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No help for Grise Fiord flights

Jillian Dickens
Northern News Services

Grise Fiord (Nov 21/05) - Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell doubts her government can offer immediate help to offset Grise Fiord flight costs.

She was responding to a letter the hamlet sent to the federal government demanding help, ideally in the form of "travel vouchers on a regular basis."

Karetak-Lindell promises to follow up on the letter, but says she doesn't "know how successful travel vouchers will be."

"The difficulty is separating a community and treating it differently than the rest," she said. "What about Pond Inlet, what about Kugluktuk?"

"We don't want to set a precedent. We need to be fair and equal to all communities where there are just as strong arguments for other costs."

She did say "subsidies to offset costs are a possibility."

Hamlet senior administrative officer Will Ferguson says Canada established the community to assert sovereignty in the High Arctic and that they should step in when the going gets tough.

"Inuit from Northern Quebec and other Baffin communities were moved to the Grise Fiord area. Indeed, Inuit did not come to live in Grise Fiord by choice," he said in a letter.

On Oct. 10, Kenn Borek Air - the only carrier servicing Grise Fiord - increased ticket prices, citing high fuel costs.

It now costs $911.64 to fly from Grise Fiord to Resolute, an 85-minute trip.

Kenn Borek can only fly a Twin Otter airplane into Grise Fiord because of the airstrip length. The Twin Otter operates at twice the cost of the Beech 99, which services most other Nunavut communities.

"The length of airstrip is dictated by geography," said department of Transportation programs officer David Roberts. "There's no other options in the area to build an airport."