Nunavik receives C$ 3.5 million to deal with climate change
The Government of Québec will grant Nunavik C$ 3.5 million to deal with the impacts of climate change and mitigate its effects. This grant is part of a larger plan to help Québec Indigenous communities with the problem.
In total, a payment of C$ 10 million (€ 6.7 million) was announced on 3 August by Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment of Québec. This funding is part of the “Supporting Aboriginal Communities to Take Action on Climate Change” action of the 2030 Green Economy Plan. The plan comprises a total investment of $23.5 million over five years.
The $10 million grant was awarded to the First Nations of Quebec Sustainable Development Institute (C$6.3 million), the Kativik Regional Government (C$3.5 million) and the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach (C$210,000). The aim of this funding is to enable First Nations and Inuit to implement community projects to address the impacts of climate change and contribute to mitigating them, as stated in the press release issued by the Government of Québec.
As for the 3.5 million awarded to the Kativik Regional Government (KRG) – around 2.3 million euros – it should support Nunavik community projects and include a liaison officer. “The impacts of climate change threaten every aspect of Nunavik Inuit life, from the essential infrastructure of our communities, to our safety when we practice traditional wildlife harvesting, to the food security of our families,” said KRG President Hilda Snowball in a statement. “Nunavimmiut (the people of Nunavik, Editor’s note) must be able to participate in the development and implementation of solutions to these problems,” she added.
The KRG could not be contacted to tell us how they would invest this funding. However, environmental initiatives should not be lacking in Nunavik which, like the rest of the Arctic, is particularly hard hit by global warming. The region is facing a number of specific problems, such as melting permafrost destabilizing housing structures, disappearing sea ice endangering hunters, coastal erosion and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions. Faced with these changes, Inuit communities also need solutions that are adapted to their specific conditions, and that take account of their social, economic and cultural specificities.
In 2019, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national representative organization of the 65,000 Inuit in Canada, published a “National Inuit Climate Change Strategy” report. The result of a year’s work, it defined five priority climate-related fields for the whole of Inuit Nunangat. The aim was to promote the use of Inuit skills and knowledge in climate decision-making. This would allow Inuit-specific needs to be taken into account in the fight against global warming, and appropriate policies to be applied.
The Plan for a Green Economy is a framework policy for electrification and the fight against climate change. Unveiled in 2020 by the Québec government, it aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change within this decade.
Mirjana Binggeli, PolarJournal
More on the subject
