The $14,400 required to pay for each of thousands of southern construction workers to go through isolation before entering Nunavut would be better spent on recruitment bonuses – even of $10,000 – to entice Nunavummiut workers to fill construction jobs, says John Main, MLA for Arviat North-Whale Cove.

Main made that recommendation in the legislative assembly Wednesday during a lengthy discussion about the Government of Nunavut (GN) relying too heavily on a southern workforce for construction projects and mines. The GN is prepared to pay $25 million for construction workers to isolate in southern hubs between now and December.

“I appreciate the member’s comments, actually; it’s kind of intriguing,” Finance Minister George Hickes said in response to using the isolation funds to recruit local workers instead. “I’m going to take it away and I’m sure (Community and Government Services) Minister (Lorne) Kusugak is listening ardently, as well as the whole cabinet. I’m going to take it as a comment or a takeaway and see where we go.”

Iqaluit Manirajak MLA Adam Arreak-Lightstone stressed that using southern construction workers is inflating the cost of Nunavut’s capital projects.

“The flights alone of these 2,000 construction workers are going to inflate our construction costs by at least $2 million and that’s flights alone. We also have accommodations and food as well, which is also further inflating the costs,” said Arreak-Lightstone. “I’m really trying to emphasize the fact that this is the first that we have seen material on figures related to southern construction workers. I really think that this is a major concern not just for me but it really needs to be a major concern for the government as well. I would like to ask the government to place more emphasis on this area and encourage our construction companies to hire local as opposed to flying in. It might be more convenient for those construction companies, but it’s not more convenient for this territory.”

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