Yellowknife (Jan 10/05) - Pitseolak Peter usually carves six or seven soapstone masks a week.

But Iqaluit is currently without soapstone, and last week he sold his last carving - an octagonal mask.

Pitseolak Peter, shown here waiting for soapstone in Iqaluit, sold his last carving Jan. 5. Iqaluit carvers are likely to be without soapstone until the summer, after the quarry near Cape Dorset was closed early this summer for safety reasons. - Brent Reaney/NNSL photo

Peter is just one of Iqaluit's carvers affected by a temporary closure this past summer at the south Baffin soapstone quarry about 110 miles east of Cape Dorset.

The closure allowed Iqaluit's supplier to make only one trip, instead of the usual two or three. Another trip is not expected to be made until at least this summer.

Qikiqtani Inuit Association, which maintains the site, ordered the quarry closed for safety reasons in early September after an inspection found a lengthy rock overhang had developed.

"It was getting too dangerous to be in there," said Mathew Akavak, who visited the site as a QIA lands and resource officer at the end of August.

A Cape Dorset man was killed at the site - which provides soapstone to Iqaluit, Kimmirut, and Cape Dorset - about six years ago, Akavak said.

In the past, QIA shipped stone from Cape Dorset or Kimmirut to Iqaluit during shortages, but there are currently no plans to do that.

Sand in the quarry tends to build up because it has to be shovelled out to get to the good stone, Akavak said, and it is often 10-12 feet below the surface before stone is found.

A back hoe was used to clean out the excess sand and knock down the overhang so the quarry could re-open at the beginning of October.

But that was too late for an additional trip from Iqaluit.

Even with the usual two or three trips, Peter says the city is often without stone by April every year.

"For me, I'm quite lucky. My common-law works, but the other people, they're not so lucky," Peter said. "The other carvers, they're just waiting for their food vouchers."

Saila Kipanek is one of those unlucky people.

The master carver says this is the third year there has been a significant shortage.

While the number of people moving to Iqaluit has increased, Kipanek said the amount of stone has remained the same.

Carvers often don't pay taxes, but they also don't collect employment insurance and payment on land leases do not stop, he added.

"And that's no fun, because we end up getting bills in a pile," he says.

Now, Kipanek is forced to carve scraps of stone left over from larger pieces. The smaller carvings do not bring in a lot of money.

When asked how long he can survive like this, he says, "not very long."

But even without soapstone, carvers could use granite, which can be found all around Iqaluit, according to Michael Hine, who has worked in quarrying for a number of years.

Granite takes longer to carve, but the diamond-tipped tools needed are not nearly as expensive as they once were, Hine said.

Water makes it hard

A single blade can be bought for as little as $10, although often the tools require water, which makes working outside in the winter impossible. Some granite carvings have begun to show up around Iqaluit, but for sales to increase, customers will have to be educated.

Currently, most southern demand is for soapstone carvings, and Hine admits "there's no point in carving granite if nobody's going to buy it."

QIA said it hopes to be able to clean the quarry every year.