Kativik Environmental Advisory Committee

ABOUT THE KEAC

The mandate of the Kativik Environmental Advisory Committee (KEAC) is to examine and oversee administration and management of the environmental and social protection regime established under Section 23 of the JBNQA. It is the preferential and official forum for the governments of Canada and Québec, the Kativik Regional Government, the northern villages and, when applicable, the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, regarding laws and regulations related to the environmental and social protection regime for the territory covered under the JBNQA north of the 55th parallel. One of the KEAC’s key roles is to oversee the environmental and social impact assessment and review procedures and, as required, to make recommendations to improve them. Finally, the KEAC ensures that all laws, policies and regulations applicable in the region are compatible with the provisions of Section 23 of the JBNQA.

Each year the KEAC publishes an annual report to summarize its accomplishments, operations and financial statement. Click below to read our 2024-2025 Annual Report.

NEWS

Water Governance in Nunavik

Drinking water management in Nunavik given its geographical locations, population numbers, climate factors including permafrost, limited access to technical resources, and infrastructure. To clarify roles and responsibilities,  the KEAC decided to map the governance of Nunavik’s drinking water management system its newly published document: Water Governance in Nunavik: Who Does What? (November 2025)

2025-2030 Action Plan

The KEAC recently published it’s 2025–2030 Action Plan, the goal of which is to better focus the resources of the Committee and identify actions that are responsive to environmental and social protection issues in Nunavik, in compliance with the JBNQA and the Northeastern Québec Agreement. The KEAC intends to pursue these objectives and actions, in collaboration with its strategic partners, using a comprehensive, preventive and proactive approach.

Commemorating 50^th Anniversary of the JBNQA

50 years ago, the Inuit and Cree negotiated a historical agreement called the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. The JBNQA was the first modern treaty signed in Canada, establishing a legal and constitutional framework for governing land management, local self-governance, and traditional ways of life. The Naskapi First Nation later joined through the Northeastern Québec Agreement (the NEQA), in 1978.

On September 23, 2025, the KEAC met with the James Bay Advisory Committee on the Environment and the Hunting, Fishing, Trapping Coordinating Committee in Kuujjuaraapik-Whapmagoostui. The goal was to reflect on the JBNQA’s 50th anniversary, and more specifically on the workings and main files of the three northern committees, by reviewing their main achievements, the historical issues of the territories under agreement in Quebec, current topics and prospects for collaboration between the committees.

Impact Assessment Seminar and Community Workshops

In 2019, the KEAC, along with Makivvik and the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach created the Impact Assessment working group, at first to review the harmonization options offered under the Impact Assessment Act but has since morphed into a forum for developing opportunities and platforms to discuss impact assessment in Nunavik.

In November 2023 the working group organized the Impact Assessment Harmonization Seminar that gathered review boards, administrators, permitting agencies and regional representatives with the objective to raise awareness of the IA framework in Nunavik and its overlap areas; establish a line of communication for relationship building; discuss and discuss ideas as to why and how to better harmonize IA processes. A report outlining the outcome of the seminar is available as well as summarized versions in English, French, Inuktitut and Naskapi.

Currently the working group is hosting impact assessment community workshops aimed at increasing awareness of impact assessment processes and discussing how communities wish to engage and be equipped to participate in these processes. A fist workshop was held in Kuujjuaarapik on June 11, 2025, and a second in Kuujjuaq on October 7, 2025. A third workshop is planned for Quaqtaq in February 2026. For more information, please contact the KEAC secretariat at keac-ccek@krg.ca.