IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Inunnguiniq was the theme at this year's annual gathering of the Nunavut Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, whose members discussed income security in the territory.

The gathering took place in Cambridge Bay Dec. 1 to 3.

"Inunnguiniq means, to put it simply, making a person," said Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s (NTI) acting director of social and cultural development Jasmine Redfern.

"Right now it's being used a lot in talking about creating healthy, capable, independent, contributing individuals with income assistance. Does income assistance contribute to people becoming self-sufficient? Does it detract from people becoming self-sufficient?"

The topic was identified at last year's gathering, but Redfern says there is a unique situation at play.

"Family Services came into the roundtable saying they want to create some guidelines around earning exemptions and asset exemptions. So they were saying, right now the way our policies are written people are told they are not eligible for income assistance until they have zero dollars in their bank account and they're not meant to have assets, including things like a Ski-Doo."

Essentially, Family Services told the roundtable members its policies are wide open for discussion and change.

As Redfern notes, to be eligible for income assistance, an individual has to be "beyond destitute," it's a system that shames and stigmatizes, and makes it difficult for an individual to get back on their feet.

With the Ski-Doo example, a person could supplement their food source and income by going out hunting. Under the current system, that's not possible.

"We're wanting to make sure that the program is in a position to support people to get back on their feet. So those are real changes we're going to be seeing - is these revisions to the policies to create a better program," said Redfern.

"They're even talking about better training for their income assistance workers, better linkages with the career development officers and the economic development officers."

The departments of Family Services and Economic Development and Transportation also carried out community consultations throughout the fall.

Many of the roundtable members are elders.

"Their expertise and wisdom has been one of the foundational pieces driving the success of the roundtable. They're the most passionate members," Redfern said.

Elders talked about living through "the shift." As Redfern explains, elders spoke about the absence of poverty in today's terms.

"There were times of scarcity, but nothing like cash poverty. They always had the means. It might have been a year when there weren't caribou, but they had the means and the know-how and the knowledge on how to provide for themselves," she said.

"To see things then so rapidly change to a radically different way of operating, where people are expected to be proficient and fluent in two different types of economies, in two different types of worlds ...

"And people talked about youth being expected to be proficient in two different types of lifestyles, expecting them to be experts in two radically different spheres."

Redfern says Inuit can't survive in just one of those worlds.

"You now need to be proficient in both. If you're just proficient in western business and government, you can give yourself all the material necessities, but you can lose that spiritual part of yourself and that core identity of yourself.

"But if you're proficient in just your cultural perspectives and traditional activities and traditional economies, you'll have everything you need to eat but we're still not seeing cash value for those traditional activities."

As Redfern describes the gathering, there was a wide array of opinions and ideas about income assistance. Some people said they felt with income assistance, because it's so easy to access, "people are going to turn 18 and just go on income assistance without looking at other options, without contributing to communities.

"That's where a lot of individuals started in their thinking. Income assistance takes away from an individual's personal integrity," she said.

"There are a lot of stereotypes. It's not truthful, it's not helpful and it's not supportive. I don't think people realize how that can impact an individual, their self-esteem and their mental health."

With discussions and the elders' presentations on different ways of contributing and taking care of each other, the focus moved on to interdependence and "perspectives changed from a knee-jerk reaction to a deeper understanding."

"This is the same way we share country foods with our neighbours and our families. This is one way we can, in the short term, take care of each other by contributing with our taxes to supplement income assistance programs to provide the necessities of life," said Redfern.

Along with an elders circle, the gathering had a youth circle, which was asked the same questions.

"Even though they were coming from very different places and informed by very different places, they ultimately said the same kinds of things. We need to take care of each other. We need to contribute. Contribution to the community can look different for every individual but, ultimately, we need to be there for each other and support each other."

The roundtable came about in 2010 in a partnership between the Government of Nunavut and NTI. Following extensive consultations in every community and further regional discussion, the roundtable forged forward with its first five-year action plan - the Makimaniq Plan. The second five-year plan is close to release and it will report on the successes of the first plan.

"In the second version of the Makimaniq Plan we will have performance indicators. So, making sure

we know we're making headway on these different initiatives, actions and priority areas."

Asked if she feels a dent has been made in poverty in the territory, Redfern said, "I think five years is not a lot of time, especially given the prevalence of poverty in Nunavut. I really think we're going to have to keep the long-term always in perspective and making differences where we can along the way."

Redfern looks forward to the changes to the income assistance.

"There's lots and lots of people on income assistance in the territory right now. It just seems cold and unfeeling, not taking in the complexity of people's lives, asking people to have single-issue lives where poverty is the only thing happening with their lives," she said.

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