Municipal workers aren’t incompetent bozos

I appreciate your attendance at the conference [the annual general meeting of the Nunavut Association of Municipal Administrators, September 2002] and the news coverage you gave us, but I feel that your story (Nunatsiaq News, Sept. 27, 2002) requires a response.

You have made us, the municipal employees, come out looking like a bunch of incompetent bozos when the truth of the matter is there are a lot of good competent people working at the municipal level.

The training gap referred to is just that, a gap, it is not a measure of capabilities. It’s just showing that there is no training available in those areas and to fill these positions with local people these gaps must be filled. By filling these gaps we will be in the position to keep the jobs in the communities instead of bringing the expertise in from the South.

A perfect example is Cambridge Bay where we now have all senior management positions filled by local people. I am the only outsider. Our director of finance is a lady who has worked her way up from receptionist to take the senior position. Our director of community wellness is originally from Kugluktuk. The assistant finance officer is a local lady. The director of recreation is another Cambridge Bay born person. The director of municipal works has lived here for years and at one point was a water truck driver.

It can be done but we have had to do it on our own. Fortunately we had the infrastructure here, such as Nunavut Arctic College, to work with. We were also able to capitalize on in-house training programs that we developed.

Rankin Inlet is another example that has developed their own people. Arviat manages new housing construction for the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Qikiqtarjuaq does extensive contracting and has developed a successful clam harvesting business.

Your article was very negative, and rolling all the communities into one ball is not fair. This is like saying that all cars are the same. I stress the point that we have a lot of good capable and qualified individuals working at the municipal level, but like any organization we have our share of problems.

For years the municipal governments have been the training ground for governments and birthright organizations, so we must continually develop new staff. To do this we need good practical training programs in place. This is what we have been working toward for years. We now have a partner that is commited to see this through.

We are not condeming the department of community government and transportation, we are complimenting them on committing to work with NAMA and see this training move ahead. NAMA is proud to be accepted as a partner with CG&T and after I am gone I believe the commitment of both CG&T and NAMA will see this partnership through to a successful conclusion.

You never mentioned that we worked with CG&T to get the lands officer training up and running last January, and the second semester is currently running. You never mentioned that CG&T partnered with NAMA to run the foreman workshop in Arviat in May, which was very successful.

These are the type of articles we want to see. Let’s be positive for a change. I am tired of the negativity every week.

Elwood Johnston
President

Nunavut Association of Municipal Administrators