Wed Dec 6,
Canadian Press
The organization that looks after the Nunavut Land Claim is suing the federal government for $1 billion, claiming that
The lawsuit, filed by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., alleges the Inuit lose about $123 million a year in wages and benefits largely because too many federal jobs go to workers from the south, despite guarantees in the land claim that a representative portion would go to northerners.
"We have tried many times to re-engage our negotiators," NTI head Paul Kaludjak said Wednesday. "Now it's breach of contract."
A federal government spokeswoman said the Indian Affairs Department would review the statement of claim.
Under the land claim, Inuit are guaranteed a representative slice of federal and territorial civil service jobs in
Inuit make up 85 per cent of the territory's population, but have never occupied more than 45 per cent of territorial jobs and are stuck at 33 per cent of federal jobs.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers has calculated that the paycheques that didn't go to Inuit total about $123 million a year.
"If we had implementation (of the claim), we could have had that money," Kaludjak said.
The lawsuit also alleges that the federal government has not lived up to promises to fund a variety of regulatory boards and local hunters' groups.
But the dispute over public-sector hiring has been the most contentious issue during years of fruitless negotiations over how the Nunavut land claim - the largest in Canadian history and celebrated worldwide when it came into effect in 1999 - was put into practice.
Former justice Thomas Berger was appointed as a conciliator in the dispute and delivered his report last spring.
He wrote that, to live up to its hiring commitments, the federal government has an obligation to spend more money on education in
Berger recommended an extra $20 million a year and revamped schools with a bilingual English-Inuktitut curriculum to make things right.
"We want training and education to be reformed in
Berger's report has never been implemented.
Under the land claim, signed in 1993, the Inuit were given title to about 350,000 square kilometres of land and just over $1 billion, payable over 14 years.
However, Kaludjak said that money was intended to be held in trust and invested for claim beneficiaries, not spent on delivering services - although, in the absence of federal action, some of it has been.
"The government said they would fund implementation matters and they have not."
Although the dispute stretches back years, the situation has deteriorated under
"We're at an impasse. Nothing is happening with this new government."
The statement of claim, filed Wednesday in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit, contains statements that have not been proven in court.