GN workers double-dip with businesses, some Cambridge Bay residents allege

Cambridge Bay, seen here from a helicopter in August, is a territorial government regional centre and a hub for business activity in western Nunavut. (PHOTO BY GORDON POULTNEY)

All Wheel Rentals, owned by Corey Dimitruk, a Senior Regional Community Planner with the GN’s department of Community and Government Services, rents vehicles in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — If you work for the Government of Nunavut in Cambridge Bay, you’re probably better paid and receive more benefits than other workers in this western Nunavut town of 2,000.

But many here say they resent that some GN employees still double-dip, by running businesses on the side.

They allege that some of the businesses are closely linked with what these territorial government workers do in their jobs, take their attention away from their jobs during work hours or while they’re on government duty travel, and undermine the local business community.

“If they want to run businesses, they should get out of government,” said a resident, who, among others, sought anonymity for this story due to possible repercussions in this government-driven hub for Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region. “It has to stop.”

Another said these GN business-owners should quit their day jobs and see how hard it is to survive in the trenches of business where your salary is never guaranteed.

Critics of these on-the-side business ventures also say their owners should hire local people to run their businesses and, in that way, they could increase employment in town.

Some people in town also say they’re confused about what these GN employees really do for a living when they see them out and about at the airport picking up freight or non-government-related personnel or driving around during GN working hours — are they working for the government or themselves?

René Laserich, owner of Adlair Aviation Ltd., who has sued the territorial government over its awarding procedures for the 2011 contract for the emergency medevac services in the Kitikmeot region, said yes, it’s a longstanding problem, when asked about businesses that are owned by territorial government employees.

And his opinion? “You either work for a business or you work for the government.”

The list of businesses in Cambridge Bay reveals many that are associated with, or owned, or co-owned by GN employees, according to online information.

In the departments of Community and Government Services and Economic Development and Transportation these include:

• All Wheel Rentals, a vehicle rental company (Corey Dimitruk, Senior Regional Community Planner, CGS)

• Wilf’s Expediting Services, a single-family housing construction company (Wilfrid MacDonald, Project Officer, CGS)

• Chou Consulting and Development Inc., consulting and project management services (Stuart Rostant, Senior Project Manager, CGS)

• Kalgen’s Dis and Dat, a corner store (Keith Lear, Senior Project Manager, CGS)

• Uplogiaq Inc., a construction and environmental service firm (Wiz Mohammed, Manager Transportation Program, ED & T)

Some people in Cambridge Bay allege that senior managers, project officers and project managers conduct business on government computers and on their personal mobile devices while at work, that they offer services to people connected with the GN or who are visiting Cambridge Bay for the GN, and that they have even put in bids from their businesses on contracts with the GN.

GN workers and business owners, met by Nunatsiaq News, maintain their businesses don’t interfere or conflict with their GN responsibilities.

Lear, who runs Kalgen’s Dis and Dat, open from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., said he couldn’t speak for the others in his department or the GN who own businesses, but added that he never does any business-related work during office hours.

Dimitruk, who until recently ran a local taxi company and now operates All Wheels Rentals, also said he deals with business-related issues only when he’s not at his GN office.

While people in the community may have seen him driving a taxi, Dimitruk said that would have been in the evening, when he was finished his GN work.

Dimitruk said he enjoys running a business because, among other reasons, as a native of a large city, Toronto, his businesses keep him from being bored and help cover the high cost of northern living for his family of seven.

As for competing with other businesses in town, Dimitruk said business competition drives an economy. He said he’s just trying to “blossom and grow grass where nothing is green.”

Another GN employee, who did not want to be named, but is involved with business, told Nunatsiaq News that he always makes a full disclosure of his activities to the GN and plays strictly by the rules — although he can’t vouch for others.

But, as for the right to operate a business if you’re a GN employee and make a full disclosure, “it’s a free country,” he said — and the GN encourages all Nunavummiut to get involved in businesses.

If people in Cambridge Bay see a GN employee doing non-GN business during office hours, “go challenge it,” and alert the RCMP, he said.

Many complainers are simply jealous or too lazy to bid on contracts that are open to any company, even those with GN-employee links, he suggested.