Economic development and local agency in Pond Inlet: A community in Baffin Region, Northwest Territories

In Canada over the last decade, economic development policy-makers have emphasized the role that localities can play in creating or capitalizing on their own capacities for development. Through an investigation of the situation in Pond Inlet, Northwest Territories, the author defines the role that local agency has played in the economic development process in that community. This investigation, based upon interviews of the role players and a broad literature search, involved an examination of the evolution of the economic development organizational structure over the last decade. More specifically, the author evaluated how the individual roles of the different development institutions and the relationships between them changed over time. The research results show that local agency has not played a significant part in the economic development process, but several improvements have been made over the last ten years. There has been a devolution of policy-making power to the pan-regional level (mainly the Governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut). Business creation and training funding decisions have been devolved to several organizations at the pan-regional and regional levels. Lastly, some very significant improvements in inter-organizational collaboration have been made over the last five years, especially at the regional level