Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Oct 24/01) - The Nunavut government is guaranteeing the $350,000 the hamlet of Rankin Inlet has tied up in the site of a future health facility, says Kelvin Ng.

The finance minister says the Nunavut government has concerns about the Sakku Investment Corp.'s ability to carry on as developer and leaser of the new health facility.

He says the government is in the process of performing additional work through surface contracts with Sakku. The intent is to protect the government of Nunavut's interests in longer-term lease agreements.

"We're looking at possible successor rights if, for whatever reasons, Sakku becomes unable to continue on as the developer for this project," says Ng.

"We're in the process of covering our investment in a final development and lease agreement with Sakku.

"That would include protecting the interests of the municipality."

Ng says whether Sakku or another developer handles the project, the government still wants the health facility built on the identified location, which he terms "ideal."

He says protecting everyone's investment is a top priority in the development agreement which leads up to the final lease agreement.

"One way or another, we're going to protect the interests of the land for the municipality because we have the same interest on that parcel of land.

"We don't want to be put in the situation where, if Sakku can't deliver on the project, we end up paying more than we would have to somebody else to do the job."

Ng says the financial landscape has changed since earlier discussions with Sakku.

At an earlier stage, he says, the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. had guaranteed to back Sakku if there were financial difficulties.

"At that time we weren't too concerned about the economic viability of Sakku because of people behind them who could step in. Now that we're getting into more substantive investment, we want to clearly define who the successors may be if we were to run into that situation."

Ng says the likelihood of construction starting on the site this fall is no longer that great.

But, he quickly adds, that won't stop final architectural design and mechanical drawings from going forward.

"Everything is still targeted for a major start-up in construction next year.

"Our only concern is the Sakku Development Corp.'s financial situation and how to deal with that if they drop the ball on this project."