Coppermine (Oct 06/03) - Hotel operators and the bylaw officer in Kugluktuk want an unlicensed, unregulated hotel shut down.

The facility causing distress is run by the newly-formed Kitikmeot Community Corporation (KCC), which secured a $58,000 grant to run the business thanks to the hamlet's Community Initiative Program.

The KCC started up in February 2003 under leadership of Sandy Buchan -- also the hamlet's economic development officer -- after years of wrangling.

Bylaw officer George Westwood said the nameless facility, run in a building leased to KCC by the hamlet, does not have a business licence and is uninsured. He has been trying to get the operators to comply with business regulations for months. It can house up to 20 guests and is also home to the Coronation Restaurant.

"I would like to see them comply. But I haven't seen that so far," said Westwood.

He said hamlet officials are not letting him do his job.

"I have never been stonewalled like I have been stonewalled in this case."

Operators of Kugluktuk's two other hotels are fed up with losing business to the operation.

"I have been empty the last three or four months," said Gloria Chapman, manager of the Enokhok Inn, on Friday. "It's not right. I'm very upset."

She is so frustrated that she decided to confront Kugluktuk CEO Cal Shaw and Buchan, but they told her to complain to the department of sustainable development. The hotel needs a tourism licence to operate.

Those licences are regulated by DSD.

Steve Hanna, the DSD representative in Kugluktuk, was travelling last week and unavailable for comment.

Westwood said he may quit his job if the hotel doesn't soon get a business license and liability insurance.

Kerry Horn, a 33-year resident of Kugluktuk and owner of the Coppermine Inn, said the hotel is a disgrace to the community.

"Despite the fact the facility is not licenced and has no liability insurance, the Nunavut government used the facility," he said angrily last week.

Just a few weeks ago 15 workers from Kitikmeot school operations stayed in the facility while in Kugluktuk for training.

Officials with the department of education are investigating the hotel after learning it may not be licenced.

Deputy minister of education Peter Geikie said he isn't sure what the department paid for accommodations, but said: "I'm sure (the department) would have had a small contract with them."

"Whenever staff from our department travel, we always do stay at hotels that are licensed to support the local community," he said.

Geikie added the employees only stayed there because the hamlet's other hotels were full.

Horn said that's not true. "Nobody even phoned here to ask if we had room."

He has complained to the Nunavut government and the Auditor General of Canada. He estimates the two licenced hotels in Kugluktuk have lost $40,000 since the nameless hotel started taking guests.

Horn said people who stayed there sent their bill payments to him by mistake. That's how he first discovered they were accepting payments and guests.

When told the department of education is looking into the hotel, Horn scoffed: "They're going to look into it until you and I are dead. They'll never do anything. It's a very shady way to treat the business community."

Hamlet CEO Cal Shaw was out of town last week and unavailable for comment.

The operator of the Coronation Restaurant, Maria Gendron, and Kugluktuk mayor Stanley Anablak did not return repeated phone calls.

Built in 1968 as a weather and communications facility for the Federal government, the building now being investigated was written off in 1977 when the cost of running it ballooned to $1 million dollars a year. It sat vacant until the NWT territorial government took control of it in 1988, investing over $1 million in renovations and bringing it up to code. Through the 1980s it was used as a healing house for young offenders until the hamlet took it over two years ago.