Federal minister announces culture money for Nunavut

Ollie the Omingmak is out and about greeting people in Cambridge Bay May 14 during a traditional games event. The Hamlet of Cambridge Bay can now count on $10,400 to help mount its annual Omingmak Frolics spring festival. (PHOTO BY RED SUN PRODUCTIONS)

Ollie the muskox, the mascot of Cambridge Bay’s Omingmak Frolics, has another reason smile: Vic Toews, the federal minister for public safety, was in Iqaluit May 14 to announce the Omingmak Frolics, along with other festivals and cultural events, cultural spaces and official languages projects in Nunavut, will receive money from Ottawa.

“We know how much community festivals, heritage centres, performing arts presentations mean to the residents of Nunavut and people across the territory,” Toews said in a short speech at the Unikkarvik Visitor’s Centre in Iqaluit.

“We’re also committed to promoting both our official languages, and we are showing leadership by supporting the development of official language minority communities.”

With that, Toews said six organizations in Nunavut will receive more than $678,000.

Topping the list is money for the Nattilik Heritage Society in Gjoa Haven — the home town of Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq — which gets $535,323 over two years for the construction of facilities in the Nattilik Heritage Centre.

This includes exhibition and archival storage space “for a facility that will play a key role in preserving the rich cultural heritage of the Inuit,” Toews said.

The development of the display on the Nattilingmiut Inuit received $100,000 in 2011 from the Canadian Heritage’s museums assistance program.

Money for festivals in 2013-2014 goes to:

• $85,000 to Alianait Entertainment Group in Iqaluit for the Alianait Arts Festival;

• $10,400 to the Hamlet of Cambridge Bay for the Omingmak Frolics;

• $6,000 to the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association in Iqaluit for the Nunavut Arts Festival; and,

• $2,000 to the Hamlet of Kugluktuk to cover the Kugluktuk Nattiq Frolics.

Money from an official languages program, $39,500, also went to a French-language daycare centre in Iqaluit, the Centre de la petite enfance “Les petits Nanooks.”

On behalf of Aglukkaq, Toews added that the federal government will invest $1 million in training for early childhood educators in Nunavut, under a separate funding arrangement.

“Early childhood educators contribute to the overall health and social development of children,” he said. “That’s why we’re funding training opportunities for those who wish to pursue this profession.”

In keeping with his portfolio as minister for public safety, Toews also met with members of the RCMP in Iqaluit.

“I talk to the RCMP stations wherever I go,” he said, adding he does this to gauge how operations are running and get a better idea “of what’s happening in a community, both from a law-enforcement point of view and a social point of view.”

After Iqaluit, Toews said he was scheduled to be in Rankin Inlet May 15.

In his role as regional minister for Manitoba, Toews planned to speak with the Hamlet of Rankin Inlet and others in the community about the possibility of laying out a seasonal winter road from Churchill to the community.