Company president pitches &#39c;ommunities; for big &#39c;ontracts; and hears encouraging words

Tracy Medve, president of Canadian North, toured six Baffin communities last week with an entourage of staff and Inuit allies in order to persuade residents to become not only her customers, but her lobbyists.

Her pitch, in essence, was this: if you like being served by a second airline, tell your hamlet council to pass resolutions that urge the administrators of big freight contracts to give us business.

Judging from the warm words Medve received from several mayors, who praised Canadian North's expansion of scheduled flights into seven Baffin communities in April, it would not be surprising if she receives such desired political support.

Airlines in Nunavut make a large portion of their profits from two sources: flying food in, and flying sick people out.

Food mail, reportedly worth $175 million over five years, is the most lucrative freight contract available for Nunavut airlines. Canadian North is still smarting from losing the contract to its chief rival, First Air, in 2006, and is fighting the decision in court.

Medve is also making the fight a popularity contest, by asking residents to tell Canada Post, which administers food mail, that Canadian North should receive a big piece, or all, of the contract when it goes up for grabs in 2010.

She reminded residents that Canadian North is half-owned by Nunasi Corp., a birthright corporation of Nunavut Inuit.

That means some profits from the airline slosh into the coffers of regional Inuit organizations. Medve told residents this also means Canadian North is "your airline."

In contrast,l First Air, which is wholly-owned by the Inuit of Nunavik, was simply described by Medve and her staff as a "Quebec" company with headquarters in Kanata, Ontario.

To drive the point home, Medve was accompanied by Thomasie Akiluktuktuk, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association; Joe Enook, vice-president of Nunasi Corp; and Elijah Evaluarjuk, a Nunasi board member – all well-known Inuit leaders, who chimed in about the importance of giving business to Canadian North.

The other anchor contract that's much sought after by Nunavut airlines is medical travel. There are always sick people who need to be transported from communities, which means, for the contract holder, about 20,000 fares each year.

Canadian North's Baffin expansion was required under the terms of the medical contract, which gave the airline slightly less than half of medical travel business in the Baffin region.

When the contract was awarded in mid-February, it left Canadian North with just six weeks to roll out its new flights on April 1.

Flights to Igloolik, in particular, have been cancelled half a dozen times due to mechanical problems.

This led one elder, Tamarese Aqqiaruq, to worry that the Dash-8 used for the flight is "not a good plane, that breaks easily, and I'm afraid to get on it."

Medve reassured her the plane worked fine, but conceded her airline was experiencing "growing pains." She said the delays were caused because her airline didn't have all the needed spare parts in place at the time.

One recurring question asked in nearly every community Medve visited was why her airline is not flying into Arctic Bay.

She told Pond Inlet residents that her airline is currently servicing seven routes with only two planes, and that "those two airplanes can only fly so much every day."

"That's not to say we won't look at Arctic Bay in the future."

Canadian North plans to introduce a third aircraft into the region in several weeks, Medve said, as a charter dedicated to flying between Iqaluit and Mary River, where Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. has hundreds of employees on the ground preparing for a bulk sample shipment this summer.

Hot meals should be served on the Baffin routes within several weeks as well, Medve said, which proved to be a crowd pleaser. One elder in Pond Inlet grumbled about being tired of eating ham and cheese sandwiches on flights.

Most complaints, however, were directed at First Air, which has until recently been the main airline serving Baffin communities, and so has become the target of lingering resentments.

A child tax benefit cheque is late; a shipment of walrus meat spoils in transit; a deceased relative‘s body is stuck in the South; an elder's medical trip gets screwed up: all these frustrations are tied up with airlines.

So far, the battle for the Baffin has proven good for consumers. Fares and freight costs of both airlines dropped when Canadian North moved into the market – although rising fuel costs have driven up fares, which are expected to continue to climb in the months to come.

The expanded routes also mean most Baffin residents may now access Canadian North's Pivut fare – a once-a-year deal that offers land claim beneficiaries drastically reduced fares.

Canadian North plans to build a new hangar and warehouse in Iqaluit this summer, to replace the one that burned down in March of 2007.

The company is also hiring Inuit flight attendants, to be based in Iqaluit, and has plans to move its call centre to Iqaluit as well, to be staffed by Inuktitut-speaking employees.

But none of this is likely to create as much excitement as another development in the works: Jordin Tootoo, Nunavut's NHL star and a Canadian North spokesman, is expected to tour the new routes this summer, with a schedule to be announced in several weeks.