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NUNAVUT
Faced with a surge of incidents involving guns across Nunavut, some politicians think they have the answer: lock them up.

"The recent gun incident at the hospital (in Iqaluit) highlights the need to promote safe gun storage and safe gun usage," said Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern. "Gun-related incidents in Nunavut are on the rise and it's quite a concern for our community members and the police."

Instead of investing in "thermoses and thermal mugs, keychains, little toiletry kits, pocket knives, flashlights, cups, bags" as giveaways, Redfern thinks members of the legislative assembly and leaders of Inuit organizations should put their promotional budgets toward providing a lock for every gun in Nunavut.

Good idea, says South Baffin MLA Fred Schell, who distributed gun locks in Kimmirut and Cape Dorset after a rash of four firearm incidents, including two murders and a shootout with RCMP, in the span of a month in late 2010.

"I handed them out through the RCMP, and in Kimmirut it was done through the school," Schell said. "I challenged the government to do it for the rest of the territory."

Schell asked then-justice minister Keith Peterson to consider the idea at the legislature Oct. 21, 2010, but nothing transpired. Assisted by free delivery from First Air, Schell acted independently and bypassed the promotional gift approval process, spending $5,500 on 700 Master locks.

"I paid for them on my own," he said. "It wasn't out of government money. I made a commitment in the legislature that if the government wasn't going to pay for it, I was going to pay for it for my two communities. If you buy in volume, they are fairly cheap, and these were good locks."

Redfern met with Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott earlier this month to discuss the issue.

"One of the issues he highlighted was there are rules and guidelines regarding what is required to be on these political promotional materials," Redfern said. Among the rules, promotional items have to be branded as a gift from the politician. "With respect to that, I suggested he provide that specification to a number of different sellers or producers of gun locks to see how they would be able to accommodate those requirements. One alternative option is being able to put (branded) keychains on the locks," if they can't be branded otherwise, she said.

At press time, Nunavut News/North was waiting to hear what each MLA has available in their constituency budgets to spend on promotional materials, and what the official rules are for branding.

Few MLAs responded to a request for comment on the issue, with Kugluktuk MLA Peter Taptuna and Iqaluit-Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo declining comment. Iqaluit-West MLA Monica Ell was one of the only ones to comment, suggesting she'd need more information about whether it's the right move.

"I have not considered ordering any gun locks for my constituency," Ell stated by e-mail, noting that "normally when one orders a new rifle, the firearm already comes with a lock and key these days. It is only perhaps the older rifles that might not have a gun lock at this time. I would have to do a proper estimate of what the actual requirements are before ordering something like this. Pamphlets on safe storage of rifles will be something I will consider distributing later in English and Inuktitut."

For Schell, who does not own any guns himself, the locks made a difference in his communities.

"I know a couple of situations in Dorset, if the gun locks would have been there sooner, it was a split second where they decided to do something and if the gun would have been locked, it wouldn't have happened," he said.

RCMP Sgt. Jimmy Akavak said "(The) more locks, the safer children/people will be."

Redfern, who has a "few hundred dollars" in a discretionary budget, plans to do what she can to give people access to locks.

"If we all collectively pitch in, we'd be able to purchase a sufficient number of gun locks for pretty much every gun in our communities," she said.

MLAs pay for promotional materials using the travel and living allowance portion, ranging from about $7,000 to $14,000, of their individual constituency budgets. The Promotional Materials Expenditure Policy requires items to carry the MLA's name, constituency name and phone number, or the Coat of Arms. Where possible, all four official languages should be used, the policy states.

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