KUGLUKTUK/PELLY BAY - The hamlet of Kugluktuk says the Kugluktuk Radio Society is being evicted from a hamlet-owned building due to lack of funding, but society volunteers say there is no need for them to move.

Researchers with the Nunavut Climate Change Adaptation Project participate in a broadcast series with the Kugluktuk Radio Society. From left, Elisabeth Arnold, Savannah Angnaloak, Chris Elgok, and Ken Johnson. - photo courtesy of Kugluktuk Radio Society

The hamlet of Kugluktuk is shutting down the Horseshoe building, which has been home to the local radio station for the past 10 years, Kugluktuk Radio Society volunteer Mike Webster said.

The KRS operates two radio stations in Kugluktuk; 105.1, which runs CBC programming and live shows and 88.7, which mostly delivers music, Webster said.

While the society owns its own separate building, which is home to the 105.1 station, Webster said the Horseshoe building's tower is one of the main reasons the society wants to stay in the building.

The tower allows 88.7 to reach Cambridge Bay and Holman, which KRS director Tammy Tiktalek said is a way to connect the three communities.

"So our families can hear," she said when asked why the tower was important.

The station regularly plays the Diamond Jenness collection, a music collection from the 1900s that marks some of the earliest Inuit music ever recorded.

"There are family members who say 'that's my great-great grandmother,'" Webster said.

"It's a fun way to promote language and song and dance, and it's a simple way, really. Just get it out on air."

Webster said the society plans on moving the tower from the Horseshoe building to its own property, but estimates it will cost between $10,000 and $15,000.

"We weren't budgeting for this at all," he said.

The KRS is completely run by volunteers and is funded through the department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth along with funding from the Kitikmeot Economic Development Commission and through running radio bingo, Webster said.

On March 25, Webster received an e-mail from senior administrative officer Grant Scott stating the Horseshoe building was being shut down. The e-mail stated the society had five days to remove its assets from the building.

In another e-mail to Webster, Scott stated the building was being closed because the hamlet can no longer afford to keep it open due to the loss of Aboriginal Healing Foundation funding. Funding through the AHF finished on March 31.

But Webster said the hamlet was maintaining the property before the Aboriginal Healing Foundation began and losing that funding shouldn't result in closing the building.

KRS was scheduled to attend a hamlet council meeting on March 30 to discuss options, such as offering the hamlet $1 to buy the Horseshoe property and transfer all maintenance costs to the KRS, Webster said.

When KRS director Sheila Klengenberg showed up to deliver KRS' presentation, she was told the society was barred from the meeting because they had contacted a lawyer, she said.

Webster said the society had contacted lawyer Steven Cooper, who had sent a letter to Scott on March 30 stating the hamlet was legally required to give KRS three months notice of their eviction.

Webster said the next day he received a formal letter from the hamlet stating the society had three months to vacate the Horseshoe building.

Webster also said he wasn't sure if hamlet councillors were aware of the decision.

"There is no accountability for this decision whatsoever, it's just totally out of the blue," he said.

Phone calls from Nunavut News/North to Grant Scott were not returned and Mayor Ernie Bernhardt declined to comment.