'Every day closer to Christmas, sales were going up.'

Nunavut retailers reported strong sales during the weeks before Christmas, thanks in part to common experience payments from the residential schools settlement.

General merchandise sales, which includes large-ticket items like snowmobiles and furniture, jumped 17 per cent over the same period last year, said Michael McMullen, the Northwest Company's executive vice-president for Northern Canada retail.

"With the common experience payment you could expect that furnishing and transportation [sales] would go up, but we didn't expect that much," he said.

More than 6,000 northern residents qualified for $170 million in compensation from Ottawa and Canadian churches that ran abusive residential schools in the 20th century. The average compensation payment totalled $28,000.

Northwest stocked its stores with extra furniture and vehicles ahead of the expected rush caused by the payouts, McMullen said.

Much of that money ended up in the hands of northern retailers. And with more payments expected in the first four months of 2008, McMullen said the company expects good sales in the first half of the new year, before dropping off.

Sales at Northern Stores, especially during late November and the last two weeks of December were particularly strong, McMullen said. Food sales during the last two months of 2007 rose 6.5 per cent, and figures for winter clothing and sleepwear sales were also higher than expected.

"November was a stronger month than we expected, so the first two weeks of December were off," he said, adding sales picked up again in the last two weeks of December. "Every day closer to Christmas, sales were going up."

Stephane Daigle, general manager of the Katudgevik Co-op in Coral Harbour, said sales there were up too, specifically of Christmas toys and lights, as well as consumer electronics like MP3 players.

"I would say an easy 25 per cent increase over 2006," he said. Daigle also said sales of big-ticket items like snowmobiles were also up over last year.

Like McMullen, Daigle said money in the community from the residential schools settlement boosted sales, but so did local economic development, such as major housing construction, Southampton Island's commercial caribou hunt, and business from Parks Canada and scientists.

Jeff Provost, spokesman for Arctic Co-operatives Limited, said sales at all Nunavut co-ops were strong.

Smaller retailers also reported good sales in the months before Christmas. Business was steady and "certainly better than last year," said Claire Kennedy, who owns the gift shop DJ Sensations in Iqaluit.

Most in demand were Arctic diamonds, pottery and glassware, she said.

"The diamonds always sell well," Kennedy said.