Clyde River needs revenue as well as loans, SAO says

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT— The financially strapped Hamlet of Clyde River hasn’t had to lay off any employees and has paid off some its bills thanks to the Government of Nunavut.

But emergency cash and loans may not be enough to get Clyde River out of its financial crisis, says the hamlet’s senior administrative officer.

“I’m out of ideas. I need someone to sit down with me and go over some new ones,” said Johnathan Palluq, Clyde River’s SAO. The municipality needs a long-term solution, he said.

After the hamlet’s MLA, David Iqaqrialu, issued a distress call in the Legislature in May, the Nunavut government agreed to increase the hamlet’s water and sewage subsidy.

According to Palluq, the municipality has been struggling with an insufficient subsidy ever since 1996, and in 1998 an auditor’s report by Avery, Cooper and Co. said the GNWT had made a mistake with the subsidy formula.

The same report recommended the GNWT pay Clyde River $58,000 in retroactive subsidies. The Nunavut government has already ponied up $35,000, but wants the GNWT to pick up the rest of the tab and has referred the matter to the assets division Committee, which has the task of splitting the joint assets and liabilities of the two territories.

“It’s still not clear if we’ll get the money,” said Palluq, noting that a decision by the committee is likely months away.

The Nunavut government has also given the municipality a three-month advance on its operations and maintenance funding, and is helping the hamlet obtain $400,000 in loans. But Palluq says that without some sort of increase in regular funding, Clyde River will be in the same financial mess later.

“It’s not clear yet how the hamlet would pay the loan back. It’s not too good to pay the loan out of funding for O and M,” said Palluq. The hamlet has no self-generated revenue, he said.

The Nuanvut government sent out a request for proposal this week asking for consultants to come up with a deficit recovery plan and has also given the municipality $74,711 to hire a Financial Comptroller, said Rosemary Keenainak, director of community development within Nunavut’s community government department.

“Things are progressing well. The department is working closely with the municipality to work toward getting out of this financial difficulty,” she said.