RANKIN INLET - The good news continued to flow during the Kissarvik Co-op Association Ltd.'s annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet this past month.

From left, Noah and Lynda Pamiyuk are all smiles while accepting a new ATV from store manager Walter Morey during the Kissarvik Coop's annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet this past month. - photo courtesy of Glenn Woodford

Store manager Walter Morey said the Co-op declared a patronage dividend of $550,000 for the past

fiscal year, which allowed it to do a $150,000 share repurchase.

He said that money went back into member accounts to be used on store purchases.

"The share repurchase is divided among the members based on how much money they spent with the store, including cable payments," said Morey.

"The share repurchase was done on May 18, and this was the second year in a row we were able to do this.

"Last year, we were able to do a $50,000 share repurchase from a $100,000 patronage dividend.

"We had a large deficit to overcome before we could do any of this, and that required a number of years of positive returns to eliminate."

Morey said with no deficit to hinder its operations, the Co-op was able to do a much larger distribution this year.

He said the Rankin Co-op is getting healthy and he's seeing increased member ownership in the co-operative.

"We're increasing the portion of the Co-op our members actually own, and that enables us to look at other projects that might come our way.

"Our expansion projects have been successful, and we're going to continue

to grow the business we have."

Morey said the local Co-op board of directors has been excellent, with very good participation and regular meetings being held every month.

He said two directors, Lynn Rudd and Wesley Inukshuk, were re-elected to the board during the AGM.

"We also had a new person join the board this year in Alex Sammurtok.

"We had a slate of seven candidates going into the AGM for three positions and they were all quality people.

"I was very pleased when I looked at the slate because there were so many good candidates on it.

"It's nice to see people interested in being involved with their local Co-op."

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