Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 10/01) - Yellowknife and the Republic of Mongolia are on the road to forging new diplomatic and economic relationships thanks to a pair of engineers.

Richard Cracknell, a senior mechanical technologist with Thorn Limited, and Cam Marianayagam, president of Camillus Engineering Consultants, recently spent several days in the central Asian country as part of a project to improve conditions there in rural schools.

According to Cracknell, most of Mongolia's 298 rural schools are Soviet-era relics without running water and poor ventilation.

"All the schools were in the same condition," said Cracknell of the 14 schools he visited. "They're all about 25 years old. The roofs leak, and the heating systems are frozen and don't work anymore."

The pair's visit is the result of a phone call Marianayagam received last May from a Toronto-area architecture firm looking for expertise in cold-climate engineering.

The firm was putting in a proposal to the Canadian International Development Agency, and wanted to know if Marianayagam was interested in taking part in the school improvement study. He figured Cracknell would also provide valuable expertise and invited him along as well.

"The climate in Mongolia is very similar to here," said Marianayagam.

After their tour, the Yellowknife pair, along with three other consultants from Toronto, concluded Mongolia's rural schools need more energy-efficient boilers and antifreeze agents for heating pipes.

They even suggested schools take advantage of Mongolia's often clear skies, and install solar heating systems.

The next stage will likely see improvements to the schools financed through a $15-million loan from the Asian Development Bank.

"The problem right now is Mongolia is surviving on all these various loans, so their debt load is immense," said Cracknell. "Their only export is cashmere, so it's not a very economically viable country right now."

Despite the country's economic troubles, Mariana-yagam said the Mongolian government is eager to establish business links with Yellowknife in the near future.

"They would like to align themselves with either the Yellowknife or NWT Chamber of Commerce," said Marianayagam, adding that he intends to follow up government requests by meeting with both chambers in the near future.

"There's a real opportunity for Northern businesses who specialize in cold-climate technology and construction to participate in the development of Mongolia."