It was the first time James Lyall of Nain attended as the President of Nunatsiavut Government.

He says everyone attending the meetings was aware he had just recently been elected by Nunatsiavut beneficiaries.

Lyall says he was comfortable with those he met and he made it clear to them that he was there to build a good working relationship with ITk and other Inuit regions.

Today, he will inform us about one of the agenda items regarding Labrador Schools not being considered by the Federal Government, as residential schools like those in other parts of Canada.

He will also mention Inuit participation in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and about what took place during the Expo Labrador in Goose Bay to help families of those who perished in a house fire in Happy Valley Goose Bay.

All committee members are living in Nain except for one, who now lives in Happy Valley Goose Bay.

Donald Dicker Senior of Nain is a Registrar of Beneficiaries.

He says it is hard sometimes for the committee members to decide whether a person qualifies as a beneficiary of Nunatsiavut.

Dicker says the committee members have an eligibility criteria to follow.

The criteria was passed after the Final Land Claims Agreement was signed in 2005.

He says anyone applying who lives outside of the land claims area , must provide proof of being a descendant of an Inuk with 25% Inuk blood. Proof would be by a family tree and two sponsors living in the land claims area.

And a Kablunangajuk whom is not known by anyone in the claims area does not qualify.

Everyone living outside of the claims area must have a proof of ancestry.

The Nain Membership Committee have about fifteen applications to review today at the Nunatsiavut Government office.

Danny Michelin is the AngajuKak of the Inuit Community Government.

He says the contractors have not yet been chosen but the project is expected to start sometime this month.

Michelin says the building materials for the Strathcona Museum have arrived in town and construction of the building starts this week.

He says 3 local employees will hired by the contractor.

Michelin says right now the contractors are doing some ground work on site where the old RCMP trailer was formerly.

It is located by the water front and behind the Hudsons Bay manager's house.

Dottie Ford is the treasurer for the Moravian Church.

She said a construction company will be occupying the building after the crew does some major renovations.

The construction crew, which will be constructing the new Nunatsiavut government Administration Building this summer, will rent the building from the Moravian Church.

We'll have more information on who the contractors are at a later date.

Georgia Davis is the Team Leader at the head office in Happy Valley Goose Bay

She says they received funds from both the Federal and the Provincial Governments to offer an Aboriginal Courtwork Program.

Hopedale and Rigolet is served by Beverly Hunter, Postville and Makkovik by Rosina Pamak and the Upper Lake Melville by Karyn Hopkins.

They help clients understand the court system, about their rights and responsibilities, changes that have been made and possible outcomes.

Davis says the Labrador Legal Services assists in completing forms to attain lawyers through the Legal Aid Program and completes other referrals as deemed necessary.

Funds from the Aboriginal Justice Directorate also offers

Community Justice Forums.

Georgina Allen is the Community Justice Coordinator. Shes responsible to educate and to implement the Program – providing alternatives to the court system.

A Community Justice Forum is a safe, controlled environment in which an offender, the victim and their families or supporters are brought together under the guidance of a trained facilitator.Through this process, an offence is discussed, how it affected the people involved and they jointly develop a plan to correct the offence to right the wrong by apology and restitution for the victim.

Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation rental units were under repairs in Nain this spring.

Nelson Flynn is the General Manager.

He says 5 units needed major repairs.

The bathrooms received overhauls such as floor repairs and the interior and exterior doors replaced.

Flynn says NLHC has approximately 15 applicants asking to rent these units, right now 2 or 3 have been occupied.

He says they are in the process of looking through the applications, to see the difference in family size.

These tenants or renters pay 25% of their gross income each month,which is different for people who receive income from Human Resources Department, as than the rent is payed through the Department.

In other rental house news, NLHC is looking at doing exterior repairs to ten or so units in Nain this summer.

He says NLHC was allocated funding for this work by the Provincial Government under their modernization program.

The selections should have been done this past spring, and the materials ordered before the freight boats started their travels to the north coast.

William Lucy is the Co-ordinator for Torngat Regional Housing Association.

He says he had hoped the housing committees would have made these selections for Nain, Makkovik and Postville by the end of June as they have to be finalized before they can order the building materials and supplies for these communities.

He is encouraging the local housing committees to do their selections, as it is getting late in the season to make the orders and for construction to start.

Lucy says it will be awhile yet before construction of homes can start, but he is hopeful that construction may start at the end of this month in most towns.

The housing materials were ordered for Rigolet and Hopedale 3 weeks ago, and it usually takes about 4 weeks to arrive.

Gregory Flowers of Hopedale, is the Minister of Health & Social Development of Nunatsiavut Government.

He says it is becoming more and more difficult to fill the shoes of more senior interpreters.

Minister Flowers says there seem to be less interpreters available. And one of the factors, Flowers thinks, is that the young people are not able to provide the service because of Inuktitut language loss.

Anyone needing a medical interpreter can contact the liaison worker at the hospital in Happy Valley-Goose Bay or the Dept. Of Health and Social Development in their home communities.

This on-going problem will have to be brought to the attention of the Executive Council of Nunatsiavut.

The new seniors facility will replace the current Paddon home.

The facility funded by the NL Government will be constructed adjacent and attached to the hospital at the cost of $13.4 million and is expected to be completed in 2010.

Marge Learning is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Labrador Grenfell Health in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

She says the Paddon home presently do not meet the proper needs and nursing support for the seniors.

The new facility will have better health care services and offer a new protective care unit.

Learning adds that she is pleased to be getting a new building and is looking forward to its completion in 2010.

Five youth from Nunatsiavut are doing some training on the ship.

Mitchell White is taking Zodiac Training.

He dropped by our studio to talk about his first voyage on this ship.

About the route they took and where they stopped along the coast of Labrador.

Youth are invited to attend from each of the four congregations to participate in this very exciting learning experience.

Dr. Tom Gordon will present information about the old music manuscripts from Hebron and has arranged some music for the youth to play from those manuscripts.

Jim Andersen will speak about the old brass bands and show some of his old video footage.

Also taking part will be Bishop Sam Grey, Rev. Tim Bryerly, Glenna Taseden and Natalie Fost.

John Reeves, is the music teacher from Nain and will escort four Nain Youth.

Organizers feel that this workshop should be a very meaningful experience for all involved.

The Labrador Friendship Center in Happy Valley Goose Bay received a donation of $5000.00 from Aurora Energy last week.

This is the second donation they have received from Aurora.

Stanley Oliver is the Executive Director for the Friendship Center.

Oliver says the monies will be used for new tables and chairs for the cafeteria area as the present chairs and tables are over 20 years old.

He says they hired three youth for the summer Multi Cultural Youth activities that will be held at the Christian Youth Camp in August.

Oliver adds that thirty to thirty five youth from the north coast will be attending the youth camp this coming August.

The locations of the two sites being considered are south of Annainak Reservoir, 1.08 miles away from Nain and the other is at Kauk Brook which is approximately five miles west of the Town.

Rick Noseworthy is an engineer with Newfoundland & Labrador Consulting Engineers Ltd.

He says a draft report is nearly completed, which is to be submitted to the Provincial Department of Transportation & Works next month.

Noseworthy adds further discussions will be held between Ministers of the Provincial Government, the Nunatsiavut Government and the MHA of Torngat Mountains District once the report has been completed within a week or two.

Noseworthy says the two sites are undergoing a preliminary cost estimation process right now and there are a number of factors to be considered as to which site would be better suited for the airstrip.

Vincent says there are three main projects on the go this summer.

First the Ten Mile Bay Quarry is up and running for another season and they had encouraging news from a consulting firm out of the United States, who feels that LIDC has a unique product which they would like to test in Florida and Georgia, where there is a lot of stone being sold.

And for the Postville Lumber Company, they have received an order of core boxes from Vale Inco and will produce 25,000 core boxes this year.

He adds that the Hopedale stone plant is also operating again and will produce head stones, table tops and tiling.

Bob Warren is an official for the Minister of Lands and Resources, William Barbour.

He says Nunatsiavut Government has released a new policy on traditional Tenure, and that Labrador Inuit who are occupying Labrador Inuit land can receive free title.

Which means they can have ownership of land where their cabins are located.

Warren says he has been traveling to all the north coast communities to discuss the option with beneficiaries.

He says he is very pleased with the turnout and interest from the communities he visited.

He says one of the big concerns had come about through a misunderstanding, was that they were going to lose the location of their land and cabin. This was cleared up during the discussions.

Warren says to get title to you're land and cabin, applications are available at the Nunatsiavut Government offices.

It would also be helpful if you had a sketch of you're land where the cabin is located or a map.

If anyone should have any problems in filling their applications, they can go to their liaison worker in their community for help.

There will be follow ups on the applications and an upcoming meeting in the fall.

The group was co-founded by Cora Edmunds with Donna Stokes Lane.

She says the group organizes closing events in June annually, just before the school year ends.

Ms. Edmunds says the activities this year are delayed because of the recent tragedy in Happy Valley Goose Bay.

But, she says, hopefully, the events would take place next week if people are in town.

The group plans for different activities like scrap booking and recognition of Grade 12 achievements and gifts.

She says there are seven leaders in the group of fourteen girls, as well as six adult leaders.

Inspiring Young Women started in 2004 because the school thought the male population dominated young ladies, so the group was started to encourage them to put a stop to bullying tactics, build career choices, put a stop to violence. alcohol & drugs and build better relationship amongst the young people.

Ms. Edmunds says that these kinds of things seems to build more understanding as to how to be a better person.

The leaders takes turns coordinating activities and Schedules are set to last from September to December and from December to June each year.

Molly Shiwak is on the Nain Cruise Committee.

She says the next stop the ship will make is to the Torngat National Park, and will then head to other northern communities.

Shiwak says the ship has 40 passengers, and 5 local workers. Workers include: Mitchell White, April Andersen, and Amy Broomfield of Nain, and Chantelle Andersen and Jenna Andersen of Makkovik.

Shiwak adds that crafts will be displayed for tourists up to the Nain Nunatsiavut Government board room.

She was awarded in Ottawa on Aboriginal Day along with 11 other aboriginals from across Canada.

Williams said she is a painter and a traditional drummer, and has traveled many times due to her hobbies.

She is determined to keep her Inuit traditions strong, and hope to encourage other youth to do the same.

Leroy Metcalfe is the Technical Manager of the company in St. John's, NL.

He says the company continues to do various projects for mining companies such as Aurora Energy Resources , Vale Inco NL and others.

He says the various projects include environmental studies such as water samples.

Metcalfe says a seismic vessel will conduct a survey around the Davis Strait area again this summer.

Rosina Brown is the Co-ordinator.

She says the facilitator, Miriam Lidd and part time worker, Sarah Semigak are scheduling programs for the months of July and August.

Brown says once the schedules are completed the calenders will be put into mail boxes and posted in business places around town.

She says a new program for fathers and men is also being planned for this coming fall.

She says the center is going to involve men in wood work or carving.

She added that as the new program is still in the first phase, she is looking for some wood working tools in town.

So, if anyone in town has any tools they wish to donate, drop them at the center or call Rosina at 922-2005.