Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jun 08/98) - A contract to police Nunavut hasn't been signed, but RCMP officers say they are already working hard to better serve the residents of the new territory.

"The policing priorities established by the Nunavut government will be our priorities, whatever they will be. We'll know more down the road, by April 1st for sure," says Insp. Dan Fudge, the officer in charge of the Nunavut policing district.

"We're trying to improve things everyday and do things that are important to the people of Nunavut. We want to provide a culturally sensitive police force," says Fudge.

To that end, the makeup of the actual force will be altered to better reflect the population of Nunavut.

"We'll see the numbers of Inuit members increase and we're working on the Inuit (Aboriginal) Development Cadet Program."

Nunavut's deputy minister of justice, Nora Saunders, agrees with Fudge and says the RCMP already look different today than they did five years ago.

"There seems to be a lot of goodwill and shared interest in having a police force that will truly serve the people of Nunavut. That's building on work that's already going on. The detachment commanders are making efforts to work more closely with communities, says Saunders.

"We need to find ways to have communities feel that they have more authority over what goes on locally in policing but also that they have more responsibility. Good effort has been made that way."

Saunders says that more active recruitment and promotion of Inuit members along with community policing and justice programs will also help to effect the necessary changes.

She says it is important to ask the communities what they think prevents citizens from joining the force.

"We want to talk to communities, too, and see what things they think are getting in the way of recruitment. Sometimes the idea of people moving away has held back families from encouraging their young people from taking part," says Saunders, who adds that despite all of the changes, Nunavut residents will still get the same level of protection from the RCMP.

"What we want is if a crime takes place April 1st, people of Nunavut will get the same service. They won't have to wonder where it's coming from or anything like that. In a way, we're lucky to be able to count on the national resources that the RCMP have as far as training, emergency things and technical advice."

Saunders hopes that the new face of the Nunavut police force will help rectify the mistakes made in the past.

"Historically, there are things that people still alive now remember that the police did or that the police in those days did and the government people did that didn't take into account local standards or expectations that people valued," she says.

"I think the RCMP, just like the government, pay the price for that even today because even if a new member comes in all fresh and ready to help, there's a certain barrier that's sometimes still there."

Lifelong Nunavut resident Roy Naglingniq says that while he thinks the RCMP have done a fairly good job in the past, having more aboriginal police officers and officers who can speak Inuktitut is necessary.

"It will make it easier for some people who don't speak English -- they'll have a better chance of communicating and the RCMP will be able to get more information from people who can't speak English," says Naglingniq.

"They should have more programs for youngsters or teenagers to teach them to go into the RCMP. We're going to need (the RCMP) around when it becomes Nunavut. We'll definitely need them."