Quebec City, Canada:
March 1999

The purpose of this meeting was to assess interest on the part of Canada Inuit in an international survey of living conditions in the arctic.

Representatives of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Laborador Inuit Association, Nunavik Regional Board or Health and Social Services, and the Government of the Northwest Territories met with representatives of Universite Laval, Statistics Canada, and the University of Alaska.

Main conclusions:

1.    A steering committee will be set up to manage the project, and is to take the major decisions . The Canada Steering Committee is composed of voting and non-voting members. Voting members will consist of one representative from each Canadian region (Labrador, Nunavik, Nunavut, Inuvialuit), and one academic and liaison with the international team. Non-voting members can be represented on a consultative basis (eg Statistics Canada, Bureau of Statistics of NWT, ITC, the US coordinator).

2.    A technical committee will be set up, and it is responsible for the implementation of the project.

3.    Following the desire of the regional representatives, and given the timetables involved and the openness of Statistics Canada, we will try to combine the Canadian Living Conditions survey with the Aboriginal People Survey (APS). Various formulas for cooperation are to be examined. A combined list of items to be measured is to be discussed.

4.     We must have clear decisions concerning access, ownership and uses of the data at the beginning of the process.

 Some actions to be taken:

1.    We discussed an initial list of concepts that could be measured (see Canada-Alaska Topics). The regional representatives will send me back the list of items to be measured, after appropriate consultations. I will conciliate these different lists to get finally one single list. Then I will discuss this resulting list with Thomas Andersen, the international coordinator, and others, in order to see to what extend our Canadian list is acceptable for international purposes. We keep in mind that each regions keep the possibility of "opting out",  concerning some sensitive variables within the list.

2.         We try to arrange a meeting with those responsible for APS. I need from the regional coordinators:

-a confirmation concerning your participation at such a meeting at Ottawa.

-a confirmation concerning the capacity of your own organisation to pay for your participation. If it is impossible, we will see what is possible over here.

3.            Following the results of these discussions with Statistics Canada, and other discussions that I have to have with Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), we will adopt a financial strategy.

Whatever the funding sources to be decided upon, I will then write a draft proposal. This document will be send to each member of the Canadian Steering Committee for fine-tuning and approval. Each region will then have to produce a letter of support.

List of participants

Beaudoin, Pierre, Universite Laval

Bushnick, Tracey, Statistics Canada

Comtois, Robert, Universite Laval

Conelly Rodger, Inuivialuit Regional Corporation

Cousins, Letia, Dalhousie University

Duhaime Gerard, Universite Laval

Hicks Jack, Government of Northwest Territories

Kruse, Jack, University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Massachusetts

Lyall, Brian, Labrador Inuit Association

MacDougall, Brian,

Robitaille, Jean, Universite Laval

Snarch, Brian, Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services

Veevers, Richard, Statistics Canada

All the best

Gerard Duhaime

Canadian Coordinator