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G7 finance ministers think they have problems - wait till they see Nunavut

By: Julian Beltrame, THE CANADIAN PRESS

4/02/2010 5:08 PM | Comments: 0

IQALUIT, Nunavut - The globe's most powerful finance ministers and central bankers are descending on this remote, frozen outpost with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

The global banking system is in a shambles, China's undervalued currency is distorting global trade, and the economy - fresh from the worst recession in half a century - is still being propped up by borrowed government money.

But if the G7 finance bigwigs want to see problems, they should put themselves in the mukluks of Eva Aariak.

The Nunavut premier has to govern a territory the size of Western Europe that's plagued by chronic high unemployment, alcoholism, drug use, and a suicide rate about double the national average.

Nunavut stretches about as far north as it's possible to go and has a population of a small town, about 30,000. That's one person per 65 barren square kilometres. The only big community is Iqaluit, an outpost of about 7,000 on the southeast corner of Baffin Island that serves as the focal point of government, health care, tourism and commerce.

On Thursday, Aariak took a succession of calls from reporters who - until Finance Minister Jim Flaherty improbably picked Iqaluit as the locale where the global financial mess should be fixed - would never have considered a visit, and certainly not in February.

"I hope the world will leave here with a good understanding of what Nunavut is all about," she said in a interview. "I wouldn't say we are misunderstood, I would say more that we are not thought about."

Nunavut's problems are not unusual given that it's a vast underdeveloped territory dependent on federal government assistance. What is unusual, even for such a remote expanse of land, is the startling lack of infrastructure.

"You may have noticed when you flew in that we have no port," she pointed out. "We have 25 communities in Nunavut and we have no roads connecting them, we have no railroads. These are the kind of things people in the world take for granted, but not here."

But Aariak also wants the policy-makers from Europe, the U.S. and Japan, and the hordes of foreign media in tow, to see that the North is not just endless white nothingness. It is also a place with a unique life experience, language and immense opportunities.

A recent Conference Board of Canada report forecast that Nunavut's gross domestic product will expand by 10 per cent this year - four times the national average - in large part because of a start-up of a new gold mine. A second mine is coming on stream in four years and will attract more activity and workers to the territory.

There is also great potential in new energy technologies, particularly wind and solar in the long days of summer.

Climate change represents both a challenge and an opportunity to Nunavut. The North has been warming much faster than the rest of the planet and Aariak said the evidence is everywhere: new species of plants and birds showing up, melting permafrost, and unstable ice.

But global warming could also bring development, for good and bad. The opening of the Northwest Passage, if it ever occurs, would likely bring not only a port but business.

Last week, the Iqaluit newspaper carried a story about an Alaska company's plans to lay a fibre-optic cable across the Northwest Passage linking London and Tokyo - a $1.2 billion project only made possible by thinning Arctic Ice.

Global warming won't be on the agenda at the G7 finance meetings Friday and Saturday, however, nor will any of the issues Aariak would want discussed.

After the visitors have availed themselves of some quaint Innu cultural events - dogsledding on Friday, dining on caribou, Arctic char and, for the brave, raw seal, on Saturday - they will leave on their government jets and likely never turn back.

Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik said the region is modernizing, but still wants to retain its culture. Sporting a seal-skin jacket, she bristled when told many of the foreign ministers and bankers are planning to head home before Saturday night's community feast featuring local foods.

"If there was no seal, I wouldn't be here," she said. "And when you go travelling, isn't it natural to try the local food. It's like me going to Italy and not eating pasta."

Flaherty has said the meeting will be one the ministers and central bankers won't soon forget.

For Aariak, that would entail the ministers remembering not just the exotic features of the culture, but how investment from outside could make such a huge impact on the small town the size of Europe.

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