Kerry McCluskey and Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Mar 13/00) - Say goodbye to the BRHSSB. While you're at it, kiss the OIC, NIC and the TFN farewell.

Greetings NTI, NIRB, QIA and CLEY. Don't forget ITC, NSDC and IQ.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the age of the acronym -- where we simply take the first letter of each word in a name or title and throw it together to create a catchy shortened version.

It can be extremely confusing.

But, given that it's a new territory, with dozens of new organizations, perhaps it's the easiest -- and fastest -- way to go about it. A word of caution, however.

The NWMB is not to be mistaken for the NWB. That's because the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board is not the Nunavut Water Board.

Nor is the GN to be confused with the GNWT.

Bye-bye RWED.

Hello DSD.

Gone is MACA.

In its place is CGT.

Give a warm welcome to the territory's 19 MLAs, all the new DMs, ADMs and EAs.

It also gets a little tricky when it comes time to make out a cheque to pay your power bill. Do you make the funds payable to NCPC, NWTPC, NTPC or NPC?

But, wait a minute. Is it possible that it's just us, that we're making a mountain out of a molehill?

In all fairness, we really ought to venture out into the territory -- a la NWTel -- to see exactly what Nunavummiut have to say about acronym-mania.

Known for his strong opinions, Bryan Pearson seemed like a good person to turn to.

"I have no idea what people are talking about 99 per cent of the time," said Pearson.

"NTI, ICS, ITC. Jesus, I have absolutely no idea. My mind just blocks them all out and I could care bloody less."

So Pearson, any solutions?

"What I have always felt is there are far too many organizations vying for a piece of the pie. I thought when the Government of Nunavut formed, they'd all disappear," he said.

"They should all be under one roof."

Not a bad idea. Then we could just have one giant acronym that would refer to the bureaucracy, the land claims organizations, the nongovernmental agencies and everyone's general state of being -- SNAFU.