Blasting begins for new Ampere facility in Iqaluit

Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere is making space for a makerspace.

Manager Cole Tucker, left, and technician Bryce So work on a computer upstairs at Ampere as part of the Computers for Success Nunavut initiative on Thursday. The pair say they look forward to more space in a new facility being designed for the organization. (Photo by Daron Letts)

Tower Arctic Ltd. is preparing to blast rock starting this weekend for Ampere’s proposed Makerspace Economic Development Hub, which would allow the non-profit organization to allow more people to participate in its science and technology focused educational programming. Currently every program has a waitlist.

“We are looking forward to seeing this building come to fruition,” said Kevin Kelly, Ampere’s director of Nunavut operations, in an interview on Thursday.

Ampere provides people of all ages opportunities take part in media and online literacy activities and entrepreneurial skills training.

Programming runs throughout the week, including after school and on evenings and weekends.

Ampere staff also refurbish old laptops for free redistribution across the territory, as part of the organization’s Computers for Success Nunavut initiative.

Ampere has outgrown its current space, said Cole Tucker, the tech program’s manager.

“We’re pretty cramped up here,” Tucker said. “In the new building we’re going to have a lot more space.”

Tucker supervises six staff who fix computers on the second floor. He said he can’t schedule the full team at one time due to the lack of space.

As for what the new structure would look like, that’s in part up to Iqalummiut.

Ampere secured a little over $1 million from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency in April to cover design and pre-construction work for a two-storey, 7,200-square-foot building. That’s more than double the size of the organization’s current location at 1412 Sikituuq Crt.

The nonprofit educational organization purchased the plot at 4120 Road to Nowhere from the city back in 2024. The site is located on the southwest corner of the intersection with Imiqtarviminiq Street.

Ampere plans to host one of several community consultations as early as November to ask residents what they’d like to see in the space.

In the meantime, Ampere staff are informally seeking input from individual educators, students, small business owners, policy makers, families and anyone else they cross paths with, to solicit ideas for the new space, said Kent Driscoll, Ampere’s director of advocacy and strategic initiatives.

“We’re going to have the perspective of all members of the community on what they would like to see,” Driscoll said Thursday in an interview.

There is no timeline for the final design and construction of the new building, said Driscoll, adding the organization is still looking for funding.

Once Ampere’s new home is built, the organization will double its staff of 12 mostly full-time positions, Kelly said.

The city issued a public service announcement earlier in the week that advised construction crews will remove a bedrock outcrop at the site from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. starting Friday. The work was scheduled to run until Oct. 26.

The city is asking residents to use caution in the area.