IQALUIT
While the Government of Nunavut explores the feasibility of building a university, it's also participating in another process which identified there is a need for post-secondary education in the territory.

The Inuit Nunangat University Workshop, funded by Nunavut Arctic College and ArcticNet, took place March 18 and 19 in Iqaluit.

The workshop's purpose was to brainstorm what the guts of a university might look like.

"There was consensus among the discussion group that a university that meets the needs of Inuit is much needed and the group expressed a strong desire that a university be created that is open for all Inuit in Canada," states the report.

"The group also agreed that the best location would be in Nunavut and that it made sense that a university in Inuit Nunangat be opened in Iqaluit."

Invitations were sent to a wide range of stakeholders across all four regions of Inuit Nunangat - Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region - but the majority of workshop participants were from Nunavut.

The report concluded: "Leadership from the Government of Nunavut is needed in the drafting of enacting legislation that is in keeping with an independent institution based in Inuit values.

"Enacting legislation will allow for the formation of various structures, including a board of governors and a university foundation, that create a university."

This conclusion is supported, it would seem, by decision makers. Jim Nasso, chairperson of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.'s board of directors, who in 2014 pledged $5 million toward a building fund, indicated as much in a conversation with Nunavut News/North.

"We all agreed at a meeting - the premier, the education minister and principal secretary to the premier, Ed Picco, and the president of Arctic College, Peter Ma - it should go in the capital, it should be an institution of prominence and prestige. A free-standing building," said Nasso.

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