Michael Kostelnuk
Northern News Services

WINNIPEG, MAN (Feb 08/99) - Save the angel of the North!

That was the cry of former Nunavut interim commissioner Jack Anawak as he spoke in support of rescuing Gloria Penner's financially-troubled Ublivik Inuit Centre.

Penner earned the "angel" nickname during her 30 years of operating the Ublivik Centre, a boarding home for Keewatin patients and relatives coming to Winnipeg for medical treatment.

Saying he has visited many boarding homes, Anawak asserted that, "(Ublivik) is the best-run boarding home ever."

Speaking from Rankin Inlet by telephone conference call to about 50 people at the centre, Anawak said Penner's firm, Eastgate Inuit Enterprises, has consistently provided Keewatin residents with service far superior in quality to that called for in the original contract with the Keewatin Regional Health Board (KRHB).

Eastgate began to work without a contract in 1993, and the monthly stipend from KRHB has not increased since then, said Ublivik Centre spokesperson Ron Butterfield, "even though (the number of guests at the centre) has increased 47 per cent."

Butterfield said for several years after the expiration of the original contract, Penner was promised a new contract but was never actually offered one, and the frequent changing of KRHB board members and chief executive officers made it difficult for her to pursue the matter.

Penner said despite the frozen stipend and the lack of a contract, she kept the centre going with help from friends and sympathizers. Now, deeply in debt, she has threatened to close.

Penner's lawyers have placed a proposal before KRHB based on an updated version of the original contract. If it will pay her about $113,000 in a block sum and then approximately $67,000 monthly until April 1, when Nunavut comes into being, it will clear her of all debt related to the centre. If no action has been taken or communication established regarding the proposal, Butterfield said Penner will close Feb. 12.

Butterfield said if Penner's financial problems were resolved, she would be willing to continue running the centre beyond April 1.

Anawak said he is contacting KRHB members and other area officials to make them aware that if Ublivik Centre is closed, "there will be hell to pay. It is critical that the dollars are provided to keep it going."

Anawak placed part of the blame on the frequent turnover of KRHB members and the equally frequent turnover of the board's chief executive officers. Anawak, who is seeking a seat in the Nunavut assembly, said, "I will continue to support the centre if I am elected and even if I am not elected."

Butterfield said Keith Best, chief executive officer of KRHB, had agreed to participate from Iqaluit in the conference call, but could not be reached when telephoned.

Butterfield was also critical of Greg Lemoine, the federal official in charge of uninsured (health) benefits for the Northwest Territories. He said he had been assured Lemoine would come from Ottawa to attend the meeting, but he did not show up.

Lemoine was to bring documentation clarifying the financial dealings between the benefits program and the KRHB. Butterfield said he had been stonewalled in his efforts to obtain documentation supporting Penner's suspicion that her firm was denied adequate funding which was supposedly in the hands of the KRHB.