Idea doesn’t fly

Uqqummiut MLA David Iqaqrialu was adamant in a line of questioning directed at Community Government and Transportation Minister Manitok Thompson that the GN should be able to direct private airlines to set fares and schedules that benefit Nunavummiut.

“My question is in regards to the Inuit client rights. The scheduling and the routing of the flights to the communities in Nunavut, the price is always increasing. I know that it’s very expensive and I feel that the airlines are looking for ways to service the people with the most expensive way so that they could profit more from it,” he said.

“So with the Government of Nunavut now established, we need to make legislation to improve the air services for our benefit.”

Thompson told him the airlines are private businesses and cannot be compelled by government to lower their fares. “The airlines are private companies just as Northern stores and others. Even if we asked Northern stores to cut their prices, they have to operate on their own, they set their own prices for food and so on.”

In a later line of questioning, Iqaqrialu asked to have the federal transportation legislation translated into Inuktitut so that he could review it himself.

“That is one of the areas that I want to be able to comprehend, and I cannot understand the present regulations as I do not read in English, but if I were to be stonewalled, I would like to be able to know which provision has been broken or the particular regulation.”