Friday, April 19, 2024 
Friday, April 19, 2024
October 23, 2020
Inuit in Nunavut have far less access to a wide range of infrastructure such as housing, health care, transportation and education compared to other Canadians, a new report from Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) found.
And that significant inequality makes every aspect of life more expensive while putting Arctic ecosystems at risk, the report says.
It was released on Wednesday during NTI’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.
“When you grow up in Nunavut and you’ve never left the territory, you take for granted what is available — you think that’s normal,” NTI President Aluki Kotierk told CBC News.
“It was important for us to demonstrate the inequalities so that Nunavut Inuit could realize that lack of infrastructure and how it negatively impacts on their lives.”
The 259-page report aims to measure the gap in disparities as a starting point to address the inequalities.
Little has been done to measure the gap, the report says, despite years of talk from politicians.
“The infrastructure gap cannot remain just a talking point, recognized but not remedied,” the report says.
It uses 55 “indicators” of the gap across 18 “infrastructure priority areas” grouped into three categories: energy and environment; people and communities; and connections.
The priority areas include power, waste water, housing, education, health and food sovereignty. As well, ports and harbours, telecommunications, air and justice were listed.
The report says these areas overlap and compound each other through factors like climate change, state of repair and skill development.
For example, any infrastructure project in Nunavut provides an opportunity for Inuit to receive skill development, Kotierk said.
