Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Feb 01/99) - Nearly three weeks after Jack Anawak resigned as Nunavut's interim commissioner to run in the upcoming election, Canada's territory-in-waiting once again has a leader.

On Jan. 27, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jane Stewart officially appointed Joe Kunuk to the position of acting interim commissioner.

Kunuk, who began his political career at the municipal level in Iqaluit 14 years ago, also sits as the deputy minister of executive and intergovernmental affairs for the Nunavut government.

While he readily admitted that the next two months would be extremely busy for him, he said because of the planning, leadership and direction provided by Anawak, most of the work was now in the hands of the deputy ministers and their various departments.

Kunuk said they were hard at work finalizing the asset and liability discussions with the GNWT, and that while he had recently signed an agreement outlining the contracting of services back to the western territory, it was still up to the individual departments to develop their own sub-agreements.

Kunuk added that a dollar figure on the cost of contracting services back to the GNWT would not be available until the sub-agreements were done.

And certainly, one of Kunuk's most focal roles over the next two months will be to sign any necessary documents that pass through the OIC before the elected membership takes over. He said shortly after coming on board last week, he was required to put his signature on the document that finalized the federal government's remaining financial contribution to the setup of the OIC.

"The contributions were already signed off two days ago, just after I started. The documents were in the draft stage even before Jack resigned, the final details were worked out and I signed off," said Kunuk. He was referring to the money that will allow the deputies to hire their remaining staff, bringing the number of government employees up to about 220 prior to April 1.

Kunuk also said he would be continuing weekly meetings with the deputy ministers and that his staff was finishing preparations for the members of the legislative assembly.

"We're getting all the materials ready for the newly-elected membership so they have information that will allow them to make decisions for the new government."