Nunavik youth get a new association

Elizabeth Annahatak, the last president of the now-defunct Saputiit Youth Association, reports on the organization’s slow progress at a 2013 Kativik Regional Government meeting. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavik youth have a new association: the Nunavik Youth Forum, recently formed under Makivik Corp.

And the organization is looking for “committed and dynamic” individuals to fill the new organization’s board of directors and executive positions ahead of a Sept. 3 election, Makivik announced this week.

The mandate of the new organization remains the same as its predecessor, the Saputiit Youth Association, whose role was to represent and advocate for Nunavimmiut youth at the regional and community level, and to provide programs and services to the population.

The Nunavik Youth Forum replaces the disgraced Saputiit, which spent the last four years digging itself out of a financial mismanagement.

The problem first came to light when an auditor was unable to verify the financial statements for the association’s 2010-11 and 2011-12 fiscal years.

Accountants with Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton reported that they couldn’t complete an audit of the association’s finances because they were unable to say whether there was a deficit or a surplus or how the money received by Saputiit was spent.

That cut the association off the funding it received from the Quebec government in recent years, which provided almost all of Saputiit’s $400,000 annual budget.

One of the conditions that the Quebec youth secretariat imposed on Saputiit if it hoped to sign a new funding agreement, was a requirement for the association to integrate under a regional organization.

The association is also obligated to hire a youth coordinator with professional experience, and re-establish its board of directors.

With the support of Makivik, Nunavik youth between the ages of 18 and 35 can submit their nomination forms to run for Nunavik Youth Forum’s board of directors or executive positions until Aug. 27.

Nominees are not qualified to run for positions in the youth forum if they are convicted of an indictable offence punishable by imprisonment for two years.

In that case, youth must wait a period of five years following their term of imprisonment, or the date of conviction if only a fine is imposed, in order to be nominated.

Candidates are also disqualified they have outstanding debts of any kind with Makivik Corp. or one of its subsidiaries.

On Sept. 3, Nunavimmiut youth will elect three executive members: president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer.

The forum’s board of directors includes eight positions:

• two Ungava community positions, which cover Kuujjuaq, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Tasiujaq, Aupaluk and Kangirsuk;

• two Hudson Strait community positions, covering Quaqtaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Salluit, Ivujivik and Akulivik;

• and two Hudson Bay community positions, which includes Puvirnituq, Inukjuak, Umiujaq, Kuujjuaraapik and Chisasibi.

An elder appointment will be confirmed by the Avataq Cultural Institute.

The next three years are considered a transition phase for the new organization, Makivik said, in which the forum will elect members to fill staggered terms.

Certain positions will be elected to one- and two-year terms, only to be put up for election again for three-year terms.

Interested Nunavimmiut should contact their local Makivik office for nomination forms or contact the election’s chief returning officer Andrew Epoo at (819) 254-0889.