Elias named Nunavut commissioner

Edna Elias, a longtime Inuit educator, interpreter and public servant in the North, has been named Nunavut's new commissioner.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Elias's appointment Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa.

Commissioners were once federal administrators in Canada's territories, but their role today is similar to that of a provincial lieutenant-governor. Commissioners are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister.

A mother of three originally from Kugluktuk in western Nunavut, Elias has worked as an elementary school teacher and principal in Kugluktuk and Arctic Bay. She has also served as a hamlet councillor and mayor in her home community.

In the 1980s, when Nunavut was still part of the Northwest Territories, Elias headed up the language bureau in that territory's Department of Culture and Employment and co-chaired the Northwest Territories Aboriginal Language Task Force.

She has also worked as an Inuktitut-language interpreter and translator for the Nunavut government and legislative assembly.

Elias becomes Nunavut's fourth commissioner since the territory was created in 1999. She succeeds Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, whose five-year term ended last month.

On Tuesday, Harper announced that George Tuccaro, a retired aboriginal broadcaster in the Northwest Territories, will be that territory's commissioner.