Arviat mayor still skeptical of NCC hiring record

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Arviat’s mayor, Ralph King, is still skeptical about the number of Arviat Inuit that the Nunavut Construction Corporation (NCC) says it’s employing in his community.

But he says he’s now satisfied that NCC has fixed the problem.

NCC representatives say, however, that there never was a problem to fix.

King fired a shot across NCC’s bow Sept. 16, with a letter criticizing the NCC for hiring more southerners than local Inuit to work on two five-unit housing complexes in his community.

“The low level of local employment on these projects, as well your decision not to use commercial accommodations for your out-of-town workers has resulted in Arviat and Arviat’s workers not realizing the full economic potential of your projects,” King’s letter said.

King also appeared on a CBC radio newscast to make the same allegation.

“I talked to one of the employees on site and he said there were nine southerners and six natives,” King said. He says a flurry of local hiring two weeks ago fixed the problem, but the NCC’s employment and training co-ordinator, Cody Kenneally, says King has his numbers wrong.

“I do the payroll and 19 people got pay cheques,” said Kenneally said, adding that this was the same number of people working on the site when King made his complaint.

But King says NCC’s recent hiring flurry may have changed the ratio of southerners to locals from what it was when he wrote his letter of complaint, and he says he still doesn’t trust the numbers given out by the corporation.

The NCC has hired a media relations firm, Sackett Communications, to distribute press releases detailing the number of workers that the NCC employs in each community and what proportion are beneficiaries. That release said there were 13 local hires and seven outside hires in Arviat.

Kenneally says that employment numbers on construction sites fluctuate over time as construction progresses and different workers are needed.

But he says NCC’s numbers are accurate. He confirmed that three more local workers had indeed been hired, but he said this is because new supplies had arrived in town, not because of King’s letter.

While waiting for a response to his letter King says he approached the site foreman and asked him about how many people were working there.

“He says ‘yup, no sweat, we can get you those numbers no problem,'” says King. But the foreman never came to the hamlet office with the numbers.

When King questioned him, King said the foreman told him he wasn’t allowed to give the numbers out. On Sept. 17 King received a letter of response from NCC President Tagak Curley.

“It appears you have misrepresented the statistics of the labour force. NCC has a labour force of 19 workers in Arviat. Thirteen are local beneficiaries and six are certified journeymen carpenters,” Curley wrote.

Curley wrote that 68 per cent of NCC’s work force in Arviat was local. According to Kenneally’s report on NCC’s hiring practices beneficiaries make up 65 per cent of the company’s work force.