New Nunavut premier takes office as federal government pushes infrastructure drive

As John Main settled in for one of his first interviews since being chosen as Nunavut’s new premier, his phone rang while he was in the middle of a sentence.

“Hi Doug,” he said, taking a congratulatory call from Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

“I’ve been inundated with people reaching out,” Main said after hanging up. “It’s a little bit surreal right now.”

On Thursday, Main was sworn in as Nunavut’s seventh premier, two days after his fellow MLAs selected him under Nunavut’s consensus government system.

The call from Ford — one of many courtesy calls he’s received this week — is emblematic of the relationship-building Main has vowed to pursue, particularly in Ottawa.

“You know, we're such a young territory, we have such a huge infrastructure gap that we need partners at the federal level if we're going to ever narrow that gap,” Main told The Canadian Press.

“Ottawa needs to understand our reality."

A 2020 report by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which represents Inuit in Nunavut, suggested infrastructure in the territory lagged behind all other Canadian jurisdictions by a wide margin. Significant gaps in housing, health-care, airports and power generation have hindered the territory's economic, social and cultural well-being, the report said.

"What I used to say is we're not even at the start line … where the other provinces in southern Canada are already in the race," said former Nunavut premier Joe Savikataaq, who was — until Main — the territory's only premier from the hamlet of Arviat.

"Not a whole lot of federal development has been happening in Nunavut for infrastructure purposes," he said. "We get promises that they're going to do this and they're going to do that. But not a whole lot has materialized in a long time."

In its pre-budget submission, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. called for $70 million in annual federal infrastructure funding over the next six years for Nunavut.

While the federal government didn't earmark any Nunavut-specific funding in the Nov. 4 budget, it did commit to an Arctic Infrastructure Fund of $1 billion over four years for dual-use civilian and military projects like roads, airport upgrades and ports.

That funding commitment stems from the strategy outlined in the Trudeau government's defence policy of coupling public infrastructure construction in the Arctic with defence spending. Northern leaders have long said such an approach would help Canada meet its NATO spending targets.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's desire to build infrastructure has included an emphasis on the Arctic, demonstrated by the recent referral of a hydroelectric power project near Iqaluit to the new Major Projects Office.