Inuit Leader Sends 12 Questions to Party Leaders

In an open letter to the party leaders Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Mary Simon has asked twelve questions that she considers are important to Inuit and are current in Canada’s political dialogue. Replies will be posted to their website – here are the questions.

1. Does your Party agree that following the historic June 11th, 2008 Apology by the Prime Minister to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada that the next Government should embark on a bold new path in partnership with Inuit to close gaps in housing, health, economic development, and education needs by 2015?

 

2. Does your Party support expanding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by adding an Inuk Commissioner to recognize the many Inuit who were impacted by the dark period in Canada of Aboriginal Residential Schools, and would your Party further support the inclusion of Inuit (for example in Labrador) who attended residential or day schools who were subject to abuse but have been excluded from the Indian Residential School Settlement?

 

3. Would a government formed by your party call a meeting of First Ministers and national Aboriginal Leaders, within one year of its election, to agree on clear targets and commitments sufficient to overcome gaps between Aboriginal and other Canadians in basic measures of social and economic well being?

 

4. Does your party support the reform of federal policy in relation to the implementation of modern land claims agreements along the lines recommended in the May 2008 report of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples?

 

5. Does your party support the development of a new Arctic Strategy to guide federal policy for the Canadian and international Arctic, and agree that such a policy must extend to all of the lands and marine areas of the Inuit Homeland in Canada (including Arctic portions of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador), and to engage Inuit as co-partners in the development of such a strategy?

 

6. Does your Party agree that asserting Canadian Arctic Sovereignty must by design include a human dimension that ensures a healthy, well educated economically viable Inuit majority population in the Arctic?

 

7. Does your party agree that any new federal policy aimed at combating carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases must contain a set of adaptation and adjustments factors for Inuit communities sufficient to ensure that implementation of the policy would not have a net negative effect on regional economies in the Arctic?

 

8. Does your party support the Government of Canada endorsing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2007 and endorsed in a resolution of the House of Commons during the last Parliament?

 

9. Does your party support additional federal funding to allow for the construction and operation of Mental Health Centre’s for the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse and other mental health issues for Inuit in the Arctic?

 

10. Does your party support the renewal, and expansion of the following federal initiatives vital to Inuit in the Arctic: a) Food Mail, and b) Strategic Investments in Northern Economic Development Programs?

 

11. Does your party support the appointment of an Ombudsperson for Aboriginal Children?

 

12. Does your party support the goal of making the Inuit language the primary working language in the Arctic, and support providing federal funding support for the Inuit language at a level at least as generous as provided francophone and anglophone minorities in the Arctic?