Inuit orgs launch big Iqaluit development plan

Qikiqtani Inuit Association President, P.J. Akeeagok and Qikiqtaaluk Corp. President and CEO Harry Flaherty and three members of the QIA’s executive, cutting a sealskin ribbon with an ulu to commemorate the signing of the Inuit Owned Land Lease in Iqaluit. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE QIA)

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Qikiqtaaluk Corp. plan to develop 40 acres (16.2 hectares) of undeveloped land along Federal Rd. in Iqaluit, highlighted on this map. The current Iqaluit airport is on the lower left of this image, and the Plateau subdivision to the right. (IMAGE FROM QIKIQTAALUK CORP.)

The proposed Nunavut Heritage Centre, among other big-ticket development projects in Iqaluit, has potentially taken one step forward with Monday’s announcement that the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. signed a lease earlier this month to develop a 40-acre parcel of Inuit-owned land in Iqaluit.

Last February, the Qikiqtaaluk Corp., the QIA’s business development arm, first revealed its plan to build an entire neighbourhood of residential, commercial, industrial and recreational buildings and spaces in the large parcel, located along a one-kilometre stretch of Federal Road between the city centre and the North 40 area.

The QIA controls the Inuit-owned land, which Inuit hold in fee simple title through the Nunavut Agreement.

That means the project represents the first privately-led land development in Iqaluit, with QC building all infrastructure required for it, such as roads, water and sewer lines. The development is expected to cost between $300 million and $400 million.

The proposed buildings would include a heritage centre, a hotel and conference centre, a performing arts centre, an emergency services building for the City of Iqaluit and affordable Inuit housing.

The plans for the development also feature an Inuktitut childcare centre and an elders’ facility.

The QC intends to incorporate various renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, in this development.

“This Inuit-owned land development will showcase how innovative development can assist in growing our city strategically in ways that foster culture, community, social infrastructure and economic opportunities,” said QC’s CEO and president, Harry Flaherty, in a release on Monday, Nov. 27.

The announcement highlighted the $70-to-$90-million Nunavut Heritage Centre project, to which Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the QIA have each pledged $5 million.

“Signing this land lease is an important step towards the realization of our plans to build a Nunavut Heritage Centre to showcase our Inuit art and historical artifacts,” said QIA President P.J. Akeeagok in the release.

“Working with the Qikiqtaaluk Corp., we are doing our part to make the development of this parcel of land for economic, social and cultural projects a reality.”

Until recently, Nunavut artwork and artifacts were stored at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

But last year, the Nunavut government worked out partnership arrangements to transfer 8,000 artworks to the Winnipeg Art Gallery and sent many other artefacts to the Canadian Museum of Nature’s collections facility in Gatineau, Que.

The Inuit Heritage Trust, which has worked with QC since 2014 on the heritage centre project, now wants to bring those collections home and see them housed in a centre built on that Inuit-owned land Iqaluit.

The heritage centre has been in the works since 2001.

But in 2011, the Government of Nunavut decided to shelve plans to build it due to other government infrastructure priorities, such as housing, health centres, airports and schools, community halls and fuel tank farms.