Fate of Adlair’s appeal remains unknown

While the appeal of the Kitimeot medevac contract has meant Adlair Aviation Ltd. has continued to offer medevac services to the Kitikmeot communities on a month-to- month basis from its two existing hangars at the Cambridge Bay airport, construction on new offices and facilities at the Cambridge Bay airport is underway. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Can the voices of hundreds of people in the Kitikmeot region help to overturn a decision made by Nunavut government officials more than 1,700 kilometres away in Iqaluit?

That’s the hope of more than 700 people in Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Kugaaruk, who joined a Facebook site called “Adlair Aviation Medevac Contract Support Team.”

More than 800 Kitikmeot residents also signed a petition asking for the Cambridge Bay-based Adlair Aviation Ltd. to continue providing medevac services to the region.

Aqsaqniq Airways Ltd., a firm based in Taloyoak, was awarded the medevac contract this past August.

That company is a partnership between Aqsaqniq Ltd., owned by a group of Taloyoak business people, and Air Tindi, a subsidiary of the air services giant Discovery Air.

Aqsarniq Ltd. is a private general contracting firm, headed by Dennis Lyall, which also owns the Boothia Inn in Taloyoak.

Following the award to Aqsaqniq this past August, Adlair appealed the decision.

By late Oct. 12, Ron Dewar, the executive co-ordinator of the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti, or NNI, secretariat, still had “no news” to offer on Adlair’s appeal.

The appeals board was still in session, Dewar said.

The NNI Contracting Appeals Board first met Sept. 12 to hear the case, then adjourned to Sept. 26, and was to reconvene the hearing Oct. 11. That date was moved ahead by a day due to the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The NNI policy is the Government of Nunavut’s instrument for complying with Article 24 of the Nunavut land claims agreement, which says governments must do things to help Inuit-owned businesses get government contracts.

The NNI is a modified version of a Northwest Territories scheme called the Business Incentive Policy.

Although a decision on Adlair’s appeal remains unknown, documents obtained by Nunatsiaq News show Adlair received support from a long list of influential politicians.

Ironically, at least one of whom is intimately involved with the business affairs of Aqsaqniq Airways Ltd..

James Eetoolook, vice president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. signed a letter of support for Adlair on behalf of NTI, dated Feb. 14.

The letter, said “this will confirm our support to Adlair Aviation Ltd, in their efforts to renew this essential service in the Kitikmeot region.”

Eetoolook is listed on Industry Canada’s database of federally registered corporations as a director of Aqsaqniq Airways Ltd..

Dennis Lyall, Kristine Lyall and Peter Arychuk are also listed as directors.

The registered business office for Aqsaqniq Airways Ltd. is given as the office of the law firm Lawson Lundell LLP, at 4915 48th St. in Yellowknife, P.O. Box 818.

Adlair also received letters of support from the Nattilik and Akulliq MLAs, mayors and senior officials in all Kitikmeot communities, and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.

Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut’s MP, also questioned the GN’s contract decision.

On Sept. 12, she sent a letter to Premier Eva Aariak, to “register my concern” about the GN’s contract award to Aqsaqniq.

“I am hearing from constituents about whether health and safety are being appropriately weighed against NNI policy,” Aglukkaq told Aariak.

Aglukkaq said she hopes the GN will review the contract award.

Correspondence between Adlair and Mark McCulloch, the GN’s manager of procurement contracts and logistics, show that the arithmetical formulas in the NNI played a big part in the GN’s contract award to Aqsaqniq.

McCulloch’s letter of Aug. 15 told Adlair’s Paul Laserich that “your proposal was generally good,” but that Aqsaqniq provided the “best value and solution.”

Paul Laserich is one of the two sons of aviation pioneer Willy Laserich, who started Adlair.

Adlair’s equipment and experience was rated “excellent,” but its Inuit labour content was “poor,” McCulloch said in his letter, and its submission didn’t state how much business it does with Inuit firms.

Adlair didn’t submit its application in the name of its Inuit partner, Kitikmeot Air, which was recognized as an Inuit business under the NNI.

That’s because, Adlair said, it didn’t think it would be legal to submit an application in the name of a company that doesn’t hold an “aircraft operating certificate.”

And Adlair said it didn’t realize that Nunavut’s NNI policy could be applied to emergency services, like medevacs.

On both of these points, Adlair was mistaken, McCulloch said Aug.19.

Only sole-sourced contracts, granted in emergencies, are not subject to NNI scrutiny, he said.

As well, Adlair did not put a dollar figure on how much business it does with Inuit firms, which “may have had a significant impact on the evaluation results.”

“The GN is satisfied that the RFP process was conducted properly and will not be cancelling the results of the competitive process,” McCulloch said.

Documents also indicate the decisions in Yellowknife may have set up the conditions for Air Tindi — now owned by Ontario-based Discovery Air — to partner with Aqsaqniq.

This led the Air Tindi-Aqsaqniq partnership to put in multiple submissions in response to a Request For Proposals issued Feb. 18 by the GN.

First, the Stanton Territorial Health Authority said Feb. 28 that Adlair couldn’t use Air Tindi as a backup due to “signifcant growth in number of medevacs” in the Northwest Territories.

Then on March 24 Air Tindi asked Adlair not to mention them in their RFP, which closed April 1.

And sometime before that deadline, Aqsaqniq, backed by Air Tindi, went for the contract itself, and apparently convinced Eetoolook, who had already pledged his support for Adlair on NTI’s behalf, to change his allegiance and support Aqsaqniq’s move to take over the medevac contract.

Adlair’s hangars, aircraft and staff residences add up to a $10-million investment in Cambridge Bay, and the company says it pumps $1.4 million a year into the economy through wages, fuel and other money spent locally.

But Adlair’s investment wouldn’t be worth much if it were to lose its appeal.