Clyde River wellness centre hits cash crunch

Clyde River’s Ilisaqsivik centre is an inviting place that provides a mind-boggling number of programs and services on a shoestring budget.

But now this community wellness centre is facing cutbacks, because, without core funding, it’s having trouble paying staff and keeping its doors open.

Ilisaqsivik’s budget is about $800,000, half of which goes to wages and benefits, but the centre only receives a bit of money from each project for its day-to-day operations.

The cash crunch comes around this time, at the end of the government’s fiscal year.

“The last funding payout was in January, so we have to get through February and March without any money coming in. March 31 we run into this wall. Do we continue these programs without guaranteed funding?” said Tracey Thompson, Ilisaqsivik’s coordinator.

The decision to cut programs isn’t easy.

The centre’s activities include healing sewing circles and land programs, health programs for children and pregnant moms, addictions counselling, suicide prevention, family, elders and youth counselling, literacy programs and an after-school program.

“How do you cut a program that provides basic prenatal nutrition? How do you cut these programs?” Thompson said.

On average, over 100 people in the community use the centre every day. Anyone can stop by for a cup of tea or conversation, while those in need can receive moral support or even food from the centre’s food bank.

Last November, a drug and alcohol counsellor came to the centre to run a family program and provide training to Ilisaqsivik’s counsellors.

“The project was to enable women in the community to identify how they have been affected by drug and alcohol abuse and develop healthy ways to counter those affected,” Thompson said.

This particular project was sponsored by the federal Brighter Futures program.

Thompson said projects like that one are more important than ever in Clyde River – which is very much a “have-not” community.

Clyde River’s population of about 850 is 98 per cent Inuit, and two-thirds are under 25. Unemployment is high – 72 per cent of the residents are unemployed, the highest unemployment figure in the Baffin region.

“I don’t think any of these projects we run aren’t essential projects,” Thompson said. “The people we help here are the most have-nots. They are the lowest echelon of the community. These are the people “without.” That’s who come here…. These are the people who would be hurt by losing these projects.”

In 1996, a group of residents in Clyde River formed the Ilisaqsivik Society as a way of dealing with the community’s many challenges. A year later, the society was given the aging nursing station for its offices as well as money for to renovate the space.

The problem now facing the centre is its lack of core funding.

“As the coordinator, now I spend all my time scrambling for money. We have great projects, but they could be greater,” Thompson said. “I don’t have time for quality control.”

Thompson was recently in Iqaluit where she went to the health and social services department to see what could be done to help stabilize Ilisaqsivik’s finances.

“With the department’s cooperation, we have great hopes for the future. If they don’t find a way, I don’t know what we’ll do for the future,” Thompson said.

Bernie Blais, Nunavut’s deputy minister of health and social services, agrees Ilisaqsivik needs core funding.

But the GN also needs to make sure the centre keeps within its budget and actually achieves results.

“We need to become more assertive in that we’re evaluating things that we do,” Blais said. “Otherwise everyone feels good about what they do, but isn’t really achieving an outcome.”

Joanne Bezzubetz, executive director of health and social services, said making sure money is well-spent isn’t unique to Nunavut. In Ontario, she said the provincial government would say, “What is it that you’re not going to do next year because you can’t afford it?”

“You have to take into consideration you have only so much money,” she said. “We need more services, but we can’t do everything all at once.”

Yet at the same time, the GN wants to encourage ownership of health and social services – and the cash-poor Ilisaqsivik is a shining example of this.

“If we can support and create this kind of environment, we’ll get more for each dollar we spend,” Bezzubetz said.