Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 31/99) - Nunavut's nomadic legislative assembly is one step closer to having a permanent home.

Last week, the Nunavut Construction Corp. officially turned the keys to the legislature over to the Government of Nunavut.

For the last three weeks, the 19 MLAs and their staff have been forced to gather in various meeting halls around the town of Iqaluit and, because of a problem in scheduling, the government actually had to move its location part way through the session.

But according to Eugene Lysy, executive director of the corporation, those days will soon be a thing of the past.

"The government of Nunavut has formally accepted the building. It concluded this week on May 25 with the turning over of the key," said Lysy.

While the building was for the most part completed on schedule by the end of March -- in time for a ceremonial building dedication -- it took a few more weeks for the various inspectors to look over and pass the building and for NCC employees to clean and finish all of the little touch-ups.

"The only thing NCC has remaining to do is the seasonal work, which has to do with the parking lot and the plug-ins and the final touch-ups on the exterior."

Lysy said that bringing the $11-million building in on time and on budget, and actually being one year ahead on the rest of the infrastructure around the territory, gave the corporation and the government a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

"It's certainly a feeling of accomplishment for the labour force of the Nunavut Construction Corp. I'm sure the government now has the feeling that they have a home."

The assembly is expected to move into the new building sometime this fall, but Ross Mrazek, acting deputy minister of Public Works, Telecommunications and Technical Services, said his department still needed a few more months to finish the interior of the building.

As well as installing the security system, the cabling for the network and the audio-visual equipment, Mrazek said the second and third floors required a bit of renovation to accommodate the larger-than-expected number of cabinet ministers and their staff.

Mrazek said the government would be in their new home in time for their fall session and with the exception of having to use temporary audio-visual equipment for a short period of time, everything from their furniture to the artwork would be in place by that date.

"Our target date is Oct. 1. We will have the building functional for this purpose," said Mrazek.

While he did say that NCC's lease with the GN spanned 20 years, Mrazek explained that the dollar value on that lease would not be released until next month.