Iqaluit (Sep 22/03) - Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping wants to get $1.7 million back from the federal government.

The company paid the money in duties when it bought the Umiavut in 2000. It is the only Inuit-owned shipping cargo vessel in Canada.

Nunavut Eastern president Suzanne Paquin said it's unfair to charge duty on a vessel that supplies an essential service to the North.

The Nunavut government awarded the company a contract to re-supply Region A which includes all of Baffin Island and the Eastern Arctic. "This is a Southern policy where a Northern company is being penalized," said Paquin.

Premier Paul Okalik wrote a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien asking for an exemption from custom tariffs on vessels plying routes North of 60.

"This vessel is badly needed in a region of Canada that relies heavily on re-supply through the sealift fleet," the premier stated.

"A long-term solution would be for the federal government to amend the Coasting Trade Act to allow for an exemption from custom tariffs on vessels plying routes North of 60," the premier said in his letter.