by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 02/96) - The government can find $150,000 to air lift 25 caribou to safety, but is miserly when it comes to a crisis facing the people of Grise Fiord, says High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas.

Last week in the legislature Barnabas repeated a call for financial assistance to offset the cost of airlifting freight, including food, to the community co-op, which this year was frozen out of a fall sealift run.

The cost, after insurance coverage, of flying the goods into the community is expected to total $80,000, said Barnabas.

Last month the government committed $150,000 to the relocation of 25 Peary caribou facing starvation on Bathurst Island. The project was aborted due to bad weather, reducing the cost to $30,000.

But Premier Don Morin said the government has not left Grise Fiord out in the cold.

"This government is prepared to consider on a case-by-case basis all submissions for assistance," said Morin.

"To date we have received one submission for financial assistance from Grise Fiord, from the hamlet administrator."

Morin said the requests should include itemized cargo lists, a costing out of alternate deliveries, any applicable insurance claims, and some evidence of hardship that resulted from the missed sea lift.

The hamlet submission is currently being reviewed, he added.

That method of response is inadequate, said Barnabas. "It will take forever."

Co-op manager Doug Beiers concurred.

"That's just blowing into the wind. Can you see the Inuit people making lists of all they use and their extra costs -- they're not used to dealing with bureaucracies."

Beiers said the co-op has had 90 per cent of the missed supplies flown in and has been selling them at sealift prices on assurances help was forthcoming.

"We went on the trust that the government would assist the community," said Beiers. "But the end (of sealift prices) is coming close. We're having a meeting about it with people in the community tomorrow (Wednesday) night."

On Oct. 4, when Barnabas first informed the assembly of the issue, Morin said, "Right now, people from the Department of Transportation, as well as people from Public Works, as well as people from MACA, are working on the issue to make sure that community is adequately supplied for the year to come."

On Wednesday, however, Morin said the co-op is partially to blame for the problem.

"If they had used the government sealift (instead of a private operation), this wouldn't have been an issue, because it got through," Morin said.

"That's no excuse," Barnabas later said. "The co-op was trying to save money by using their own ship. That's not their fault -- it's nobody's fault the ice came in early."

Beiers said this is the first time since the 1950s that the co-op has missed its sea lift.