Arctic College classes stay on schedule, despite loss of Ukkivik building

Boarded-up windows, left, are visible where a fire broke out at Nunavut Arctic College’s Ukkivik residence April 24. All student residents and classes on the building’s second and third floors immediately moved out after the fire. A few remaining classes on the ground floor of the building, and the link building in the centre, will wrap up this month and in June. RCMP charged David Etuangat, 34, with arson during their investigation. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

An April 24 fire at Nunavut Arctic College’s Ukkivik building in Iqaluit, as small as it was, caused enough damage to close the Nunatta campus’s largest student residence and a dozen classrooms for at least the spring and summer.

Even so, campus dean Eric Corneau says his office is taking the loss in stride, having relocated classes and some 37 students out of the building for the remainder of the spring, until further notice.

“It’s a big loss, in terms of space,” Corneau said May 7.

For now the Nunatta Campus — which serves students of the Baffin region — is working around that loss.

“It’s a re-organization, and we’re looking at how we’re going to continue to deliver all of our programs,” Corneau said.

Despite the loss, classes and other activities are continuing as planned, without changes to timelines.

Graduation ceremonies will take place as scheduled, May 14 and June 4, but will occur at Nakasuk Elementary School in the city centre instead of the Ukkivik building, Corneau said.

All Nunavut Arctic College classes in the building have moved to the main campus and other locations where they will soon wrap up for the end of term.

The April 24 fire broke out in a dormitory room on the second floor of the large three-storey building. Fire damage itself was “minimal,” according to the Iqaluit fire department.

Water damage caused most of the destruction. Deputy fire chief George Seigler said this was caused by the work of two sprinklers that went off after the fire started.

Police charged David Etuangat, 34, with arson – disregard for human life, shortly after the incident, Sgt. Yvonne Niego of Iqaluit’s RCMP detachment told Nunatsiaq News.

He is scheduled to make his first appearance in court June 1.

The college would not comment on the accused’s relationship with the institution.

The ground floor of the building, which suffered little or no damage, also houses classrooms and equipment for the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium.

All fisheries classes scheduled for May through to the end of June are expected to continue in the building, the consortium’s executive director, Elizabeth Cayen, confirmed May 8.

Corneau said the fisheries and marine training program’s facilities will remain in place until further notice, but will have to relocate eventually.

“At this point, the need to move from the building affects only accommodations [for fisheries and marine trainees],” Cayen said in an email.

The college is working with the consortium to find space for the training centre.

“We are also exploring several longer term options and are also confident we will find the solutions we are looking for,” Cayen said.

The college also accommodates classes for the consortium at its main campus in Iqaluit.

The college’s pre-apprenticeship programs for trades students, located in a small structure that links the Ukkivik building with the old federal building complex, will continue until further notice.

Corneau said Nunavut Arctic College will “get into more aggressive planning” about relocating programs and finding new buildings to accommodate them later this month, after the college’s board of directors meets next week.

“We’re still talking with CGS [GN Community and Government Services] and different departments right now, and we’re looking at some spaces,” Corneau said.

“We’ll be doing that a lot more once convocation in done, and some of the students have left.”

The college has yet to decide whether it will repair the Ukkivik building, he said.