Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (May 13/02) - The president of the Labrador North Chamber of Commerce, David Hunt opens up a map of Canada and laments that most of Nunavut's goods are currently shipped more than 3,200 kilometres from Montreal.

He figures those supplies could easily be trucked to Goose Bay and from there flown to Iqaluit. According to Hunt, the 1,442-kilometre route would cut costs.

The alternate route would also chop shipping times by 40 percent, he says.

He and 14 other ambassadors from Labrador, who were in Iqaluit last week promoting better ties between their province and Nunavut, say the upcoming deal between Newfoundland and Labrador for the development of the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit in Northern Labrador means goods will start flowing into Goose Bay.

"The deal will make Goose Bay a major distributor," says Hunt.

"We're expecting it to be a real boom town in the next five years ... we're talking about companies that are aboriginal companies," he says. "It's Inuit trading with Inuit and Innu."

The Labrador group is also lobbying airlines for a direct weekly or twice-weekly flight from Goose Bay to Iqaluit.

They say a direct flight from Goose Bay would fly just 1,217 kilometres compared with the 1,803-kilometre journey from Ott-awa. Travellers could also take a connecting flight to St. John's.

But is there enough demand to justify a direct flight to Goose Bay?

"Fifty percent of Newfoundlanders are up here," says Hunt. "And they all want to go home."

Drawing on the results of an informal meeting with the group, Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews says he believes their plans are "reasonable ideas worth looking into."

At the trade show auction, the group won brownie points by spending $5,600 on a flag of Nunavut -- signed by the premier and MLAs -- and then donating it back to the city.

"I think that's incredible," says Matthews.

"It was a very kind gesture."