North West Company makes two $25,000 donations to Nunavut non-profits at renovated Iqaluit Northern opening

No longer a Northmart, the renovated Iqaluit Northern store held its official grand opening on Oct. 2, following three years of renovations.

The North West Company owners donated $25,000 to suicide prevention non-profit Embrace Life Council and an additional $25,000 to the Uquutaq Society homeless shelter at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Renovating the store cost in the “tens and tens of millions” of dollars, though an exact figure was not given, according to Jim Caldwell, the Canadian retail manager for The North West Company.

“It’s one of the most expensive, complicated construction/reconstruction projects of a store in our company’s history, and just shows the commitment to the people of Iqaluit,” Caldwell said.

Close to 60 Iqalummiut were employed during the renovations from KRT Electrical, Dominic’s Fire Protection, Baffin Building Systems, Qikiqtani Logistics, and Nunavut Excavating.

“We grew the number of employees in Iqaluit by 43 per cent throughout the Iqaluit market this year, and we’ve gone from 180 employees to 257 in Iqaluit,” Caldwell said.

The company has four stores in Iqaluit, and the Iqaluit Northern alone usually has 100 staff, with 45 of them being Inuit.

Caldwell said the most challenging part of the renovation was the coordination of retail activity.

“We replaced the roof, all new floors, every inch of the store has been renovated, and the store didn’t close for a single minute,” he said.

The outside of the retail location features a mural of late Juanisialuk Irqumia’s ‘Hunting Walrus by Kayak,’ making it one of the largest public art pieces in the territorial capital.

A permanent plaque honouring Irqumia will be placed in the Northern store’s meats section.

Irqumia was one of the original inhabitants of Puvirnituq, Nunavik (Northern Quebec).