SANIKILUAQ
Forget the nest egg.

Eiderdown, which eider ducks use as a nest, is big money, with a king-sized Icelandic eiderdown duvet valued at $10,000 on one website. A duvet costs on average about $6,000 per kilogram of eiderdown used. - photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The nest itself is where the money is in Sanikiluaq, where a feasibility study showed that the hamlet's eiderdown - which the ducks use as a nest and then abandon - is worth reopening a factory shuttered a decade ago.

"It actually shows a break-even in year one and profit year two forward," said senior administrative officer Daryl Dibblee. "It shows that it is very feasible based on its own merits."

Dibblee has been looking at the possibility of reopening the plant, closed in 2005 after the government dropped funding, since he was economic development officer.

"We looked at it, and we said, this makes sense, if it's feasible on its own, not just supported by government funding," he said. "We don't mind getting some government funding to do the study, the feasibility study, and even some start-up dollars, but once it's up and going, it has to be self-sustaining."

There's certainly a high value on eiderdown.

"The total worldwide annual harvest of eiderdown could be carried by one small truck," according to the website eiderdown.com.

To make a nest, an eider duck "sheds 17 grams of grey, very light down and lays four to five big eggs. After its ducklings have hatched, all eiders return back to the ocean. The down left behind comes only from female, fully grown, live birds. This makes it always mature and uniform."

Duvets available on the site average $6,000 per kilogram of eiderdown used. A king-sized duvet using eiderdown from Iceland is valued at $10,000.

Sanikiluaq's stocks should generate between $140,000 and $200,000 in down products per year, Dibblee said.

"The problem is, we're limited by the amount of down we can collect," he noted. "Even greater than Canada goose, (eiderdown) is one of the warmest materials you can get. We see our market in the North rather than the south. We've also looked at vests similar to the sealskin vests you see a lot of people wearing, and also mittens."

The project should generate work for 10 to 12 people on a piecework basis for down collection and full-time temporary basis for product production.

"In a community of this size, that's significant," he said.

The project is supported by the provincial and federal governments. The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency helped pay for the feasibility study, and all three levels of government are pitching in to buy equipment and train staff.

"There was some old equipment left there, and a building where it was, so we started researching the equipment and the standards for the sterilization of the down have changed quite a bit," so new sterilization ovens will be brought in, he said.

One roadblock is the discovery of a cancer-causing material in the existing factory.

"It had been dark in there, so we got some electricity in there and drilled through the wall and found there was some asbestos in some parts of the building," he said, noting the hamlet is going to repair the problem and is working with the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission to ensure the factory is a safe place to work. "Once you know there's asbestos there, you can't have people working there. You have to make sure it's a safe environment."

That work is expected to finish in January. Then workers will train for a spring start.

"We hope to be up and running by March," he said. "There was down collected last summer, with the thought of moving forward, so we will be ready to go."