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NUNAVUT - A four-person advance team has been scouting Nunavut's communities to line up things to do, places to see and people to meet for the Governor General, who will be touring Nunavut at the end of May.

So far, the only confirmed destinations for Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean's one-week junket are Iqaluit and Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, according to her spokesperson Marth Blouin. The long distances and Jean's time constraints mean she can only visit a few communities.

Elder Uqsurliq Ottokie meets Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean during a visit to Cape Dorset in April 2006. The Governor General will visit Nunavut again this month. - photo courtesy of Cheryl Constantineau

"Ideally the Governor General would like to visit all of them," Blouin said.

Jean's advance team has been spotted in Rankin Inlet, Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Resolute Bay, Clyde River, Pangnirtung and Iqaluit. Pond Inlet had been an intended destination but the team's plane was diverted because of a low flight ceiling.

Kugluktuk is high on Jean's list of priorities, Marth said, because Jean was particularly impressed when Kugluktuk's youth helped convince the community to vote to outlaw alcohol in October 2007.

Blouin said Jean's schedule is still only tentative at this point and even communities the advance team has visited are not guaranteed a visit from the Governor General.

In Pangnirtung, one of Jean's planned overnight stops, the tentative schedule includes meeting with the hamlet council, dinner at the community hall, a show by young hip-hop dancers and a tour of the town including the fish plant, the Uqqurmiut Arts and Crafts Society and the youth centre.

In Clyde River, Jean's visit will likely be only a few hours. Her advance team expressed interest in the Ilisaqsivik Society, the local Canadian Rangers unit and the Quluaq School.

However, a possible scheduling conflict has emerged: Jean's tentative date to visit Clyde River is May 28, the same day as the Nunavut Court of Justice's circuit date in that community.