Taloyoak radio returns, but tensions continue over service cuts

Taloyoak radio is back on the air but local residents are still upset over deficit-cutting service cuts in their community. (WIKIPEDIA COMMONS PHOTO)

Residents in the western Nunavut community of Taloyoak who turned their radios on in the evening of April 13 might have heard something unusual: voices.

A one-month radio silence began in Taloyoak on March 15 when that Kitikmeot community’s hamlet council passed a motion to shut the radio down. Local broadcasting returned April 13.

A spokesperson for the local radio committee, Wesley Totalik, told Nunatsiaq News April 14 that the committee relocated the radio station equipment from the hamlet office to another unnamed location.

“They let us take it out yesterday [April 13]. And we got it up and running yesterday evening,” Totalik said.

The hamlet’s senior administrative officer, Greg Holitzki, told Nunatsiaq News April 8 that council shut down the radio station until the radio committee could present their on-air policies to council.

“We presented our policies to the hamlet council at their meeting [April 12], and from there they let us take everything out of the hamlet building,” Totalik said.

Council’s decision to silence the local radio broadcast, which many residents rely on for community news, came after resident Linda Tucktoo spoke on the radio about her petitions to oust two hamlet officials: Holitzki and Larry Banks, director of trucked services

The council, hamlet and some community members say Tucktoo’s complaints about the hamlet officials, a pair of southern hires, were racist and slanderous.

The mayor, Joe Ashevak, and Holitzki went so far as to say that Tucktoo’s comments broke policies set by Canada’s federal telecommunications watchdog, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.

But Ashevak could not say what policy in particular Tucktoo broke. And it’s unclear if local hamlets have the authority to enforce CRTC policies.

Tucktoo told Nunatsiaq News in a recent interview that she does not believe her comments were racist.

“I went on local radio and said how come people from the south are really big nobodies down south, but become really big somebodies up here? It goes to some of their heads,” Tucktoo said April 8.

Tucktoo made the statement over the radio in Inuktitut, using the words “Kabloonaq” for southerners and “Kabloonat Nuna” for southern Canada.

“I meant that in no racist way at all. It’s the best way I know how to describe things for elders,” she said.

Tucktoo said April 13 that she attended the council meeting April 12 and spoke in favour of the radio being reinstated.

“I told them, ‘the radio is shut down because of me, you people should’ve only suspended me from the radio, not shut it down,’” Tucktoo said.

“I said, ‘guys, it’s not yours. Give it back to the community.’”

But with the radio now broadcasting again in Taloyoak, tensions continue to simmer over what caused the spat in the first place: the hamlet’s attempt to tackle the deficit by cutting local services.

Holitzki told Nunatsiaq News that since he came into office in July 2014, the hamlet has been able to reduce its deficit from about $3.5 million to under $1 million.

“Do we have to limit some services? Absolutely. You have to, to get out of a deficit,” Holitzki said April 8.

The recent tensions are largely due to reduced contracts for water and sewer services, Holitzki said.

“It’s causing the community to be split. It’s a feeding frenzy of people trying to stir up a whole bunch of stuff. It’s unfortunate and… doesn’t help the community move forward one bit,” the SAO said.

“The difference in the amount of water being delivered is because we don’t have as many contractors in town.”

But Taloyoak, with fewer than 1,000 people, is a small community with money problems that can fuel rumours, distrust, and interpersonal conflict.

One allegation suggests the hamlet is biased against some local businesses, including a local person whose contract to deliver water with his own trucks was terminated by the hamlet in October 2015.

Dennis Lyall, owner of Lyall Construction, said he had been delivering water for years until the hamlet decided to buy its own used water and sewer trucks from the hamlet of Cambridge Bay.

“The SAO falsely said I was overcharging on the commission for water. In fact, I told him that it’d be the same rate for the next five years as the last five years,” Lyall said.

The problem, Holitzki said, is that Lyall proposed an increase in writing and then backed down from that increase later, in an oral conversation with Holitzki. But he never put it in writing.

“The last thing in writing from Dennis was that he wanted an increase,” Holitzki said.

But Lyall said he had a “gentleman’s agreement” with Holitzki, who continued the negotiation in bad faith.

“He started negotiating with me even after he me made arrangements to buy the trucks from Cambridge Bay,” Lyall said, which Holitzki denied.

Meanwhile, multiple Taloyoak residents told Nunatsiaq News that the hamlet plans to deliver water to only 50 of the more than 200 households in the community per day, besides on-call water delivery.

Holitzki denied that: “We do way more than 50 houses per day.”

“Trying to get things in line with what people want is another thing. I’d say we’re hitting our targets. But when you have 14 people living in a house, it’s impossible to get them water twice a day, even though they need that.”

One of the residents who refutes Holitzki, however, said he is a former hamlet employee within the water services division.

This former employee, who wished to remain anonymous fearing backlash from within the community, said the director of trucked services, Larry Banks, wrongfully terminated him.

“I spoke out about employee rights. They figured I was a threat to them, so they terminated me, and I didn’t have a union [representative]. I felt everyone who spoke out for employee rights got terminated or threatened with termination,” the former employee said.

Banks is still on probation with the hamlet, the former employee said, and doesn’t have the authority to fire anyone.

“I’m currently working with my union on this right now.”

Banks could not be reached for comment, but Holitzki denied the allegations.

“We have terminated people who didn’t do their jobs and people have quit, but we don’t threaten people,” Holitzki said.