Nick Illauq, "Problems Facing the Canadian Territory of Nunavut"
Nick Illauq, President/Owner of Mammaqtulirijiit Fisheries Corporation and a member of the Clyde River Scientific Research Committee and the Nunavut Housing Committee
Summary: Mr. Illauq present the problems facing the Canadian territory of Nunavut and his home community of Clyde River. He discussed some of the proactive approaches to seeking solutions to these problems that are being undertaken by the people in Clyde River. He discussed areas such as alternative energy technologies and the use of local materials and traditional building methods they would like to explore and concluded with the need for establishing partnerships for ideas and solutions.
Mr. Illauq, a young Inuit, got involved with politics five years ago to search for answers to the problems facing Clyde River, a Baffin Island community in the Canadian Territory of Nunavut. Nunavut is sparsely populated and the majority of its app. 31,000 people are Inuit. It is the largest territory or province in Canada with an area the size of Western Europe. Many of the rural communities, including Clyde River, are without road access or grid intertie. They have a lot of problems due to the high cost of transportation – everything must be shipped in or flown in, increasing the cost of homes, materials and maintenance. They lack experienced people to do home and building maintenance so they must pay for skilled workers plane tickets, wages and expenses to bring them in. The area is geographically unstable with an average of 200 earthquakes per year. They are “rich” in resources yet have no money due to high unemployment and funding is hard to find.
He showed a slide of an igloo – one of the best and cheapest structures to make. They can be heated with a lamp. They are domes with three levels. The entrance level is low and never closed. The main floor level is living space and upper levels are for sleeping. He grew up in a three bedroom house with 15 people. They had to share the house. The biggest problem in Nunavut is homelessness. The “homeless” are taken into already overcrowded small homes. Nunavut has twice the national average of overcrowding in homes. Increasing the number of homes and improving the conditions in existing homes are crucial steps to address health and social problems faced by Nunavut’s children and families. The Nunavut Ten-Year Inuit Housing Action Plan, challenges the federal government to invest the $2 billion needed to meet the existing Inuit housing requirements. An investment in housing is likely to result in significant reductions in the cost of health services and social assistance as community wellness improves.
Other problems facing Nunavut are lack of education, high unemployment, and dependency due to “government handouts”. They are trying to change this. Clyde River was chosen to be the location for the Cultural School to teach people how to live off the land and to “go green” like they used to be. They have $10 million dollars to build the school and would like to build it like an igloo and run entirely on renewable energy. Mr. Illauq is trying to start a movement to use traditional methods and indigenous materials to build homes. He sees the potential in mining local granite in Clyde River and using it for a building material for themselves as well as a marketable product. They have the largest granite cliffs in the world. Conventional houses last only 20 years but granite would last forever. Clyde River is seeing first-hand the effects of global warming – melting permafrost, power poles falling over, etc. The community relocated once already in 1967. Unfortunately they were relocated right on top of an earthquake fault line. They would like to relocate again, this time to bedrock to get away from permafrost and earthquakes.
Mr. Illauq is involved in many community projects, as he believes for change to happen you have to do what you can. His employment is in construction drilling foundation piles. They want to create more partnerships to help the people of Nunavut. He believes taking a radical approach is the best way to help their struggles. Clyde River was chosen as the pilot community for the Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options in Nunavut Communities. Clyde River was also chosen for several International Polar Year (IPY) projects. Clyde River has been involved in climate change research and adaptation planning and has been documenting Inuit knowledge of weather, winds, sea ice conditions, vegetation changes, freshwater supplies, sea-level changes, coastal erosion and permafrost degradation. Clyde River utilizes hunters and special GPS technology attached to the hunters snow machines to track harvest data, wildlife observations, mapping of land/sea ice use and search and rescues. This benefits them as it helps stake claims in their traditional hunting grounds. They are currently working to launch a new climate research center in Clyde River.
They are also looking at alternative energy options for their community. It is a very windy community – averaging 29 mph annually. Sometimes the wind creates snow drifts that cover their houses! They used to have doors on their roofs and sometimes heard snowmobiles buzzing over their roofs! They are looking at tapping the strong ocean current or nearby rivers that run ice-free all year long or their many waterfalls for energy. They are looking at geothermal since they live in an unstable region and with 79 days of 24 hour daylight in the summer they are looking at solar energy solutions. They want solutions to the problems in Nunavut and are looking for new partnerships and ideas. Solutions developed in the north will benefit everyone, including those who live in the south.
In conclusion, Mr. Illauq referred to a question asked by a Forum participant during an earlier panel discussion regarding “costs and balancing people’s needs –and spending a lot of money on schools for a small number of people. Mr. Illauq is a living testament to why it is necessary to provide an education for rural people. It is expensive to have to go “outside” for training.