Inuvik (June 20/03) - An Inuvik woman with a proposal to clean up the town feels her plan was torpedoed by the people she thought would be best served by it.

At Monday night's committee of the whole, Barbara Armstrong, founder of the Inuvik Recycling Society made a presentation to council and asked for their support to form a local Green Team.

Armstrong made the proposal to the department of Social Services, who are offering $100,000 for three years to demonstration projects to bolster community wellness.

"The idea is to build our sense of community through these green projects," Armstrong said during her presentation. "This isn't about environmental projects, it's about a community-based project."

She has sought out and received support from the Inuvik Native Band, the Gwich'in Tribal Council, the Inuvik Community Corporation, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and needed a letter of support from the town.

Coun.. Marja Van Nieuwenhuyzen, Cheryl Sharpe, Alfred Moses and Mayor Peter Clarkson are all members of the Inuvik Interagency Committee, which has applied for the same social services funds.

When asked why no one declared a conflict, Van Nieuwenhuyzen said she never considered it to be a conflict, but said that they would discuss that when they went in camera.

At Wednesday night's regular council meeting, Jamie Stewart from the Inuvik Interagency Committee was added to the agenda, to present a proposal seeking a support letter for the same funding as Armstrong's proposal.

During the presentation, Coun. Van Nieuwenhuyzen brought up the conflict issue. Mayor Clarkson said the group has representation from all levels of government and there is no conflict.

"The fact that you would not be, nor would any of the other members of council, benefitting directly from the proposal, would mean that there is not a direct conflict," Clarkson said.

Coun. Sharpe made a motion to write a letter of support for the interagency committee. All voted in favour.

Later, Armstrong said she followed all the proper steps in her proposal and felt her plan was dismissed by a biased council and was miffed that they allowed the process to be circumvented in favour of the interagency proposal.

"Why they would allow someone on a Wednesday, to make a presentation in response to a Monday issue ... I'm not so sure about all this," Armstrong said.

One week before the deadline, Armstrong had checked with the funder and no other Inuvik group had applied, but in the final days leading up to the deadline, the Interagency group put together their proposal.

"They started all this three days before the proposal was due," Armstrong said.

She felt her plan should have been left for the funders to decide the merits of both proposals. She said the best thing about her proposal was the plan to bring people together in a unified goal, but now she feels it's had the opposite effect.

"I feel deflated," she said. "I feel like I've created more barriers than I brought down with this."