NCC casting about for private investors

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS

The corporation charged with building the residential and office buildings for the Nunavut government won’t ask the Nunavut Trust for land claim beneficiary money.

Tagak Curley, president of the Nunavut Construction Corporation, said NCC has no plans to ask the Trust for funding. Nunavut Trust was set up by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to invest federal land-claim payments on behalf of Nunavut beneficiaries.

“We’re dealing with most of the banks right now,” Curley said, refusing to name any specific institutions. “But definitely not Nunavut Trust.”

NCC needs to secure about $100 million to construct the incremental infrastructure buildings for the government of Nunavut over the next four years. That’s in addition to the millions the federal government is kicking in for infrastructure, such as site development, roads, sewers and construction of federal buildings.

Curley said he never approached the Trust because he felt it wouldn’t be interested in the project.

“Their attitude is they’re not into this kind of venture,” Curley said. “They’ll go to Bre-X, but not to this.”

But Nunavut Trust did make a commercial loan to a development corporation in the past. In 1993, when its porfolio was worth $53 million, the Trust loaned $3 million to Nunasi Corporation, one of four Inuit birthright development corporations in Nunavut.

Andy Campbell, chief administrative officer of the Trust, said Nunasi met all the investment criteria and has never missed a loan payment. The corporation is doing so well, in fact, that Campbell suggested it may pay off its loan before it reaches its term.

Despite Curley’s reservations about approaching the Trust, NCC has never been denied a loan.

Campbell said discussions did take place with NTI before NCC was created as to whether or not the Trust would be interested in investing in the infrastructure project. Without a specific proposal, however, Campbell said no decision was made.

“It was back in the initial stages and it wasn’t even clear if NCC would be there,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he’s willing to entertain a proposal from NCC.

“If this investment met all our criteria and standards and it made financial sense and if it wasn’t such a huge proportion that it would upset the balance of the portfolio, of course we’d look at it,” he added.

Simon Merkosak, owner of Merkosak Construction in Pond Inlet, and other Inuit-owned construction companies have publicly stated their opposition to NCC. They’re concerned the corporation will dominate the construction field and compete unfairly against their small firms.

Campbell, however, said the Trust isn’t a political organization and investment decisions aren’t made on a political basis.

“I know there are some people concerned with NCC taking everything over,” Campbell said. “But that’s an NTI issue.”

The Trust has strict guidelines when choosing what investments to make and it’s unlikely that NCC could meet those criteria. For example, the Trust won’t initially invest more than two to five per cent of the total holdings of the portfolio, which is currently about $350 million. Five per cent of that is only $17.5 million, a far cry from what NCC is seeking.

Although NCC hasn’t reached a final deal yet, Curley said financing for this summer’s projects is in place. He added that NCC can’t secure a deal until it has all the architectual designs for the Nunavut buildings.