Our Featured Celebration

 

August 19th is National Penguin Awareness Day. (It's also National Aviation Day. Doesn't that strike you as a needless bit of cruelty to our flightless avian friends?). Ever eager to do our bit for scholarship and enhance the Penguin Awareness of our readership, we present the following chart to assist you in correctly identifying Penguins.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CONSILIUM, AARLUK and ARDOS... In this corner of our site we'll be posting notes on new people, new projects, and new online materials you may find interesting. Enjoy, and come back often.

NEW PROJECTS

Terry Rudden will be working with Thomas Patterk and other officials of the Department of Economic Development and Transportation to help implement the Department's Inuit Employment Plan. The plan will help this key GN Department achieve its long-term goal of 85% Inuit employment.

ONGOING PROJECTS

Work is continuing on the completion of a pre-feasibility study for the Iqaluit Deepwater Port Facility for the City of Iqaluit. With the ice now gone from Frobisher Bay it is possible to get out on the water and have a closer look at where the facility might be constructed. This photo of one of the regular Petroleum Tankers visiting Iqaluit each season shows the vessel at anchor in a prime potential site for construction of the wharf. This Aarluk Consulting project is headed by Terry Forth with other team members from Gartner Lee Ltd. and help from Aarluk partner Fred Weihs and staff member Ryan Lotan.

James Arreak delivered successful one-day "Introduction to Cross Cultural Supervision" workshop to managers and supervisors of Kitnuna Projects at the CAM-2 DEW Line Site and at their head office in Cambridge Bay. The course forms part of the Nunavut Tunngavik DEW Line Clean-up Training Program, which has financial support from the Department of National Defence. Also involved in preparation and delivery of the course were Terry Rudden, Fred Weihs and Patti Black of Aarluk Consulting. The course helps managers to understand different cultural approaches to leadership, planning, decision-making and communication. The design team are currently completing a two-week, full time program for new supervisors.

Consilium is in the final stages of completing an evaluation of hte Cree Human Resources Development Agreement, a five-year agreement on employment and trainng between HRSDC and the Cree of James Bay of northern Quebec.  Despite challenges that included isolated communities, Goose Break, and forest firest, the draft final report is just about completed.

Best Gig of the Summer Award:  Chris Grosset and associate Marla Limousiun will be spending the first two weeks of August holding consultations and conducting site visits for the Fossil Creek Project in Coral Harbour, and the Northwest Passage Trail in Gjoa Haven. The first week of August will see Chris and Marla joined by Godfrey Nolan and Keith Dewing, palaeontologists with GeoSciences Canada, in Coral Harbour. This lucky crew will be inventorying the fossil resources at Fossil Creek, and then working with members of the community to finalize a plan to develop educational materials on fossils and an interpretive walking trail along the creek. The site is one of only a few fully exposed fossil sites in Nunavut. The fossils in the creek bed were laid down at a time when Southampton Island was located in the southern hemisphere and was the floor of a shallow sea. (This photo is of a portion of a nautiloid found at the Fossil Creek site (the hard shell of an ammonite that lived in the shallow water of a warm tropical sea more than 450 million years before present).

For the second week of August, Chris and Marla continue to Gjoa Haven. Working with the community historical society and Nancy White of Nunavut Territorial Parks department, a plan will be developed to revitalize the signs along the Northwest Passage hiking trail. The current signage tells visitors about the communities history and of Roald Amundsen, who wintered several years before being the first to complete the journey through the passage in 1906. The existing signage is in disrepair; working with local historians, the hope is to expand the interpretive message to include the role of this area in the search for the Northwest Passage, including the story of the doomed Franklin expedition. Check back next month for photos and a trip update!

Terry Forth recently met with the Nunavut Planning Commission in Yellowknife, as part of an overall review of the Commissions's corporate policies and procedures. Further work leading to specific recommendations is now proceeding with additional help from Terry Rudden and Fred Weihs. Established under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, the NPC is responsible for land use planning and various aspects of environmental reporting and management in the territory.

 

ARDOS continues to support the Building Environmental Aboriginal Human Resources (BEAHR) project. Ron Ryan participated in a Calgary planning session with representatives from the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Council of Canada (AHRDCC) and Environmental Careers of Canada (EOC). While in Calgary Ron donned the colourful local attire and ventured to wave the ARDOS flag at the Calgary Stampede. Pictured left to right:  Tanya Tucker, Mark Shilliday, Trina Maher and Ron Ryan

Ron and associate Wenda Watteyne also participated in a planning staff retreat of the AHRDCC at the Elk Ridge Resort, Saskatchewan. This session addressed the question of how best the Council can attract more Aboriginal people into the labour force. but golfing skills of the participants were enhanced with Ron almost getting a hole in one.

Hard on the heels of his Western Swing, the dauntless Ron Ryan headed East to Labrador, where he worked with the HR Committee of the Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) to develop a basic framework for planning for the HR requirements of the new Nunatsiavut Government. A transitional structure is to be completed by the fall of 2005.

Fred Weihs, Chris Grosset, Joan Freeman and Jane Chapman are preparing a Technical Guide to Management Planning for Parks Canada. The Guide, which sets out the planning process and content for development of five-year management plans covering the operations and activities of all National Parks, National Historic Sites, and National Marine Conservation Areas in Canada, is designed primarily for use by Parks Canada Superintendents and Planners.

 

HAPPY ENDINGS

Ron Ryan wrapped up this year's delivery of the Municipal Training Organization/Nunavut Arctic College training courses with a delivery of the Community Development and Community Economic Development courses in Cambridge Bay. Ron worked with Economic Development Officers from across the Kitikmeot Region. Ron shared the podium with special guest Brian McLeod, CEO of Qikiqtaaluk Corporation and a Nunasi Board member, who spoke on the contribution of Nunasi and QC to the economy of Nunavut.

Terry Forth and Paul Crowley presented a report to the Government of Nunavut (GN) on a proposed Land Use Planning Framework Policy developed by an Aarluk Consulting team that also included Lois Leslie and Neida Gonzalez. The Framework Policy is intended to help finalize GN direction to the Nunavut Planning Commission in response to Article 11.1.4 (a) of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

This month marks the birthday of the Consilium partner we secretly refer to as "The Godfather"... the guy the rest of us turn to when we get stuck on a project. A man as modest as he is wise, he insisted that we ignore his birthday in this edition. And of course, we will respect his wishes by preserving his anonymity through careful digital retouching.

 

GOSSIP

 

 

In September Lawrence Osgood, old friend of Consiliumites Greg Smith, Terry Rudden & Valerie Assinewe, and one of the original designers of IBC's groundbreaking "Takuginai" series, will be publishing "Midnight Sun", a novel set in the fictitious Arctic hamlet of Poniktuk. To quote the publisher's description, "In one long bright night, spirits and humans collide, with horrific consequences".

Read  more (or even better, order a copy!)  at http://www.gooselane.com/gle/coming.htm

 

 

 

 

Associate Clive Tesar has just returned from a one-month European tour, and promises pictures for the next newsletter.

 

Ryan Lotan and partner Leila hosted this year's Consilium SummerFest at their newly acquired chateau in the secluded but prestigious Pineglen district of Ottawa. The event featured the usual gourmet barbecue, scintillating conversation, and an impressive display of nocturnal aerobatics by the neighbourhood bats.

 

          

 

CHECK BACK EVERY MONTH FOR MORE CONSILIUM NEWS, TOOLS, AND GOSSIP.