But Sergeant Wayne Newell says they haven't found any evidence that the fire was caused deliberately.

He says the fire is still under investigation, but that it was probably caused by something electrical in the manse.

The Manse was build sometime in the 1960's and housed extra Inuktitut Liturgy books, old records of Okak and Nain and other bibles and church records.

So we may never know what caused the fire at the Manse, but it is a big loss for the community of Nain.

Three hundred or so Serco workers went on strike at five AM this morning.

Their union, which is part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, voted eighty-three percent in favour of a strike back in November.

Graham Moorehouse is the Chair of the committee representing the Union.

He says the union's been trying to talk to Serco management since April of 2008, but the company won't listen to them.

Moorehouse says they've been putting forward proposals but the company doesn't agree with them and therefore doesn't accept them. They accuse the union of not wanting to bargain with them.

The workers on strike have a wide range of responsibilities at the base, which include weather forecasting, fire service workers, water supply and maintenance.

Also, plumbing, heating, and electrical workers, runway lights maintenance workers, and ambulance drivers to name a few.

Moorehouse says none of the employees want to be on strike and he's hoping both levels of Government and the Department of National Defense will intervene so the strike will be over soon.

To get more information on the strike and to try and see where it may be going from here, we hope to speak with Moorehouse again, along with a representative from Serco soon.

Tom Paddon is the General Manager.

He says one of the main projects they're focusing on right now is called “Safe Operation” which is to help the employees work more safely at the site.

A total of 460 employees including contractors are working at Voisey's Bay.

And the contractors include Torngait Services Inc., or TSI, Atlantic Security Center, Innu Mikun, and Labrador Catering.

Paddon says recently some of the Innu and Inuit employees have been promoted to higher positions as they get more skills.

He says information sessions about winter shipping have begun on the north coast and the first arrival of Umiak I is scheduled for January 22.

The boat will make 4 trips again this winter.

Paddon says after the nickel prices went down substantially from $20 a pound a year and a half ago to $4.60 a pound last year Vale Inco is paying much more attention to running the business as efficiently as they can.

He says the first way he sees that employees will be affected by this will be the mine site shut down for a month in July.

But the employees will not be laid off, just given vacation time off.

However, there will be some employees left at the site doing essential services.

Arthur Williams is the Mayor of North West River.

He says the town learned that the groomer that was purchased last year was not there, and that to his knowledge Labrador Winter Trails sold it elsewhere in Labrador to pay off some debts.

But now Williams says this deal did not pull through and the groomer was not sold.

He says the town manager and the Minister of Labrador Aboriginal Affairs attended another meeting on last Thursday about the grooming service.

And now the Provincial Government and Minister Hickey are working to get the service back.

He says hopefully once the details are straightened out the Provincial Government will be paying the Grand River Snowmobile Club in Goose Bay to groom the trails for the town until they get the groomer back.

The grooming service will again improve winter trails and allow for safer travels for people who enjoy going on traditional camping and to their cabin sites along the North shore of Lake Melville.

Williams says this will also include grooming from NWR to Mulligan and north of Separation Lake, where the towns of Postville, Rigolet and Makkovik travel through the winter.

However, there are some complications that just might prevent this from happening.

Ray Bennett is the coach for Northern Lights Academy's Eagles.

He says they haven't had any practices yet, because they are just getting back into their regular routine after Christmas.

Another reason Rigolet doesn't have a team, is because of the low number of students in the school.

They only have around 40 students in their entire school, but he hopes to have team tryouts next week.

Bennett says they have19 billets to accommodate athletes from other communities, however they need at least 48 to successfully host the meet.

The school has decided January 30^th will be the deadline to find 48 billets.

If this doesn't happen, another community will take over as host community.

Bennett says this deadline is to provide another community enough time to get enough billets.

At the moment, a secondary community to host this year's winter sportsmeet has not been decided.

The tentative date for this year's meet is March 4^th, and we will keep you updated on whether Rigolet will be the host or not.

But the deadline for essays has come and gone with no submissions entered.

This morning, we contacted Bert Pomeroy the director of communications with the NG for an update.

He says they've extended the deadline, so students have until the end of this week to submit their essays.

If no submissions are received, the NG will publish its annual report without an essay and no prizes will be awarded.

Pomeroy still encourages the youth to make a submission.

They can contact him by telephone at 896-8582, or they can contact their local NG liaison worker for more information.

If the contest ends up getting any submissions, the winner will receive a prize and their essay will be submitted into the NG's Annual Report for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

So youth of Nunatsiavut, get your essays in!

Pomeroy added that they are currently in the process of completing the annual report, so you can look for it soon.

OKâlaKatiget spoke to Sarah Townley who is the Inuit Program Coordinator with the Labrador School Board.

Townley says ten students from Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik , Postville and Rigolet will participate in the Inuttitut speak-off, ranging from grades seven to level three.

She says John Jararuse of Nain, Bertha Ford of Makkovik and Augusta Erving of Hopedale will be there to judge the students.

We also spoke to Bertha Ford who is the Inuttitut teacher for John Christian Erhart in Makkovik.

Ford says she will be there to judge who speaks the most Inuttitut and who is the most understandable.

She says she enjoys listening to the students speak in Inuttitut because it helps the students learn more and speak it.

We also spoke to Christine Nochasak of Makkovik who is the Inuttitut teacher in her community.

She talks about the Rosetta Stone and how it's helping the students in their school.

Nochasak says it helps a lot for grades five, six and seven, and grades two, three and four are still learning how to speak in Inuttitut.

She adds they do not use the Rosetta Stone every day, only when they have Inuttitut classes.