The federal government has awarded a $122-million contract to provide support services for a Nunavut military station to Nasittuq Corp., an Indigenous contractor that has held the existing contract for the Ellesmere Island base since 2012.
The contract is for an 8½-year term and covers services, including housing, food and roads, for CFS Alert, a military station on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island. It also has two four-year option periods.
Last year, Ottawa-based Nasittuq underwent a corporate restructuring in which two Inuit groups became majority shareholders, making it an Inuit-controlled corporation.
The new contract, announced Monday, is in line with corporate trends in which Indigenous groups are taking larger roles, including equity stakes, in projects and infrastructure being built in their traditional territories, said Clint Davis, president and chief executive officer of Nunasi Corp., a Nasittuq shareholder.
“There was a reorg to recognize, frankly, that there’s a new way of doing business in Canada – when you’re looking at partnering with Indigenous businesses or communities, the starting point is looking at majority ownership,” Mr. Davis said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
Under the new corporate structure, Nunasi holds a 51-per-cent voting interest in Nasittuq, with ATCO Frontec, a Calgary-based services and logistics company, holding the other 49 per cent. Another Inuit-controlled group, Pan Arctic Inuit Logistics Corp., or PAIL, holds a 51-per-cent equity interest in Nasittuq, with the remaining 49 per cent controlled by ATCO Frontec.
Before the restructuring, Nasittuq was a 50-50 partnership between ATCO Frontec and PAIL, an Inuit development corporation of which Nunasi was a shareholder.
The change makes Nunasi and PAIL majority shareholders and reflects both companies’ evolution over the past few decades, Mr. Davis said.
What is now known as Nunasi was founded in 1976. PAIL was born in 1994, after the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and is owned by six shareholder groups with interests in sectors including fisheries, energy and construction.
The change was also designed to put Nasittuq’s best foot forward when it came to bidding on contracts for the federal government, which has a policy to support Indigenous businesses through procurement opportunities, he added.
In a statement, the Department of National Defence said the contract was awarded after a competitive process and includes a mandatory Inuit Benefits Plan, which requires bidders to file a plan outlining how they will provide benefits to Inuit businesses and communities.
Wendy Stueck