IQALUIT -- The creation of a new territory is either the best thing to happen to Canada's Inuit, or it is a well-meaning experiment about to disintegrate into an embarrassment of corruption and incompetence.
The spectrum of expectations for Nunavut, a two-million-square-kilometre answer to the political aspirations of the almost 18,000 Inuit who live above the northernmost reaches of the treeline, is wide one. What actually comes about next April 1 will probably be better than the pessimists predict, but considerably short of the optimistic view.
But it has only been in the past few weeks that the optimists have been winning the public relations war.
Until a recent meeting of Nunavut's future and present political leadership in the central Arctic hamlet of Rankin Inlet, the plans for bringing the new public government into being were widely reported to be running a year behind schedule. Only half the necessary housing for the new bureaucrats had been built, hiring programs were also running late.
And the man responsible for overseeing the whole plan, former Liberal MP and Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak, was being blamed for putting friendship ahead of merit when it comes to choosing the first round of assistant deputy ministers. Even Mr. Anawak's appointment came months late.
After the meeting, however, all parties were praising Mr. Anawak and the other 60 officials working under him. Mr. Anawak, speaking by satellite phone about 80 kilometers from Chesterfield Inlet, another small central Arctic community, told The Hill Times he believed the process was always on track, and things are even ahead of schedule now. "We'll have everything in place to make sure the government is in place by April 1," he told The Hill Times. "But some areas don't need to going on April 1."
Indeed, it was the fact that all 10 government departments, plus the future legislative assembly clerk's office, would be in place in time for division of the N.W.T, that surprised so many observers at the Rankin Inlet meeting. Previously, it had been assumed that as many as half the departments would have to be contracted out to the government of what remains of the N.W.T., the still-unnamed Western Arctic territory.
Now, said Mr. Anawak, plans are in place so that only some services, such as bookkeeping, will need to be contracted out. A few programs, including statistics, a library system and apprenticeships, will also be left to bureaucrats working for the old N.W.T. government, at least until Nunavut's new politicians and staff have a little experience under their belt.
Mr. Anawak said he is following as closely as possible the original planning document laid out by Inuit leaders, known as Footprints 2, and will meet all the goals of the plan. But it is certain that some deviations will be necessary.
Among the thorniest problems is the ambitious decentralization plan, one that spreads government jobs widely throughout the new territory rather than concentrating them in the future capital of Iqaluit. First, some of the elements of decentralization make so little sense that some N.W.T. government officials in Yellowknife say privately they expect a massive retreat in the first few years. The Nunavut courts, for example, will be in Iqaluit, but the legal registry will be in Cambridge, more than a thousand kilometers west.
Second, some communities, such as Pond Inlet on northern Baffin Island, are asking Mr. Anawak's team to delay giving them the jobs, because their own residents aren't yet up to the task, and they fear an influx of outsiders, mostly non-Inuit southerners. Elsewhere, the expected distribution of jobs has created what some say are unrealistically high expectations among younger Inuit, who are counting on the advent of Nunavut to bring much-needed employment to communities where almost no one has a job outside of hunting and fishing. Many are bound to be disappointed when it turns out they don't have the education need to qualify. And then there's the complaint of tiny hamlets like Kimmirut, only a few hours by snowmachine from, and so often overshadowed by, the 3,500 people of Iqaluit on Baffin Island. "We're the oldest community in the Baffin," said Mayor Jimmy Akavak. "But we've got zero jobs coming to us." On the sore point of the location of some offices, a senior official confirmed that some of those decisions are being reviewed.
As for Pond Inlet's concern, Mr. Anawak said, "The future elected government should have a say about what's in place." In other words, the first batch of MLAs, to be elected this coming February, will likely have to complete the task of setting up the first government. At least there will be an elected government. When the Nunavut Act was passed last year, only days before the 1997 federal election was called, there was no provision included for an election before April 1. As a result the new territory would continue to be run by an appointed commissioner.
That would have infuriated many Inuit leaders, some of whom are already unhappy with deviations from Footprints 2. Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell, a Liberal backbencher in her first term, said that drafters of the act were simply too busy with more important factors -- this is the first time in almost 50 years a new jurisdiction is being added to Canada., she pointed out.
"They were more concerned with seeing that Nunavut came into existence and they couldn't be worried about every nitty-gritty little detail," said Ms. Karetak-Lindell. But both Mr. Anawak, who was still the sitting MP at the time, and other officials concede that the absence of an election provision was an oversight that shouldn't have happened. It was caught in a package of amendments to the Nunavut Act that was passed earlier this year.
It isn't just the government benches that need some help keeping up with Nunavut, though. Reform Party Leader Preston Manning used debate on those amendments to press for an elected senator for Nunavut, not realizing the act would actually transfer N.W.T. Senator Willie Adams to Nunavut, leaving the western N.W.T without a senator. For her part, Ms. Karetak-Lindell has taken it on herself to ensure as many MPs as possible have a better understanding of Nunavut.
Already she has given tours to about 10 of her Liberal colleagues, including Shaughnessy Cohen (Windsor-St. Clair, Ont.) Stan Keyes (Hamilton West, Ont.) Paddy Torsney (Burlington, Ont., and Susan Whelan, who represents Essex, Ont., the most southerly riding in Canada.
"I get the feeling that most people that I talk to are genuinely interested in Nunavut," said Ms. Karetak-Lindell. If some people, even in cabinet, aren't as informed as they should be about creating a new territory, it's only natural, she added. "It's never been done before."