Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (July 29/02) - Two youth camps scheduled for the North Baffin this summer were cancelled after their funding application came in late.

Organized as part of Iqrinnaqtuq Project -- the North Baffin Personal Development Initiative -- the camps were supposed to provide youths with healing and suicide prevention skills in a traditional Inuit camp setting.

The idea was that the youths, chosen for their leadership initiative, would then pass on their knowledge to others in their home communities.

However, a funding proposal submitted by the Ilisaqsivik Society in Clyde River, the birthplace of the Iqrinnaqtuq Project, was denied by the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

Ilisaqsivik director and co-ordinator Annette Taylor said it was "disconcerting that this proposal wasn't looked at. It's disappointing, very disappointing."

Taylor said personnel from the department said that by the time they'd received the request for $57,000, the government had already spent the available funding.

"The reality is when I found out at the end of June that we weren't going to get any funding, there was no way to turn this around," said Taylor. "This just isn't going to happen this summer."

Phoebe Etuangat, administrative officer of community grants and contributions for the department, said it was an unfortunate case of a missed deadline.

Ilisaqsivik didn't submit its proposal until June 11. The deadline was April 30.

Etuangat said that, given the vast number of requests she receives for funding, it's crucial to respect strict deadlines.

"Most are very good applications and with so many in front of me, we can only do what we receive by deadline," said Etuangat.

She added that she advised Ilisaqsivik to reapply in the fall when another call for proposals was issued.