The Nunatsiavut Assembly met in Ottawa last week.

Nunatsiavut Government’s President, Johannes Lampe, attended this meeting.

He said the meeting was about Land Claims for Inuit Nunangat.

Lampe said Premier of Canada, Justin Trudeau, Inuit Tapiriit kanadami, President of Makivik Inuit Corporation were all in attendance.

Click here to hear Lampe give you more information on the meeting.

For the first time in several weeks, the province is not reporting any deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That news comes following a particularly deadly week last week, during when 20 people lost their lives.

There are 24 people in the hospital, 5 of which are in critical care.

The province is reporting 87 new cases today, 88 on Saturday and 137 on Saturday.

The COVID-19 dashboard will be updated again on Wednesday, April 27.

For today’s Easter games, there won’t be no games down the ice but there will be an Adult Games Night this evening

The games will start at 7pm up to the Jeremias Sillitt Community Centre.

There are events such as t-shirt race, spider crawl, flour race, tissue cup game, line chair game, cup game and more.

There will also be a Minute to Win it contest with a fee of $10 per player with a maximum of 20 players to register.

One person will be eliminated each round with the final round, the final person must complete 10 events to win the prize.

The prize ranges from a minimum of $200 and maximum of $500.

There will also be an Easter theme cookie making contest.

Participants must make 2 dozen cookies decorated with the Easter theme, judging will be based on the taste and decoration.

Cookies can be dropped off at the back door of the JS Centre by 7pm for judging and winners will be announced at 9pm.

First prize winner will get $175, second prize will get $125, and third place winner will get $75.

Any questions or concerns can contact the Recreation Department up to the JS Centre at 922-2691.

Hopedale pulled off and celebrated yet another memorable Heritage Fair this year, despite having high active cases of COVID-19 in their community.

The Ethel Memorial Dog Team Race went ahead on April 24th, 2022 with 3 placed winners. 1st place was Gregory Flowers of Hopedale, 2nd place was Herbert Pijogge of Hopedale, and 3rd place was Andreas Jararuse of Hopedale.

They also awarded the racers with the best-looking dog team to Herbert Pijogge.

Another exciting event that placed 3 winners over the weekend, was the ice fishing contest. With rules that included to only fish inside Hopedale’s boundaries and vicinity.

The 3 lucky winners with the biggest catch on April 23rd, 2022 was Leah Flowers who came 1st, 2nd place was Piercy Boase, and 3rd place was Ben Winters.

On behalf of the Nunatsiavut Elections Officer, the Nunatsiavut Government wishes to advise that the following will be seeking elections as Ordinary Members to the Nunatsiavut Assembly. The Election will take place on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

Here is the list of candidates from each of the communities:

Nain: Tony Andersen, Roxanne Barbour, and Jim Lyall.

Hopedale: James Abia Tuttauk.

Makkovik: Thomas Evans, and Kate Mitchell.

Postville: No candidates declared from Thursday, March 31.

Rigolet: Kevin Pottle and Melva Williams.

Upper Lake Melville: Wilson “Wally” Andersen, Gerald Asivak, Max Blake and Marlene Winters Wheeler.

Canada: Darlene Gear-White, Zippie Nochasak, Susan Sonya Onalik, Roland Saunders and Bryan Winters.

The voting for Ordinary Members with the Nunatsiavut Government starts today, April 25, 2022, for the general election on May 3rd.

Ordinary Members are chosen from the constituencies of Nain, Hopedale, Postville, Makkovik, Rigolet, Upper Lake Melville and Canada. Two seats are available in Nain, Upper Lake Melville and Canada, while one seat is available in all other constituencies with nominations.

Voting Rules and Regulation:
– Every Beneficiary 16 years of age and older on polling day is qualified to vote.
– In order to vote in a polling station in a constituency, a Beneficiary must be an ordinary resident of that constituency.

In Makkovik, the polling station will be at the Youth Centre.

The polling station for Nain will at the Fire Hall and will be open until 8pm.

In Hopedale, the polling station will be at the Nanuk Centre, beneficiaries can vote between 8am and 8pm.

In Rigolet, the council chambers will be the polling station from 8am to 8:30pm.

Upper Lake Melville, Friendship Centre, 8am to 8pm

For more information, you can contact Nannette Blake, Nunatsiavut Elections Officer at 709-896-5222 or by email at nannette.blake@nunatsiavut.com.

The Nunatsiavut Government’s Election Officer gives the following notice for the benefit of candidates for the Tuesday, May 3 Election for Ordinary Members to the Nunatsiavut Assembly, as well as statements made during a campaign with respect to financial matters:

“Candidates are free to campaign on any type of issue they believe to be important to Inuit in their communities, including platforms on how the Nunatsiavut Government should spend money or other matters of government fiscal policy. However, the Nunatsiavut Election Act prohibits any candidate or other person from inducing a voter to vote for a particular candidate by promising a monetary benefit for any candidate of doing so. Acting in such a manner is not permitted in any way, and is clearly an offence under the Nunatsiavut Election Act.”

“Candidates must be ensure that any communications they may have with voters during the campaign do no lead voters to believe that they will receive a direct financial benefit as a result of voting for the candidate. Voters may also be aware that no candidate is permitted to promise a direct financial benefit to a voter in exchange for voting for the candidate.”

For more Information contact: Nannete Blake, Nunatsiavut Elections Officer, contact number is 1-709-896-5222 or E-Mail: Nannette.blake@nunatsiavut.com.

Patty Way of Goose Bay will be presented with a degree.

She says the presentation will be held in Corner Brook on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

Way is looking forward to receiving the degree and her family is invited to attend.

She has been working on Family Trees for many years and for that she will be receiving her degree.

Click here to hear Way talk more about the presentation.

The Provincial Government is highlighting some of its health care initiatives that are underway in Central Newfoundland from the 2022 budget.

During an event in Gander yesterday, Premier Andrew Furey spoke about some of the key allocations for the region.

They include $3 million for the continuation virtual ER services, $1.8 million for the health hubs a new collaborative team clinic, and a second paramedicine team, that will operate once a week.

Premier Furey said great progress is being made, but there’s still lots of work to do.

He said the healthcare system can’t continue working the way it is. He likens to Einstein’s definition, of insanity, doing same thing over and over, expecting different results.

According to Health Minister, John Haggie the new collaborative care clinic, is nearly ready to be set up.

He said Central health is doing consultations with community groups as part of their “stabalization plan”, for the summer. Once those are done, he said they will be in a position to hiring and getting the clinics up and running.

Annual Easter events have been held all this past week in our Nunatsiavut communities .

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Postville have postponed their Easter Fair, games and events until a later date which will be posted in the coming days.

As COVID cases continue to rise in Hopedale, they are holding all Easter events, games and activities outside and encouraging social distancing.

When Public Health says it’s OK to hold indoor events or until they know the COVID cases are lowering there will be no indoor events.

Unfortunately, Rigolet will not be hosting any indoor or outdoor games and events for children or adults.