Legalized gambling beef threatens Sanikiluaq’s daycare

The board that runs the Najuqsivik Daycare in Sanikiluaq, which has served the community since 1998, say it’s facing potential financial ruin following a decision by the hamlet to cancel the organization’s Nevada and bingo licences. The GN says the hamlet has the authority to do what it wants. (WIKIMEDIA COMMONS PHOTO)

The Najuqsivik Daycare in Sanikiluaq, which serves dozens of families in the community, is now threatened with closure following a recent decision by the Hamlet of Sanikiluaq to cancel bingo and Nevada licences they had issued to Najuqsivik this past June.

“Our bingos are our main source of income. Without our bingo, daycare will eventually close. We have enough cash on hand to operate for several months but the cancellation of our lottery licence has caused a financial crisis,” said a source on the daycare’s board who did not want their name published for fear of retribution.

After granting Nevada ticket and Saturday evening bingo licences to Najuqsivik this past June, the hamlet did an about-face three weeks ago.

A letter signed on Aug. 30 by Sanikiluaq’s senior administrative officer, Michael Rowan, told the daycare group those licences are now revoked.

That’s because of three breaches of the hamlet’s lottery bylaw committed between January and June 2018, Rowan’s letter alleged.

Rowan also told Najuqsivik the hamlet is imposing fines on Najuqsivik totalling $5,000. But those fines have since been cancelled, Rowan told Nunatsiaq News.

“The daycare society does provide a service to the community,” he said.

At the same time, the hamlet, whose committees run their own bingos under the hamlet’s licence, in competition with Najuqsivik, won’t budge from its position.

“The daycare society is funded through the Department of Education, I believe. It is not funded exclusively through bingo, nor should it be,” Rowan said.

“There is funding they can go after. It’s really not that hard to make a proposal and there is funding out there,” he said.

GN won’t intervene

As for the Government of Nunavut, its officials don’t seem worried about the potential loss of a daycare in one of the poorest communities in the territory.

The GN’s consumer affairs division, a unit within the Department of Community and Government Services, is supposed to be responsible for regulating forms of legal gambling in Nunavut, such as bingos, Nevada tickets, raffles and lotteries.

But because Sanikiluaq is one of 12 Nunavut hamlets allowed to regulate lotteries on their own, under local bylaws, the GN is staying clear of the entire mess.

This likely means Najuqsivik’s complaints to the GN are falling on deaf ears.

In a letter dated this past Sept. 6, Najuqsivik demanded the GN overturn the hamlet’s decision, alleging Rowan has committed an “abuse of power.”

They also demand Sanikiluaq’s authority to regulate bingos be removed.

And the hamlet has grabbed the highly coveted Saturday evening bingo time slot for itself, and is pushing the daycare to run bingos on Monday and Wednesday evenings, when volunteers are hard to find, especially on Wednesdays, which are church nights, Najuqsivik alleges.

Hamlet faced allegations about its own bingos

Najuqsivik also said the hamlet itself has been guilty of breaching its own lottery bylaw.

In November 2017, the daycare society complained to consumer affairs, making multiple allegations.

On that issue, a GN spokesperson claimed that Najuqsivik and the hamlet are working out their differences.

“The Hamlet of Sanikiluaq was advised they must operate their lottery licencing as per their bylaw. It is understood that the organization in question and the Hamlet of Sanikiluaq are working to resolve the issues that have been presented,” Jodi Durdle Awa, a CGS spokesperson, said in response to a question posed by Nunatsiaq News.

But otherwise, the GN says the hamlet can do what it wants.

“The municipal governments issue lottery licences, establish their own regulations, through their bylaw process and do not have to use the regulations of the territorial government.”

She also said the GN does not provide legal advice to hamlets on lottery regulation.

“Municipal governments may contact their own legal representatives for legal advice,” Durdle Awa said.

In the other 13 communities, including Iqaluit, consumer affairs still issues lottery licences.

For its part, the Najuqsivik daycare group says the hamlet’s decision to revoke their licence is based on false allegations.

“We excel at completing required paperwork and do not suffer from thefts.… It’s insulting, to say the least, when daycare is accused of wrongdoing when we actually are models of excellence,” said another source on the board who did not want to be identified due to fear of retribution from their employer.

A letter signed by Annesie Appaqaq, the chair of Najuqsivik’s board, said past senior administrative officers in Sanikiluaq had asked Najuqsivik to provide training to hamlet recreation staff on how to run bingos.

Do bingos hurt poor people?

Rowan said, however, that the use of bingos and lotteries may hurt the poor more than any other group.

“There is an ethical argument that’s been made in the past that those who use bingo are the ones that are hurt, people below the poverty line or the working poor or on income assistance … they’re using grocery money, they’re using diaper money.”

When asked if that ethical argument applies also to the numerous bingos run by the hamlet under its own licence, Rowan said “it’s acknowledged but it’s not acted on.”

Sanikiluaq, with a 2016 population of about 900, is one of Nunavut’s hard-luck, have-not communities, with a labour force participation rate of only 53.6 per cent and an unemployment rate of 28.3 per cent, Statistics Canada’s 2016 census profile says.

That means the number of people in Sanikiluaq aged 15 to 64 who held jobs in 2016, 215 people, is smaller than the total number of those who have stopped looking for jobs and have dropped out of the labour force: 255 people. Another 85 people were still in the labour force, but had no jobs, StatCan’s 2016 census profile says.

And the median after-tax annual income is only $17,856, with a big disparity between men and women: for men the after-tax median income is only $9,472, but for women, it’s $25,549.

Most Sanikiluaq families who use the daycare, such as teen parents attending school, get daycare for free, though a few clients pay $25 a day.

It’s not clear how much annual revenue the daycare needs to operate.

But financial statements attached to its last bingo and Nevada licence applications show that in the first six months of 2018, Najuqsivik took in $82,215.39 from Nevada tickets and $38,362.08 from bingos.

The daycare, founded in 1998, operates out of its own building beside Paatsaali High School.

Najuqsivik provides licensed daycare spaces for 16 pre-school children and four infants. A separate infant centre offers six spaces for pre-schoolers and six spaces for infants.

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