Ex-minister downplays integrity issues to focus on local matters

David Simailak says he has unfinished business in Baker Lake.

The past four years have been eventful, to say the least, for Simailak, who's served as energy minister and finance minister during his time in the Legislative Assembly.

He's also been stripped of a cabinet post and censured by the assembly for violations of the Integrity Act during that time. He was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and had to apologize to his constituents before he could run again.

But that's not what voters are worried about, he says. In fact, Simailak says many Baker Lake residents felt Norman Pickell, the integrity commissioner, went too far.

"I got some [response]," he said. "More from people of Baker Lake who felt that there was no need to go to that extreme of having to write a letter to constituents and having to go through all of that."

Instead, Simaliak is focusing on local issues this time around. With a booming population – there were more than 1,700 people living in Baker Lake at last count – Simailak is making infrastructure the watchword of his reelection bid.

According to information from the last census, Baker Lake grew by 14.7 per cent from 2001 to 2006 and that has left local infrastructure creaking under the weight.

Simailak wants to see the construction of a new community hall, airstrip, water treatment plant, garbage dump and sewage lagoon.

Those last two are important because they are well past capacity, he said.

"Both were designed for a population of about 700 [or] 750," he said.

Simailak also wants to see better health care, with more nurses stationed in Baker Lake, and more visits by doctors and dentists.

One of his opponents, Elijah Amarook, a 38-year-old seasonal wildlife monitor with Areva Resources, the company developing the Kiggavik uranium deposit near town, agrees that Baker Lake needs improvements in healthcare and infrastructure.

And like Simailak, Amarook said growth of the mining industry is driving the pressure on government services.

That means Baker Lake needs more nurses and a bigger hospital, he said. "In order to get checked out, due to the lack of nurses, the waiting period is extremely high."

Amarook also wants to do more to protect the environment. He's worried about what the dozens of barges that service the community and its mining camps pump into Baker Lake. During an interview, he counted from his house eight barges in the lake waiting to unload.

He'd also like to see the contents of the sewage lagoon filtered to prevent contamination of the lake. The lagoon, he says, sometimes overflows.

"That's not good at all," he said.

Amarook, who said he also served on the old Keewatin divisional board of education in the early 1990s, figures he has a good chance of beating Simailak, who won the riding in 2004 by nearly 150 votes over Baker Lake mayor David Aksawnee. Glenn MacLean won the seat in 1999 and served one term as MLA.

As for Simailak, he's getting a positive response on the doorstep, but won't say what he thinks his chances of getting reelected are.

"That's entirely up to the people of Baker Lake," he said.

There's a third candidate in Baker Lake, Moses Aupaluktuq, who didn't return numerous phone calls requesting an interview for this story.