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PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG
There were smiles abound in Pangnirtung as the community celebrated its 40th birthday on April 2 with dignitaries, games, a feast and entertainment.

Pangnirtung Mayor Sakiasie Sowdluapik, left, shows off the plaque the community received to mark its 40th birthday to visitor Claire Sieber and residents Joan Gilley and Nadia Kowalyshyn on April 2. -Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL photo

Premier Eva Aariak and Community and Government Services Minister Lorne Kusugak traveled to the Baffin community and presented it with a plaque to commemorate the occasion. Pangnirtung was incorporated a hamlet on April 1, 1972.

Aariak said to the Pangnirtung residents gathered at the community hall they have something to be proud of.

"To everyone in Pangnirtung, you are setting the bar high for our territory," she said. "I congratulate you on the success with which you govern your community and I wish you increasingly prosperous years to come."

Kusugak congratulated the community on 40 years of hard work, noting it was one of the first hamlets.

"The work they did was pretty much ground-breaking for a lot of the other municipalities that were formed after Pangnirtung was," he said. "They set good examples. They set very good guidelines and rules which were being followed through by other communities that became municipalities after Pangnirtung."

Coral Harbour and Kugaaruk were also incorporated as hamlets on April 1, 1972. They were followed by Pond Inlet and Rankin Inlet in 1975.

Residents marked the milestone with games, such as garbage-bag and cardboard-box dress contests, a candy toss, ice golf, a dance, a feast and a concert.

Mayor Sakiasie Sowdluapik said the occasion is an honour for every resident.

"Today is very exciting time for us, to be here. For the next 40 years, we want to be energetic and move forward," he said.

Since 1972, the community has grown and businesses have set up shop while technology evolved, remarked Sowdluapik, noting one of the airstrip was done by hand.

"In those days, everything was done by hand, but nowadays, everything is done by machinery," he said. "The community is growing very fast. There is fisheries going on. We have tourism. We have a lot of good business people who make it happen."

Looking ahead to the next 40 years, Sowdluapik said some goals for the community are to get a new airstrip, housing and possibly other infrastructure upgrades.

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