Mental health, affordability, climate change among priorities for young Nunavut voters

‘We need to support leaders who are honest, transparent, and willing to work for the people’

A number of young voters in Nunavut are looking for the next government to tackle big issues in the territory.

The Nunavut election is scheduled for Oct. 27 and younger voters could have a significant impact on its outcome.

In 2020, 48 per cent of Nunavut’s population was aged between 15 and 24 years old. However, according to Elections Nunavut, the largest disparity between the number of eligible voters and those actually registered was among Nunavummiut under 30.

Delaney Drachenberg, 25, is looking for the next set of MLAs to do more to try and address mental health and suicide within the territory’s LGBTQ+ community.

“We don’t know how many suicides are actually caused, at least in part, by someone having a crisis with their gender or sexuality,” said Drachenberg.

According to a 2017 study, two out of three transgender youth between 14 and 18 years old in Canada had seriously considered suicide in the past year.

In June, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the territorial government once again declared a suicide crisis.

“The need for counseling, on-the-land programming, and mental health services that actually meet people where they’re at and that works for them is needed like never before,” said Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who served as Nunavut’s MP from 2019 to 2021.

“To me, this is the loudest cry for help a group of people can have,” said Qaqqaq. “It’s the most desperate way of saying, ‘We don’t know what else to do with this pain. We need help and we need it now, or there is death.’ This shift takes real responsibility. We need to support leaders who are honest, transparent, and willing to work for the people.”

The territory’s 2024-2029 suicide prevention action plan recommends establishing a territorial mental health committee.

Drachenberg hopes the next government adopts the recommendation and that at least one person who is trans and Inuk is on the committee.

Responsibility to educate

Recent debate at the Nunavut Legislature around the territory’s decision to add a non-binary option to its birth certificates, revealed some politicians’ true colours, says Drachenberg.

“It is your responsibility as a government that when your people are coming to you with confusion and even hatred, to rectify that,” they said.

Kylie Angutimarik, who identifies as bisexual, says the next government should do more to encourage broader acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. 

Angutimarik also says housing and food accessibility are serious issues.

“Those are all connected to better mental health,” said the 22-year-old.

“Every time I’d come back home from a trip, I would always be so shocked looking at the food prices again,” she added.

Originally from Igloolik, Angutimarik is also working toward establishing a women’s shelter in the community.

Renewed focus on climate change

Jennifer Kilabuk, a member of the Nunavut Youth Climate Change Advisory Committee, hopes the next government will “break down silos” when it comes to how it will address climate change.

“Climate change is such a huge issue,” she said. “I’d really love to see the government trying to incorporate or at least consider climate change in any policy development in their mandates for each department.”

She added that she’d also like to see more Indigenous women be part of the climate change conversation at the territorial level.

Some, like Angutimarik, are looking at this next election with high hopes.

“I believe that if people aren’t so focused on surviving, and if you gave Inuit the chance to truly thrive and give them the basic necessities to live a good life, then Nunavut can be so much more beautiful than it already is.”

Related stories from around the North: 

Canada: Elections Canada apologizes to Nunavik voters left out of vote, CBC News 

Greenland: Greenland’s new parliament convenes for first time amid Trump pressure, Thomson Reuters