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EkoNorth treats Arctic research as economic resource

Nunavut research cluster could generate jobs as well as solutions

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Participants in Iqaluit’s first EkoNorth forum tour the community’s unused sewage treatment plant. The group is working to create a northern-based research facility that could develop technology or ideas, to solve problems like Nunavut’s unique infrastructure needs. (PHOTO BY GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS)

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Nunavut-based researchers and business leaders are banding together to find ways for Nunavummiut to benefit from some of the millions of research dollars flowing through the territory into southern pockets.

EkoNorth, a forum initiated by the federal government’s National Research Council, held its first eastern Arctic meeting on Aug. 6, to bring together universities, colleges, and local industry groups from across the North.

A study from the mid-1990s showed research was the fifth highest economic driver in the Northwest Territories, before Nunavut was created. Exact dollar amounts aren’t available for the new territory, but more than 100 research teams have come from the South this year to study aspects of Nunavut.

Steve Cook, head of the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce, hosted dozens of politicians, bureaucrats and researchers at the meeting in Iqaluit at the Frobisher Inn, urging them to support EkoNorth’s intention of creating a research and development “cluster” based somewhere in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, or the Yukon.

A “cluster” is the research jargon word for grouping together business, government and research interests, and focusing them on one area of research. The new group then markets their expertise to clients around the world.

Participants at the Iqaluit meeting suggested Nunavut would benefit the most from a research facility that focused on the territory’s infrastructure needs. For example, the group could research how to save energy, such as through wind power, or how to pave roads without having them crumble within a year.

One presentation at the meeting even highlighted the idea of harnessing hydroelectric power from the Sylvia Grinnell River in Iqaluit.

Whatever the specialty, organizers expect the initiative would help Nunavut in its search for jobs.

“[The cluster] could create sustainable industry and jobs,” Cook said after the meeting. “This is an exploratory meeting to see if there’s interest in it in Nunavut. There’s no question that for the folks in Nunavut, there’s emotional support.

“We need to change that into practical support.”

The EkoNorth research cluster already has strong interest from the National Research Council, the federal government’s arm’s-length research department, which sent several representatives to the Iqaluit meeting.

Bruce Rigby, senior advisor for the Nunavut department of education, said the federal government is bound to lend support to the project, at least to increase their representation in the North.

With the government’s backing, Rigby said the cluster would attract investors who are looking to get more “bang for their buck” when doing research in Nunavut. For example, instead of spending 30 per cent of their project budget on administrative help from the South, investors would be able to take advantage of the cluster’s northern network.

But Nunavut has more to offer than office clerks. Rigby said Nunavut excels in ideas, the currency of the so-called “knowledge economy,” which markets solutions to various problems, such as different regions’ needs to adapt technology to harsh climates.

“We don’t give ourselves credit for what we have here,” Rigby said. “We have a lot of things that people are interested in, which is why people keep coming up here and studying us.”

Rigby said, at first, the EkoNorth cluster would also require strong ties to universities in the South. Eventually, he said, the cluster might produce education and training opportunities in Nunavut that would help the territory produce more skilled experts, like engineers.

Bruce Hutchinson, the vice-principal of research at Queen’s University, said a future cluster’s main challenge would be generating interest among private companies.

But at least, the cluster would give Nunavut more involvement in bringing the investment, and reaping the related rewards, like jobs and education.

“There’s a lot of money floating around out there, but you have to figure out how to get it,” he said at the meeting. “This model puts Nunavut in the driver’s seat.”

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