HIGHLIGHTS

The Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement

• Agreement: The Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement deals with land and resources along the coastline of James Bay, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay, as well as a portion of northern Labrador and an offshore area adjacent to Labrador. The agreement is between the Government of Canada, the Government of Nunavut and Makivik Corporation, an organization that represents about 10,000 Inuit in Nunavik.
  
  
• Settlement Area: The Nunavik Inuit Settlement Area is comprised of two areas:
  
  
  1. The Nunavik Marine Region, which covers the offshore islands, intervening waters including the ice that separates them; the inter-tidal zones and the ocean bed along these coastlines. It encompasses more than 250,000 square kilometres, has no full-time residents, and is within the jurisdiction of Canada and Nunavut; and
     
     
  2. the Labrador portion of the Nunavik Inuit Settlement Area, which covers an offshore area adjacent to Labrador from Killinik Island to just north of Hebron and an onshore portion in northern Labrador, consistent with the boundaries of the Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve of Canada.
     
     
• Lands: The Nunavik Inuit will own in fee simple almost 80% of the islands in the Nunavik Marine Region, totalling approximately 5,000 square kilometres, including surface and sub-surface rights. Of that 80%, approximately 400 square kilometres will be shared with the Québec Cree in a joint zone. Nunavik Inuit Lands will include all lands above the ordinary high water mark, and the mines and minerals found within, upon or under them.
  
  
• Overlaps: The agreement contains three successful overlap agreements between the Nunavik Inuit and each of three other Aboriginal groups: the Nunavut Inuit, the Québec Cree and the Labrador Inuit.
  
  
• Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve of Canada: The agreement, when in effect, will give national park status to the Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve of Canada. The park will be approximately 9,700 square kilometres, extending from Saglek Fjord in the south to the northern tip of Labrador, and from the provincial boundary of Québec in the west to the Labrador Sea in the east. The new park will protect an area of spectacular Arctic wilderness, home to a variety of wildlife and numerous archaeological sites.
  
  
• Wildlife management and harvesting: The Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board will be established as an institution of public government to manage and regulate wildlife. Nunavik Inuit will have the right to harvest any species of wildlife in the Nunavik
  
  
• Marine Region to fulfill their economic, social and cultural needs, unless the board has established a limit in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Nunavik Inuit harvesting will take priority over other forms of harvesting.
  
  
• Capital Transfers: Canada will provide a capital transfer of $54.8 million, calculated in 2005 dollars, to the Nunavik Inuit Trust, to be paid out over nine years beginning when the agreement takes effect after the passage of legislation.
  
  
• Resource Royalty: Nunavik Inuit will be entitled to receive royalties annually from the Government of Canada based on resource development in the Nunavik Marine Region (50% of the first $2 million of resource royalty received by the Government that year and 5% of any additional resource royalty received by the Government that year).
  
  
• Implementation: Canada will make a one-time payment and ongoing implementation funding payments totalling some $57.6 million in the first 10 years of the agreement. This funding will support federal implementation funding obligations including the resolution of Nunavik Inuit Claims in Labrador and offshore Labrador and for the Park Impacts and Benefits Agreement for the Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve of Canada. This includes $39.8 million to Makivik and the Nunavik Inuit Trust, and $17.8 million for Canada and the Government of Nunavut obligations.
  
  
• Certainty: This agreement will provide for certainty with respect to all of the Aboriginal rights of Nunavik Inuit respecting lands and resources.
  
  
• Timing: Legislation is being drafted and will be introduced in Parliament following consultations with Makivik and the Government of Nunavut.

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