Qikiqtani birthright company looks forward to more growth fueled by contracts with &#39Baff;inland;

The Qikiqtaaluk Corp. enjoyed a big leap in growth in 2006-07, due to strong profits earned by all its subsidiaries and its aggressive acquisition of new companies.

On total consolidated revenues of about $48.3 million, money that flowed through its various subsidiary companies, QC racked up about $3.2 million in earnings last fiscal year.

And QC will pay its parent organization, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, a dividend of $310,000, Peter Keenainak, QC's president, told QIA delegates meeting in Iqaluit this week.

As for the QIA, it's now receiving so much money in dividends from QC and Nunasi Corp., they've decided to create a "community initiative" policy to guide the use of this money for economic development purposes within the Baffin's Inuit communities.

Meanwhile, QC is looking forward to more growth in the future, driven by its close relationship with the Baffinland Iron Mines Corp., the developer of the huge Mary River iron deposit.

"If this project takes off, it will generate hundreds of jobs and billions in revenue, a significant portion of which should go to Baffin region Inuit," Keenainak said.

To that end, QC created a new subsidiary called Qikiqtaaluk Logistics, which signed $20 million worth of contracts with Baffinland last year.

That includes employment contracts related to Baffinland's bulk two-year sampling project, as well as road maintenance on the tote road between Milne Inlet and the Mary River site.

In another new venture, QC partnered with the Nunasi Corp. to acquire Frobuild Construction, a well-known Iqaluit business that in addition to doing construction, also operates a building materials and building supply store.

QC and Nunasi, who will own Frobuild on a 50-50 basis, will change the company's name to Frobuild 2006 Ltd. Keenainak told delegates the two Inuit companies believe Frobuild is a good company with much growth potential.

In another acquisition last year, QC jumped into the internet business by buying up two Iqaluit internet service providers, Nunanet and Comguard, then merging them into a new firm called Qikiqtani Information Technologies.

Another achievement is the completion of the Qikiqtani Regional Hospital construction project, which QC financed and managed. The new hospital was to have been been officially unveiled Oct. 19 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and public tours.

And as many Baffin region residents have already heard, QC completed a clean-up of the Resolution Island weather station.

Keenainak said only one of its subsidiaries, Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries, lost money this year.

He said that's because Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries, a joint venture with Nataaqnaq Fisheries Inc. in which QC holds 51 per cent ownership, was plagued by low shrimp prices, high fuel costs, and the rising Canadian dollar.

It's through the Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries arrangement that QC acquired a 51 per cent interest in the Saputi, a factory-freezer trawler used primarily to catch shrimp.

And QC said his company is not unware of the environmental issues raised by the dragger-trawling method that's used to catch shrimp. To that end, he said QC is working with Memorial University in Newfoundland on research aimed at studying the effect of trawling on the sea-bed, and to look for environmentally-friendly harvesting methods.

As well as positioning itself to create jobs and new wealth for Inuit through exploiting opportunities such as the Mary River iron project, Keenainak, and QC's chair, George Qulaut, also said they've assembled a strong Inuit management team.

The QIA's annual general meeting and board of directors meeting was to have continued through Thursday this week.