Downtown Iqaluit cafe closed

The Northern Lights Cafe in Iqaluit has closed temporarily as owner Jeffrey Lem considers moving his shop to a new location.

Lem said the lease for his current location, inside the Royal Bank Building, was up for renewal this month but he was reluctant to sign on to another five years; he simply wants a bigger space from which to operate.

Lem confirmed he is in talks with Mike Mrdjenovich, founder of Nova Builders - which is constructing a 35,000-square-foot building in the heart of downtown Iqaluit; the First Nations Bank of Canada is the only confirmed tenant so far - about possibly moving there.

Meanwhile, customers who rely on Lem for their daily dose of caffeine are hectoring him when he works as head of security at the Storehouse Bar & Grill in the Frobisher Inn.

"Every night people are running up to me and saying, 'Hey man, where's my coffee?'' said Lem.

Inuvik company feels passed by

Inuvik

Chii Construction is the latest in a growing list of Inuvik-based companies that feels it is being left out of the construction of the Inuvik superschool.

The GNWT sole-sourced the contract to Dowland Construction, giving it power to award subcontracts for the school, but Herbert Blake, Jr., Chief of the Inuvik Native Bound Council and president of Chii, said his company - which is well equipped to render several services for the project and has even procured six loads of gravel - has contacted Dowland to no avail.

"The Gwich'in Tribal Council sent a letter of support to Dowland with the expectation that (Inuvik companies) would get at least a third of the work on that project, and it hasn't happened," said Blake.

Patrick McGuinness, chief financial officer and CEO of Dowland, previously told News/North opportunities for local businesses will be come more abundant as the scope of work changes over time; the project is expected to wrap up in late 2012 or early 2013.

But Blake doesn't buy McGuinness' assertion, saying Dowland should be contacting and engaging companies far earlier in the process. Blake pointed to the heretofore troubled construction history of the Deh Cho Bridge.

"The scope of work and the engineering on that project hasn't even been completed and yet they're going ahead and doing work," he said.

Four cruises for Cambridge Bay

The community of Cambridge Bay should brace itself for a considerable influx of visitors later this summer.

The Kitikmeot community will be host to four cruise ships between Aug. 22 and Sept. 6, according to Vicki Aitaok, manager of the Arctic Coast Visitor Centre.

Southern cruise providers like Adventure Canada and Quark Expeditions are among the visiting lines.

According to the Government of Nunavut, there were 26 cruise sailings to Nunavut communities including Pond Inlet, Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung in 2006.

Irving Oil giant takes on Northern name

The Irving Oil Company - an energy holding company in the East Coast - has renamed itself Fort Reliance Ltd, reports the Globe and Mail.

Kenneth Irving, the head of the company - which owns and operates the Irving gas pumps in Atlantic Canada as well as Canada's largest oil refinery in Saint John, N.B. - said the new name will encompass both oil-related ventures and plays to develop wind and tidal power undertaken by the company, whose former name had somewhat limited connotations.

Irving's father, Arthur, took him on a canoe trip in the NWT when Irving was a teenager, the pair visited the ruins of the exploration outpost at Fort Reliance.

Nunavut public building permits up

Residential building permits in Nunavut for the period between January and May were up by $6.2 million, compared to the same period last year, new information from Statistics Canada reveals.

That boost is likely due to an infusion of $109 million for the construction of social housing contributed by the federal government earlier this year. But as expected, the value of private building permits in Nunavut fell by $3 million during the period.