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MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
Despite its overwhelming success and support across the country, Nunavut Arctic College's environmental technology program at Pond Inlet will not run this semester due to a lack of funding.

"We got a letter two days ago that the ETP (Environmental Technology Program) is not being offered until January," said Ivan Koonoo, a graduate of the one-year certificate program that ran last year.

Fourteen students started and one quit to take a full-time job. All the others graduated and were prepared to start the second year of the two-year diploma program this fall, but the college was unable to secure the funds needed. Baffinland had offered to pay for half of the course, on the condition the college would find the other half.

"Government wants Nunavummiut to get more education, but they can't get the course going," Koonoo said. "Half of the program was $50,000, yet government can't find funding for it. That doesn't make any sense."<p align="justify">

Unlike college campus programs offered in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay, community programs do not receive base funding from the government. The environmental technology program is offered annually in Iqaluit, and the college identified Pond Inlet as a place with the demand for such education, as well as the demand for program graduates, said program co-ordinator Ellen Hamilton.

"We have students, and there is employment," Hamilton said. "Unfortunately, in this case, it hasn't been in anybody's plan to fund this. As a result, it has fallen through the cracks."

The January start date will depend on funding, and instructor Shelly Elverum said it needs to happen or students will start to doubt the system. The students know their home region, and moving to the Iqaluit campus is impossible as all have young families, and there is no family accommodation available in Iqaluit, she said. Koonoo tried the Iqaluit program, but was not successful; he was one of the standouts of the Pond Inlet program, she noted.

"For a lot of these guys in their age group, education isn't necessarily a priority," Elverum said. "In a community where half of my students have dropped out of high school, for them to be clamouring for another year of education is huge. The longer this is put off, the message that is being sent is, 'yeah, you guys were successful, but

thanks, off you go.'

"It's disappointing that very few government agencies have stepped forward to fund this," she added.

Hamilton has been pitching every agency that funds such programs without much success. She has had success getting support in the way of in-kind offers to teach modules. Among the most supportive agencies is the Vancouver Aquarium, which has had a long-standing relationship with the hamlet and the program.

"We've had a relationship with Pond Inlet since the mid-1960s," said Eric Solomon, the aquarium's director of Arctic programs. "We have been engaged in research from the beginning and we occasionally travel to Pond Inlet and across the North. This program is valuable to us and it's valuable to the community."

The students travelled to the aquarium as part of a "southern expedition" that included visits to Ottawa and Quebec to meet with government officials and researchers to discuss environmental policies. The trip, which was a chance for the students to learn about southern perspectives, was also important for the Vancouver Aquarium's staff and for its board, Solomon said.

"They came here for a week and worked on training our staff on Northern perspectives," he said. "They reviewed our exhibits and programs, and developed a personal relationship with our staff and board. It allowed for true, two-way mentorship. These are the future leaders of that community, and they're an engaged and interested group of people that left such an impression when they came down here, and in so many ways changed the nature of the dialogue about the North here at the aquarium."

In return, Solomon said the aquarium is eager to send its staff to Pond Inlet to teach the specialized classes that will make up the diploma year when, or if, the program runs.

"It is a shame if it can't run," Solomon said. "From all measures, it was tremendously successful the first year."

And for Hamilton, who continues to fight for the program, that success is squarely in the students' hands.

"They're so motivated, coming to class every day, and they're committed to the program."

When asked how he feels about the prospect of the program not continuing, Koonoo summed up his thoughts in two words.

"It sucks," he said.</p>

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