Baffin chamber wants bookkeepers

JOHN THOMPSON

The Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce wants to produce Nunavut’s first crop of bookkeepers, through a new course that begins in Iqaluit next month.

Such a course is badly needed, says BRCC executive director Hal Timar, because around the Baffin there are small business owners, such as outfitters, who have trouble keeping their finances in order.

And this leads to trouble when Revenue Canada comes knocking.

Timar says he’s seen businesses “either landed in jeopardy of closing, or closed down,” for reasons that could be easily avoided by a bookkeeper, whose job is to make sure financial records are in order.

Presently, bookkeepers are flown from the South into Nunavut for several weeks a year to care for the books of some territorial businesses.

That shows there’s an untapped market that Nunavut residents could be cashing in on themselves, Timar says, and by doing so, they help keep existing Nunavut businesses afloat.

Graduates of the program will receive a bookkeeping certificate from Algonquin College.

The first phase of the pilot program should begin in mid-March in Iqaluit, as a three-week, full-time course. Three similar in-class sessions will be held in Iqaluit over a period of a year, to a year and a half.

The rest of the course was originally intended to be offered as distance education, over the Internet.

But the BRCC ran into problems with networking, and finding appropriate places to do teleconferencing in communities, Timar said.

Timar says he hopes the pilot program will produce a dozen certified bookkeepers from around the Baffin.

The BRCC plans to help these graduates by walking them through the process of starting their own businesses, by showing them how to apply for loans and grants, and by referring potential clients to them.

Students will learn how to manage a business’s payroll and taxes, using spreadsheets and accounting software.

“It’s going to be pretty intensive,” says Bonita Hester, the Iqaluit consultant who designed the course.

Hester agrees the course is much-needed: she’s encountered Nunavut business people who don’t even have their finances recorded in books. And that makes it difficult when they want to approach a bank for a loan.

The chamber originally hoped that Nunavut Arctic College would take over the course. That hasn’t happened yet, so the pilot program will be administered by the chamber, with help from Hester and an Algonquin College instructor.

Applicants should have “about high school equivalency,” Timar says, with work experience considered an asset. Fifteen applicants will be accepted.

The program costs about $200,000, with funds provided by the GN’s Department of Economic Development and Transportation and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Residents interested in applying for the program may contact Bonita Hester at (867)979-5808, or at bonitalhester@yahoo.ca.