Nunavut-Manitoba deal bears fruit for Coral Harbour

AVERY ASCHER

People in Coral Harbour were excited about their new community brochure being launched at the Rural Forum in Brandon, Manitoba at the end of April.

The brochure is the latest promotional product to come out of the community’s partnership with SID Training and Productions of Ste. Anne, Manitoba.

A CD-ROM about the community was produced in July 2000, and a web site (www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~ldornez/coralharbour/) now promotes Coral Harbour worldwide.

Local residents helped put together both the CD-ROM and the web-site during a multimedia technologies course that SID Training held in the community.

Coral Harbour’s partnership with SID Training is an example of economic activity generated since the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Nunavut and Manitoba in February of 2000. The deal is intended to promote economic links between the two jurisdictions.

Trade between Nunavut and Manitoba is worth $150 million a year, says Ross Thompson, the Manitoba-Nunavut MOU co-ordinator.

International Fur Dressers and Dryers Co. of Winnipeg has established distributorships in Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Iqaluit and Coral Harbour. The Canadian College of Taxidermy based in McCreary, Manitoba has run a taxidermy course in Coral Harbour for 10 students from that community and from Repulse Bay.

Recently, a feasibility study was launched to look into collecting recyclable materials, primarily scrap metal, from Rankin Inlet as well as from Churchill, Gillam and Garden Hill, Manitoba for shipment to markets in southern Manitoba.

In January 2002, the first “northern round table” was held in Churchill, where mayors, business owners and other residents of Whale Cove, Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Coral Harbour, Repulse Bay, Churchill and Gillam met to talk about common issues.

The group will hold a third meeting later this year in a Kivalliq community.