High Arctic communities consider splitting from QIA

Six High Arctic communities will petition Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to break away from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and form their own Inuit organization.

Hall Beach, Igloolik, Pond Inlet, Clyde River, Arctic Bay and Resolute Bay will formallymake their petition next month at NTI's board of directors meeting to form its own High Arctic designated Inuit organization, sources tell CBC News.

Grise Fiord is also considering joining.

QIA represents 13 communities across the Baffin region.

The split has been in discussion for months and communities have been collecting signatures.

The push to form a separate organization stems from control over royalty payments from Baffinland's Mary River mine.

The communities want more control over the royalties. QIA's royalties from Baffinland are currently being saved in a legacy fund.

New High Arctic office

The long-term goal would see increased control of government departments: instead of nurses or teachers working for the territorial government for instance, they would be employed by the newly formed Inuit organization.

The hope is NTI will provide funding to open an office in one of the High Arctic communities, similar to QIA's Iqaluit office.

It's not clear how a split could work. Under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, NTI can designateauthority to an organization.

NTI declined to comment while the president of QIA was tight-lipped about the petition.

"Discussions around starting a new Designated Inuit Organization are not new, these debates surface from time to time," read an emailed statement by P.J. Akeeagok.

"However, to date nothing has been formally presented to QIA about this. Therefore our board of directors does not have a formal position on this issue," he said.

"If this group does decide to present us with a petition to form a new Designated Inuit Organization we will reach out to them to gain a better understanding of the reasons motivating their actions so we can attempt to address their concerns."