Unified Nunavut time zone plan attracts mixed reactions

Hunters and some business people in Baffin aren’t happy about the move to a unified time zone, but Kivalliq and Kitikmeot residents like the change.

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — The Nunavut government’s decision to create a single time zone across Nunavut has unleashed an outcry from Baffin residents who say the government has “stabbed the public in the back.”

But other Nunavummiut say the change is good for Nunavut.

Since the Nunavut government’s recent announcement, letter writers from the Baffin region have decried the decision and called for government to leave the time zones alone.

In a letter to the editor of Nunatsiaq News Iqaluit resident Theresa Rodrigue called the decision a stab in the back. Other letter writers said the change will harm all Baffin residents’ quality of life.

Early morning hunting

Baffin hunters are one group that believe a time zone change can only hurt their livelihoods.

By turning their clocks back one hour for standard time and another to join the central time zone, hunters say they will lose precious hunting hours.

“We need all the daylight we can get in,” said Pangnirtung resident and hunter Billy Etooangat. “We’d have to take off at 3 a.m. and that’s when we sleep.”

Walrus and seal hunters, who use the tide to guide them, will also have to take the time change into account when hunting, said Pitseolak Alainga, chair of Iqaluit’s Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association.

Some business people within the Baffin have also spoken out on the plan.

The Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce says they weren’t properly consulted on the idea. And Pangnirtung Fisheries Ltd. says the time zone change could mean extra hurdles when it does business.

Problems for Pang fisheries

The fish plant is in contact with southern fish brokers in Ottawa, Montreal and Boston on a daily basis, said general manager Wallace Brown.

As of Oct. 31, Pangnirtung will be one hour behind those southern markets. Once work gets underway in Pangnirtung, the southern markets will have been running for an hour. Brown said switching to an early start to the work day to mesh with southern schedule would be difficult to sell to Pangnirtung’s plant workers.

“It’s very difficult to get the people in early,” he said.

Brown said it’s too early to say if the time change will actually cost the plant money

“I’m not saying it’s going to make it impossible. We’re going to try to cope with it,” Brown said.

Other businesses, such as the banks, say the time zone change won’t have any real impact on their operations.

“It’s a non-issue,” said Paul Henderson, Iqaluit branch manager for the CIBC.

Bank of Montreal official Ellen Bennett said the time zone change could mean she’ll have to go to work earlier for conference calls with the South.

It could also cause scheduling difficulties for local customers who are in the South but need to contact their northern branch. But Bennett said the bank can work around any problems.

Canadian North president Carmen Loberg said the airline will have to reprint many of its brochures and schedules, but otherwise it’s “business as usual.”

No increase in power use

The Northwest Territories Power Corp. does not expect an increase in power use because of the time change, said Mac Maidens, area maintenance superintendent for the Baffin region.

“We don’t see a change from daylight savings time to standard time,” Maidens said.

NTPC will monitor power consumption the week before Oct. 31 and the week after. But Maidens pointed out that most of NTPC’s customers live with 24 hours of darkness.

Time differences often cause frustration for business people, said Robert Douglas, a physicist with the National Research Council’s frequency and time standards group.

“Trading communities tend to like to be in the same time zone,” Douglas said.

In 1974, faced with the OPEC oil crisis, the U.S. decided to remain on daylight time throughout the year in an effort to conserve energy. Canada didn’t follow the U.S. lead that year because the Canadian government felt it couldn’t get the legislation prepared quickly enough.

Douglas said the southern Ontario city of Windsor decided to keep to the same time zone as the U.S. because of the city’s ties to the U.S. auto industry based just across the border in Detroit.

For some people, the single time zone will actually make business easier.

Kivalliq, Kitikmeot happy

“If nothing else, it will add to the convenience,” said Darren Flynn the senior administrative officer for Arviat.

Flynn deals with government offices in Iqaluit on a regular basis, he said the two extra hours of contact with Iqaluit could mean the difference in a project starting two days early.

Gjoa Haven Mayor Michael Angottitauruq Sr. also supports the change.

“With the capital being two hours ahead, some phone calls that are urgent don’t get through ’til the next day,” Angottitauruq said.

Arviat, and other communities in the Keewatin region, will remain in their current time zone and will only have to move clocks back one hour on Oct. 31 to comply with daylight time.

The Nunavut government says the move will make government offices more accessible to the public.

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