Timing is good for Arctic businesses to come on strong

The talk of tariffs and of Canada becoming the 51^st state has made for a bleak winter across the country. Yet Arctic businesses are brimming with confidence, based on the way people were talking at the Aqsarniit Trade Show and Conference this week in Ottawa.

Nunavut Economic Development and Transportation Minister David Akeeagok and Makivvik president Pita Aatami were some of the leaders sounding positively bullish about the opportunities for economic growth in Nunavut and Nunavik.

“We’re ready to do business, but it has to be a partnership,” Aatami, the head of the Inuit rights-holding organization in Nunavik, said at least three times during a keynote speech on Wednesday.

The Aqsarniit Trade Show and Conference was a gathering of business and government representatives. It replaced the Northern Lights Trade Show and Conference, a similar event that had run every two years since 2008.

It brought together hundreds of businesspeople to share what they’re doing and to look for ways to work together.

Aatami’s keynote speech was a broad overview of Makivvik’s business activities, from plans to bring wind turbines to Nunavik as part of a clean energy initiative to pursuing a shrimp fishery.

Aatami signalled Makivvik is eager to do business but “not at any cost.”

Makivvik wants to take back control of Nunavik for Inuit, he said, calling the relationship governments have had with Inuit “one-sided.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk about imposing tariffs on Canadian goods coming into his country, and about annexing Canada, cast a shadow over the trade show.

Aatami tied in Trump’s controversial renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” saying Makivvik’s own geomatics subsidiary is working to put more traditional Inuit names on the map of northern Quebec.

At a speech to people attending a meet-and-greet reception Monday night, Akeeagok said there’s a “vast” opportunity ahead for northern businesses in entrepreneurship, infrastructure development, fisheries, natural resource development and tourism.

“It’s inspiring to see the ideas and partnerships that emerge from these gatherings,” Akeeagok said.

It’s hard to separate the economic optimism at the trade show and conference from the sudden surge of Canadian pride and buy-Canadian sentiment that have swept the country this month.

Canadians’ response to the economic threats from the United States has been the kind of coming together that’s rarely seen. Canadians are galvanized and united in their resistance to whatever Trump throws at them.

The optimism wasn’t just at the podium. It could be felt throughout the convention centre.

On the trade show floor, delegates and exhibitors talked optimistically about their plans. They milled about, making contacts and laying the groundwork for future deals.

In the hallways, casual conversations turned to talk about Inuit resiliency, exemplified in Igloolik, where the community quickly built an outdoor ice rink just days after fire destroyed the hamlet’s arena.

That optimism stands in stark contrast to the steady stream of bad business news that has been flowing out of Washington, D.C., in the past month and since Trump was elected president in November.

The timing is good for Nunavut and Nunavik businesses to come on strong. Canada will need it in this period of unprecedented uncertainty.