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A three part series on suicide in Nunavut by freelance journalist Jennifer Tilden:
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Sea-lift service in northern communities will deteriorate if the Coast Guard retires yet another icebreaker from Arctic waters, private shippers warned this week.
The Coast Guard has proposed to eliminate its lone icebreaker in the western Arctic as part of an overall cost-cutting strategy that began last year.
Under the original proposal, released during a meeting of the Canadian Marine Advisory Council in Edmonton, the Coast Guard announced last fall it would provide ice-breaking services to the West by freeing up one of the remaining five vessels in the eastern Arctic on an as-needed basis.
Not fast enough?
Shippers say that isn't good enough.
"The first concern is that in the western region we do not feel that providing an icebreaker on an as-required basis will work, simply because of the time it will take to dispatch a ship from the East to the West," Cameron Clement, CEO of Northern Transportation Company Ltd. said earlier this week.
Clement, who heads up a newly-formed Arctic Marine Advisory Board, will meet with other shipping company representatives in Iqaluit on Feb. 4 to lobby the Coast Guard to reconsider the proposal.
The planned reductions are designed to meet federal budget targets. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has directed the Coast Guard to lighten it's operating budget by about 30 per cent over the next three years.
Sea lift at risk?
But Clement said any further reduction in ice-breaking services puts the sea-lift at great risk.
"This sea-lift contains all of their fuel, all of their groceries, all of the things they'll need to survive for a yearif that is not achieved, it's the communities that will suffer by this decision," said Clement.
"And it'll be a costly decision, because all of a sudden they'll have to fly everything in from God knows where."
Last season the Coast Guard reduced its ice-breaking fleet in the Arctic by one ship, servicing the North with a total of five vessels, including a multi-purpose ship named the Sir Wilfred Laurier sailing from Victoria, B.C. dedicated to service in the West.
Without the Sir Wilfred Laurier and additional help from the eastern-Arctic based Louis St. Laurent last year, for instance, NCTL believes stubborn pack ice would have prevented the sea-lift to Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak.
Jim Quinn, regional director for Coast Guard in the Central and Arctic regions, said he is working with the advisory board to come to a satisfactory solution.
Search for solutions
He acknowledged that the proposed reduction of the western vessel is "not good enough and that we need to look at the available options to ensure that we have a service delivery mechanism for the western Arctic.
"That's something we'll deal with in February's meeting."
Quinn said the advisory board, made up of commercial shippers and community representatives, will have to work closely together to better manage transportation in the North. Reductions in the Coast Guard's radio and navigational services are also planned.
Clement said NCTL plans to release its own study of the Coast Guard's activities in the North to illustrate the importance of ice breaking and other Arctic marine services to northern communities.
Icebreakers and ice-breaking vessels carry out a number of functions. In addition to managing the sea-lift, the Coast Guard also supports various companies by escorting commercial vessels to and from northern waters.
Clement said the shippers already plan to escalate their lobby to include an appeal to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Prospects for more mine and road development in the Kitikmeot region are quickly, if quietly, resurfacing.
A Toronto-based mining company has asked to meet next week with the Kitikmeot Corporation about plans to develop six gold properties 70 kilometres south of Bathhurst Inlet.
The Kitikmeot Corporation is the birthright development corporation for the Inuit of the Kitikmeot region.
A company called Arauco Resources Corp. recently struck a deal with a consortium of firms led by Homestake Canada Inc. to buy the properties for $28.5 million.
"We're hoping to be able to close it in the next few weeks," Kerry Knoll, Arauco's corporate affairs director told Nunatsiaq News.
Inuit-owned lands
The properties cover 138,000 acres of the Kitikmeot region near George Lake and the Back River. The land is Inuit-owned, as are at least some of the sub-surface rights.
That means the regional Inuit association will collect any royalties from eventual mining production.
Knoll confirmed the company is already in preliminary discussions with the Kitikmeot Corporation about the scope of the project, although Kitikmeot Corp. president Charlie Lyall declined to discuss it in detail.
"I think things are going to happen quicker than people realize," Lyall said. "We're trying to keep on top of it, we're keeping on top of it, and as developments arise we'll put out press releases."
Arauco, which is listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, acquired an option to buy the George Lake and Back River sites last summer.
Arauco's chief executive officer, John Zigarlick, is well known in the Kitikmeot region as the past president of Echo Bay Mines. He is currently president of Nuna Logistics, a contracting firm specializing in mining infrastructure which is 51 per-cent owned by the Nunasi Corporation.
Arauco raised $23.6 million toward the purchase by issuing 10 million special warrants. The remaining $5 million comes from a flow-through financing agreement it signed with Triax Resource Ltd. Partnerships.
Roads to resources
The purchase has kindled fresh speculation about the need for new road construction in the region.
Arauco will meet with representatives of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association in Vancouver on Jan. 27 to discuss possible ways of servicing the site.
"If we're succesful in going ahead and developing the mine, at some point a road will be put in somehwere," Knoll said. "But the road could simply be from the coast, down from the bottom of Bathurst Inlet to our property, and maybe eventually some of the other miners there would like to take that and extend it."
No other exploration projects in the region are currently advanced enough to require road access.
Another alternative for the George Lake and Back River site is a winter road extending west 160 kilometres to Contwoyto Lake, where it would link up with the existing winter road from Yellowknife to the Lupin gold mine, operated by Echo Bay.
"There are other alternatives but I don't really want to get into them because they haven't been thought through yet," Knoll said. "And I don't want to scare anybody or worry anybody."
Metall Mining Corp.'s base-metals project at Izok Lake to the west of Contwoyto Lake sparked a controversy in 1993 after various people, including the GNWT, promoted the idea of building an all-weather road from Yellowknife to the Arctic coast.
Neither the road nor a proposed deep-water port in the Coronation Gulf were ever built and the Izok project has since been put on hold.
Two million ounces of gold
Discovered in 1982, extensive drilling at the George Lake and Back River properties indicates a potential resource of just under two million ounces of gold. The company will need to apply to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association for any land-use permits.
According to Wayne Johnson, mineral resources manager at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in Cambridge Bay, the land containing the properties is designated Inuit land.
"Some of them I plotted up roughly at one stage a year or so ago and found a lot of those properties worked by Homestake and partners were on Inuit-owned land, Inuit sub-surface land," Johnson said.
A grandfather clause in the 1993 Inuit Land Claim Agreement, however, allows companies to continue holding mineral rights on any claims that existed prior to the Agreement.
Arauco hopes to begin conducting a feasibility study at the site later this year.
"It's that study that will determine what is the most advantageous way for us to access the property," Knoll said.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsTODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Premier Don Morin called for unity and teamwork Monday as MLAs returned to Yellowknife for what is shaping up to be a lively legislative assembly session.
Morin, hobbled by a broken knee, delivered a brief sessional address in which he stated the government's priorities during its last 800 days in office, and then left on crutches.
Morin made reference to his accident in his speech.
"Personally, I resolve to pay attention to where I am walking ... a resolution I am unfortunately and painfully reminded often of these days," Morin said.
Finance Minister John Todd will unveil his second budget on Monday, and although he didn't release any details, he did assure MLAs that he would outline how he plans to balance the budget in 1997.
Political backbone needed
During his opening address, Morin pledged to continue the government's battle to reduce the deficit and to make the hard decisions that he says hurt people in the short-term but "in the long-run, will change lives for the better."
The premier said the government must have the "political backbone" to follow through, and he called on MLAs to work together as a team.
"Fighting with other members of the team means we lose the game. But working together, to resolve our differences and reach a workable solution, we all win," Morin said.
Shelve amalgamation plan
But when they had a chance to speak, several members of that team took turns firing questions at members of cabinet for everything from their decision to close the Delta House addictions treatment centre in Inuvik, to how the GNWT will convince Ottawa to pay for two new territories, and to what the government will do about a fungus growing in Iqaluit's fuel supply.
One of the first things ordinary MLAs did was to present a report urging the government to shelve plans to amalgamate the departments of transportation, public works and services and the housing corporation.
Roy Erasmus, the chairman of the standing committee on government operations that was asked to review the merger plan, presented the report Tuesday.
Erasmus said Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo and his officials had briefed committee members about the plan in January, but failed to convince them that the restructuring is necessary now, or should be a priority of the government.
"I think it's dead," Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco said from Yellowknife Wednesday. "I do not think the cabinet will go ahead with it."
Picco said he thinks there are some "noses out of joint in the cabinet," but doubts the government will be able to get the votes they need to go ahead with the proposed merger.
In a member's statement, Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen said in the past twenty years, the government had already done about 60 department restructurings, and another one isn't needed.
"At this time, in this government, at this juncture, we can not afford to devote exorbitant amounts of resources to re-inventing the framework of government," Groenewegen said, according to the unedited version of Hansard.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsJANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News correspondent
IGLOOLIK The sun is back in Igloolik and Igloolik residents have honoured it with the kind of welcome usually associated with New Year's Eve.
Almost all of the community turned out for the "Qaggiq" at Attagutaaluk School last week.
Igloolik's oldest resident, 91-year old Rosie Iqallijuk, lit the flame of a special qulliq. This qulliq was surrounded by five other soapstone lamps set in the centre of the gym.
As a symbol of the return of sun and a new beginning, all qulliqs, except the central lamp, were extinguished. Then, a young student took a burning wick around to solemnly relight the others.
"With brighter days being back, we hope the light will be brighter in the future," Lazarus Arreak, the president of the Qiqiqtani Inuit Association, told the gathering.
"We hope that alcohol and drugs will continue to do no more damage to our communities."
The recent drug overdose of a young man in Igloolik had postponed the "Qaggiq" for several days.
The evening of traditional Inuit entertainment continued into the wee hours of the night, with ay-ya-ya singing, drum dancing, games, juggling and square dancing. There was also an informal fashion show of traditional clothing.
The Qaggiq was also the central event marking Inuktitut Language Week.
Igloolik is the only community in the Northwest Territories that sets aside a special time for language promotion.
Although many of the week's planned events were postponed, the community radio has a series of language-related broadcasts in store. There will be segments on subjects like ice hunting, traditional clothing, and treatment of animals.
Otak will also host a phone-in show on the meanings of older, less well known, Inuktitut words.
And soon, a newsletter about Inuktitut will be distributed to everyone in the community.
Otak is concerned about the decline of the Inuktitut language in Igloolik.
Some younger people, she says, substitute English words for common Inuktitut words.
"They might even say 'sitdown-illutit,' for instance," she says.
But, judging from the enthusiastic response of participants and performers at the Qaggiq, Inuit language and culture got a boost.
"I take the time to reflect on what it means to me," said drum-dancer James Ungalaq.
"I'm happy that I am here today because of my mother, my father, my grandparents and my grea-grandparents, who brought me here today. It's a chance to celebrate my forefathers."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Use your language or lose your culture.
That's the message NWT Languages Commissioner Judi Tutcho brought to schools in Igloolik, Iqaluit and Apex last week.
"Young people are learning to speak English and they're not using their own language," she told a group of sixth graders at Nakasuk School in Iqaluit Thursday.
"They say language is cheap. It's free. If you sincerely feel you don't want the language to die, you need to use it."
The best way to do this, she said, is through speaking and cultural activities, especially when they involve elders in a community.
Celebrate language
Tutcho attended the Igloolik Qaggiq '97 celebration last week to welcome the return of the sun and encourage the use of Inuktitut at home, school and work. Part of the celebration, though, was postponed because of a death in the community.
Tutcho, however, was impressed with the energy behind the idea.
"I'm going to be promoting Igloolik as a challenge to other communities in the NWT to do that. It's a very unique idea."
While on a stopover in Iqaluit, Tutcho took time to visit local schools and educational institutions.
"I take every opportunity I have to come out to the schools to give support and encouragement and hear the concerns people have about language."
More aboriginal people needed
But they're not new concerns and people still worry they can't correspond with government in their own language. Tutcho said there's also a lack of aboriginal teachers at the high school level and an absence of aboriginal men in the field of education.
"I'm not the only one. There are parents, teachers, schools and community and political leaders who need to say this is a priority."
Tutcho said many aboriginal languages, such as Dogrib and Chipewyan, have a greater chance to be lost because they're not used enough.
"Inuktitut will be alive a lot longer because the people use it and have fun with it."
When the territories divide, Tutcho will not represent Nunavut. When asked by a student whether there will be one language to conduct business in Nunavut, Tutcho said that's not her decision.
"It's up to the Nunavut people which dialect they want to use, but if we can keep the language alive let's work on that. Why bother with concentrating on dialects?"
However, that's one of the first issues that must be dealt with by the Nunavut languages commissioner
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUITThe closing of Delta House in Inuvik may not have directly affected the treatment centre in Iqaluit, but it foreshadows difficulties to come.
"Their closing will not affect us," said Dorthe Kunuk, the executive director of the Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre in Iqaluit. "We'll still be operating."
Cries of protest rang from the Western Arctic last week when Health and Social Services Minister Kelvin Ng announced the closure of Delta House, a 20-year-old alcohol and drug treatment centre in Inuvik.
And though the three-year-old Inuusiqsiurvik Centre in Iqaluit hasn't been closed, it will receive less government funding this year.
"We expect getting less money, but I haven't been told yet what that is," Kunuk said.
Government to cut funds
Funding cuts this year aren't the only obstacle Kunuk faces. In three years, the centre must look elsewhere for money; the government will no longer provide funding.
"By 1999 we'll be completely cut," Kunuk said. "I hope by then we will have the skills and knowledge to work with the Inuit culture and provide programs. In terms of funding, hopefully Inuit will be more aware of the problems and go for the help that they need."
In a Health and Social Services draft discussion paper released in November concerning program reforms for alcohol and drug addictions, the government stated it would be moving away from treatment centres towards community-based programs.
High vacancy rates
Aside from Delta House, the GNWT funds three drug and alcohol treatment centres. Inuusiqsiurvik Treatment Centre is the only one in Nunavut.
According to the GNWT, they've become inefficient and expensive because of high vacancy rates. As well, a large number of potential clients are referred to southern centres for treatment.
"The occupancy rate depends on the programs and services we can offer people," Kunuk said. "For us the low rate is because we're still in the process of developing programs for clients to meet their needs."
Kunuk said they've already started to make changes anticipating government-funding withdrawal. The centre has increased staff training, plans family programs, and will begin two after-care programs next month.
Looking for support
Kunuk said she'll also be looking into promoting the centre in the south to attract more clients.
She was confident that with programs in place, the centre would be in a better position to face 1999. But without government funding, Kunuk said she'll be looking to the local community for financial support.
The discussion paper also outlined the government's intention to focus more attention on preventative measures.
"There are some difficult choices that need to be made as the department attempts to change its focus from treatment to prevention during a time of fiscal restraint," the paper stated.
Although the reforms have been targeted for April, the paper points out that cuts, including cuts to addictions treatment, may be made as part of overall budget reduction measures.\
Back to TopJENNIFER TILDEN
Special to Nunatsiaq News
We already know that suicide is a huge problem in Nunavut.
The high rate of suicide, among Inuit youth in particular, is having a devastating effect upon families and communities.
Numbers supplied by the NWT Chief Coroner show that there were 56 confirmed suicides in the NWT from January 1994 to March 1996. More than 80 per cent of these suicides were committed by Inuit.
So people often throw up their hands and ask "Why does this keep happening?".
Why choose death over life?
They want to know what led this person to choose death over life. We usually hear that his girlfriend or wife had left him; that her uncle had molested her; that he was going to court; that he was drunk; or that nobody knows why.
Reports on suicide among native people (including a special report prepared by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples), show that these factors contribute to the high rate of suicides: alcohol and substance abuse; sexual, emotional and physical abuse; discrimination; loss of culture and traditional values; and lack of education and jobs.
Some people, including Amittuq MLA Mark Evaloarjuk, question what effect rock music lyrics, television violence, and the presence of women's shelters, have had on the suicide rate.
Others believe that the increasing number of broken homes is responsible for more people killing themselves.
No one can point to a single reason why suicide is so prevalent in Nunavut. Each person who commits suicide has his or her own unique set of circumstances that lead to this decision.
However, these people did have something in common with one another they shared a deep sense of desperation, and a complete loss of hope that things will get any better.
Why so many Inuit?
The obvious question is: Why do so many Inuit feel this way?
Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak points to the changing times and all that has come with them.
"What used to be our world has expanded greatly. Our world used to be the environment around us," Anawak says.
No role for alienated young men?
The way Inuit live has changed a great deal in a very short space of time. Anawak says that people's roles within the family have also changed, especially for young men.
"Thirty years ago a young man was a very important member of the family because of his role as a hunter."
This ability to provide for his family made him a leader.
"There was always an opportunity to work and no time for idleness," Anawak says.
In today's world, things are very different. In most communities there are very few jobs to go around.
Young men and women may see little point in finishing school when there are unlikely to be any jobs for them when they graduate. They quit school and are left with no education, no job skills, and no prospects for employment.
Joanasie is a 14-year-old from Iqaluit. He recently lost a friend to suicide.
Suicide not surprising
He says that he wasn't really surprised when his friend hanged himself he just felt sad. He thinks that his friend probably killed himself because he was bored, and because he missed another friend who had committed suicide.
Raurri Qajaaq Ellsworth is the youth coordinator for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association in Iqaluit.
He says young people don't really understand themselves and their role, and feel that society doesn't understand them either.
Inuit families used to be very close and would spend a lot of time together, and Ellsworth says there are still families like that.
Parents and kids not communicating
However, too often parents and their kids are not communicating with one another, Ellsworth says.
"It's not that the parents have given up their role. It's just that with all the changes that have taken place, parents are not equipped to deal with the problems. Young people have a lot of demands," he says.
Ellsworth says one of the problems is that there is a lack of things for young people to do to occupy their minds: "Young people need positive outlets."
Young Inuit women have many of the same problems as men, but there are differences.
Women attempt suicide as often as men
According to Susan Keogh of the Department of Health and Social Services of the GNWT, studies indicate that women attempt suicide as often as men, but don't die as often from it.
Women are less likely to use a gun or to hang themselves, and more likely to take a drug overdose. Women are also generally better able to talk about what they are feeling with someone, than are men.
Children a reason for living
Also, young Inuit women often have children that they are responsible for. These children represent a reason for living.
In many cases the women have become the providers for their families, and in this way, women have gained control over their lives whereas men have lost it.
"Suicide attempts by men are less cries for help than desperate and final acts, indicative of the pain men feel as a result of being socially isolated and marginalized," Keogh says, in an as yet unpublished report by Marc G. Stevenson on suicide among Inuit prepared for the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.
Alcohol leads to depression
Many people have turned to alcohol and drugs to dull their pain.
Earl A. Grollman, in a book about suicide, says that alcohol abusers often feel deprived of love.
He says that when people drink they feel better at first, but alcohol eventually leads to depression. This, in turn, leads to more drinking and more suffering.
Grollman points out that alcoholism then results in the loss of family, friends and employment.
Isolation, loss of relationships
"Many alcoholics that take their lives, experience the loss of a close relationship within six weeks preceding the suicide."
The report on suicide prepared by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, finds that: "Until the underlying factors in aboriginal life that lead so many to contemplate or commit suicide are changed, the continuous flow of self-destructive people will not be stopped."
Admit the problem
Jack Anawak says that the first step toward this change happens when people realize and admit that there is a problem in each of the communities and then do something about it.
He says that the initiatives have to come from the people, young and old, and he feels the government's role is to support these initiatives.
And Anawak says our leaders have to be good role models.
"We need leaders who are not afraid to tackle controversial issues," Anawak said. "We need leaders that can think and plan to do something about the high suicide rate. The best and brightest are dying."
Raurri Qajaaq Ellsworth is the type of leader Anawak hopes there will be more of in the near future.
Ellsworth says that we have to start hearing from young people and show that getting involved makes a difference. He says that young people often look outward instead of inward, for solutions to their problems.
Youth part of solution, not problem
"The young people in Nunavut need to organize themselves, to be more open to others, and to do for themselves what needs to be done."
People in Nunavut are starting to talk about this issue. Jack Anawak and Raurri Qajaaq Ellsworth want people to know that no matter how bad things may seem to them, they should not give up hope. The answers come from within.
"You need to be willing to change things," says Ellsworth.
Back to Topby John Amagoalik
Ring. Riing.
Good morning. GNWT. How may I help you?
Good morning. My name is Ima Goalie. I'm a reporter from the Toronto Mop and Pail. I'm doing a story on Nunavut and I was wondering who I should talk to.
You should call the NIC.
The NIC. Will they be able to tell me about the land claims agreement?
You better talk to NTI about that.
What about the effect of the agreement on the different regions of Nunavut?
You should talk to the QIA, the KIA, and the KIA.
Did you say the QIA, the KIA and the KIA?
Yes.
Which is which?
The QIA is in IQ, the KIA is in RI and the other KIA is in CB.
I also want to find out more about wildlife management.
Call the NWMB.
The NWMB. Who do I talk to about education and training?
You can call the HRDC at the NIC or the NITC and you should also talk to BDBE or the KDBE depending on which region and whether or not its a government or private program.
What about Inuit culture? Who can I call?
You can call the ICI in Rankin or the QCI in Igloolik.
What about the media in Nunavut?
Phone the CBC, the IBC, TVNC, and the NN.
Who do I talk to about social issues?
I would recommend you talk to the SDC. NTI will provide you with a name.
What about national Inuit concerns?
Call ITC.
International matters?
ICC.
Does the GNWT do anything?
We keep an updated list of what all these acronyms stand for.
I see.
IC? Don't know that one.
Oh, never mind. Thanks anyway. Bye.
Have a nice day.
Back to TopBest sincere wishes to this newspaper on the things that are printed for the majority of the people in Nunavut.
On the contrary, I did disapprove on the editor's note that you've made on the editorial section on January 7, especially on those translations that were produced on January 3. The perception of the translator could've been a whole lot better; that, I agree with Mr. Illupalik.
Also, I did admire the way you supported your servant.
Lastly, the reason why I did not agree with you due to the fact that time does not wait for any individual or even agencies what-so-ever, even if there was any pressure or otherwise. That my friend, is the harsh reality of life. A deadline is no excuse for shabby translating!
Paul Ivalu
Igloolik
The people of the Northwest Territories owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien.
That's because O'Brien helped stop an ill-conceived undertaking that could have cost us millions the GNWT proposal to turn Rankin Inlet into a fuel supply hub for the Keewatin region
For nearly 18 months, the rookie member from Arviat played David against a political Goliath represented by the GNWT's bureaucracy, Keewatin Central MLA John Todd, and a Keewatin-based network of political activists and business people.
O'Brien proved that an ordinary MLA can change government policy without which the consensus system of government cannot work.
In the end, the detailed study of the tank farm proposal done by Yellowknife consultant Peter Allen turned out to be the sling that O'Brien used to undo Goliath.
That study showed that of all the available options for supplying fuel to the Keewatin region, the GNWT's original proposal would have cost the most money and benefited the fewest communities.
And in Yellowknife last week, when O'Brien's Keewatin resupply committee voted unanimously to kill that scheme, Goliath turned out to be a pushover.
But Nunavut and Northwest Territories residents need to know that the Rankin tank farm controversy was about much more than whether GNWT bureaucrats know how to do simple arithmetic.
The tank farm scheme, right from the beginning, has been enveloped in a cloud of unanswered questions that the public has the right to know the answers to.
Already, people are forgetting about the connections between the Rankin Inlet tank farm proposal and two other questionable schemes, both involving the GNWT's Department of Transportation.
One was a contract worth $90 million over three years to supply fuel to 14 Nunavut communities. The other was a plan to transfer ownership of the money-losing Canarctic shipping company from Ottawa to the GNWT.
How were they connected? In the fall of 1995, the GNWT decided to negotiate an untendered contract with a private Rankin Inlet firm called Tapiriit to build and lease-back the Rankin tank farm a major part of a new Keewatin resupply plan worked out by the Department of Transportation.
Around the same time, on September 1, 1995, Tapiriit joined forces with Canarctic and a Greenlandic company called KNI to create a new company called Igniq Oil. By mid-October, Igniq had sprung out of nowhere to make a bid on the $90 million resupply contract.
But the people competing against Igniq Oil rightly complained when they discovered that Andrew Gamble, the GNWT's deputy minister of transportation, was a member of Canarctic's board of directors. With Gamble involved with one of the bidders, they questioned whether their bids would get fair consideration.
And the man at the very top of the Department of Transportation at that time was none other than Keewatin Central MLA John Todd.
As Transportation Minister, it was Todd who oversaw a new Keewatin resupply plan, and he took part in talks with Doug Young, then the federal minister of transport, on the devolution of Canarctic to the GNWT.
Not surprisingly, when many of these facts were made public, all this was greeted by a howling blizzard of protest. And the GNWT started backtracking faster than a southern tourist who has stumbled into a hungry polar bear.
Outgoing Premier Nellie Cournoyea hired a lawyer by the name of Brian Wallace to review the $90 million resupply contract. But after Wallace handed in his work, the GNWT allowed the public to see only one page of his report. We may never know what the report contains, because the rest of it is still secret.
By then, Northern Transportation Company Limited had hired a private investigator former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster to snoop around and ask questions about Canarctic, Ingiq Oil, the GNWT's abiding interest in Canarctic, the Rankin Inlet tank farm proposal, and the proposed negotiated contract with Tapiriit.
Then the GNWT awarded the contract to the Northern Transportation Company Limited, an action that silenced demands for a full public inquiry the kind where white-knuckled public officials go to be grilled in public about what they know and what they did.
Few of the disturbing questions raised at that time have been answered.
But by the time that Jim Antoine, the new Transportation Minister, had asked O'Brien to head up the Keewatin resupply committee in February of 1996, the damage control was well underway.
O'Brien's committee went on to grind out its face-saving arithmetic and David toppled Goliath.
It's refreshing to see that Todd and O'Brien have now agreed to work together for the benefit of the Keewatin region. It's also refreshing to see that one lone MLA can still have that much influence within the consensus system of government. JB
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Last updated January 27, 1997
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