POV celebrates new co-op superstore

ODILE NELSON

Only seven months after a May blaze burned the town’s old store to a cinder, Puvirnituq unveiled Nunavik’s first co-op superstore this week in a ceremony honouring the town’s community spirit and co-operative tradition.

More than 300 people gathered to watch Anglican Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk bless the store and Alashuak Nutaraluk, one of Puvirnituq’s founding co-op members, cut the ribbon of the $4,000,000 building.

In an interview after the ceremony, Nutaraluk, 73, said it was a very positive experience to see the new building opened.

“The building is beautiful. It’s so fancy, and big too. It’s just like in the south, but it’s not run by qallunaat. It’s 100 per cent Inuit owned,” Nutaraluk said. “This means a lot more freedom for Puvirnituq.”

The building is the largest store north of Chisasibi according to officials from the Fédération des cooperatives du Nouveau-Québec, and is more a co-op shopping mall than a traditional store.

Not only does the building contain close to 17,000 square feet of display space and a warehouse the size of the former co-op, it also houses a post office, co-op offices, late-night convenience store, fast food restaurant and retail space for a future beauty salon.

According to Aliva Tulugak, one of the co-op’s departing directors who spent the last year guiding the building’s construction, the shopping centre and warehouse cost roughly $4,000,000 to build. Close to $2,700,000 of this came from the old building’s fire insurance, he said. The co-op was then able to raise the rest of the money through a loan with the Caisse d’économie Desjardins des Travailleuses et Travailleurs.

Tulugak, speaking the day before the building’s grand opening, said the town has a lot of satisfaction knowing it secured the building without any federal or provincial government funds.

“We’re very proud of the fact this building’s been paid for by the Inuit pocket in Nunavik. Anywhere you turn in Kuujjuaq or Puvirnituq, all the big buildings are either owned by the provincial or federal governments,” Tulugak said.

The Puvirnituq co-op was able to secure the loan because its approximate 900 members have raised more than $5,000,000 in share capital over the years.

Tulugak said the community’s continued participation in the co-op owes a lot to the town’s elders.

“They kept alive the stories of how people were treated when the Hudson Bay Company was the only store up North and we were treated as second-class citizens and not as customers in the past,” Tulugak said. “We also learned from our elders that it is beneficial to work together for the betterment of everybody. We give thanks to our elders for that. We witnessed how hard they worked when they co-op had nothing.”

According to Nutaraluk the co-op began in 1956 when he and other Inuit in the community each bought five or 10-cent membership shares. They then pulled the money together to buy a boat for the community.

A building for the co-op was built shortly after, and aside from an addition constructed about 20 years ago, it remained relatively unchanged over the years.

Plans to replace the original building were in place in early 2002 when a fire gutted the co-op on May 8. The blaze caused more than $2.5 million in damages, charring produce, merchandise, carvings and equipment.

But town members rallied together for a quick recovery and they had a temporary store up and running within 24 hours.

Outside organizations also helped. Air Inuit slashed its cargo rates and other Nunavik co-ops offered to send snowmobiles with dangerous goods and other supplies the airline could not send.

A ship with construction materials for the new co-op arrived two months after the May fire and, according to Tulugak, construction began the very same day. Tulugak said about 30 individuals, including five local Inuit, worked on the building over the course of the next five months.

Puvirnituq’s co-op is the second new co-op building to open in Nunavik in the past month. Kuujjuarapik’s new co-op store began running Nov. 26. The old Kuujjuarapik store was also constructed more than 30 years ago.

Lydia Esperon, president of the village’s co-op association, said the old store was becoming unpopular because it was run down and cramped.

The new store is roughly twice the size of the old building, she said, and will hopefully attract more customers.

Like Naturaluk, Esperon believes co-ops offer locals economic freedom.

“It’s an Inuit co-op. It’s the only store here that will give us what we want and keep the prices fair. The prices are triple at the Northern,” Esperon said.

Louise Fleming, an elder from the town’s Inuit community, and John Petagumskum, a Cree elder, shared in the day’s ribbon cutting duties.

More than 200 people reportedly showed up for the Kuujjuarapik opening.