KUUJJUAQ, Que. - Harper Island? Ile de Harper?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper could end up with a remote Quebec island named after him following a land-claim deal with the Inuit of the province's northern Nunavik region.
After almost three decades of on-and-off negotiation, the people of Nunavik will get a new national park, new resource rights, administrative controls, and $54 million over nine years.
It's the last major Inuit land claim in Canada and, to celebrate its legislative royal assent last month, Harper flew up to the isolated northern Quebec community of Kuujjuaq on Friday.
Village residents filtered into the local community hall to exchange presents with the prime minister, perform traditional Inuit throat-singing, and to promise the prime minister a tiny slice of Arctic immortality.
A local leader said the Inuit always considered the islands surrounding northern Quebec as their own land -- places where they have long hunted for food.
"They were our grocery stores, they were our shelters, and we've used them for our livelihood,'' said Pita Aatami, head of the Makivik Corporation."But on paper (they) were not really ours. We can truly say that they're ours now.''
Makivik, a non-profit, Inuit-run organization which has long managed Nunavik's resources, signed the treaty with Ottawa in 2006 but the accompanying legislation was adopted only recently by Parliament.
As a gesture of thanks, the group is inviting the prime minister to another ceremony at a later date.
"I hope that you will come back also once we start naming the islands,'' Aatami said to applause from an auditorium that was two-thirds full.
"We can officially start naming the islands to what we want to name them because a lot of these islands don't have any names. So don't be surprised if there's an island called Harper Island.''
Just off the tree line that divides forest from tundra, Kuujjuaq is a sparsely settled cluster of pre-fab homes nested in a range of hills and rocky permafrost.
The town of 2,100 is also the administrative hub for an expanse of land roughly the same size as Western Europe and of most of the surrounding islands sprinkled over a 5,100-kilometre stretch of icy waters.
About 10,000 square kilometres will belong to the new Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve of Canada.
The deal will also:
- Create a Nunavik wildlife board to manage hunting and fishing. Nunavik Inuit will be free to hunt in keeping with their traditions, except in cases where the new Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board sets limits.
- Grant resource royalties to the local population. It guarantees Nunavik 50 per cent of the first $2 million in annual resources royalties and 5 per cent from any additional royalties received by the federal government.
"This is a spectacular environment,'' the prime minister told the audience.
"The unspoiled beauty of this region immediately strikes anyone. Frankly, the unspoiled beauty is matched only by the extraordinary opportunities that lay before the people who live here.''
The government says the agreement will be final with the passage of supplementary estimates by the House of Commons in May or June.
After the ceremony, Harper gave Aatami the Maple Leaf flag that flew over the Peace Tower on Feb. 14, 2008, the day the land-claims bill received royal assent.
He also handed over a leather-bound copy of the agreement signed by Kevin Lynch, the clerk of the Privy Council.
Even if the island thing doesn't go through, Harper has a traditional Inuit carving to take home.
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, who accompanied Harper, was given a fur vest.
Harper later attended a ceremony with Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon to tour the recently expanded local airport.
Hailed as the greenest of its kind in Canada, the newly refurbished airport was designed to conserve energy with solar panels and a reflective roof, and has waterless urinals in the men's washroom.
Ottawa spent $15 million on the project.
Harper also met Joe Juneau, a former NHL player who has chosen to settle his family in Kuujjuaq and start a hockey program there for local youth.
The 12-year NHL veteran, who played with Boston, Montreal, Ottawa and several other teams, spoke with the prime minister about his hope of establishing similar programs elsewhere in Canada.
Juneau was asked why he chose to retire in a place so remote, cold, and ridden with poverty and social problems.
"I've always been someone attracted by big challenges,'' Juneau said.
"When I came to witness what these kids had to go through in life, this whole thing came as a flash to me. I decided to do something.''
The prime minister, a rabid hockey buff who has been working on a book about the sport, called Juneau an inspiration.
Kuujjuaq, once known as Fort Chimo, lies on the Koksoak River, about 50 kilometres upstream from Ungava Bay.
The village boasts a number of hotels -- including a conference centre -- restaurants, stores, arts and crafts shops and a bank.
Many of the residents continue to follow traditional subsistence hunting and fishing in tune with the seasons. They pull 15-kilogram trout from neighbouring lakes and keep tabs on the annual migrations of the George River caribou herd.
But they also have Internet access and e-mail.
