Four new appointments fill QEC board of directors

The Qulliq Energy Corporation’s board of directors is at full strength again, following the Government of Nunavut’s recent appointment of four new members.

The new members join the six existing members to serve on QEC’s board, said a June 12 press release from the QEC.

The new board comes together more than five months after the corporation’s old board collapsed in early January.

That’s when it’s former long-time chair, Simon Merkosak and five directors quit.

In a Jan. 6 letter to Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna, Merkosak and the departing directors accused the government of making decisions concerning the QEC without consulting the board, including deleting items from the QEC’s 2014-15 budget destined for the Iqaluit hydroelectric project.

Among their grievances was the November 2013 firing of QEC president Peter Mackey.

The only board member who stayed in place at that point was George Hickes Sr., father of MLA George Hickes Jr.

Later that month, the GN appointed five new members: Joshua Arreak, Elijah Evaluardjuk, Julie-Anne Miller, Roy Mullins and David Omilgoitok, so the board could once again function with six members, the minimum required number.

Omilgoitok, a former GN bureaucrat, took over as chair.

In the QEC’s latest announcement, Paul Okalik, the minster responsible for the Qulliq Energy Corp. has appointed Julie-Anne Miller as vice-chair, while appointing new members Philip Clark, Nelson Pisco, Bert Rose and Allysha Sateana.

Sateana works for the GN’s department of Community and Government Service out of Rankin Inlet, a role she’s been in since 2008. She’s a graduate of Nunavut Arctic College’s Management Studies and Human Resources program.

Bert Rose, a retired civil servant of the government of the Northwest Territories when it administered what is now Nunavut, lives in Iqaluit and sits as chair of the Nunavut Surface Rights Tribunal.

Nelson Pisco has worked as an engineer in Montreal, Nunavik and now Iqaluit, where he’s employed by the GN’s department of Community and Government Services.

And Philip Clark has once before served on QEC’s board of directors. He has 25 years of experience in corporate finance and is based in Mississauga, Ont.

The four new members will each serve a three-year term.