Kitikmeot Corp. responds to article

I am responding to the article, “Business arm of western Nunavut Inuit org says finances are ‘robust’,” published on Oct. 29, 2018, in Nunatsiaq News.

Rather than give an accurate account of Kitikmeot Corp.’s report to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s 2018 annual general meeting, the article casts KC as a secretive and unaccountable organization.

In addition to its overall negative and conspiratorial tone, the article has inaccuracies that I am compelled to correct for the benefit of Nunatsiaq News’ readers.

Concerning KC’s disclosure of its financial information, it needs to be noted that KC fully discloses this information to its sole shareholder, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, at their first meeting of every calendar year.

Due to the commercial, confidential nature of these financial reports, KIA’s board of directors receive this information in camera.

Sharing this information with the general public could impact KC’s businesses and would give our competitors an unfair advantage, especially given the fact that our competitors have no requirement to disclose their own private information to the public.

Beyond our routine disclosures to the KIA board, there are additional layers of accountability that are key features of KC’s governance structure.

First and foremost, KC’s chairperson is a KIA board member, and for the past four years this position has been held by the KIA president.

KC’s other directors are appointed by the KIA board and serve on a four-year term basis.

Finally, as an organization whose directors and officers are elected by the Inuit of the Kitikmeot region, KIA itself is the ultimate guarantor of KC’s accountability to KIA’s Inuit membership.

Regarding the statement in the article that KC is “putting a $3-million office building next to the KIA’s Fred Elias Building up for sale,” this is completely inaccurate.

First, the building is only in the very early stages of construction—in fact it is not even a building at this stage, just a pile of materials. Second, once it is complete, KC has no intention of selling the property, as it will serve as KC’s offices and allow for a KIA expansion at the Fred R. Elias Centre.

The assertion that “KC admitted that Kitnuna had taken a blow when Newmont Mining Corp. pulled out of the Hope Bay mine project, since acquired by TMAC Resources Inc” is also incorrect.

Unlike many other of KC’s companies, Kitnuna has only peripherally been involved with the Hope Bay project. As an aside, one might think that the details concerning KC’s extensive and successful involvement in supporting TMAC’s operations at Hope Bay might be more newsworthy than referencing a six-year old article.

This article concludes with a cursory treatment of the human resources challenges faced by KC companies operating at Hope Bay. The article fails to convey KC’s efforts to address this issue, such as our success in delivering skills and employment training programs to Kitikmeot Inuit at the site.

These efforts were clearly tabled in our report to the KIA AGM and could have merited some consideration in Nunatsiaq News’ piece. At minimum, these details would have captured a more balanced picture.

David Omilgoitok
President and CEO
Kitikmeot Corp.

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of the story, “Business arm of western Nunavut Inuit org says finances are ‘robust’,” contained incorrect information and has been corrected. The story now reads that the Kitikmeot Corp. is “constructing a $3-million office building next to the KIA’s Fred Elias Building.”

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