Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Nunavut today to participate in a signing ceremony about transferring responsibilities for public lands and resources to the territory from the federal government.
Ottawa says it represents the largest land transfer in Canada’s history and Nunavut’s premier says the agreement means it is taking one more historic step “towards the vision of a self-reliant” territory.
In 2019, Mr. Trudeau’s then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister, Carolyn Bennett, signed an agreement-in-principle with Nunavut’s then-premier intended to serve as a guide for negotiating a final agreement.
Nunavut was created as its own territory in 1999 and it entered the process of gaining control over its lands and resources in 2008 by signing a negotiation protocol with former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. Similar processes were completed years earlier in both the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
Mr. Harper appointed negotiators to work on the details around Nunavut’s agreement and the process eventually culminated in the 2019 deal between Nunavut, Canada and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which represents Inuit treaty rights.
It was expected that it would take another five years to complete a final agreement governing the transfer of responsibilities for land, water and the resources they contain.
A joint news release from the parties on Jan. 18 said the transfer of responsibilities will happen over the next three years and conclude by April 2027.
Mr. Trudeau is set to sign the final agreement alongside Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal and the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., before a crowd of elders, singers and other community members gathered for a celebration.
Mr. Trudeau met with Mr. Akeeagok in early 2023, when an official readout from their meeting said they discussed the progress on reaching a final deal to give Nunavut “full decision-making power over their lands and resources.”
On X, the platform previously known as Twitter, Mr. Akeeagok invited people to watch what he called “the signing of the historic Nunavut Devolution Agreement.”
Following the signing ceremony, Mr. Trudeau will take questions from reporters alongside the premier and then attend a community celebration.
During their meeting in May 2023, which took place in Ottawa, Mr. Akeeagok and Mr. Trudeau also discussed the need to address the territory’s housing crisis and its stated goal of building 3,000 homes by 2030.
Local leaders and policy experts have for decades underscored the territory’s housing shortage, which has forced its Inuit residents to live in poor-quality and overcrowded homes.
Mr. Akeeagok is asking Ottawa to provide the territory with $250 million to help it build new homes. Iqaluit Mayor Solomon Awa says before it can expand the footprint about where it builds more, it first needs to figure out how to supply the city with more water.
He says the current reservoir is too small to support increased population growth and that it is exploring options on how to fix the problem using federal funds.
