by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Oct 15/97) - Whale Cove and Arviat residents say they weren't consulted before MLAs decided to go against the recommendations of the Nunavut Electoral Boundaries Commission and group the communities together in the same electoral district.

Whale Cove Mayor Stanley Adjuk said the community wasn't notified that this scenario was even being considered, and maintains that people would never have gone for it anyway.

"They should have consulted us before making the recommendation," he said.

Adjuk said the population size difference between the two communities is too large to group them together. He suggested a more logical choice would have been Chesterfield Inlet with a population closer to Whale Cove's 300 people.

"They'd have a better chance of getting members elected -- the smaller communities," he said.

A candidate from a larger community, he maintains, will receive more votes if he is from a larger community than someone from a smaller community. He sees the proposed system as problematic and unfair to people in Whale Cove.

Adjuk said the community wanted their own seat in the legislature, but he said Keewatin Central MLA John Todd didn't like the idea. "We wrote to our MLA about it," he said.

Sandy Kusagak, who worked on the Nunavut Boundaries Commission, said she's not disappointed that the MLAs didn't use their recommendations, and insists that it's a difficult job pairing up communities that are historically different and geographically far apart.

"It's always a kind of trade-off ... you can't accommodate the wishes of everyone," said Kusugak, who now works for Todd at his constituency office.

Arviat Mayor Peter Kritaqliluk agrees with Adjuk, saying that the community isn't happy with the decision.

"We're not happy about it -- we're not really comfortable with it because they did it at the last minute," he said.

Kritaqliluk said he is particularly unhappy that MLAs amended "Model C" in the Nunavut Electoral Boundaries Commission report to include the Whale Cove/Arviat connection when Kivallivik MLA wasn't present at the committee of the whole meeting.

Nonetheless, members of the legislative assembly voted for the change as part of a 17-member assembly for the first Nunavut government last Wednesday.

Another amendment to the report was changing the name of the proposed electoral district of Coral Harbour and Chesterfield Inlet to Nanulik.

The legislature's recommendations will be forwarded to Jane Stewart, minister of Indian affairs and Northern Development.