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IQALUIT - Qikiqtaaluk Corporation (QC) pulled in a record $106 million in consolidated revenues for its last fiscal year.

Net earnings between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008 totalled nearly $6 million.

Peter Keenainak, president of Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, said he's very proud the corporation achieved its highest revenues on record in 2007-2008. - photo courtesy of Karen Mackenzie

"The highest we'd been hovering was between $30 to $40 million dollars per year (in revenue)," said president Peter Keenainak. "So this is a substantial increase in revenue this past year."

QC is owned by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) and aims to maximize employment potential to people living in the hamlets of Iglulik, Arctic Bay, Hall Beach, Clyde River, Iqaluit and Pond Inlet.

The expansion of the company's coffers can be attributed mainly to two things: the recent sale of the Qikiqtani General Hospital and contracts for work with Baffinland Iron Mines, currently prepping its Mary River iron ore deposit near Pond Inlet for commercial production hopefully by 2014.

QC sold the hospital, which it developed over a number of years, to the Government of Nunavut for $45 million.

While profitable, the sale might have been more substantial had things gone differently, said Keenainak.

"If the government had decided to lease it, it obviously would have been a longer-term commitment rather than buying it right away," said Keenainak.

In addition to the hospital sale, QC also secured $20 million in contracts for jobs with Baffinland lasting between January 2007 and the end of this month. Contract extensions are underway but are dependent on Baffinland's plans for Mary River, said Keenainak.

All told, 287 people from the Qikiqtaani region received employment from Baffinland, serving as cooks, heavy equipment operators, carpenters, handymen, electricians and labourers.

"Eighty per cent of them were from the Qikiqtaani region or Iqaluit," said Keenainak. "We're pretty proud to say that we maintained pretty high Inuit employment."

Those working under contract were helping Baffinland prepare for eventual production, but a memorandum of understanding signed early this year with the QIA aims to develop training programs to equip Inuit people for a variety of jobs during the construction phase of Mary River, scheduled to begin in 2010 and last four years, and during the actual mining phase of the project.

"On a good day, the projected mine life for Mary River is set at 50 to 75 years, so this is a plan for several generations," said Brian McLeod, commissioned by the QIA to set up the agreement with Baffinland.

According to McLeod, there are 106 different jobs spanning a broad range of positions for which training could be provided, such as engineers, accountants, medics, environmental cleanup workers and mechanics.

The partners will seek funding from the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership, a federal program aimed at providing training to aboriginal people to work in fields like mining, oil and gas, forestry and hydro development, added McLeod.