Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Feb 11/02) - After years struggling with red tape, Inuit healing groups say they are finding it easier to collect a portion of the $350 million available for victims of residential school abuse.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation was created in 1998 as the federal government's way of atoning for the intergenerational effects of abuse at the hands of residential school instructors.

The organization funds projects throughout Canada and will continue to accept proposals until August 2004.

Until recently, Nunavummiut who submitted complained the process was excessively complicated.

Of a dozen proposals from Nunavut, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation had accepted just two by last February.

Since then, the foundation has streamlined its application process and published its handbook in Inuktitut. The foundation's employees also travelled to Nunavut communities, giving workshops on how to apply.

These developments have brought the total number of projects up. A spokesperson for the AHF said four projects are approved, two are pending. However, a visit to the organization's Web site revealed two of the approved projects are actually renewals, which the foundation confirmed.

In total, the foundation has received 14 submissions from Nunavut.

Beverly Illauq, co-ordinator of the Ilisaqsivik Family Resource Centre in Clyde River, became frustrated two years ago after her 60-page proposal was rejected. At the time, she said the foundation was more focused on red tape than on healing.

She applied again. "This time we got help," she said.

Illauq said the foundation sent someone to Clyde River to help and followed up with phone calls. "We feel they finally understand how our communities work."

Bureaucracy skeptic

But Jack Anawak, minister of culture, language, elders and youth, and a product of the residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, remains critical of the foundation.

He calls the foundation a cash cow for the board of directors and the bureaucracy set up to administer the funds.

"The board gets their money, the bureaucracy gets their money, and if there's any left over it goes to the people who need it the most," he says. "That's essentially how I see it."

In 2001, the foundation paid out $3.6 million in salaries. Board members receive $500 a day if they work more than four hours. The chairman is paid an additional $250 a day. The board typically meets for three full days, four times a year. Members are also paid the same rate for additional teleconferences.

Anawak said the foundation is now under pressure to accept more proposals from Nunavut.

"I'm glad for those six applications," he said. "But that's what they should have done since day one."

Anawak said the government initially announced the grant money with great fanfare. But he became disappointed when people were elected to the board who never attended residential schools.

According to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, at least 10 of the 17 board members went to residential schools. "If you include kids of survivors than it is almost all of them," said executive director Mike Degagne.

The foundation employs 50 people, and Degagne said the interest on the $350 million covers their salaries.

"They say that now," said Anawak. "Why didn't they have a full board from residential schools right from the beginning? Why didn't those six applications get approved three years ago? It's as if they know the jig is up."