In March 2019, the Nunatsiavut Assembly passed An Act Respecting Housing in Nunatsiavut and to Establish a Nunatsiavut Housing Commission. A final report outlining steps required to establish the Commission, including an implementation plan, draft policies, bylaws and timelines was approved by the Nunatsiavut Executive Council (NEC).

“Housing continues to be one of our most pressing issues,” says Nunatsiavut’s First Minister Tyler Edmunds. “A lot of work has been done over the years, and the establishment of the Nunatsiavut Housing Commissions will allow us to continue implementing existing initiative while creating new and diverse programs that serve the different needs in our communities.”

A Director of Housing will be hired to begin the process of establishing the Commission. As well, under the Act, housing committees will be established in each of the five Labrador Inuit communities to provide advice and recommendations to the Commission.

Stay tuned to AtjiKangitut today to hear more from First Minister Tyler Edmunds.

Today, Wednesday, May 19, Newfoundland and Labrador has three new confirmed cases of COVID-19. There are two cases in the Eastern Health and one case in the Western Health region.

The first new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health region between 20-39 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The second new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health region between 50-59 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The third new confirmed case is a female in the Western Health region over 70 years of age. The case is a close contact of a previous case.

Contact tracing by Public Health is underway. Anyone considered a close contact has been advised to quarantine.

There are no new presumptive positive cases leaving one presumptive positive case in the province.

There are eight new recoveries, three in the Eastern Health region and five in the Western Health region and 1,124 people have recovered. One person is in hospital due to COVID-19.

There are 78 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. The regional breakdown of the 78 active cases is as follows:

· Eastern Health – 36
· Central Health – 18
· Labrador-Grenfell Health – 1
· Western Health – 23

To date, 140,245 people have been tested.

For the most up-to-date information related to COVID-19, please visit www.gov.nl.ca/covid-19.

The 16th Annual George Lane Memorial Dart Tournament took place last weekend on May 14 and 15 in Hopedale.

Here are the results:

1st place went to Susan’s team who won $2,000, 2nd place Jill’s team, and 3rd place who won $1,000, and Tabea’s team $500.

Thanks to everyone for playing and coming out to this tournament it was a great success.

They could not have put this off with out support from our sponsor the local kamatsiatet committee, also thanks to Air Borealis for sponsoring the dinner for the dart players, and Jill, Mike, and Connie for using their dart lights.

Also, thanks to the Nanuk Center staff for the set up and take of the dart room.

The Department of Language, Culture and Tourism with the Nunatsiavut Government will be giving away an iPhone SE.

The contest is until Friday, May 28 and the announcement of the winner will take place at the end of the IlinniaKatigennik Program on Tuesday, June 1st, 2021.

In the meantime, if you are interested in putting in your name for the draw, you can be of any age to do a recording, and can be done in English or Inuktitut.

Any recordings will be aired on OKâlaKatiget Society’s IlinniaKatigennik Program on Tuesdays.

You will be compensated for your time of $50 for adults and promo for children.

Please note that it must be your own Inuktitut story to get the $50, and if you are reading someone else’s story or reading a book you will get $25.

This is for anyone along the North Coast and in the Canadian constituency.

For more information, you can contact Robyn Martin at (709) 922-2051 or email her at robyn.martin@nunatsiavut.com.

The Young Women’s Traditional Day will be going ahead in Nain this coming Friday, May 21.

This traditional day is celebrated annually on March 6, but this year it couldn’t go ahead due to the shutdown when COVID-19 outbreak came out on the Island at that time.

Joan Dicker of Nain is helping in organizing the event.

She says there are 6 girls who will celebrate their day.

The Moravian Church services will be held at 10am, 3pm lovefest and closing service at 5pm.

Dicker says some women will also be helping out and cook the meals at their home.

Again, the Young Women’s Traditional Day will go ahead this coming Friday, May 21.

The Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices has started tracking the price of lumber and found that some of the market pressures point to the ongoing softwood lumber dispute.

The spot price of lumber was $337 Canadian on April 1st, 2020, but by May 7th of 2021, that had shot up to $2030 Canadian.

George Murphy says he started tracking lumber prices last year when he, (like many others did during the pandemic) considered building a new shed. That project had to be put on hold due to rising costs.

When Murphy went seeking answers as to what market forces were influencing the price, there was little information readily available.

He says he eventually found many “choke points” caused by a shortage of lumber entering the high-demand US market.

According to Murphy, one of those choke points is the ongoing softwood lumber dispute between the US and Canada. It’s one of the largest and longest trade disputes between the two nations.

That lack of supply and increased demand caused prices south of the border to rise, and “it hit everybody,” Murphy says.

Murphy has noticed that prices are starting to retreat somewhat, caused by talks of shortages affecting the US housing market.

Story courtesy of VOCM.

Adam Lidd of Nain says that the char has many areas of brooks and rivers they return to before the fall season.

Lidd adds that every year is different for all species, especially this year with the climate change.

He says that back then all they used was an ice chisel to make a fishing hole on the ice and today gas ice augers are used.

He says that he has plans to go to Nain Bay once he hears that the fish are plentiful.

We will be speaking with Adam Lidd later in the PiusituKavut program to find out more about his knowledge with the Arctic char.

Today (Thursday, May 20), Newfoundland and Labrador has four new confirmed cases of COVID-19. There are two cases in the Eastern Health, one case in the Central Health region and one case in the Western Health region.

The first new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health region between 50-59 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The second new confirmed case is a male in the Eastern Health region between 50-59 years of age. The case is related to travel within Canada.

The third new confirmed case is a male in the Central Health region between 40-49 years of age. The case is under investigation.

The fourth new confirmed case is a female in the Western Health region between 20-39 years of age. The case is a close contact of a previous case.

Contact tracing by Public Health is underway. Anyone considered a close contact has been advised to quarantine.

There are no new presumptive positive cases leaving one presumptive positive case in the province. Once presumptive positive cases are confirmed positive, they are reported in public updates as new confirmed cases.

There are ten new recoveries, seven in the Eastern Health region, two in the Central Health region and one in the Western Health region and 1,134 people have recovered. There are two people in hospital due to COVID-19.

There are 72 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

The regional breakdown of the 72 active cases is as follows:

· Eastern Health – 31
· Central Health – 17
· Labrador-Grenfell Health – 1
· Western Health – 23

To date, 140,572 people have been tested.

For the most up-to-date information related to COVID-19, please visit www.gov.nl.ca/covid-19.

Many Labrador Inuit are looking forward to the spring egging season.

The best way to learn good cultural harvesting practices is to talk to your elders.

Traditional harvesting practices ensure that the eggs collected are good to eat and enough eggs are left to ensure healthy bird populations in the future.

When eggs are harvested in the season, many birds will lay again and have successful clutches.

Collecting early in the season also minimizes the chance of collecting sated eggs, these are eggs with chicks developing inside.

Some recommendations fur sustainable egging include:

• Only take as many eggs as you and your family will eat
• Collect eggs only from nests with one to three eggs; if there are more than three eggs in the nest, it is likely that the eggs will be sated
• Take all eggs from a nest, when the eggs are good, to encourage the birds to lay again
• Take eggs as quickly as you can and then move away from the nesting area, as this minimizes disturbance to the nesting bird and remaining eggs.

After the eggs are collected, you can test the eggs to see if they are sated by placing them in water.

If they sink, they are good; if they float, they are sated and should be returned to the nest.

Practice safe and sustainable harvesting practices to ensure that your children will be able to enjoy egging for generations to come.

The federal government has suggested that it will need 75 per cent of the population at least partially vaccinated for the country to reopen and for things like cross border travel to resume. Officials in this province say they too are working on similar reopening targets.

Premier Andrew Furey says they are looking at the federal modeling for COVID-19, as well as the epidemiology here and in other jurisdictions.

Health Minister John Haggie adds that the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) guidance has been the “bedrock” for the province’s response. Further, ministers from across the country have been discussing a “tiered response” to reopening.

Haggie says 75 per cent partially vaccinated and 10 per cent fully vaccinated has been floated around at the provincial level, with 20 and 10 per cent being used more generally for Canada as a whole.

The province now has 50 per cent of the eligible populations partially vaccinated, so according to Haggie reaching that 75 per cent threshold is not that far off.

He says about one per cent of the population is being vaccinated per day, so it will take about three weeks to reach 75 per cent partially vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador’s COVID-19 vaccination numbers are climbing, and according to the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

As of yesterday, 50 per cent of the province’s eligible population had received their first dose of the COVID vaccine.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that with each passing day, the light of the end of the tunnel gets brighter, and alert level 1 is in sight as long as people hold on a bit longer.

She explains that in moving to Alert Level 1, there are numerous factors for Public Health to consider such as national epidemiology, the percentage of our populations vaccinated with two doses, and real-world evidence on vaccines about the transmission of disease and severe illness.