The boys are back in town

KIRSTEN MURPHY

The orange tug hauling barges lined with sealift containers this week means summer has arrived in Iqaluit. Each time the barge is cleared of the containers, the tugs heads back to the Umiavut – Our Boat – anchored in Koojessee Inlet for another load.

For Inuit crew members like Lawrence Audlarock of Kuujjuarapik, the five-month sealift season means fast cash for hard work. He puts in eight-hour shifts. Among his many responsibilities, his job is ensuring the cargo-filled cans make it safely from ship to shore.

When the sealift season is over in November, Audlarock, who works for Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping Inc. (NEAS), will have made $35,000 to $40,000. But there is a price to pay.

“It’s very good money but I miss my home, my wife and my kids,” says the soft-spoken family man who works as a corrections officer and bouncer the rest of the year.

NEAS organizes two-week training programs for Inuit in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. Audlarock is one of six people from Nunavut and Nunavik who graduated from the program funded by Makivik Corp. and Qikiqtaaluk Corp. As the number of applicants grows, so too will the number of trained Inuit.

Suzanne Paquin, vice-president of NEAS, says attracting qualified applicants is half the battle.

“It’s a work in progress. We think it’s a very good program. If they work hard and if they last the five-month season, they can make good money,” Paquin says from her office in Montreal.

Language has been a slight problem on board the 120-foot Umiavut. Audlarock speaks Cree and the only other Inuit crew member, also from Nunavik, speaks Inuktitut. The rest of the crew speak French.

What the 21-man crew shares, regardless of mother tongue, is a love for physical work and big pay cheques. What the people of Nunavut and Nunavik love is the arrival of anything new.

Christmas in July

Over the next four months, Nunavummiut will restock their sealift rooms with canned food, laundry soap and toilet paper. Construction sites like Pangnirtung’s new movie theatre will buzz with the arrival of lumber and saws.

In Iqaluit, an influx of shiny new vehicles indicates a ship has come and gone.

The Driving Force car dealership will receive 30 new cars and trucks this year. The order is significantly lower than 2001 when the company ordered a slue of new Suzuki vehicles for the 2002 Arctic Winter Games.

But it isn’t all about receiving. It’s also about community spirit, says Art Stewart, Cape Dorset’s senior administrative officer.

“It’s a real beehive of activity,” Stewart says. “No matter when the ship comes in, the guys will work all night unloading if they have to and there are always kids on the beach watching.”

Shipping goods into Arctic communities between July and October is a long-standing tradition – one that underwent significant changes this year.

In March, the Government of Nunavut’s department of public works awarded its multi-million-dollar dry-cargo sealift contract for the Baffin and Kivalliq regions to two Inuit-owned companies: NEAS and Nunavut Sealink and Supply.

Previously, the contract had gone to Nunavut Ocean Transport (NOT), a company affiliated with the Montreal-based Crosbie Shipping and the Northwest Territories’ Northern Transportation Company Ltd.. With NOT out of the picture, it’s unlikely the picturesque Lady Franklin will be in Iqaluit this year.

From 1959 to 2000, the Canadian Coast Guard handled sealift shipping. In 2000, the department of public works took over to provide more streamlined service by Inuit-owned companies.

So far, so good, says John Fast, the department’s transportation coordinator.

“What we want is for people to get more bang for their buck,” Fast said of the switch from federal to territorial management.

All Nunavut communities receive at least one shipment. Larger communities like Iqaluit receive up to five shipments.

After leaving Iqaluit, the Umiavut goes to Kimmirut, Cape Dorset and Northern Quebec.