Chair's Message

Welcome to our website. Thank-you for the opportunity to share a little about our organization and what we strive to do to deliver the results our stakeholders expect. Our corporate name defines who we are and what we have spent the last twenty-five years building to become.

The Inuvialuit, are the "Eskimo people" of the western Canadian Arctic. For generations we have inhabited the barrenlands adjacent to and within the Mackenzie Delta, the coastal region along the Beaufort Sea and the islands to the north, particularly Banks and Victoria. These are our traditional hunting areas and remain so today where most family members take time during the year to return to the land and sea, apply their traditional skills and share nature's bounty.

Our Arctic environment is described by many as harsh and extreme. We live beyond the treeline and adapt to a world of permafrost (permanently frozen ground, in some places up to 1500 metres thick), where life survives an annual cycle of weeks of cold, sunless and silent winter and an equal number of weeks of sometimes surprisingly warm, twenty-four hour sunlight when the land and water come alive with the beauty of nature in a frenzy of feeding before the next blanket of white returns. We call this home.

It is from some 90,000 square kilometers of land settled as the Final Land Claim Agreement with the Government of Canada and for the 5,000 Inuvialuit who live in the region that IDC is mandated to be the business investment arm and a key economic engine for the beneficial shareholders of the claim.

Our role is to invest in existing businesses with a connection to the north that we can advance with our financial and people resources. Companies that seek to import their services into the northern economy and those that come to export our resources to world markets will find IDC worth considering as a welcome and contributing partner to their successful ventures in our region. Our portfolio has become quite diversified, with interests that span several industry and service sectors. We have expanded our reach to include investments from across the Arctic, southern Canada and recently into the United States.

As a business corporation, we answer through our parent company, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation to the Inuvialuit beneficial shareholders. We generate earnings for redistribution and re-investment, create jobs and career opportunities locally and beyond for Inuvialuit and strengthen the capacity of our community to prosper in the broader economy.

As IDC has now long celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, I am pleased to work with a dedicated board of directors and staff and influence the commitment of over 1,200 employees who work within our subsidiaries. We would like to hear from you. So please contact us via the address information on the contact tab or should you visit Inuvik, please drop by our corporate headquarters. Business is our business! We look forward to learning more of your interest in partnering for success.

Wayne Gordon
Chair, Inuvialuit Development Corporation