Nunavut abandons Nunavut time

AARON SPITZER

IQALUIT — It’s about time.

That’s how most Nunavummiut seem to feel about the Nunavut government’s decision to go back to three time zones.

“It was such a nuisance to have the whole of Nunavut in one time zone. That was a dumb idea,” said Violet Charlie, who works for hamlet of Taloyoak.

“It was depressing. We’d go to work and the dogs were still sleeping.”

As of April 1, Taloyoak’s people will be able to sleep in, too.

That’s when Nunavut’s three regions will revert to their original time zones, according to an announcement made by Premier Paul Okalik in the legislative assembly last week.

That means Taloyoak and the rest of the Kitikmeot will return to mountain time, while the Kivalliq region will go back on central time. The Baffin will stay in the eastern time zone, where it — along with most of the rest of the territory — has been all winter.

Most Nunavummiut agree that the aim of Nunavut’s unified time zone — to bring all the territory’s communities into sync on the same clock — was a noble goal.

Many also feel it was a ridiculous failure.

“I can understand the theory behind the whole thing, but it just caused too many problems,” said Tim McCagherty, a manager with Aklak Air in Cambridge Bay.

McCagherty’s company, which flies to the five Kitikmeot communities as well as Yellowknife, has had to operate all winter in three different time zones.

That caused all kinds of confusion for air travellers in the region, he said. For example, passengers passing from Kuugaruk to Yellowknife via Cambridge Bay found themselves changing their watches twice en route.

“It was just a big schlemo le,” said McCagherty. “With everybody on the same page it’ll make life a little bit easier.”

Even the premier admitted that Nunavut time didn’t work out the way it’s proponents had expected.

“An idea that seemed attractive to many when considered in the abstract had some legitimate impacts on the everyday lives of Nunavummiut,” Okalik said.

Okalik said that starting in mid-January he began polling mayors and MLAs about their feelings on the time-zone issue.

“The responses were overwhelmingly in favour of returning to three time zones for Nunavut,” he said. “Geography is compelling and the government of Nunavut respects the views that have been expressed from across the territory.”

It’s ironic that the return to regular time will take place on Nunavut’s second birthday. In the last two years, no other GN policy has drawn so much scorn from so many corners of the territory.

The policy was troubled from the outset, and its 18-month saga unfolded like a comedy of errors.

When it was introduced back in 1999, the decision was that all of Nunavut would join central time.

But the time-change came on Oct. 31 — a period of the year when the autumn sun is sinking and daylight becomes precious. Several Baffin communities immediately refused to go along.

Pangnirtung and Sanikiluaq were long-term hold-outs, and have stayed steadfastly on eastern time ever since.

A year later, in an effort to appease the angry East, Nunavut officials decided that the territory would switch to eastern time for the winter.

But while that move made the Baffin happy, Nunavut’s westernmost communities, Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay, rebelled. After a several-day stand-off with the GN in which the two hamlets refused to set their clocks to territorial time, they were granted the right to stay on central time throughout the year.

Finally, last week, the territory abandoned Nunavut time entirely.

When contacted Monday in Sanikiluaq and asked if she had any feelings about the GN’s abandonment of Nunavut time, Mayor Annie Amitook just laughed.

“None whatsoever,” she said. “We always stayed on eastern time. This doesn’t affect us at all.”

What she didn’t say, but could have, is, “I told you so.”