Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 10, 2007

NWT/NUNAVUT - Cheques from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement are beginning to trickle into communities across the North, and the North West Company - owner of Northern store and NorthMart - is readying its stores for the influx of extra cash.

Doug Kossack, manager of the Northern store in Paulatuk, stocks up on Easter goodies in March 2004. Northern stores and North Marts across the NWT and Nunavut are preparing for the influx of residential school payments by waiving the cheque-depositing fee and expanding product lines. - NNSL file photo FACT FILE • the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was implemented starting Sept. 19; to date the government has received more than 80,800 applications for the common experience payment and issued 30,470 cheques to former students • every eligible former student who applies will receive a $10,000 common experience payment plus $3,000 for each additional year of attendance at residential school • the average payment is estimated to be $28,000 • more than 6,100 students who attended residential schools in the three Northern territories, including 14 schools in the NWT and 13 in Nunavut, are expected to receive payments Source: Government of Canada

"We have considered the full implication of this thing," said Jim Deyell, a spokesman for the company.

"It's considerable in terms of helping manage the funds for the individuals who are receiving these cheques. That's the big issue."

Yellowknife, Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Norman Wells, Hay River, Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay are the only communities with one bank or more listed in the Yellow Pages.

But the North West Company has a debit card system in place. Every Northern store in both territories is equipped with an ATM - even Tsiigehtchic, a Beaufort Delta community with a population of 185.

Store managers will process very large sums of money received by the first round of beneficiaries. The total settlement amount for common experience payments is $1.9 billion nationally. More than $171 million is expected to go to former students in the three Northern territories.

"The system we have in place we feel can handle the transactions for these cheques," Deyell said.

While cheque-cashing and ATM transactions at a Northern store are both normally subject to a $3 fee, the cheque-cashing fee for beneficiaries will be waived, said Deyell.

The limit imposed on cheque-cashing or account withdrawals - $2,000 per transaction - will remain the same, and for good reason, given the security concerns that such vast amounts of money bring with them, said Deyell.

He said the debit service offers the freedom of having the money on your person, without carrying cash.

"So the flexibility is there, as it is with any debit card, to go where you want and use it as you will for whatever services you want to get," he said.

Given that the payments are coming during the fall and winter season, stores are stocking up on merchandise such as snowmobiles, four-wheelers and outboard motors as well as large household items such as washers, dryers and fridges.

Other Northern businesses are waiting to see what will happen as residential school settlement cheques continue to arrive.

John Bursey, general manager of the Tetlit Co-op in Fort McPherson, said some community members have already received residential school payments, but he hasn't seen that money coming into the store so far.

"I guess some banked it, some spent some of it. I thought they would come in and pay their Co-op accounts with it, but that never happened," he said.

Bursey suspects many potential customers are flocking to Inuvik.

"It's a bigger town. It's got more places to spend your money, I guess. And the bank is up there, too," he said.

Some beneficiaries have asked for credit on their upcoming payments, but Bursey's response has always been the same.

"No way. Not residential money. That's a job for a bank, not for us," he said.

Bursey added that beneficiaries are not keeping their new money a secret.

"People talk openly about it. If somebody gets a cheque, you know exactly the amount it was."