Feds commit $1.5B to fulfill Nunavut Land Claim in historic deal

The federal government has committed to spend $1.5 billion over 10 years to carry out promises it made in the Nunavut land claim agreement.

Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Jeremy Tunraluk signed the new Nunavut Agreement Implementation Contract in Ottawa on Saturday. The ceremony was held at Nunavut Sivuniksavut College.

"This agreement means finally investing in the Inuit dream of Nunavut," Akeeagok said.

The existence of a Nunavut Agreement Implementation plan is a requirement under the Nunavut land claim. Implementation contracts are meant to set out how the governments of Canada and Nunavut, and Nunavut Tunngavik will work to implement the land claim — including details on funding.

Anandasangaree called the new implementation contract a "bold 10-year plan to fulfill commitments in the Nunavut Agreement."

In addition to the $1.5 billion promised from 2024 to 2034, the federal government will also spend $77.6 million per year after that period.

The contract includes:

Saturday's signing marked the first time the parties have successfully negotiated a Nunavut Agreement Implementation Contract since the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement was ratified in 1993. 

That agreement was supposed to be renegotiated in 2003, but the parties reached an impasse. Nunavut Tunngavik eventually launched a lawsuit against the federal government for failing to honour the agreement. The parties reached an out of court settlement in 2015.

In his speech, Tunraluk said Nunavut Tunngavik and the Nunavut government can meet the objectives of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement for the first time, because the new contract gives them the resources they need.

"Like the day of the signing of the Nunavut agreement in 1993, today is a beginning," Tunraluk said.

The funding for training provides a path to a public government in Nunavut that is "by Inuit, for Inuit," he said.

The new contract "nearly triples" the funding for hunters and trappers organizations and regional wildlife organizations in Nunavut, he said, adding that it's the first increase those groups have gotten since the original contract was signed in 1993.

Institutions of public government in Nunavut, including the Nunavut Water Board and the Nunavut's environmental assessment agency, are also set to receive more money, which Akeeagok and Tunraluk said is badly needed.