Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (Nov 21/01) - If you build it, they will come. The tourism industry in Baker Lake will enter a growth stage this year if that old adage is correct.

A local group, Nunamiut Company Ltd., announced it has taken ownership of the Arctic Inn and renamed it the Nunamiut Lodge.

The lodge is the base of operations for the Baker Lake Cultural Tours and Resort.

The deal was structured this past summer thanks to a financial arrangement with the Rankin Inlet-based Atuqtuarvik Corp.

Michael Hughson has worked closely with the company since its formation.

He says the operation will focus on bringing people to Baker to experience an Arctic location.

"We'll take them out on boats, do cultural evenings of storytelling and drum dancing, introduce them to country food and take them on community tours of our Inuit Cultural Centre, the Visitor's Centre, the Jessie Oonark Centre and our various arts and crafts shops," says Hughson.

The fledgling company is still developing its various program attractions.

Hughson says the owners are looking at setting up appointments for tourists to watch craftspeople and traditional toolmakers work.

There will also be ample time spent on the land.

"We want to take our visitors on tundra hikes over some of our beautiful trails. There's a road out to the Prince River and, of course, there's also the Kazan and Thelon rivers and the Kazan Falls a little further out," says Hughson.

"We had a person from Switzerland out to the falls this past summer and he had a great time."

Hughson says the ownership group (Victor Killulark, Joan Killulark, Nancy Hart, Jeff Hart, Betty Hughson and Paula Hughson) are big believers in the development of tourism in the Baker Lake area.

He says that belief was the main reason behind the formation and development of the Nunamiut Co. Ltd.

"We could see some substantial local employment come from this. All our cleaning staff are local people and the company is training more for reception and hospitality positions," says Hughson.

"We already have a cook's helper program going and, eventually, we want to have local people trained to handle every aspect of meal preparation."