Electoral Reform committee  Qujannamiik . Thank you for your question. Many times I've sat here trying to dialogue with the federal government and trying to be a voice, because we are told we have the right to work with governments as per our land claims, right? The promise of the crown says the Inuit would participate in the political...I don't know if “political development” is the right expression, or “political representation”, in discussing what our issues are.

Electoral Reform committee  Yes. You could look at it geographically or base it on the number of modern treaties you have on file. I don't know if that would make any sense, but I think there are about 26 modern treaties. Then there are co-management regimes built into some of these modern treaties. Sometimes when you're trying to manage wildlife or other types of resources, it's important to be able to talk together as co-managers on resources that are important.

Electoral Reform committee  That's a good question, and I'm going to invite my colleague John Merritt to contribute to the discussion. From our perspective, the idea of two MPs representing Nunavut is much like us depending on one satellite. There were a couple of dark days when that satellite went sideways and no longer could communicate.

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will make some brief remarks in Inuktitut. Thank you to the public meeting of the House of Commons special committee and the federal electoral representatives, and welcome to Nunavut on behalf of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, Cathy Towtongie, and the Board of Directors of NTI.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Clyde River has two things going for it. One is the Ilisaqsivik Society, which is a community wellness program initiative. They have counsellors who are respected elders and have proven abilities to help those who are in grief. Again, those are key situations, so there's that program, and they go out to the community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I will try to respond quickly to this. In terms of what the question is concerned with, there is a deep need for health services among our people, and a need to help them cope and move on from the issues. We have a mental health strategy, but we need it to include mobile trauma response teams.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know if the other panellists have anything to say about it, but I think we go—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start. As I said earlier, I think it would be helpful if you as the federal government and we as the NTI would commit to work together to develop a curriculum that would help us shape the kind of curriculum that would help our students not only develop their academic skills but also understand, using language and culture, how they can become successful people who can contribute to a healthy society.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Let me just respond this way. As you were flying in, you probably saw the visible lack of infrastructure. In terms of that concern, that quickly tells you about choices. Do I have restaurants to go to here? You can probably count your options on one hand. When it comes to education, I can point to only one option that we have.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Going back to Clyde River, there is a cultural school there that is doing remarkable things for young men who are in need. They go there absolutely broken and needing help, and then after a couple of years of going through there, they are transformed. They realize they'd been convicted of what they'd done wrong, and I think that's been helpful to those individuals.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. In terms of implementation, there has been very little implementation, as far as we're concerned. There are genuine efforts, but really what we're seeing.... I think the land claims coalition is pushing for some new ideas that are being proposed to the federal government that would help the government focus in terms of being led by a policy that helps the government focus its resources towards their obligations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll just quickly say that we see education as a tool to help us keep and enhance who we are as a people. We want to use education as a tool to keep our language, to keep our culture, and so forth. I just wanted to add that. Maybe I'll let my partner respond further.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I just wanted to highlight that while the erosion of our language is a big concern, we do have programs that are working. One is a day care facility in Iqaluit that is an Inuktitut day care. When children are allowed to be respected and cared for in their language, it does something good for them in terms of being confident in who they are.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Generally, there are. We always have implementation concerns, due to the lack of implementation policy that pushes both levels of government to commit to any kind of implementation of their federal obligations as far as the land claims are concerned.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. NTI is prepared to work with the federal government to develop curriculum that is relevant and would reflect Inuit culture. Also, in terms of funding, it would really be beneficial if we could set multi-year funding arrangements, as opposed to piece by piece, because this challenge is really in need at this time.