INUVIK
Territorial budget cuts have the Inuvik Chamber of Commerce concerned that the town's status is on the decline, along with its economy.

Bright Lubansa, president of the Inuvik Chamber of Commerce, worries that the GNWT is scaling back and Inuvik's status as a regional centre is dwindling. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

"We don't want to see a situation whereby Inuvik becomes less of a regional centre, which it continually feels like," said Bright Lubansa, president of the chamber.

Lubansa said as part of the GNWT's budget cuts, a number of jobs have been lost in Inuvik, including in the Justice Department.

"We are anticipating there will be more job cuts," said Lubansa.

"The sad thing, or the unclear thing about it, is we don't know how far these job cuts are going to go, and we don't want to see a situation where it's affecting the critical services - education, health and social services - so we want to make sure we express our concerns to them."

Those concerns, expressed in a letter to MLAs Alfred Moses and Robert McLeod last November, have yet to be addressed, as Lubansa received no response.

"The recent and prevailing actions of the GNWT of moving jobs from the communities have been alarming and have disruptive impact on the well-being of the communities with far reaching consequences," Lubansa stated in his letter.

"Our members have expressed concerns (that) as the jobs become less and less, the bottom line for local businesses decreases and threatens the closure of businesses. It is no secret that Inuvik has had the most job losses per capita."

Lubansa also expects further job losses if and when the Departments of Transportation and Public Works merge.

He said it's not lost on the chamber that the Canadian economy is weak in general right now but added the GNWT cutting jobs in Inuvik only transfers the burden from one department to another.

Every GNWT job in Inuvik brings thousands of dollars to the local economy, helping businesses employ more people and making more jobs available. The fewer jobs that are available, the more people will turn to social assistance.

"As a business, we respect fiscal responsibility . but when you're doing this type of fiscal responsibility . you're actually transferring the burden from one department to another," said Lubansa. "The department that's going to feel the effect is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment under the income support program."

He added that communities so far are not seeing the benefits of devolution.

"Instead, the GNWT action(s) point to centralization," he stated.

"Our future is threatened when we do not make it easier for entrepreneurship to flourish."

Lubansa referenced the Liberal Party's pledge to spend into deficit and said the territory needs to be lobbying for some of that spending up here. He pointed specifically to the Mackenzie Valley highway, saying it would help sustain and boost the Northern economy and make it more resilient in the future.

In all, he made five requests and hopes they will be addressed at the current meeting of the legislative assembly: halt further job cuts in Inuvik; restore the options of making applications and submissions locally at the Justice Department; advocate for the investment in the Mackenzie Valley highway; continue the promised decentralization under devolution; and restore education programs at Aurora Campus.

Neither Moses nor McLeod were available to speak to the Inuvik Drum by press time.