NUNAVUT
As the results trickled in for the land referendum May 9, a strange anomaly showed up on the Elections Nunavut website - Grise Fiord, alone among 25 communities, was voting to give its municipality the right to sell lands.

"Like everybody else, we check up on results," said senior administrative officer Marty Kuluguqtuq. "Sometimes we get together over coffee or tea or a hockey game. In this case it was a hockey game."

Results were showing the community voted "yes."

"We looked at each other. 'I was the only one of four in the house that voted no? Who else said no?'"

The count ran up to five or six on the no side and it quickly became evident an error had been made - results showed only four people had voted "no."

"It was just a straight clerical error. The local returning officer, it was his first time."

Across Facebook, people were shocked by the apparent "yes" vote from Grise Fiord.

"We were ready to build a wall," said Kuluguqtuq, laughing.

As it turns out, the small community had the highest voter turnout at 60 per cent, with 33 of 55 eligible voters casting their ballot. Twenty-nine voted "no" and four voted "yes."

Among the remaining 24 communities, voter turnout varied greatly - from 18 to 57.77 per cent. Overall turnout was 39 per cent across the territory, as compared to 62.5 in the 2015 federal election, according to Elections Canada.

Glitch aside, one rectified the next morning by Elections Nunavut, Nunavummiut from east to west voted "no." Numbers from Cambridge Bay were the last to come in.

Sentiments about the vote became heated only in the last couple of days before the plebiscite. Again on Facebook, some called for joining the modern world and facilitating better mortgages - which land ownership might provide.

However, others decried land ownership, saying the land does not belong to individuals.

At the end of the day, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s (NTI) position, released prior to the vote, goes a long way to explaining the issue of municipal land sales.

"Since we signed the Nunavut (Land Claims) Agreement and created the territory of Nunavut, each of Nunavut's communities has experienced different opportunities and challenges. There are varying levels of economic development and prosperity in communities and among Inuit," stated president Cathy Towtongie in a news release.

"The Government of Nunavut has not provided sufficient information and analysis to convince NTI that a majority of Inuit would benefit from the sale of municipal lands in each community. Accordingly, NTI does not support a "yes" vote in the current referendum and the sale of lands at this time."

The Nunavut-wide vote, which saw each community decide independently, stems from article 14.8 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

A vote held in 1995 saw a majority "no" decision, meaning since then municipalities have only leased land.

"NTI opposed the sale of municipal lands after NTI concluded that such a sale would not bring clear benefits to most Inuit," according to the NTI news release.

The agreement also states that another plebiscite can be held 20 years later to remove the restriction on municipal sale of lands.

The Department of Community and Government Services initiated the plebiscite, while Elections Nunavut was responsible for the process.

Notably, in the news release from the Inuit land claims organization just prior to the referendum, NTI says it requested that the "GN delay the vote to allow more time for the GN to provide sufficient information to voters to be able to make an informed decision, but the GN decided to move forward with the vote as it originally planned."

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