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IQALUIT
The City of Iqaluit doesn't like the names suggested by the the Nunavut Electoral Boundaries Commission for its four new ridings, and has put forward four of its own.

The Electoral Boundaries Commission proposed increasing the number of constituencies in the territory to 22 from the current 19. In its report released this spring, the commission also suggested new names for 13 constituencies, keeping the status quo for the remaining nine. While it stuck to compass-point descriptors everywhere else, for the four ridings in Iqaluit, the report stated that approach would be "problematic and cumbersome."

So it suggested Ipellie, Nakasuk, Joamie and Okpik, after elders who had lived in the areas.

Mayor Madeleine Redfern, communications officer Eva Michael and city translator Rachel Ootoova consulted with elders in the community and found they did not like the suggestions, mainly because some of the family names are not from Iqaluit, states a July 7 letter from Iqaluit City Council to the commission.

"The elders feel and city council agrees that the constituencies should have traditional Inuit place names," states the letter.

City council is instead suggesting the names Niaqunnguuti, Sinaa, Tarsirluq and Manirajaaq.

Niaqunnguuti, which means "looks like a head," would replace Okpik in a riding that would include Apex and Tundra Valley. Sinaa, meaning edge or shoreline, would replace the commission's suggestion of Nakasuk. The name Tarsirluq, meaning "a senseless lake," is suggested instead of Joamie for a riding that would include Happy Valley and the Road to Nowhere subdivision. Finally, city council proposes the name Manirajaaq, meaning "flat land" or "plain," for the riding the commission called Ipellie that would include the Lower Base and Plateau subdivisions.

Traditional place names are what Inuit used, for example, a place or an island may be named after a particular hunting area, explained Ralph Kownak, heritage manager at the Inuit Heritage Trust.

"We don't use family names for traditional names. It all has definitions and meanings," he said.

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