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NUNAVUT
Kivalliq and Baffin region shareholders have gotten together with transportation management company OmniTRAX Canada to form Nunavut Connections, a new joint venture.

Elizabeth Copland, president of Nunavut Connections and OmniTRAX Canada President Brad Chase were in Churchill, Man. for the first ship of sealift materials loaded by employees of Nunavut Connections late last month. - photo courtesy of Nunavut Connections

The newly-formed, majority-Inuit company hopes to make the Port of Churchill a major supplier of freight for the Kivalliq region and the territory.

Nunavut Connections, whose initial business venture will be providing stevedoring services – loading vessels and co-ordinating the movement of fuel and freight destined for Nunavut – at the Port of Churchill in Manitoba, launched last week in Rankin Inlet.

Simon Merkosak of Pond Inlet, one of the directors of the new company, said this venture will be a way to ensure more choices to the people of Nunavut.

"Everything will be opened up to us as Nunavut residents," he said. "We'll have more choice to get goods and services from southern Canada.

"With Nunavut's economy hopefully picking up fairly fast, we need to set up and cater our business to the mining companies and on top of that, we also want to offer our services to the communities and the whole of Nunavut, and I think Port of Churchill is a very ideal location to do that.

"I think this new company will offer that," he said.

The new company has taken over staff – 12 employees – and operations at the port from Braden Burry Expediting.

The first vessel to be loaded by Nunavut Connections employees left the Port of Churchill July 28, moving 3,000 tonnes of general cargo to various communities in the Kivalliq.

Elizabeth Copland of Arviat, the president of Nunavut Connections, was there to watch the first operations.

"From what we saw, all the loading, all the work done in Churchill, it was done very well," she said.

Nunavut Connections is working in partnership with OmniTRAX Canada, the owner of the port facility, and businesses from the Kivalliq and Baffin regions.

The role of OmniTRAX is to act as a connection to southern businesses, said Brad Chase, president of the company.

"The community representatives here, our shareholders, are the ones that understand the needs and the services required and we … again trying to connect that Manitoba business community, will be predominant in that end of the equation, in bringing the service."

The hope is to expand the amount of freight heading to communities in Nunavut from the Port of Churchill. Copland said the growth of freight will meet the needs of new mining ventures and the people of the territory.

It will also create more jobs, said Chase.

"As we get more freight and more services here, there will be additional opportunities for us to hire. We expect to have more placement in positions both in Nunavut, as well as in Churchill, as we grow this business."

The intention is, by next season, to also have the business branch out.

Copland said Nunavut Connections is looking at expanding to include, tank farms, port and railway construction, and a year-round fuel supply based in Churchill.

"It is our hope that Nunavut Connections, our company, will develop into a key player in the Northern transportation system," she said.

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