Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (July 22/02) - Twenty-eight years after moving to Fort Smith from Vancouver, Florian Lemphurs bellows out the name of a man passing by.

Lemphurs reminisces with his friend -- a former NWT bureaucrat he hasn't seen in more than two decades -- as he sips coffee at a cafe in Iqaluit.

On secondment from the Government of Yukon, Lemphurs is in Nunavut's capital working for the Department of Sustainable Development as the Nanisivik Mine closure co-ordinator for the next three months.

Brought on to ensure government interests are protected during the closure, Lemphurs' reputation in the field precedes him. He worked on the closure of the Faro mine, he currently serves as the Yukon's assistant deputy minister of land claims and First Nations relations, and has dealt with emergency response issues in small communities.

He will pass on his knowledge to an individual who will be hired as a trainee.

"Our intention is actually to get somebody on stream and to get them familiar with co-ordinating the kinds of activity this kind of mine closure creates," said Lemphurs. "There's a lot of different factors and it takes a fair bit of understanding how the government works."

Breakwater Resources Ltd. announced last year they planned to close the lead-zinc producer Sept. 30.

With years spent in communities like Cambridge Bay, the last three weeks have been a bit like coming home for Lemphurs.

But the native of Sri Lanka said he's looking forward to returning to his wife, children and grandchildren in the Yukon.

He misses being in the garden and is yearning for his log cabin located on a bay in Lake Laberge, 30 kilometres north of Whitehorse.

That's not to say he isn't relishing the job before him.

"This venture is a real challenge. It takes all my skills and knowledge and senior government experience I have and rolls it into one ball of wax."