SANIKILUAQ
Senior administrative office Darryl Dibblee looked at a lot of scenarios for his community's new eiderdown factory, but he didn't expect dangerous substances.

Alice Arragutainaq wears a traditional eider feather amauti -- a traditional parka -- collecting eggs from an eider nest during a recreation scene in the documentary film, People of a Feather. Some of the eider down used in the nests is now being sold to a new factory in Sanikiluaq. - photo courtesy of Joel Heath/Arctic Eider Society

"We're behind schedule because we ran into asbestos the building," he told News/North. "It cost us an extra $40,000 to get the remediation done."

Even with that challenging circumstance, Dibblee is incredibly excited about the project, which will produce vests, parkas and bed spreads with the incredibly warm material collected from nests located in Sanikiluaq.

The community's strong connection to the eider birds, as well the use of their ultra-warm feathers and down, was capture in Joel Heath's documentary, People of a Feather.

Using approximately $200,000 in start-up funds from CanNor, the Government of Nunavut's Department of Economic Development and Transportation, and the hamlet itself, Dibblee has acquired new cleaning and sterilizing equipment that meets world standards, as well as eight industrial sewing machines for the new factory.

Right now, the facility is producing down and has already been in talks with a potential unnamed buyer.

"We've been approached by a Northern corporation to basically buy all that we've got," Dibblee said, who also said that a deal hasn't been signed yet.

"They're looking for us to send them 24 pieces right now. That'll get us started."

While Dibblee would also like to sell into the southern market, the factory is limited by the fact that the down can only be collected once a year.

"You can only make so much product," he said.

The factory itself was open in the 1990s, but relied on government grants. After Dibblee arrived, he organized a feasibility study to ensure the enterprise would be sustainable in the long-term.

"Since then we've found out our revenues could be about three times what we had in the feasibility study," he said. "So it's all good and we're really excited."

When it comes to the issue of poverty reduction, Dibblee is a firm believer in the power of employment. He said the factory has the power to put the community of Sanikiluaq "on the map" and generate other kinds of success in the community, including revenues for the hamlet itself.

"If you generate 10 or 15 jobs here and 10 or 15 jobs there in a population of 850, that's a pretty substantial increase in your employment rate," he said.

Dibblee's strategy is also specifically to produce value-added items with an individual touch, and not just export the raw down in bulk out of the community. He cited the high quality and care of a previous co-op sustained by government grants who worked at the factory in the 1990s as a great model.

"They put a label inside with their name on it so it's almost personalized and we're still going to do that," Dibblee said.

Once the government grants dried up, so did that factory.

But now, Dibblee said some of the elders are now teaching the younger staff.

"It's pretty exciting stuff."

The maximum amount projected for yearly sales is currently about $750,000 based only on the production of vests and based on prices for similar items made by luxury retailer Canada Goose.

"We've been told to price above the cost of theirs," he said. "The market is there and it costs us more to buy down."

In fact, Dibblee said the cost of some of the fur pieces used for parkas and other coats end up being the most expensive component.

But Dibblee said there are definitely people willing to pony up for the ultra-warm material. A queen-size duvet made with the eiderdown can retail for $3,000 to $7,000. But Dibblee said something like that from his factory would be a special order.

Ultimately, there's more coming out of the Sanikiluaq factory than just new jobs and incredibly interesting, well-made, luxury Northern goods.

"It's pride in a community," Dibblee said. "That's the exciting part."

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