Labour groups counter MLA’s comments about immigrants taking jobs from Nunavummiut
Immigration doesn’t prevent Inuit from getting jobs, as one MLA suggested this week — it’s actually a benefit to Nunavut’s workforce, say organizations representing workers and jobseekers in the territory.
“Whether it’s in health care, education, construction, security, trade, government, or even tourism, they help fill critical gaps,” Francis Essebou, executive director of Carrefour Nunavut, said in an email to Nunatsiaq News on Thursday.
Perspectives offered by representatives of economic development agency Carrefour Nunavut and the Nunavut Employees Union contrast sharply with comments by Aivilik MLA Solomon Malliki this week.
In the legislative assembly Tuesday, Malliki suggested immigrants are “taking over” jobs that should go to Inuit workers.
“Immigrants help ensure the delivery of essential services, contribute to economic growth, and fill specialized roles that are difficult to staff locally,” said Essebou, who runs an Iqaluit-based French-language economic development agency.
A little more than three per cent of Nunavummiut, or 1,165 people, were foreign-born immigrants in 2021, according to the latest available Statistics Canada census data. Non-permanent residents numbered 75 in the same population survey.
According to the 2021 census, 240 immigrants arrived in Nunavut between 2016 and 2021, representing more than one-fifth of the territory’s total immigrant population.
The top three countries of birth among immigrants living in Nunavut in 2021 were the Philippines, the United States and Nigeria. Among recent immigrants living in Nunavut, countries of origin include the Philippines, India and Nigeria.
One cannot determine who is a foreign worker based on appearance, cautioned Jason Rochon, president of the Nunavut Employees Union.
“A significant number of our union members are racialized workers. However, they’re a combination of racialized Canadians from the south, from the other territories, and those who have recently immigrated to the country,” he said.
“Our union believes all workers, no matter where they come from, are important in building the local economy.”
Malliki clarified his position in an interview with Nunatsiaq News on Wednesday.
He suggested his constituents’ concerns over immigration represent a language issue, specifically some who told him they can’t understand educators and medical staff who speak in English with an accent that does not derive from French or Inuktitut.
“A few students came up to me saying that they don’t understand their teacher,” Malliki said. “And some medical clients came to me saying that they don’t understand what their nurse is telling them — what kind of illness they have — even though they have translators.”
According to a 2024 report by Statistics Canada, close to 95 per cent of workers surveyed in 2021 in Nunavut said they regularly spoke English at work. More than 40 per cent of survey respondents said they regularly used Inuktut at work.
Among Inuit workers, more than 40 per cent spoke Inuktut most often at work, either alone or together with another language.
Workers from different cultural traditions enrich the workplace, Rochon said.
“Diverse backgrounds help build a diverse workforce, creating opportunities for collaboration, for understanding and for better efforts at decolonizing the workplace,” he said.
