Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Sep 29/99) - The Nunavut Construction Corp. (NCC) can release all the figures it wants, but the hire ratio on Phase Three construction in Arviat has been one-third local Inuit and two-thirds southern workers, says Mayor Ralph King.

The mayor sent a strongly-worded letter to NCC president Tagak Curley expressing his dissatisfaction with the corporation's hiring policies in his community.

King claims only six local people have been employed by NCC this year with 15 workers on the site.

"I found it very strange when more local guys were hired after my letter went out," said King.

"We sent the letter out on a Friday morning and a guy was hired after lunch that same day."

During phases one and two, NCC built 13 housing units and an office building. Phase Three is smaller, with only 10 housing units being constructed.

King says although NCC never lived up to its promise of two local hires for every trades person on site during phases one and two, there was a high percentage of local hires.

This year, however, NCC made no effort to come close to its commitment.

"As far as I'm concerned, NCC doesn't have to follow any rules or stipulations under Articles 23 or 24.

"Even one of the two houses NCC rented here is rented from one of its employees."

King says NCC is going to be bidding on more Arviat projects and he wants to make sure it adheres more to the guidelines in the future.

"These projects are supposed to benefit our beneficiaries, but, looking at the NCC projects, I didn't know we had that many beneficiaries in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia," says King.

"These guys are laughing all the way to the bank."

NCC was quick to respond to King's concerns by issuing a community-by-community breakdown of both beneficiary and non-beneficiary employees the firm has on sites across Nunavut.

The Arviat section of the release states 13 of 20 workers are local hires.

Curley says NCC has been more than 65 per cent local hire during each of the past three years in Arviat.

"If that's not a 2-1 ratio, I don't have a clue what is," states Curley.

"There's no problem with our labour content in Arviat. These are wild, unfounded accusations by the hamlet's mayor."

Curley also says King's letter had absolutely nothing to do with the recent NCC hirings in Arviat.

"We had to hire because the labour-intensive part is beginning...boarding and closing in the project.

"I don't know why he's (King) not taking a more diplomatic approach in dealing with us instead of going through the media.

"In my opinion, his complaints are just a smoke screen for his own business interests."

Curley says NCC is not fudging numbers or putting its own spin on the situation.

He says NCC consistently surpasses the requirements of Articles 23 and 24 with its hiring.

"We have more than 270 local employees across Nunavut and I would challenge anybody to show a better local employment ratio than us."