July 27, 2001
DENISE RIDEOUT
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — Mayors in some High Arctic communities are asking the Nunavut government to subsidize Kenn Borek’s flights in order to prevent the airline from pulling its service out of the region.
Kenn Borek Air Ltd., whose planes have been navigating Arctic skies since the 1970s, plans to stop flying between Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay and Resolute Bay this fall.
The airline says it’s losing money because not enough people are taking those flights.
But mayors in north Baffin don’t want to see those flights disappear, and they’re pleading with the airline not to pull out.
They also want support from the Nunavut government. They’re asking the GN to subsidize Kenn Borek’s flight costs.
"We’re trying to get help from the government," Paul Haulli, the mayor of Pond Inlet, explained.
Haulli has written letters to the airline and to the transportation departments of the Nunavut and federal governments to plead his case.
"It’s not too good for the community," he said.
The mayor has told government officials that come October, travel between communities in the north Baffin will become difficult.
He pointed out that while the other major airline in the region, First Air, flies between Arctic Bay and Resolute Bay, it doesn’t link Pond Inlet to those communities.
"It seems like us north Baffin people are going to be isolated from each other," Haulli said.
Once Kenn Borek’s flights stop, people wanting to travel from Pond Inlet to Resolute Bay will first have to fly to Iqaluit and then back up to their destination.
Haulli said that will be more time-consuming — and far more costly — for travellers.
A flight from Pond Inlet to Resolute with Kenn Borek currently costs $896 return and takes a few hours. Aboard First Air, the fare is more than $4,000 and requires two days of travel.
Arctic Bay has also jumped into the fight to save the north Baffin flights.
Its hamlet council has sent letters to the airline and government ministers, said Cecil Marshall, Arctic Bay’s senior administrative officer.
"We’ve asked for the ministers to find a way to keep that flight available to us," he said in a telephone interview.
Marshall and Haulli each say that keeping the flights is important for many reasons.
They point out that many people in Arctic Bay, Resolute and Pond Inlet are related and don’t want to lose one of the only routes they have to visit each other.
Even more pressing is the health care issue.
A doctor stationed in Pond Inlet travels throughout the High Arctic to treat patients. Instead of having residents go to Iqaluit or Ottawa for health care, the doctor makes monthly visits to the communities.
Arctic Bay’s SAO fears that there will be fewer visits when Kenn Borek stops flying between the communities.
"That will impact on health care in the community. It will mean more people would have to fly out of the community to see a doctor," Marshall said.
He said that’s where the Nunavut government comes in.
He’s suggesting it may be cheaper for the GN to subsidize the airline’s flights than to pay for residents to fly south for medical treatment.
But so far, the question of subsidization remains unanswered.
The mayors haven’t heard from the territory’s transportation department.
And Mike Ferris, deputy minister of transportation, said he hasn’t seen the mayors’ letters yet.
As for helping the communities, Ferris said the department doesn’t have authority to tell Kenn Borek it can’t cancel its flights.
"We have no sort of clout in the matter," he said.
But he did say: "As part of the transportation strategy for Nunavut, we’d like to talk to all the companies to see how we might best keep them serving the communities."
Kenn Borek officials couldn’t be reached for comment this week.
Warning: include(/magma/users/u42/nunatsia/php/mainfooter.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/web/nunatsiaqonline/html/archives/nunavut010731/nvt10727_02.html on line 102
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/magma/users/u42/nunatsia/php/mainfooter.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear:/home/web/nunatsiaqonline/html/pub/php') in /home/web/nunatsiaqonline/html/archives/nunavut010731/nvt10727_02.html on line 102