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Meet Ulukhaktok's mayoral hopefuls Four vie for top job in Beaufort Delta communityKassina Ryder Northern News Services Published Monday, December 3, 2012
Name: Susan Kaodloak
Susan Kaodloak says her 15 years as a hamlet employee makes her a well-rounded candidate for mayor. Kaodloak has worked at the hamlet "from the bottom up," serving as a receptionist, finance clerk, council clerk, employment officer, director of finance and assistant senior administrative officer. "I know pretty much everything about the hamlet," she said. "All those experiences will help the organization greatly." Kaodloak said one of her goals is to improve educational programs in Ulukhaktok. She said she is concerned students graduating from high school aren't adequately prepared for college or university. "When they graduate in Ulukhaktok, they're not quite ready to get into a college or a university because of the size of our community and our school," she said. "We don't have the same resources as schools in Edmonton or even Yellowknife." Kaodloak said she would like to see more online learning opportunities for students so they can access programs not currently offered in Ulukhaktok. "I would like to see different ways of teaching the kids," she said. At the hamlet, Kaodloak said she wants to improve how some hamlet policies are handled, such as contracts and grants. "We have policies like how to award contracts, how to donate money to community groups and things like that," she said. "I think they just need to be updated." She said more consistency is needed when deciding which individuals and companies will receive contracts and grants, including saying no to those with last-minute requests. Kaodloak also said youth ignoring the community's curfew policy is another issue she wants to tackle. "The late-night disturbances are becoming a real problem in the community," she said. "I think our bylaw officers need a little bit more support." She said she wants to have bylaw officers and parents working together to come to a resolution. Name: Colin Okheena
Colin Okheena says he is running for mayor of Ulukhaktok to help make his community better. "I thought I might be able to help out in some way within the community, just trying to make it a better place to live in." Okheena said he has two top priorities in the municipal election: making sure the community's curfew bylaw is being enforced, and working to increase visits from health care professionals. He said he served on hamlet council between 10 and 15 years ago and was also the chair of the Ulukhaktok Community Corporation for about five years until 2011. He said community members are concerned about the number of young people ignoring the town's midnight curfew bylaw and riding around town throughout the night. "It's not all the time, but there's enough times where people complain about it," he said. The bylaw states ATVs and snow machines are to be parked at midnight on weeknights. "Sometimes when they start driving around too much, they're driving close to the houses it keeps (people) up during the week, during the night," he said. "I guess just try to make sure we're going to get the bylaw enforced, try to get it enforced a bit more. Look at ways of trying to put a stop to it and control it better." Okheena also said he believes the community needs more frequent visits from health care workers, such as doctors, dentists and eye doctors. He said visits don't happen often enough and need to be longer when they do occur. "They take too long to come and they're here for too short a time and not seeing everybody," he said. "That's always been an issue." Okheena also said while it's not necessarily a hamlet issue, he knows there are sometimes staffing issues at the Ulukhaktok airport. He would like the hamlet to work with the airport to ensure plane schedules aren't affected when staff are unable to attend work. "That's not really a hamlet issue, but it could be something that's looked into to make sure whoever handles it could try and fix it up because it's important for our community for planes to come in and out," he said.
Name: Joe Nilgak
Joe Nilgak said creating jobs and increasing the prospects for Ulukhaktok residents is one of his top priorities. "Just to create more opportunities for everyone," he said. "Give everyone an equal chance to voice their opinions and make it a better place to live in." Nilgak said while he doesn't have a particular sector in mind, he wants more jobs for community members. He also said he wants to find more ways to bring elders and youth together. He said he believes more interaction needs to take place between the older and younger generations of community members. Nilgak said traditional games and sports are a way to connect the two groups. "(We need) more cultural and traditional activities for them to get together and focus on each other, teaching them more of the games that used to happen," he said. Nilgak said Arctic sports and other activities can help mitigate the changes taking place among Ulukhaktok's young people. "We're losing our culture and ways of living due to modern technology," he said. Nilgak said infrastructure is another of his priorities. He said the first type of infrastructure the community needs is housing. "There is not enough housing for here," he said. Nilgak said many families in Ulukhaktok live in congested housing conditions. He said in addition to building new houses, there is a need to renovate or replace many of the existing houses in the community. "Replace the old exiting housing units that are rundown, not livable," he said.
Name: Jack Akhiatak
Political experience: Former mayor of Ulukhaktok in 2000; retired before end of two-year term, served on various boards including the NWT Wildlife Management Advisory Council and the Environmental Impact Review Board. Jack Akhiatak says he is running for mayor because he wants to help his community. He said he believes running the municipality means working together and keeping an eye on areas that need improvement. "Just try to make sure everybody is doing their jobs and if there is improvement needed anywhere, hopefully we can improve operations," he said. Akhiatak said one of his top priorities is to create jobs and activities for the town's youth. He said there are many graduates who need the right motivation to become employed. "Hopefully we can get those graduates into some good jobs and make them use their expertise," he said. "I know there are a lot of bright young people here, both male and female." He said possibilities for employment include securing more funding for programming, which could create more jobs. "Right now, the justice committee runs a pretty good program that's going to take young people out camping," he said. "If the money is there and we could go after it, we could try and create some programs, whether they be in town or on land." Akhiatak also said he wants to promote the use of Inuinnaqtun as a working language within the community. "Not many of our people are using our language," he said. He said he and other members of the community's search and rescue team speak Inuinnaqtun when organizing rescue operations. Often, younger members don't comprehend what's being said. Akhiatak said some of the ways to increase the use of Inuinnaqtun are simple. For example, he said when the community's youth centre or other groups make posters advertising events, he would like to see the posters written in both languages. He said getting more youth using Inuinnaqtun is key to supporting the language.
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