Nunavik’s Saputiit financial records almost in order: president

Saputiit president Elizabeth Annahatak speaks to the Kativik Regional Government regional council meeting Nov. 26. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — Nunavik’s Saputiit Youth Association is beginning to look forward to the future, after spending the last two years paralyzed by past financial mismanagement.

In a presentation to the regional council of the Kativik Regional Government Nov. 26, Saputiit president Elizabeth Annahatak said the association’s new filing system is almost in place — a major step towards helping the organization get back to work again.

“The last phase of this is the electronic files, which have been worked on for a few months now,” Annahatak told council.

Since she was elected in 2011, Annahatak has been tasked with pulling the organization out of serious financial disarray that begin when an auditor was unable to verify financial statements for Saputiit’s 2010-11 and 2011-12 fiscal years.

An accountant from Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton told council earlier this year that he was unable to say where the association’s money had gone during that time, or if it carried a deficit or surplus.

And because Saputiit could not provide that information, the Quebec government has stopped funding the organization — which had an annual budget of over $400,000.

Saputiit has since functioned without staff or a board of directors on a slightly smaller budget from Makivik Corp., but Annahatak acknowledges that something had to change.

“We want to continue on with our association, but we can’t remain the same,” she said.

Saputiit has made a plea to Quebec’s youth secretariat to recover some of that lost funding.

Following a visit to the region this past fall, Leo Bureau-Blouin, Quebec’s parliamentary assistant to the premier for youth, has agreed to help Saputiit try and secure its 2013-14 funding.

But to do that, the association must do a few things first.

Saputiit first has to integrate itself under an established regional organization, losing its status as an independent organization.

The association will also be obligated to hire a youth coordinator with professional experience, and re-establish its regional board of directors, who fall under Saputiit’s membership — youth aged 18 to 35.

Finally, the organization must find consensus among Nunavik youth on what role it should have.

Sometime over the next few months, Annahatak plans to meet with the KRG and Makivik officials to decide the best way forward.

Annahatak said she had mixed feelings about how the organization is moving forward.

“I’m concerned about how much autonomy [Saputiit[ is going to lose,” she told Nunatsiaq News, “but at the same time, I’m also relieved that there are these conditions.”

Annahatak said she has spent the last two years working, part of it unpaid, to reorganize the association with little to no time to focus on its mandate of serving Nunavik youth.

When Saputiit holds its next elections in 2014, Annahatak won’t be running again because of age restrictions, but she says she’ll keep working to make that transition as smooth as possible.

“I don’t want others to have to clean up like I did,” she said.