Resolute Bay – Community Economic Development in Action

For David Boult, Senior Associate, one of the greatest parts of being a consultant is getting to work with communities to develop their economies. This past August, David was fortunate enough to travel to Resolute Bay to help the community update its economic development plan. Aarluk Consulting Inc. has been the major provider of CED plans to Nunavut communities since Nunavut was a young territory (1999 actually). To date, Aarluk has conducted economic development plans for over half the communities in the territory. Over the past few years, many communities have asked Aarluk for help in ensuring these plans are updated and kept current.

As usual for the economic planning process, David spent time with the community’s Economic Development Officer, Philip Maniq Sr., reviewing the old plan, seeing what’s been going on in the community over the past five years, and generally getting a sense of the opportunities that currently exist. David then went around and talked to just about everybody in town including outfitters, the co-op manager, local business people, the hotel manager, staff out at the Polar Shelf project – just about anybody he could find.

A highlight of the trip however was an event that took place as David was conducting his post-dinner perambulations around the town. About a half hour into the walk, he heard some shots being fired close to town. Being in the heart of polar bear country, David took a careful look around but only saw a boat in the bay. He heard some more shots and saw some thrashing around in the water near the boat. He quickly headed over to see what the commotion was. He was quite pleased to see that a hunter had captured a nice beluga not 20 feet from shore. As David approached the group surrounding the small whale, he was pleased to see a young boy carefully being shown how to carve off the outer skin or maqtaq from the whale. David left the busy family with a smile on his face thinking “Now that is the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement in action”.