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BEAUFORT DELTA
Nellie Cournoyea has served as the chair and chief executive officer of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) for nearly two decades.

Nellie Cournoyea, re-elected for a ninth term on January 28.

Cournoyea was re-elected for a ninth term on Jan. 28. She won 33 votes, which were cast by the 42 directors of the community corporations in Aklavik, Inuvik, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok.

Cournoyea was first elected in 1996.

"When I began at the very outset, devolution was not an active file with the government of the Northwest Territories," she said. "They were dealing with the split of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Devolution, although an aspiration, was not really on the agenda on that time. That's taken years."

Working toward a devolution agreement and promoting education opportunities for Inuvialuit are two of the top priorities for the upcoming term, Cournoyea said.

"Making sure the quality of education is there so they can seek higher levels of achievement in universities, in colleges," she said. "It's an ongoing process."

The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway is another project at the forefront. Cournoyea said it took a long time to move the project forward.

"We worked long and hard on that regionally, we had very little help from anyone else," she said. "To get it accepted at the federal level was certainly a very difficult job to do."

The federal government now has 30 days to respond to the NWT Environmental Impact Review Board's report on the highway.

"Right now where we are is we do have the process done and certainly we anticipate that this will now go through the government processes quickly," Cournoyea said. "That's what we are looking towards right at the moment."

During the election, Cournoyea ran against Inuvik's Jerry Lennie Inglangasuk and Richard McLeod. Inglangasuk received nine votes.

Cournoyea said she was honoured to be re-elected.

"Of course I was privileged to have the membership vote

me back in," she said.

Cournoyea was NWT premier from 1991 to 1995 and was one of the first to negotiate and sign the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.

Her term as head of the IRC is three years. The next election will take place in 2016.

When asked if she could foresee any challenges during her upcoming term, Cournoyea's answer was simple.

"When you're dealing with major issues such as devolution and self government and educating people, those are major challenges to get it right," she said.

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