Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (July 25/01) - The hamlet of Rankin Inlet has pulled off an impressive financial turnaround.

The hamlet has managed to turn a $432,602 operational deficit for the 1999-2000 fiscal year into a surplus of just over $28,000 for the last fiscal year.

Hamlet senior administrator Ron Roach attributed three-quarters of the improvement to the selling of a number of hamlet-owned houses, with the balance coming by way of increased revenues.

"Our garbage revenues increased dramatically during the past year," said Roach.

"We collected almost an extra $70,000 in garbage revenues this year just by reconciling the land leases to the garbage bills.

"There were more than 100 people not on the list who were receiving garbage services for nothing."

The hamlet also saw a dramatic rise in its bingo and Nevada revenues.

The take from the gaming sector more than tripled, going to $176,390 from $53,339 the year before.

All proceeds from bingo and Nevada sales are spent within the recreation department.

Roach said sloppy paperwork by previous administrations lead to people receiving free hamlet services. "There wasn't any care taken to details. It was go with the flow and don't worry about it."

Although municipal services are now at an 85 per cent rate of collection, land leases are still causing major cash flow problems for the hamlet.

The hamlet has about $250,000 in land-lease revenues at 90 days or more in arrears. Hamlet council passed a motion on July 16 directing Roach to seek legal action in collecting the arrears.

Ticking time bomb

The biggest threat facing the Rankin council is the huge debenture hanging over its head on the more than $2 million in loans for land development in Area 6.

At the time the development project was conceived, hamlet council was banking on the Nunavut government buying at least three lots per year for public housing in Rankin.

That scenario never unfolded and the current council is saddled with a budget based on selling four lots a year at equity leases.

The price of a lot in Area 6 is up to $55,400, putting it out of reach for the vast majority of hamlet residents.

"We have the money to cover this year's payment, but, come December 2002, if we don't have enough money ($410,000) to cover the interest and principal on our debenture, the money will be taken out of our general revenue account.

"So even though we have a surplus, the hamlet still can't plan to go out and fix up roads, improve rec facilities or start new trails because we have this large outstanding debt we have to pay."