You can't blame a Kivalliq mayor for allowing himself to dream a little when it comes to vastly improving his community.

Arviat Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr. said if he had a magic wand, he'd have an unlimited number of houses in Arviat for anyone who wanted a place to call home.

He said they would be all single, detached houses, no apartments.

鈥淚t's a lot better when you have your own space,鈥� said Savikataaq. 鈥淲hen you're in apartments, things start to get crap, you don't have your own personal space and parking is very limited, among other things.

鈥淚 can't tell you what the exact number would be, but it would be whatever the people of Arviat wanted.鈥�

The mayor said his second wish would be for the community hall to be fixed overnight.

He said the hall remains a chronic issue that the hamlet is working on.

鈥淚t's taking a considerable amount of time and it would be nice if there was an easy solution. Another option for that would be to replace the whole complex and get a brand new, state-of-the-art arena with indoor turf that could be used year-round, like down south.

鈥淎nd, as I've said before, another thing would be to improve the quality of education. These things are all possible and they could become reality.鈥�

Savikataaq said with those three improvements, the standard of living would dramatically change in Arviat and there would be a big change in everyone's lives.

There's no doubt it would all be very good for the community, he added.

鈥淭he idea that improved housing would also lessen crime in the community is also legit. To get people away from all the crammed areas and give them more space; that would also be a big positive change in people's lives that would help improve their mental health or mental well-being.

鈥淏ut, the biggest of the three would be education. Once you have very highly-educated community members, then everything else will fall in place, right from businesspeople to entrepreneurs and technical jobs; all of which will help the community in return.鈥�