Nunavut EDOs network, brainstorm at CamBay workshop

Mark Morrissey, executive director, and Colin Saunders, president, of the Nunavut Economic Developers Association, which wrapped up a meeting in Cambridge Bay this past week. Economic development officers in Nunavut will attend the Economic Developers Association of Canada’s annual conference this September in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Jim MacEachern, Cambridge Bay’s economic development officer and Nunavut’s EDO of the Year, with Shelly Brake, Hall Beach’s EDO, during this week’s Nunavut Economic Developers Association workshop in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Since 2004, when the Government of Nunavut shifted community economic development jobs from the territorial government to hamlets, high turnover and poor results have plagued the positions of community economic development officers.

But now there are signs of change: there’s less turnover among EDOs.

And hamlets generally have a better idea of what the job entails, say Mark Morrissey and Colin Saunders, the executive director and president of the Nunavut Economic Developers Association.

No longer do hamlets treat their EDOs like go-fers, running errands, filling out grant application forms or helping people with their income tax forms.

That’s because many former EDOs have been promoted to senior administrative officer jobs in the hamlets.

And today most hamlets have created economic development plans that provide guidance to EDOs.

But to improve their skills, the Nunavut Economic Developers Association brought EDOs from across Nunavut to a three-day professional development workshop this week in Cambridge Bay, funded by agencies like CanNor, the Government of Nunavut, and Kakivak.

There, with the help of consultants Sim Akpalialuk, a former EDO, and Kumar Suha and Gordon Bligh, the EDOs learned more.

The EDOs talked about how to deal with Nunavut’s lack of infrastructure and access to capital and how to help people start a business when there are no empty storefronts and when you’re not allowed to run a business from a social housing unit.

By talking about how to develop an inland fishery, they learned what you have to do to set fishing quotas for lakes, a process that can take five years.

And in Pangnirtung, where it’s always “fishing, fishing, fishing,” EDO Madeleine Qumuatuq says that even when you have your fishery set up, you still have to help people equip themselves with gear.

“It’s a lot of work, and it takes a lot of partnerships,” she said.

While finding capital and building up infrastructure locally remain major challenges, when a project comes together, the ripples are felt throughout the community as people earn and spend more money locally.

For Colin Saunders, who has served as EDO in Pond Inlet for the past seven years, that feedback keeps him going.

“You assist people, help them, and that’s rewarding,” he said.

Also at the three-day workshop were two representatives from the Economic Developers Association of Canada, including its Quebec board member and vice-president, Serge Côté, who works for the Montreal airports corporation.

While there’s a world of difference between Montreal and Nunavut “everyone has the same dreams,” he said.

The national economic developers organization plans to build on those contacts next September at its annual conference in Iqaluit, Sept. 29 to Oct. 2., the first time its 1,000 members will hold their gathering in the North.