewing thousands of government documents, hiring Inuktitut speakers to record themselves, and obtaining hours’ worth of Inuktut audio recordings from the Canadian Bible Society and Nunavut Inuit Heritage Trust, among other organizations.

The initial translation tool hasn’t been perfect. Several presenters explained the artificial intelligence mixed up words like condo and condom, and prime rib and prime minister.

But the tool gets smarter the more it gets used, Barry said.

“It actually will continue to get better and better and even more refined as more information is brought into the model,” Barry said.

So far, it’s getting some positive reviews.

Leah Ayaruaq McKay, who provided her voice during the development, demonstrated to attendees how Microsoft Translator could turn conversations and documents from English text to Inuktitut speech.

“It makes me emotional, but in a good way because it makes me so excited and happy,” she said, speaking to Nunatsiaq News.

“I never thought something like this could ever come out of this.”

Ayaruaq McKay said she plans to use Microsoft translator to help her husband learn Inuktitut.

Rebecca Hainnu, Nunavut’s deputy minister of education, spoke of many ways teachers and students will benefit from having Inuktitut text-to-speech.

For example, a new teacher can learn how to praise a student for their good work in Inuktitut.

Leah Ayaruaq McKay converts English text to Inuktitut speech for a tuberculosis fact sheet. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

For students, they can have access to Inuktitut books just by taking a photo of the text and having the translator read it aloud.

“People talked about the decrease in language speakers when I was growing up and language loss,” Hainnu said.

“For a change, we’re talking about preserving and promoting it past our own lifetime.”

Barry emphasized the text-to-speech tool is not meant to replace people who work as translators. Rather, he hopes it can “augment” their capabilities.

Currently, the translator is available online and on a mobile app. Microsoft plans to eventually add text-to-speech to Word and Outlook.

Also possibly on the horizon: speech-to-speech translation.

“The ability to do real-time translation, spoken word, would be a plausible end game, but that’s work ahead for sure,” Barry said.

NWT RCMP have new teams and positions – but must now fill them. Police have "no idea" who's taking one in five jobs here. We spoke with the man in charge.

Canada just set out a new vision of how it'll approach the Arctic. Reading between the lines, how might the Northwest Territories benefit from it?

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