.
Search
Email this articleE-mail this story  Discuss this articleWrite letter to editor  Discuss this articleOrder a classified ad
Right place at the right time

Kugluktuk takes on Coronation diamond exploration

Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Coppermine (Apr 08/02) - Being in the right place at the right time is a trick Todd Roche has pulled off.

"This is perfect timing. I only wish we were a little ahead of the game. Still we are the only ones here and we are going to be doing it," said Kitikmeot Development and Expediting's Roche referring to his business venture that is fitting in nicely with nearby diamond exploration. He's part of a growing entrepreneurial movement in Kugluktuk.

Roche, his wife, Patsy Anavilok, and his father, Larry Roche, started the expediting and construction business about six months ago. That was just before one of the busiest staking rushes ever seen in the North. And it happened within 100 kilometres of Kugluktuk. The diamond rush encompassed the area northeast of Yellowknife and southeast of Kugluktuk. Diamond hunters rented aircraft, generators and exploration equipment out of Yellowknife. Meanwhile Roche was setting up shop close by.

"We are really going to go into this. It's not just talk," said Roche. Right now the company owns a storage shed but has plans for a hangar and a $150,000 tracked vehicle used to haul goods to exploration sites. But the company needs to have its ducks in a row, "So we won't be just another Inuit business that's set up to fail," said Roche. The expediting company is just one example of how the hamlet's residents are getting into the action.

"We know that there are more jobs than people but we also know that unemployment runs high," said community development manager Alex Buchan explaining people were frustrated with a lack of business leadership. "So we're going ahead on our own."

Earlier this year the Diavik diamond group offered training courses in Kugluktuk prompting Buchan to search for even more opportunities. He's got a few ideas about how to make things happen.

The hamlet recently contracted with a Yellowknife company to ignite business planning and help other business people take action.

Also on the burner is a plan to sell bulk fuel. "Companies have said drummed fuel would be a big help," he said of the plan to set up a fuel depot.