By Jason Annahatak, Director of Business Development
for Makivvik’s Economic Development Department
In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we learned at our annual Board of Directors Budget meeting in 2021 that the federal government would delegate Makivvik a ‘Food Security’-oriented fund and allow it to determine how to best spend the resources. The sum of the funds totalled a one-time payment of $9.6 million but would need to be spent within a one-and-a-half-year timeframe to meet government requirements.
During the 2021 Budget Board meeting, Makivvik’s leaders discussed and decided to concentrate on buying assets that would be useful for as many people as possible and would be durable in continuing to provide food security for many years. Given that Inuit hunters and harvesters play a central role in providing fresh country food for our communities, the conclusion to buy landing crafts or ‘barges’ was reached by consensus. These barges would allow land users to bring their ATVs, snowmobiles, and even trucks to hard-to-reach locations to go mussel picking, shuttling scallop catches from community boats, or hunting caribou.
With a tight one-and-a-half-year deadline, the Economic Development Department was tasked to procure such boats. Although the assignment looked easy at first, we quickly learned how complex and challenging this task was. On our first call with a boat manufacturer we were told, “You know, this is not like going to a car dealership and pointing at a blue truck and saying, ‘I want that one’. Every single boat of this size is custom ordered. So, there’s no such thing as a boat lot you could visit and buy a boat from.” We learned that it would take a lot of time to buy and receive any such boat.
A second major challenge of this undertaking was the scale of the project and how the simple custom ordering and designing extended the delay. When we called several manufacturers and told them, “We want 15 boats,” what we heard was a mix of excitement, uncertainty, and “I can’t promise that we can deliver that many in your timeline.” The Economic Development Department called four manufacturers across North America and needed to negotiate specifications of the boat, price, production and delivery schedule, and a payment schedule that met not only the needs of Makivvik and the boatbuilders, but also met the federal government spending requirements. In 2023, it became clear to us that we would need an extension in the agreement to spend the funds. Makivvik fought for that extension secured it. Our new deadline to complete the project became March 31, 2024.
The complexity in negotiating and administering the payment schedule and terms was so demanding that the services of Makivvik’s legal department and lawyers had to put in countless hours of communicating and coordinating information between Makivvik, the manufacturer – Stanley-Connor Industries, and the bank holding the funds to purchase the barges. In the quest to make these boats a reality, the legal team deserves much credit in ensuring that the funds were protected and used accordingly, to reduce transportation risk and to ensure the smooth transfer of ownership between the manufacturer and each of the Landholding Corporations.
Given Makivvik’s natural relationship with Landholding Corporations across Nunavik as common ethnic entities, our intention was to provide these organizations with a valuable good that would provide food by allowing more hunting, fishing, and harvesting to take place. In total we allocated and completely spent $9.6 million on this project. We divided the global figure among 16 communities; 14 Nunavik communities, with Chisasibi and the decendents of Killiniq included. Each community was equally allocated $600,000. Tasiujaq requested to opt out, and used the funds to help purchase a scallop-trawling boat.
Akulivik, Chisasibi, and Killiniq chose slight variations in their boat model, which were or will still all be built by Stanley-Connor Industries. Puvirnituq’s boat has been transferred to its local municipality. The standard boat with motors cost approximately $474,064 to build, with another approximately $50,000 to transport north, and the balance of the remaining funds paid to the local entities as cheques, to help operate in their first year.
We wish to thank Stanley-Connor Industries for building the barges, and Avataa Authorized Yamaha dealership in Kuujjuaq for procuring the outboard motors and for planning to be available to service the engines. Following is the status of the barges built and remaining to be built at the time of this publishing:
2023
- Akulivik; 32’ foot model
*Tasiujaq (own boat)
2024 – Delivered
2. Umiujaq
3. Ivujivik
4. Salluit
5. Kangiqsujuaq
6. Aupaluk
7. Kangiqsualujjuaq
8. Kangirsuk
2024 – 3rd Sailing Departs Sept. 26-28
9. Puvirnituq (Aujaq vessel ETA Oct 18)
10. Inukjuak (Aujaq vessel ETA Oct 12)
11. Quaqtaq (M/V Nunalik ETA Nov 1st)
With that we should close out this sailing season having built and delivered a cumulative 11 Stanley-Connor Boats.
2025 Delivery Plan
12. Kuujjuaraapik
13. Kuujjuaq
14. Killiniq
15. Chisasibi
16. * see above (Tasiujaq in second line)
