On keeping one's deals

A report on the federal government's obligations under the Nunavut Land Claim suggests that Canada can't claim to meet a job requirement without offering training to allow Inuit citizens to fill those jobs - and that the necessary money to provide the training would pay off several times over:

"The schools are failing," wrote (former justice Thomas) Berger. "They are not producing graduates truly competent in Inuktitut; moreover, the Inuit of Nunavut have the lowest rate of literacy in English in the country."

That failure, he calculates, costs some of Canada's poorest people $72 million a year in lost employment - and costs taxpayers up to another $25 million a year in recruiting, training and housing southerners for jobs that could have gone to Inuit...

Berger proposes a system that uses Inuktitut in all 12 grades, with gradually increasing amounts of English throughout...

Kaludjak argued that the $20-million annual price tag for the recommendations can't be seen as another subsidy to the Nunavut government. He says that money is owed to the Inuit under the terms of the land claim.

"It's money earmarked for this claim that was never delivered," he said. "We have a contract here that hasn't been paid for."

The issue is currently under discussion with Jim Prentice - and the claim seems far too likely to fall into the Cons' classification of agreements which they have no desire to continue. But in addition to forming part of what should be a binding agreement, the recommended investment in education seems likely to pay large dividends. And if the Cons recognize that reality, then there'll be a much better chance for Inuit students to gain a relatively even footing compared to their counterparts across the country.