Rankin Inlet (Mar 23/05) - They never saw it coming.

That's what Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre director George Dunkerley said of the decision to cut funding to the centre's youth program.

Program funding comes through the Urban Multipurpose Aboriginal Youth Centre (UMAYC), and is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year on March 31.

Dunkerley said the initiative has become quite important to Rankin Inlet youth during the past six years.

Features of the program include traditional hunting and fishing land camps, youth support for the Rankin to Arviat dog derby, cultural initiatives such as drum making, drum dancing, throat singing and whale hunting, and various school projects such as iglu building.

"The whole purpose is to reconnect youth to their culture and heritage by interaction with elders and participation in our cultural programs," said Dunkerley.

"Our UMAYC funding came to us through the National Association of Friendship Centres, after going through the Nunavut/NWT Council of Friendship Centres in Hay River.

"The Hay River council pulled the plug on us."

No sign of trouble

Dunkerley said the friendship centre submitted its proposal in early December.

When two months went by without any further correspondence, he assumed it was business as usual.

"We had no idea this was coming.

"We heard absolutely nothing from the December council meeting, so we assumed everything was fine.

"Then, this past month, we received a letter informing us that our proposal was declined.

"That was the first inclination we had over the direction being taken."

Reason for decision

Dunkerley said the council made its decision because the Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) also receives UMAYC funding through Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

He said while it's true the KIA receives UMAYC funding for the Kivalliq region, the vast majority of that money is spent on programs in Arviat and Baker Lake.

"As I understand it, the problem stems from the fact the KIA proposal states its funding benefits youth in Rankin, Arviat and Baker.

"However, Heritage Canada provided us with the information the council based its decision on.

"During the 2003-04 fiscal year, the KIA had an UMAYC budget of $220,000, of which less than $10,000 was directly attributable to Rankin, with everything else being spent in Arviat and Baker.

"But that was enough for the council to decide there was a duplication of services and now we're no longer eligible for funding."

Depressing news

Noah Tiktak has been guiding the youth program since June of 2000.

He said he was staggered when Dunkerley broke the funding news to him this past month.

"I just thought, no, this can't be right. This program is far too important to our local youth for this to happen," said Tiktak.

"For the first little bit, I just kept getting more and more depressed, but being involved in getting ready for the dog derby from Rankin to Arviat this week has helped lighten my mood a bit.

"All I can do now is wait and see."

Dunkerley said the youth program receives $155,000 in annual funding.

He said while it's too late to do anything for the coming fiscal year, he hopes to secure funding again in 2006.

"We're doing a lot of screaming right now in hopes of getting our funding restored for next year.

"The people in Hay River left it so late to notify us of their decision, we couldn't do anything physically about this year."

Call for help

Dunkerley said he has enough administrative monies left over from the previous year to cover Tiktak's wages until the end of April.

In the meantime, he's desperately searching for other funding sources for the youth program, including sending a funding proposal to the Department of Culture Language Elders and Youth, and trying to tap into the Justice department's Community Mobilization anti-crime monies.

"Our youth program is going to continue somehow, but, until we get some dollars flowing through from somewhere, we won't know exactly what we're going to be able to do.

"I keep reassuring Noah as best I can, but, in the worst-case scenario of everyone saying no to our requests for funding, what do we do then?"