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New economic manager for Inuvik
Jackie Challis plans to bring people to live, work, invest in and visit Inuvik Samantha Stokell Northern News Services Published Tuesday, August 8, 2011
Jackie Challis started working as the town's community economic development manager at the beginning of July. She comes with years of experience in developing economies and tourism across the North, including a year as Inuvik's tourism co-ordinator, from 2008 to 2009. "My priority is how to develop the community, welcome guests and support the people who live here," Challis said. "It's always been my goal to stay here and work in this position." Challis has worked as a consultant for tourism and economic development across the world, in Asia and South America, but has most recently worked for the Government of Nunavut and at Canada's Northern House in Vancouver during the Olympics. "That experience and here (in Inuvik) has helped me build an understanding of working the communities and the issues of funding and lack of employment," she said. Working in collaboration with a number of stakeholders in Inuvik's economy, Challis has a key partner in the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI), which has its own economic development officer. The two positions work collaboratively to keep Inuvik's economy running. The economic development officer provides funding for businesses, while Challis works on the municipal mandate of developing strategies and acting on them. For attending conferences or completing action plans, Challis could go to ITI to receive funding. "We can't do our jobs without working together," Challis said. "My job is to promote Inuvik to people to live, to work, to invest and to visit." Her job is also to provide support for potential economic projects such as the Tuktoyaktuk-Inuvik highway, the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline and the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link. In terms of tourism, 85 per cent of her work is dedicated to attracting people here for conferences and meetings. The town is currently creating a shortlist of target conferences with topics such as Arctic oil and gas, polar tourism or Arctic technology held in Edmonton, Montreal and Houston, TX. "These are Northern issues and we would like to pull them to Inuvik," Challis said. "We have amazing infrastructure and daily flights from Edmonton. We have a conference centre, hotels and restaurants." The town hopes that by bringing conference people to Inuvik for business, they will want to return with their families. Still, the hope for improving Inuvik's economy sits with the pipeline. The economic development department was created with the intention of organizing the petroleum show. "The pipeline is the greatest opportunity and the opportunities expand beyond the pipeline and get other businesses and visitors here," Challis said. "We're trying to bring money and people here and the road would not hurt." In the meantime, Challis and Mayor Denny Rodgers will travel to conferences and trade shows to promote Inuvik in the south in an effort to draw more people to the town. The next show they will travel to will be Canada's North Beyond 2011, hosted by the Conference Board of Canada in Edmonton, in October.
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