Photo: Iqaluit airport work gets started

Heavy equipment operators with Kudlik Construction have started work on a portion of the Government of Nunavut’s massive new Iqaluit airport project. Kudlik, deemed a local company, has been sub-contracted by Bouygues Building Canada, a subsidiary of a big French multi-national firm that is a member of Arctic Infrastructure Partners, the group that signed a lucrative deal with the Government of Nunavut to build and run the $300 million airport in a 30-year public-private partnership. Another Bouygues company called Sintra will do asphalt work. The “net present cost” of the project over 30 years, taking factors like inflation into account, is actually $418.9 million, the GN says. The AIP group agreed to an Inuit workforce of 15 per cent during construction, which will end in 2017. They also agreed to 20 per cent Inuit labour during the first five years of new airport operations, rising to 60 per cent over 30 years. The GN has made its agreements with AIP public on its website, but most financial information is blacked out. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)