Inuit leaders talk northern issues with PM

Inuit leaders pressed Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday at a meeting in Iqaluit on issues they believe are important to Nunavut residents.

Mary Simon, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization, used the meeting with the prime minister to try to push up health and education on the government's agenda.

"Economic development isn't going to happen for our people unless we deal with some of the acute issues that are affecting our people," she said.

Those issues include health, education and social services in northern communities, she said.

Simon also asked Harper to work towards a First Ministers and aboriginal summit next year.

Paul Kaludjak, the president of land claims organization Nunavut Tunngavik, said his group's priority is claims implementation.

Nunavut Tunngavik claims that Ottawa has not lived up to its obligations in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and the group has launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against the federal government.

Kaludjak said officials at the meeting told him they would reply in a couple of months.

Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said the hour-long meeting was frank and to the point.

"It was a chance to get information rather than give it," said Strahl.