Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Whale Cove (Nov 04/02) - The new Issatik Co-operative was packed.

"There are 350 people in Whale Cove and I can pretty much say they were all here. The whole community came out," said Bernice Croucher, manager of the new Co-op in Whale Cove, in between waiting on customers.

The party celebrated the grand opening of a bright, modern new Co-op store. The 5,000-square-foot store replaced an old one that dated back to 1989.

People continued to file through the store all week, checking out the high ceilings and wide aisles. Croucher chatted with customers -- nearly too busy to take a break and talk about her store -- the new pride of Whale Cove.

"It's as nice-looking as any supermarket down South," said Croucher describing a frozen food section with 13 glass doors and eight cooler doors. There are grocery, hardware and dry goods departments. The material and sewing section is huge and a big hit in the community.

The old store had low ceilings and a poor refrigeration section. The whole building needed repairs and updates. It was costing a lot of money to maintain.

"It was dark and bleak and not very inviting," said Croucher.

The old building is connected to the new with a covered walkway. It will be used as Co-op warehouse storage space.

$1 million building

The new building costed about $1 million and was in the works for years. Financing for the new project was made available through a loan from the Arctic Co-operative development fund. The fund provided more than $247 million to Co-ops for infrastructure building in Nunavut and the NWT. The fund is owned by Co-ops and has returned 60 per cent of the interest back to members.

Initially the Whale Cove construction plan just wasn't feasible, but after the Co-op paid off its debt, the plans were put on paper.

Within a year it had materialized.

The Co-op is the only grocery store in Whale Cove.

"The ceremony was supposed to be outside but it was a really cold day so we just moved it inside to the front entrance," said Croucher.

Politicians, diplomats and Co-op officials from the South made speeches at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The Issatik Co-op operates a hotel, retail store, cable television, fuel delivery services and post office. It also offers land and water tours through a local outfitter.

Co-ops are different from other businesses because they are community member owned and operated. Members vote on resolutions about the Co-op's operations. A portion of the profits are returned back to members.

For example, the Iglulik Co-op gave back $117,000 to its community members. That is the 10th year in a row that the business has given money back. It has seen construction of a new retail store, convenience store, hotel, restaurant and gas bar in the last five years.