Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (Apr 24/00) - Cambridge Bay's Ikaluktutiak Co-op Ltd. has acquired competitor Arctic Islands Lodge from the Hawkins family, it was announced last week.

This purchase means the co-op has a virtual lock on the Kitikmeot community's hotel operations.

"With the lodge up for sale, it made good economic sense to expand our present operations by consolidating the two," Arctic Co-operatives President Bill Lyall said.

Lyall is also president of Cambridge Bay's Ikaluktutiak Co-op.

"Rather than upgrade our present facility, we purchased the lodge," he said.

The lodge, which has 25 rooms and a restaurant, will become part of the co-op system's Inns North program. Inns North promotes tourism within the community and throughout the Arctic, according to Arctic Co-operatives Ltd.

"In the long run, the expansion will also mean additional dividends to co-op members," said Lyall.

The Hawkins family opened Arctic Island Lodge in 1991.

"We enjoyed the business, the people we met, but it became a seven-day-a-week operation," said Lyle Hawkins, president of Cambridge Bay's Fred H. Ross and Associates.

"It used to be a federal department of transport barracks. The original building was built in the late '50s. We bought it and turned it into a hotel," he said.

The assets of Arctic Islands Lodge Ltd. were turned over to the Ikaluktutiak Co-op April 17.

By acquiring the lodge, the Cambridge Bay co-op will add eight people to overall staff total.

Terry Weibe, a spokesperson with Arctic Co-ops in Winnipeg, said she did not believe jobs would be lost with co-op buying the lodge.

How, or if, room rates will be affected is not known.

Ikaluktutiak Co-op Ltd. is one of 41 owners of Arctic Co-operatives Ltd., which supports Nunavut and NWT co-op members by providing systems for collective purchasing and distribution, marketing of Northern crafts and tourism, training and education, operational and technical support, and management advice.

The Ikaluktutiak Co-op, which operates a retail store, gas station, hotel, cable television, taxi service, video rentals telephone collection agency and post office, was started in 1961. It has accumulated $1.3 million in equity and has annual sales of over $3 million. Some $1.3 million has been paid back to members in the form of patronage dividends over the last 10 years.

There are three hotels in Cambridge Bay -- the co-op, the lodge, and the five-room Enokhok Inn, owned by the Enokhok Development Corporation, which opened a year ago. Another option is Quonset, which offers bed and breakfast-style accommodation.

The Enokhok Development Corp. often uses the hotel for construction workers.

Meanwhile, Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. is expecting about 70 delegates at its annual general meeting.

The joint annual meeting of ACL and the Arctic Co-operative Business Development Fund, will begin with a series of workshops.

The fund, which provides financial services, was formed in 1986 as the co-op's financial arm.

Delegates, representing 37 communities across the NWT and Nunavut, will attend the AGM scheduled for May 1-3 in Winnipeg. The communities have at total of about 15,000 co-op members.