Rankin Inlet (Dec 15/04) - The Kataujaq Day Care in Rankin Inlet is the lowest ranked of eight Kivalliq day cares in terms of accessing Aboriginal Human Resources Development Agreement (AHRDA) funding, said the executive director for Kivalliq Partners in Development.

Kivalliq Partners in Development executive director Ron Dewar goes over funding requirements for Kivalliq day cares.

Ron Dewar said that being the case, he has met with both Kataujaq Society president Rod Hicks and its executive director, Evelyn Thordarson.

"We've been talking in an attempt to try and identify the issues and move forward," said Dewar.

"We feel we're moving in the right direction and making some progress."

Dewar said there is only one funding pie which Kivalliq Partners has to cut up and try to meet everyone's needs as best it can.

But, he said, no matter how you cut it up, it's still the same pie.

"If you cut another piece or make a piece larger, someone else's piece is going to get smaller as a result."

Dewar said he would like to explore the possibility of subsidizing wages at the Kataujaq Day Care.

Kivalliq Partners knows people are being trained on the job there and may be able to help out in that area, he said.

"Nobody's denying the importance of the Kataujaq Day Care to Rankin Inlet.

"It's a necessity to this community and we'd like to find ways to be able to co-operate in helping with its funding needs."

Kivalliq rankings

A four-level system is used to determine funding criteria among the eight Kivalliq day cares.

Only the Baker Lake Day Care meets Level 1 funding criteria.

Day cares in Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour, Rankin (Ajaaja Day Care Society), Repulse Bay and Whale Cove meet Level 2 criteria.

Both Arviat's Qitikliq Shared Care and the Kataujaq Day Care are listed as meeting Level 3 criteria. However, Dewar said the Kataujaq's rating comes with an asterisk -- due to having more white board members than Inuit -- because it does not meet the first priority of Level 4 funding.

The criteria for funding under the AHRDA is set out in the Nunavut Inuit Childcare Planning Report.

"The AHRDA stakeholders were brought together for a workshop in 2000, during which they worked on a strategy to determine how the program would be operated.

"They set up the four categories, and the fourth category represents the last common denominator for what could qualify for funding.

"That category specifically states the day care must be Inuit directed and controlled and we have to apply the criteria."

White message not sent

The intent of the criteria is to give aboriginal people control over their own programs.

Dewar, who has only held his position for about 15 weeks, said he thought the issue of board members had been addressed with the Kataujaq Society in 2002.

He said he has seen no records indicating the society was ever told it was being denied funding for having white board members.

"I have no personal knowledge of that kind of statement having ever been made to a representative of the Kataujaq Society," said Dewar.

"It would be foreign to me to even think that.

"The standard always applied in the North, rightly or wrongly, is 50 per cent plus one represents a majority.

"I'm not asking anybody to have anything in any way.

"But we're obligated to apply the criteria as established and I have no way out of that."

Dewar said the Kataujaq Society has to do its part to secure funding for the day care, and that includes providing better financial documents.

He said Human Resources and Development sets the level of accountability KPID expects from entities it funds. "When this level of accountability was asked for from the Kataujaq Society, it was not supplied.

"In reviewing the files, there may have been a communication breakdown on what they were told had to be supplied.

"But we're audited at the end of the year and we have to expect a certain level of compliance from the organizations we deal with.

"At this point, the most important element is the financial statement.

"That's the beginning."