Nunavut Planning Commission explains $1.7M hearing price tag
The Nunavut Planning Commission says it needs $1.7 million to fly 150 to 200 people from across Nunavut to Iqaluit for the final hearing into the territory's land use plan.
Participants would include five people from each community in Nunavut, planning commission staff, commission board members and other stakeholders, such as the Denesuline from Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and Inuit from Nunavik.
“A large portion of the costs are for translating written materials into different languages, printing copies of the draft Nunavut land use plan and delivering it to those persons and organizations in advance of the hearings” says executive director Sharon Ehaloak.
She says the commission also needs another $300,000 for “supplies for the Nunavut Planning Commission and the attendees at the hearing alone.”
On Monday, the Nunavut Planning Commission cancelled the final hearing, blaming a lack of funding from the federal government.
They say the federal government is blocking efforts to complete the final step in a multi-year effort to gather input on just how development should proceed on Nunavut’s 1.8-million square kilometres of land.
“This public hearing has been coming towards the parties for 20 years,” Ehaloak says. “If it doesn’t happen this year and the plan is delayed, it will be due to the federal failure to fund.”