Nunavut MLAs pick priorities from government report card

Nunavut MLAs have released the government's to-do list, selecting priorities from a recent report card on the government's policies and programs.

The priority list, released Monday,was created at the end of a four-day full caucus session last week, in which cabinet and regular MLAs alike discussed 92 recommendations made in Qanukkanniq?, which means "What's next?" in Inuktitut.

The government-commissioned review, released earlier this month, looked at the policies and programs in place over the past 10 years since Nunavut officially became its own territory in 1999.

Members agreed to review of Nunavut's decentralization policy, in which government offices are located outside the capital city of Iqaluit.

"We are committed to decentralization. We just have to make sure that it's running efficiently and effectively," Premier Eva Aariak told CBC News on Monday.

But former Nunavut premier Paul Okalik, now the MLA for Iqaluit West, said a review of the decentralization policy does not solve the problem of scarce resources.

"Whether it be out in a decentralized community or Iqaluit, we have challenges in trying to fill those positions," he said.

Children's advocate office to be established

The report card also focused on social issues such as poverty, especially in communities where it says upwards of 70 per cent of residents live on social assistance.

Aariak said the government will review its income support program and deliver a poverty reduction strategy.

The government also pledged to establish an independent children's and youth advocate's office by 2013 something that has long been called for by Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson, who is now justice minister.

But Aariak said the new office will not necessarily be a carbon copy of youth advocacy offices elsewhere in Canada: "It can be a child advocacy office, but it might be called differently because we are looking at it from the Inuit perspective," she said.

A children's advocate usually operates at arm's length from government, acting on behalf of children and youth in their jurisdiction.

As part of the Qanukkanniq? review, North Sky Consulting held public hearings in communities across Nunavut in June to ask Nunavummiut what they thought of the territorial government's past 10 years.

Okalik, who was premier from 1999 to 2008, said while the report card makes some valid points, the fact that it does not have grades does not meet the review's terms of reference.

"How much money did we pay to have a flawed report put before us?" he said.

Government officials are working on a plan to implement the report card priorities. That plan could be presented when the legislature resumes sitting in late November.