Snowbirds show crashes and burns

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

The City of Iqaluit has grounded plans to bring the Canadian Air Force’s Snowbirds spectacle to Iqaluit to celebrate Nunavut’s fifth anniversary.

Terry Ma, Iqaluit’s economic development officer, said the municipality lacks the money and the logistical ability to host the internationally renowned team of jet fighters this summer.

Although the city’s 2004 budget made room for $75,000 to accomodate around 25 Snowbirds personnel, Ma said the money was supposed to come from the private sector, and has yet to be raised from local businesses.

Ma said the municipality turned down the Snowbirds because the air force didn’t accept any of his proposed dates. And the city rejected the military’s proposed date of May 26, because it would have been a stand-alone event, and risked being a promotional flop.

“You want to have a good package to put together if you want to attract people,” he said, pointing to how festivals like Toonik Tyme near the end of April offer an array of events, rather than one main attraction.

Ma said he wants to bring the Snowbirds to Iqaluit in the future, adding that the city would be better prepared for the show now that organizers were more familiar with the pilots’ logistical needs. He added that the delay will also give organizers time to raise necessary funding.

“You’ve got to keep positive,” Ma said. “Things… just take a little while to get done up here.”

A spokeswoman for the Snowbirds said they were “surprised” by the cancellation, since the Iqaluit performance was part of a special tour of the North this summer.

The show would have been Iqaluit’s first time hosting the Snowbirds, a team of Canadian military pilots who perform choreographed routines in jet fighters at trade shows and summer festivals, largely to promote the armed forces and recruit new members.

The Snowbirds cancellation knocks another event from the RCMP’s ever-shortening lists of celebrations, which included the RMCP Musical Ride, an elaborate show involving Mounties doing precision drills on horseback. Const. Chris Coles said plans to host the Musical Ride fell apart after police found they lacked the necessary $100,000 in funding.

However, Coles attributed the Snowbirds’ cancellation on miscommunication between city hall and the committee coordinating Nunavut’s anniversary events.

Although city hall cited fundraising problems for cancelling the show, Coles said the RCMP was raising the money needed to bring the Snowbirds.

“It is a disappointment,” Coles said. “There appears to have been a disconnect [in communication between RCMP and the City].”

Despite the Snowbirds cancellation, RCMP are forging ahead with other anniversary celebrations. Local officers rode dog teams to Kimmirut from Iqaluit on April 5 to commemorate how police used to travel the former mail route before planes started flying regularly between the two communities.

Coles said he also expects the 34-piece Canadian Forces Central Band to perform on July 9 at the RCMP Regimental Ball in the new arena, as part of the anniversary celebrations. Tickets go on sale for $100.

RCMP will also visit a defunct police station at Alexandria Fiord, north of Grise Fiord at the end of June.