Coppermine (Oct 18/04) - The Kugluktuk Visitor and Heritage Centre has been closed since June because the community has no money to pay a manager or staff to run it.

"We need a cultural centre here, but we can't keep a director," said Alex Buchan, a spokesperson for the hamlet.

"We had to close at the height of the tourist season."

Desperate to get their five-year-old cultural centre back up and running, Kugluktuk hamlet officials contacted the Kitikmeot Heritage Society in Cambridge Bay last month.

Society spokesperson Kim Crockatt said it is in talks right now with the hamlet to look at ways of helping out.

"We need to find out how the centre is run in Kugluktuk before we can do anything," she said.

"But we would certainly like to help."

While exact tourism numbers in Nunavut are a little fuzzy, Cambridge Bay's May Hakongak Community Library and Cultural Centre has welcomed 8,904 visitors since Jan. 1, so the team there does have some expertise to offer.

But Crockatt said the tourism industry -- even the well-organized Cambridge Bay team and the Nunavut Tourism Centre itself -- barely get by financially.

Training the next generation of cultural centre staff is an even more difficult matter, "Funding is so limited," she said.

The starting wage is $18 per hour at the Kitikmeot Heritage Society and salaries go up from there which makes attracting applicants hard.

"We have to compete with the government," she said.