Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (May 27/02) - About 120 organizations registered in the NWT will be dissolved July 29, as part of a biennial cleanup of defunct societies.

According to territorial law, societies must submit financial documents and a list of directors every year. If a society fails to do so for two years in a row, it can be dissolved.

All kinds of organizations are on the list.

Some, like the Albanian House, a social club incorporated in Yellowknife in 1996, never seemed to have gotten off the ground.

Others go missing in action, like the NWT Hotel Association, incorporated in 1965, and last heard from in 1988.

To make sure no active groups get struck, the Department of Justice's legal registries sent out notices, took out an ad in the newspaper, and even tried to contact directors by phone.

Groups were given until April 30 to contact the department if they wanted to continue operating, but registrar of societies Tony Wong says it's still not too late to resuscitate.

"If they missed their notices, and we didn't manage to contact them, and they missed the advertisement -- if all of those things didn't help them, they still have until July 29 to file their annual notice of directors and annual financial statements, in proper form," Wong says.

After the groups are dissolved, there's no chance they can come back to life with the same name, but if interest grows again, people can always register as a new society.

Being registered as a society gives a group all the legal rights of a natural person, like owning land and opening a bank account. It does not imply charitable status.