Baffin school board sues Kakivak over broken funding deal

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — The Baffin Divisional Education Council is suing the Kakivak Association for $325,000, after the Baffin-based community economic development organization pulled out of a $1 million funding deal with them.

A statement of claim filed by the board alleges Kakivak had a contract with the school board to provide $1 million to hire new employees and give pay raises to classroom support assistants.

The document states that the board started hiring people and announced pay raises to schools because of representations that the document says were made by the Kakivak Association.

To support its claim that a legal contract existed between the two organizations, the document cites discussions held with former Kakivak President Pat Angnakak, joint interviews held with local reporters with representatives from both Kakivak and the school board, and the issuing of a joint press release announcing the deal.

The statement of claim also quotes a letter written in May from Pat Angnakak to Lorne Levy, the assistant director of the Baffin District Education Council, which states:

“Re: One Million dollar agreement

Dear Lorne, as per our conversation last week I am formally stating that Kakivak Association will enter into a financial partnership with the Baffin Divisional Board of Education [sic] for a period of one year to support the following areas:

1) to provide additional classroom support assistants;

2) to hire elders to work in the school;

3) to hire two specialists who will assess and identify children who have learning disabilities.

The first payment which will represent 30 per cent of the million dollars will be issued once the contract has been drawn up and signed. We expect to have the contract ready for signature by June. Once we have received your reports, (financial and status report), we will be prepared to issue the next 30 per cent of the remaining dollars (most likely in November). The same process as stated above will be used in January and then at the end of the school year, once the program and reports have been completed we will issue the remaining 10 per cent of the funding.

The funding is conditional on the contract.”

But Angnakak was dumped from her job as executive director of Kakivak in late May. In June, the Kakivak association’s vice president and chairman of its board of directors, Jerry Ell, said the deal was cancelled because it didn’t fit in with the association’s mandate.

Ell was quoted as saying that Kakivak’s arrangement with the school board would have contravened funding agreements the association has in place and would have benefited non-Inuit.

He also told local media that he thought the lawsuit was a face-saving move on the part of the board.

But Levy said the school board has little choice but to sue.

“Once we made the announcement, we felt duty bound to honor it,” Levy said.

But the time that Kakivak had withdrawn from the agreement, the school board had already hired new classroom support assistants and one consultant, Levy said.

Laying off the new employees could have exposed the board to lawsuits, Levy said.

The board’s statement of claim says it suffered costs and a potential liability of about $150,000 after advertising for and hiring one program support specialist.

The statement also says there were costs of approximately $250,000 arising from hiring 10 new classroom assistants and that the “42 existing CSAs would be paid an additional $5,000 per year.”

Levy said the new hirings and salaries are now being covered with special discretionary funds at the board’s disposal.

At press-time Kakivak had not yet filed a statement of defense, but had filed an appearance on August 12.