Iqaluit volunteer groups relate their woes to GG

Gov. Gen. David Johnston shakes hands with City of Iqaluit staff and representatives from local charitable organizations Aug. 16. Johnston’s Nunavut tour continues until Aug. 21. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

In a town where the community groups struggling with major social problems are often desperate for volunteers, Gov. Gen. David Johnston found a room full of people interested in one of his favourite topics: volunteerism.

On the second day of a two-day stop in Iqaluit Aug. 16, Johnston and his wife Sharon met with representatives of local charities, service groups and frontline city staffers who try to tackle the Nunavut capital’s legion of social problems, like hunger, poverty and suicide.

But Iqaluit’s non-governmental organizations often struggle with a shortage of people willing to put in time to help out.

That’s partly because so much of Iqaluit’s population is transient, Johnston heard.

“You make the best of what you’ve got,” said Stephan Kilabuk, an RCMP officer who works on hockey and taekwondo programs for Iqaluit youth. “If there were more volunteers it would be a lot easier.

Johnston has made volunteerism and philanthropy one of the key pillars of his goal for a “smarter, more caring nation” by the time Canada’s 150th birthday rolls around.

He said there’s a need to reach out to youth and new Canadians to help ease the workload for existing volunteers at organizations where “90 per cent of the work is done by 10 per cent of the people.”

The lack of volunteers is a constant problem for Iqaluit’s charity sector.

The city’s humane society recently closed down because its core group of volunteers couldn’t get enough help running an animal shelter.

Charlotte Borg-Vandervelde, who sits on the board of the Kamatsiaqtut help line, said her organization has nearly 100 volunteers, many of whom can speak with troubled callers in either English or Inuktitut.

But because the line operates 365 days a year, even that isn’t enough.

And those small groups often struggle to raise their own funds and take care of the paperwork that comes with charitable status.

Jen Hayward of the Niqinik Nuatsivik food bank, said it took her organization eight months to navigate the process with the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency.

“The bureaucracy, it drives you nuts,” Johnston said.

The Governor General also visited with local researchers and education officials on his final day in Iqaluit. He’s scheduled to leave tomorrow for Qikiqtarjuaq, before heading to Repulse Bay and Kugaaruk.

His tour ends Aug. 21 in Resolute Bay where he is to join members of the Canadian Forces participating in Operation Nanook.