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Education and airport among top 2016 issues
Nunavut Premier Taptuna talks about priorities for the territorial government

Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, January 4, 2016

IQALUIT
Education, large infrastructure projects, training and employment, devolution, housing - these are the top items that are on Premier Peter Taptuna's 2016 to-do list as he enters his third year as Nunavut's leader.

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Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna, with his wife Joanne and their daughter Desiree, sees 2016 as a year to advance devolution of powers to the territory from Ottawa. - photo courtesy of Government of Nunavut

The Education Act review was tabled at the fall sitting of the legislative assembly. This is a 2015 accomplishment but much more work needs to be done in the new year. Taptuna hopes the full presentation of the review and its recommendations will take place during the February winter session.

A contentious issue, Taptuna admits, is the suggestion in the review report that education in the territory turn to English single-language instruction. That will be addressed as the issue goes through the legislative process.

"This is when we hear from the public and the government has to serve the public," he said in an interview, adding, "things are moving along and things do change." He also said the Education Act is up for renewal every five years.

As far as the economy goes, he points to the Iqaluit International Airport Improvement Project, a public private partnership (P3) scheduled to be completed in 2017.

"I'm hoping everything stays on schedule because we want to prove to investors out there that Nunavut is capable of doing these kinds of big projects. And this will benefit the Baffin region and Nunavut because we want to ensure that the Northern communities have better access to ... everything," said Taptuna.

"We play the market game, Nunavut is part of that when it comes to minerals. Like any commodity in the world, there's ups and downs.

"Of course, the last couple of years commodity trading in minerals has been way down and we've seen the results of that, where Baffinland at Mary River has cut back, laid off."

This creates some uncertainty, said Taptuna, because more than 200 Inuit were working on site. It affects family stability and food security.

"We feel the effects of the global market."

The Nunavut economy leads to two other items on Taptuna's list - the new training corporation the Government of Nunavut formed with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) in the wake of NTI's settlement with the federal government and devolution, which was stalled by last fall's federal election.

"We're in a position now to do multi-year training. We're looking at semi to professional training now for beneficiaries, to bring more opportunities for beneficiaries to be employed in government and private industry.

"Once a person is trained up it gives them a lot of opportunities. Even though Nunavut has a small labour force, there are a lot of unemployed people. A lot of people need training."

As for housing, Taptuna has met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau twice so far and hopes the new attitude at the federal level, shown throughout the Liberal election campaign and the new government's early days, will parlay into discussions on "the issues that affect us."

Housing, said Taptuna, is already being discussed at the "finance minister level."

"I'm quite happy that we've been presenting meaningful strategies on housing to the federal government. Any way you look at it, people need housing. With proper housing, social wellness for individuals and families are higher."

Wellness is proving a top priority now that an associate deputy minister for quality of life has been appointed to oversee the suicide prevention strategy, and Taptuna feels "we're on the right track."

Devolution is a target. With devolution will come "power and other means of generating the territorial government's revenues."

"Because, as you know, over 90 per cent of our funding comes from Ottawa. Devolution will allow us to collect royalties from development."

Taptuna acknowledges doing business in Nunavut is expensive, "probably the most expensive place on Earth."

"It's very difficult to attract investors but, at the same time, we've got to be recognized as being part of Canada. Nunavut is one fifth of the land mass of Canada, enabling the nation to be as large as it is. It's critical going into the future as a nation that Nunavut is part of that, and contributes to the nation as a whole."

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