National Defence committee  Yes. On behalf of my delegates, I want to at least thank the group for taking the time to listen. I know you are busy people. There has been a lot of discussion, and I hope that the recording was done appropriately so that you can have it for your information. On behalf of my

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Yes, we did mention the lack of a proper education system in Nunavut over the years. Some of you stated you had read the Berger report. We did work among ourselves a few years ago to find out what was wrong with the system. We looked at

National Defence committee  Am I allowed to say yes to that? Yes and no. We said when we signed the land claims agreement in 1993 that this showed respect to the Inuit people and along the way at times it was lost. That's why we had a hard time trying to re-entertain the need for the language to be retriev

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, sir. I believe so. We've worked with different governments over the years, in my tenure anyway. I've been working at this level for five years now, and we at Nunavut Tunngavik made history because we met with the Prime Minister last August

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is a good question. I was going to say earlier about the language that I don't have the luxury of interpretation when I talk in my own language, unfortunately, but you all do. In terms of the naming, I don't know if you are aw

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam, for your comment. As we said before, if we want to assert sovereignty the highest level we would need is to safeguard the environmental surroundings in that area. As I said before, for no matter which area of Nunavut--it doesn't have to

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir, Mr. Chairman. Yes, some progress has been made with respect to engaging or creating what we call IPGs, independent public government bodies, that were created through the claim to work on environmental assessments and work on land use planning that I mentioned—wh

National Defence committee  I was getting to that. It remains that through our initiative with the Nunavut government and our MOU that we signed, hopefully we can take those steps in devolution and make sure that, with the agreement we have with the federal government, some of these things can kick in.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, sir. Just so that people around the table understand, the understanding must be that some of the implementation did happen within the 15, 16, 17 years now, since 1993. There was some work done. It's not as if there was never any work done,

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I'm used to protocol where the chairman acknowledges when I'm ready to speak, or when somebody is ready to speak, so my apologies. In terms of the Berger report, as I said before, we were extremely proud of the findings, which reaffirmed the arg

National Defence committee  Okay, thank you, sirs, for that comment and also for the question. Mr. Chairman, let me first say this in my own language. [Witness speaks in Inuktitut] Firstly, thank you. The gentleman before you visited our office back in 1999, or thereabouts. Yes, Inuit are different in

National Defence committee  Thank you, Madam and Mr. Chairman. Yes, the Berger report was extremely important to us. It reaffirmed our argument. It reaffirmed our cause, and that's what we had been saying all along. He was directed to find the implementation difficulties that we were having in our claim i

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir. Yes, as we stated, we want the highest levels of environmental protection anywhere in Nunavut, not only in the passage itself, but throughout Nunavut. We demand the best tool possible to protect the environment in Nunavut because of its fragile climate and very

National Defence committee  I need more than a minute, because I don't see you every day and I would like to do my full presentation.

National Defence committee  In this context, I would like to acknowledge the Land and Resources Devolution Negotiation Protocol that I signed with the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the Premier of Nunavut on September 5, 2008. The protocol states: The parties acknowledge that it