Lavalin, GN caused Aqsarniit fiasco

The Iqaluit District Education Authority would like to extend their thanks to the parents of students at Aqsarniit Middle School, and to Aqsarniit teaching staff and administration, for their patience and support during this difficult start to the new school year.

The team coordinating the expansion of the middle school included the GN’s Department of Education, the GN’s Department of Community Government and Services, contractor SNC-Lavalin, architect Keith Saunders, the IDEA and Aqsarniit School staff.

From the very beginning the IDEA and principal Darlene Nuqingaq sought assurances from the GN, the architect and the contractor that the project would be scheduled to ensure that students would not have to be moved from one school to another in the middle of the school year. Earlier this spring we met with the contractor and CGS officials and asked that they inform us by April 30 if the project would be delayed for a Sept. 1 opening so we could inform parents before the summer break.

SNC Lavalin, the architect, and CGS officials assured us that the school would be ready for occupancy in mid-August.

The IDEA toured the facility in late June and again we were given assurances by SNC-Lavalin that the facility would be completed by the beginning of the school year, and they repeated these assurances to principal Darlene Nuqingaq two weeks later.

We are deeply disappointed that SNC- Lavalin, a company that “ is one of the leading groups of engineering and construction companies in the world, and a global leader in the ownership and management of infrastructure,” according to their web site, has so poorly managed the labour and scheduling of this project.

We are also disappointed that the principal has been left to manage this scheduling fiasco without any additional support being provided by the GN’s regional school operations.

We expect that when the students are finally able to occupy the new school the inconveniences of these early weeks will be quickly forgotten. However, as we anticipate the beginning of a five-year project to renovate the high school, we trust that the lessons learned at Aqsarniit on scheduling, sufficient labour, and GN oversight will be used effectively on that project.

Christa Kunuk
Chair
Iqaluit District Education Authority