IKPIARJUK/ARCTIC BAY - Several communities are looking for funding from the government to start meat or fish processing plants but where they go the cash is causing some slight confusion.

Communities such as Arctic Bay, Iglulik and Hall Beach are exploring the feasibility of commercial meat and fish processing plants. - Emily Ridlington/NNSL photo

Iglulik, Hall Beach and Arctic Bay have all expressed interest in having meat or fish processing plants like those in Pangnirtung, Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet.

“Our HTO is trying to come up with a business plan to start a meat processing plant so the country food can be saved and hunters will buy and sell it,” said Jobie Attitaq, chairman of the Ikajutit Hunters and Trappers Organization in Arctic Bay.

He said he and the other members of the HTO thought they could get money from the Nunavut Anti-Poverty Secretariat.

According to the secretariat's director Ed McKenna, it depends if they want to do inter-settlement trade or commercial sale of the products coming out of the plant.

“Our focus is on poverty reduction in making sure country food is more readily available at a decent price,” he said.

Early last month, the Government of Nunavut committed $1.1 million from the Department of Environment's coffers to improve and construct community freezers. Some of the money might also be used to train individuals to cut and wrap meat.

While the decision still has to be approved by cabinet on June 9, McKenna said it is possible some of the money could end up in Arctic Bay if they are planning to involve their freezer.

Attitaq said part of their business plan will be to get a new freezer as the one they have is “aging and not trustworthy.”

Ideally, their HTO, with approximately 700 members, would want to start a commercial-level plant.

“It would be very helpful to the community and help our hunters be more active,” he said.

In the last sitting of the Nunavut legislative assembly, Amittuq MLA Louis Tapardjuk, for Iglulik and Hall Beach, was asking about the possibility of getting fish plants in his two communities.

“They're envious of the meat and fish processing plants in Pangnirtung and Rankin Inlet,” he said.

Kitikmeot Foods in Cambridge Bay, Kivalliq Arctic Foods in Rankin Inlet and Pangnirtung Fisheries Ltd. in Pangnirtung are the three major processing plants in the territory. They were all established in the early to mid-1990s under the Nunavut Development Corporation.

They all meet territorial and federal processing standards.

Nunavut Development Corporation president Darrin Nichol estimates it would cost anywhere from $500,000 to $3 million to start a new commercial processing facility.

“A lot of the time in the smaller communities the returns don't warrant a private company becoming involved with it as these are expensive organizations to operate,” Nichol said.

Plants to process meat and fish for inter-settlement trade are much cheaper to set up, he said.

As far as NDC is concerned, he said they have no plans to expand the number of commercial facilities in the territory.

He said communities such as Arctic Bay who are interested in submitting proposals and business plans for commercial facilities can do so and the corporation will evaluate them.

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