TUKTOYAKTUK
Mangilaluk School students in Tuktoyaktuk are learning how developing their own businesses can benefit themselves and their community.
Tuk Tour Operators, a bed and breakfast/tourism company, was created by Sacha Nogasak, left, Trey Yakeleya and Preston Dillon-Lucas, three students at Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk. - photo courtesy of Alex Storino |
The school hopes to send four teams to the Business Development Bank of Canada's Aboriginal Youth Business Planning Championships in Kamloops, B.C., in May, said guidance counsellor Alex Storino.
Students developed their own businesses ideas, which include a furrier, an online store specializing in Inuvialuit clothing and crafts, a bed and breakfast operation that includes tourism opportunities such as snowshoeing and motorsports and an educational program that uses Arctic sports to teach physical education and native/Northern studies.
Students had to develop their business ideas, including management structure, budgeting and marketing.
"These are comprehensive kinds of business plans," Storino said.
Storino said the Tuk-Inuvik Highway was the inspiration for this year's projects. When finished, the all-weather highway will extend the Dempster Highway from Inuvik to Tuk, which Storino said has many residents hopeful about tourism and other opportunities.
Trey Yakeleya, 18, and his team members developed Tuk Tour Operators, a one-stop-shop for anyone planning a trip to the community.
"Our business is a multifaceted tour company," Yakeleya said.
That means staff will help book trips the entire way to Tuktoyaktuk, including flights and accommodations. Packages of up to seven days would be available and can include anything from snowmobiling tours to hiking and kayaking trips.
In addition to sitting on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, which has long been a draw for tourists, the area around Tuktoyaktuk has many other attractions, Yakeleya said.
Pingos, the conical hills created by rising permafrost that surround the community, can be more than 1,000 years old.
The area also boasts abundant wildlife, including caribou, polar and grizzly bears, beluga whales, seals, wolves and a variety of birds.
"It's beautiful land," Yakeleya said. "There are no trees."
Visitors will also get a chance to try traditional food, including dry fish and caribou and local berries.
Yakeleya said the company will use a local workforce at both the bed and breakfast and on guided expeditions. Once the business grows, he said he hopes to expand to other communities in the area.
Skyler Lundrigan, 18, also hopes his business will grow large enough to employ many local residents.
He is a member of the team that created Everything Inuvialuit International Exporters, an online store specializing in products designed and created by Inuvialuit.
"We're an online company and our goal is we wanted to ship Inuvialuit crafts and goods to people who aren't around Tuk or the North," Lundrigan said. "We wanted to sell a lot of things instead of just based on one type of thing. We wanted to have a variety."
Lundrigan said the store will sell ulus and carvings, as well as traditional clothing such as custom-made mukluks.
Customers can choose any material they like and can even have the mukluks beaded. Each pair is unique.
Lundrigan said there are many benefits to wearing mukluks, which are ideal for cold weather.
"You don't have to take them off walking into a house, you can leave them on," he said. "They're really light, they're like wearing socks outdoors. They're nice and light and warm."
Selling Inuvialuit products also helps promote traditional activities and teaches the world about Inuvialuit culture, Lundrigan added. "A lot of people down south don't see those kind of things. It will spread Inuvialuit culture to other people."
Storino said the journey to Kamloops for the competition will be a great experience for the students.
"Having the chance to travel from a remote community is a big deal," he said.
The students will meet with aboriginal youth from across Canada and compare ideas and share culture.
"There's a lot of self-knowledge in addition to business knowledge," he said. "In my opinion, that's the most important aspect.
"All their stories come together at an event like this."
