FISHERIES
“The QIA realised they needed a develop-
ment company in order to oversee some
potential business opportunities within
the region,” Flaherty says. “In 1983, the
QC was created as the for-profit arm of
the QIA. At the time, the QC was given
the first offshore fishing licence to harvest
the shrimp and turbot in adjacent waters.”
Today there are 17 northern shrimp li-
censes in the Canadian Northern Shrimp
Fishery, and QC holds 9 per cent of all the
offshore shrimp in Canada (1.5 of these li-
censes). In 2004, QC purchased a 64-me-
tre factory vessel and created Qikiqtaaluk
Fisheries Corporation (QFC). In 2012, the
vessel underwent a major retrofit and was
extended to 76 metres.
Royalties from offshore licences were also
invested in building QC’s other lines of
business and increase Inuit employment.
REAL ESTATE
Once established in the fishing industry,
QC widened its horizons to the real estate
industry—establishing itself as the sec-
ond-largest real estate holder in Nunavut,
with holdings of over $100 million.
Flaherty gave this interview fromQC’s Iglu-
10 business elite canada
H
DECEMBER 2017
