by Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 16/98) - Before this month, Gaetan Brunet had never been to Iqaluit.

But the products he sells for the Ottawa-based specialty printing and stitching company Valiquette Enterprises Inc., have been sold in the Baffin Island community for 15 years.

In all, 96 exhibitors were at the '98 Nunavut Trade Show held 10 days ago in Iqaluit.

Valiquette Enterprises, with annual sales of between $4 to $5 million, was started by owner Jack Valiquette in 1965. The company's work includes the production of UN logos stitched on jackets worn by Canadian peacekeepers in Bosnia.

Brunet, whose been with Valiquette Enterprises for over 30 years, said the company chose to be at the Nunavut trade show because "there are more and more businesses" in the North and that means potentially new clients as well.

"It's a big opportunity."

Dan Kane, Canadian North sales representative for Nunavut and northern Manitoba agrees, and believes the new territory represents a chance for new business.

"There's always opportunities for growth," he said.

As an example, Kane said the airline can use the trade show to identify firms needing cargo services.

Kane estimated Canadian North's Nunavut business has grown tenfold in the last two years.

Another trade show exhibitor keying in on potential new business through the trade show is Nova Scotia-based Clearwater Fine Foods Inc.

Clearwater, a private company owned by John Risley and Colin MacDonald, operates two shrimp trawlers, the 53-metre Arctic Prawns and the 67-metre Atlantic Enterprise, off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Davis Strait.

Each vessel is manned by about 25 Inuit crew from the Baffin and from Northern Quebec.

Clearwater has had a joint-venture with Qikiqtaaluk Corporation for 11 years, Peter Matthews, the food company's vice-president of fishing operations and shrimp sales, said.

Matthews estimated Clearwater, through earnings to employees and royalties paid to Inuit organizations, injects between $1 and $2 million into the Baffin-Northern Quebec economy.

"The trade show is an opportunity to come and meet with our partners."

And Clearwater is "certainly having discussions" about new business, he said.

Matthews hinted the company is looking to expand by fishing for species other than shrimp. Quotas limit the company's ability to catch additional shrimp.

Clearwater's shrimp caught off Newfoundland and in the Davis Strait are bound for Europe, China and Japan.

Matthews also said: "It's amazing to see the growth and development taking place in Nunavut. The spirit and enthusiasm is amazing. Inuit leaders clearly see the future as being one of cultural co-operation providing a climate for good business."