Inuit risk exclusion from Dew line cleanup: NTI

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Inuit will miss out on thousands of seasonal jobs and multi-million-dollar contracts in Nunavut if the federal government doesn’t heed warnings about boosting local involvement in DEW line clean-ups, according to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

The latest clash between NTI and the federal government comes from a dispute over a lucrative contract process, worth about $15 million, to clean up two retired Distance Early Warning sites near Hall Beach and Clyde River.

Paul Kaludjak, president of NTI, accuses Indian and Northern Affairs Canada of ignoring the rights of Inuit to have access to jobs and contracts for handling the decontamination of those sites.

As a result, Kaludjak claims around 3,000 seasonal jobs for Inuit workers, and millions of dollars for Inuit firms, hang in the balance.

“It’s an on-going battle for us to increase Inuit employment,” Kaludjak said. “There’s always an overwhelming drive for outside hires. It’s something we’ve always fought.”

INAC officials stand by their track record on their other Nunavut projects, such as the Resolution Island clean-up, saying Inuit employment remains a priority now, as it was before.

In the case of Resolution Island, the Inuit-owned Qikiqtaaluk Corp. scooped up the entire umbrella management of the project, to a tune of $9 million. Qikiqtani Corp. reported last year that more than 90 per cent of their workers on the island were Inuit.

However, INAC has side-stepped NTI demands to follow the precedent set by the Department of National Defence, which sets specific targets for Inuit employment levels in giant clean-up projects, expected to last several years.

Unlike their colleagues in the defence department, INAC’s current contracts make reference to “maximizing” Inuit employment, instead of committing to concrete percentages, according to NTI.

Inuit leaders are nervous the wording will allow INAC to avoid future legal obligations to land claim beneficiaries.

“There’s no real hard-core campaign for local hires,” Kaludjak said. “Those levels we need are not being met.”

Stephen Traynor, INAC’s acting regional director general for Nunavut, said his department hasn’t ruled out fixing employment and contract targets for Inuit.

“We haven’t fully said ‘no’,” Traynor said. “We just haven’t… seen the need to [set targets].”

Traynor said INAC feels confident about the wording of their contract because of a good rapport they’ve developed with the affected communities during consultations.

“We certainly do want northerners to benefit from jobs and contracts,” Traynor said. “But ultimately, we have to make sure that we clean up those sites and come into environmental compliance. So, it’s always a balancing act between those two issues.”

The federal government inherited the burden of DEW line clean ups after the U.S. and Canada abandoned the radar sites in the 1970s. The DEW line, comprised of 58 radar sites across the Arctic was supposed to warn against Soviet bombers.

The sites are mainly contaminated by polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs), found in electrical equipment.

INAC’s hesitation to meet NTI’s demands strays from the other contract approaches to DEW line clean-ups. For example, NTI signed a so-called “cooperation agreement” with the federal defence department, which set aside at least 60 per cent of contracts for Inuit-owned firms, and 65 per cent of jobs for Inuit workers.

According to NTI, defence officials surpassed both minimum requirements that the two sides agreed upon.

They say more than 3,000 Inuit worked on the department’s on-going clean-up projects over the past few years. They include sites near Clyde River, Qikiqtarjuaq, and Cape Dyer, near the south end of Baffin Island.

Similarly, Inuit firms scooped up to 90 per cent of related contracts in certain years.

The contract fight will come to a head at a conference for potential bidders on March 10 in Iqaluit.

INAC officials declined to comment on whether they would act on NTI’s concerns, such as postponing the conference.

They said they needed more time to review NTI’s demands, as sent to INAC’s assistant deputy minister, Liseanne Forand, on Feb. 22.