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Around Nunavut

December 15, 2006

Free computer giveaway

An Iqaluit company plans to give away several refurbished computers for the holidays.

Comguard CTS, an Internet service provider, is collecting unused computers from its corporate clients to refurbish and give away to deserving families or individuals.

The company is asking for nomination letters that explain why someone deserves a free computer for Christmas.

As of this Monday, only one nomination had been made. Deadline is Dec. 22.

Letters can be sent by email to free@baffin.ca, faxed to 979-1045, or dropped off at the company’s office in the Royal Bank building.

December 15, 2006

Missing Dorset hunters found safe at cabin

Three missing Cape Dorset hunters were found safe and sound Dec. 11.

Cape Dorset RCMP received a call for assistance from the hamlet Monday to help find three missing men believed to be in the Andrew Gordon Bay area.

The group left Cape Dorset early Saturday and were expected to return that night.

Poor weather caused concern for the wellbeing of the hunters.

Volunteer ground searchers left Cape Dorset to participate in the search. A Twin Otter from Iqaluit was dispatched with spotters and three local hunters familiar with the area joined in the search.

Assistance was requested from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, which dispatched a Hercules.

Police received confirmation from ground searchers Monday afternoon the missing hunters had been found safe at a hunting cabin.

December 15, 2006

Food mail review done by next March

Jim Prentice, the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, says his department’s review of the food mail program will be done before March 31, 2007, when the program’s current mandate expires.

Prentice ordered the review this past October, at a time when the food mail program faces increasing criticism, especially from people in northern communities who say it’s not well-run.

“It’s an interesting program in the sense that I continue to receive very positive feedback from everyone on what it actually achieves at the end of the day. But it’s also a program where I’ve heard criticism from many, many, many sources about how it’s administered, and there seems to be a general unhappiness about how it’s administered,” Prentice told reporters during his recent visit to Iqaluit.

Prentice said he has asked his officials to “review it entirely from stem to gudgeon.”

December 15, 2006

Hamlets pay down deficits

Only one of Nunavut’s hamlets ran a deficit during the last fiscal year, Levinia Brown, minister of Community and Government Services, reported in the legislature on Nov. 29.

That’s a big change from three years ago, when 13 of the territory’s hamlets ran deficits. Six of those deficits exceeded $500,000.

“Mr. Speaker, municipalities were in a financial crisis,” Brown said.

In contrast, Brown described the single deficit reported this year as “so minor that it should be eliminated within the first quarter of this operating year.”

Brown said better management within hamlets, increased training provided by the GN and more supervision of hamlets by her department are all reasons for the improved financial situation.

As well, hamlets now receive 30 per cent more core funding than they did in 2002, Brown said.

December 15, 2006

An electronic Xmas

Nunavummiut stuck in out-of-territory health facilities will once again get a chance to use the Nunavut health department’s telehealth service to see and hear their loved ones over Christmas, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says.

During the recent legislative sitting in Iqaluit, Aglukkaq said priority is given to elders, but other residents are welcome to try the service, which can be arranged through community health centres.

Telehealth is one way to connect families so they can send holiday wishes and good cheer over long distances,” Aglukkaq said.

The telehealth system normally uses videoconferencing to bring patients and doctors together.

December 15, 2006

Will the big Kahuna pay off?

Shear Minerals Ltd. and Stornoway Diamond Corp., the two biggest partners in the Churchill diamond exploration project near Rankin Inlet, announced last week that they’ve made significant diamond recoveries at a kimberlite dike they’ve called “Kahuna.”

A small, 57.6 drill core sample taken from two holes at Kahuna turned out to contain 15 macrodiamonds and 327 microdiamonds.

Only an hour after the Toronto Stock Exchange opened for trading Dec. 5, Shear’s stock price rose 33 per cent.

Shear has a 51 per cent interest in the Churchill project while Stornoway holds 35 per cent. Mining giant BHP Billiton holds 14 per cent.

Shear has collected a 20-tonne sample from Kahuna and three other kimberlite pipes in the area. Test results from that sample should be available in the new year.

Shear is also looking at doing more intensive work next year to find out if Kahuna and another promising kimberlite called “Notch” has economic potential.

December 15, 2006

Councillors pick new deputy mayor

Councillor Al Hayward is the new deputy mayor of Iqaluit after a secret ballot vote at a council meeting Nov. 28.

Hayward replaces Coun. Glenn Williams, who lost his bid for another term as deputy mayor. Williams served three terms as a councillor, and two years as deputy mayor.

Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik thanked Williams for his past service as deputy mayor.

Council also approved a motion by former mayor and current councillor Jimmy Kilabuk that the deputy’s term be renewed annually.

December 15, 2006

City hires new clerk

Iqaluit has a new city clerk. Tracy Leschyshyn took over the job Nov. 22. Originally from Edmonton, Leschyshyn spent the past seven years working in Nunavut’s department of justice. The next Iqaluit city council meeting is Dec. 12 at 6 p.m.

December 15, 2006

The animals move around

Research biologists should pay more attention to what Inuit have to say about the migration of animals, Peter Kattuk, MLA for Hudson Bay, said in the legislature on Nov. 29.

For example, Kattuk said this fall, scientists tagged 10 seals with radio collars to track their movements in Nunavut.

“Apparently one was from the Arviat area, and went around Coral Harbour, and it’s now in Sanikiluaq,” Kattuk said.

“So, Inuit say wildlife moves around, and it should be a good example for biologists that the animals don’t stay in one area.”

December 15, 2006

IIBAs should fund women’s shelters?

Mining companies should help fund Nunavut’s women’s shelters as a provision of their Inuit impact and benefit agreements, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said on Nov. 29.

That’s because money that flows from mines into communities results in “access to liquor and so on,” which is a key ingredient to violent disputes in the territory, Aglukkaq said.

Aglukkaq made the comment in response to Joe Allen Evyagotailak, MLA for Kugluktuk, who said his home community has struggled to keep its shelter open, because of inadequate government funding.

“Recently the Hamlet of Kugluktuk received some funding to get the crisis shelter operating again, but the amount was only enough for a few months,” he said.

Health and Social Services provides more than $1 million to fund Nunavut’s shelters each year, Aglukkaq said.

Agglukaq’s suggestion to include shelter funding in IIBAs comes from recommendations drafted at a symposium on violence against women, held in Iqaluit in January, she said.

December 15, 2006

Arvaluk joins the Napster generation

The Government of Nunavut should provide community radio stations with free computers so volunteers could download pirated music off the Internet and play it on air, says James Arvaluk, MLA for Tunnuniq.

”The volunteers who go to the local radio station usually bring their own music and we know that going to Qiniq.com we can download free music,” Arvaluk said in committee of the whole on Nov. 29, during a review of a capital appropriation act for the department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

“Would this department be able to consider getting computers for the local radio stations? The computers are not that expensive we would probably spend $26,000 to buy computers for each of the communities and they can download their own free music.

“I would like to have this considered the next time we are discussing Capital Estimates and the Appropriations Act.”

The legislature adjourned on Tuesday, December 5. The fourth session begins on March 6, 2007.

December 15, 2006

GN loses $3-$4 million from Tory cuts

Ed Picco, the education minister, told MLAs during the last sitting of the legislative assembly that the Conservative government’s recent cuts to the budget of the federal Human Resources department, and other federal agencies, likely cost Nunavut between $3 and $4 million.

Picco provided the information in response to a question from Keith Peterson, the MLA for Cambridge Bay.

Picco said cuts to federal literacy programs deprived Nunavut of about $378,000 in expected funding, $256,000 from the Nunavut Literacy

Council, and $122,000 from Nunavut Arctic College.

Those cuts prompted the Canadian Council of Ministers of Education to write a letter to complaint to John Baird, the president of the Treasury Board, Picco said.

“I am in the process right now of reviewing our budget to see where I can step in and support the Nunavut Literacy Council,” Picco said.

December 8, 2006

NTI hits Ottawa with $1 billion lawsuit

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. launched a $1 billion lawsuit this past Tuesday against the federal government, alleging that Ottawa has violated the Nunavut land claim agreement by failing to carry out its implementation responsibilities.

NTI’s statement of claim, filed in the Nunavut Court of Justice as Nunatsiaq News went to press this week, contains a long list of allegations related to specific sections of the land claim agreement.

Those allegations accuse Ottawa of failing to provide enough money, at various times, to fund various parts of the agreement, and of failing to do other things related to implementation.

As relief, NTI wants the court to order the federal government to pay court costs, punitive damages, plus a billion dollars in compensation.

NTI’s last implementation contract with Ottawa expired in 2003. Talks aimed at a new one have so far failed, even after the conciliation work done by Thomas Berger in 2005 and early 2006.

See next week’s paper for more detail on NTI’s lawsuit.

December 8, 2006

Payroll tax clarified

Workers in Nunavut who earn less than $60,000 won’t feel the pain of increased income taxes.

MLAs gave third and final reading to Bill 29, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, on Tuesday. The act increases the territory’s payroll tax from one to two per cent. But the law also exempts workers who earn less than $60,000 from paying this, by providing a cost of living tax credit of $1,200.

That’s a change from an announcement Finance Minister David Simailak made to MLAs Nov. 21, during his mid-year fiscal update, which would have seen workers who earn as little as $45,000 annually paying more taxes.

Right now, workers are protected against the effect of payroll tax until they make a gross annual income that is greater than $75,000 – based on a one per cent tax and a credit of $750.

But Simailak initially proposed a two per cent tax and a $900 credit. That would have seen workers use up the credit after they start making more than $45,000.

The income tax changes take effect April 1, 2007.

December 1, 2006

Kimmirut standoff ends peacefully

A two-day armed standoff that followed an armed robbery in Kimmirut ended peacefully on Nov. 28.

RCMP arrested two adult men and a 17-year-old youth for robbery with a firearm after the three gave up Tuesday evening, said Cpl. Randy Slawson with the Iqaluit RCMP.

The three had barricaded themselves inside a residence in the community since early Monday morning, Slawson said.

Police surrounded the home for nearly two days, when RCMP negotiators convinced the three to surrender. No one was injured.

The community's school and several businesses closed while police handled the situation, but re-opened on Wednesday, Slawson said.

The RCMP Major Crime Unit and Kimmirut RCMP are in the community and continue to investigate.

Police had not released the names of the three arrested men as of the Nunatsiaq News press-time this past Wednesday.

December 1, 2006

Prentice says yes to Meadowbank

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The Meadowbank mine and mill will be supplied by barges moving past Chesterfield Inlet up to Baker Lake, and gold bars produced at the mill will be flown out on Boeing 737 aircraft via an airstrip at the mine site. The “winter road” shown here will now be an all-weather road.

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“Cumberland can now begin to provide much desired employment opportunities and economic benefits to Nunavut, particularly in the Kivalliq region’s northern communities,” said Kerry Curtis, Cumberland’s president and CEO.

Cumberland’s next steps are to get a project certificate from the NIRB, then apply for a water licence and some other necessary permits and licences.

The company has already shipped supplies and equipment to Baker Lake for construction next year.

The mine, expected to operate for at least eight years, will likely go into production in late 2008 or early 2009.

It will be connected to Baker Lake by a 70-kilometre all-weather road whose use will be restricted. Under an Inuit impact and benefits agreement bet­ween Cumb­erland Re­sources and the Kivalliq Inuit Association, Inuit will gain access to at least 60 training positions.

After the mine is constructed, it will employ about 350 people.

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