Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 26, 2007

ARVIAT - There are seven new Level 2 guides in Arviat following the completion of a big-game-guide-training program earlier this month.

Biggame guides John Kanayok, Donald Owbik, Paul Pemik, Joachim Akasiak and Thomas Nibgoarsi Sr., back row from left, and Wes Werbowy (instructor), Cyril Komakjuak and Pierre Koomuk, front row from left, completed a Level 2 training program in Arviat earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Wes Werbowy

The course was arranged by Ryan St. John of Henik Lake Adventures and facilitated by Wes Werbowy of Wilderness Consultants.

Werbowy said St. John is launching a new entrepreneurial effort for tourism products in Arviat and wants to be competitive on a worldclass basis.

He said the development of St. John's venture would directly benefit Arviat in terms of job creation and income.

"For Ryan's (St. John) venture to be viable, his guides have to be viewed as trained professionals," said Werbowy.

"Kivalliq Partners in Development helped turn this vision into reality, as the successful trainees were immediately hired and put into the workforce as trained professional guides."

The men underwent intensive training during the program, being introduced to the concepts of hospitality and customer service for new intakes, which carries into the specialized needs of professional big-game guides.

The guides also learned more about safety, trophy identification, caping and skinning methods.

Once the classroom instruction was completed, the group travelled to a remote site and set up a base camp.

A realistic tourism event was then enacted to give them firsthand experience.

Course graduate Paul Pemik said he used to run an outfitting venture and thought he knew everything about the business.

He said he did not know as much as he thought.

"This course changed my life by improving how I deal with others," said Pemik.

"We actually guided a hunter by ATV, skinned a caribou by caping it and took lots of pictures with the hunter.

"We then went to the camp, cleaned the head, put salt on the skin and cleaned the velvet from the antlers."

Pierre Koomuk was new to big-game guiding when he signed up for the program.

He said he was surprised by how much the course entailed.

"A professional guide must be certified in first aid and have knowledge in survival methods," said Koomuk.

"You might even have to teach your client traditional survival methods.

"I didn't realize there was so much to learn."

Donald Owbik said he enjoyed the program which, although hard at times, was a lot of fun.

"I was surprised to learn how fast a grizzly bear can come towards you and how quickly you must react in that situation," said Owbik.

"This taught me how to be prepared and react in real time when guiding.

"Guide training has given me a future and I hope, some day, Wes (Werbowy) and his wife will come as sports hunters to see how we've grown.

"I owe thanks to Wes and Ryan because, without this training, I would never have become a guide."