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IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Growing up in Arviat, high unemployment and poverty were two things that John Main could not ignore.

John Main helped deliver the diamond driller's assistant course in Arviat. - photo courtesy John Main

As a result, the young Nunavummiuq has dedicated himself to community economic development, and his efforts to solve these problems have gained him a seat on the Government of Nunavut (GN)'s Nunavut Development Corporation board.

"It was an honour to be put on the board because there's some really great, experienced people sitting on the board right now," said Main, 32, about his appointment to the board, which is chaired by former Nunavut politician Nancy Karetak-Lindell.

Main provides the corporation with "strong commerce and business acumen," stated Peter Taptuna, minister responsible for the Nunavut Development Corporation (NDC), explaining why he was selected as a director. "His experience in designing and implementing economic development ventures will be a tremendous asset to the Nunavut Development Corporation."

As a former Hamlet of Arviat economic development officer, Main's interest is in community-level economic development, and calls the corporation "boots-on-the-ground economic development in action in Nunavut.

"The corporation has subsidiaries across the territory and does a lot of work to help give people jobs, create employment in Nunavut, and create economic wealth," he said. "So I'm just happy to be a part of it and hopefully I could contribute somehow to help it grow and continue to succeed."

Before taking on the role of economic development officer in his home community of Arviat, Main, who studied economics at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, was manager of community mining in Arviat for the GN.

Here he was tasked with getting the Kivalliq Mine Training Society off the ground, collaborating with Arctic College, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., and other industry, government and community partners.

"It was a pretty exciting time and it still is an exciting time for mining in Nunavut," Main said.

While the training society was forced to close its doors earlier this year when its federal government funding agreement expired, training across the region is still one of the most pressing needs, Main said, as a number of mining projects are advanced across the territory.

"I think no matter what shape or form a training organization takes, there's a huge need for this kind of training related to mining because they can't just take people off the streets," he said.

"They need people with specific training and I think we have to mobilize to train up our workforce and get them into the jobs. It's not that there's lack of jobs or that the people aren't willing, it's just that key bridge between the applicant and the job is the training.

"There are great things coming down the pipe for the territory so it's going to be a case of us taking advantage of what's happening in Nunavut and making the most of it for the people who live here."

While economic development can improve quality of life, help people feed their families and have healthier families, getting jobs and pay cheques is not the end to the problems facing the communities, Main adds.

"It's hard to talk about economic development without talking about peoples' health, and it's hard to talk about peoples' health without talking about economic development in my mind, so a lot of these huge issues that we're facing -- education, health, economic development -- they're all so closely linked together that working on one you're also working on the others."

Main recently moved to Cambridge Bay from Arviat to be with his partner, Amanda Hanson, who is director of technical services at the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

In Cambridge Bay, he is now administering business support programs in the region as a business development officer for the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, supporting Inuit-owned business owners such as carvers and seamstresses.

Despite the increasing mining activity in the territory, the traditional industries have been providing people with income for years, Main said, and also need to be supported.

"There's huge opportunity in mining and other sectors emerging, but I don't look at any one area and say, 'That's going to be the answer to all our problems,' because we can't put all our eggs in one basket.

"We have to take a balanced approach. If we take a balanced approach we're likely to have better success in the long term, I think."

In his spare time, Main enjoys going out on the land, fishing, trapping, hunting, and has done some mineral prospecting as a pastime.

In addition to Main, current NDC board members include chair Karetak-Lindell, Louis Kamookak of Gjoa Haven, Chris Rudd of Rankin Inlet, Donald Havioyak of Kugluktuk, David Alagalak of Arviat, Zacharias Kunuk of Igloolik, and Jerry Ell of Iqaluit.

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