Feds looking for funding to help Iqaluit’s Inuktitut daycare
Federal minister’s staff has been in contact with daycare operators; Idlout expresses optimism
The federal government is looking to find financial support for Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik Daycare in Iqaluit, said the spokesperson for Jenna Sudds, the federal minister for families, children and social development.(Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
The federal government is working on securing more funding for Iqaluit’s only Inuktitut daycare which operators said last month is in danger of closing.
Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik Daycare opened 18 years ago as the only childcare facility in Iqaluit providing care in Inuktitut and teaching Inuit culture.
But last month, its operators indicated they don’t have enough funding to continue for much longer.
The daycare’s executive director, Simiga Lyta, could not be reached for comment, but the daycare was still running as of Tuesday.
In an email Monday, a spokesperson for Jenna Sudds, the federal minister for families, children and social development, said staff has contacted Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik Daycare to provide it with “detailed information to ensure they can apply for all available funding opportunities.”
Geneviève Lemaire said, “We have been in touch with territorial and Indigenous partners in Nunavut to discuss what support they may be able to provide to prevent the closure.”
Lemaire did not identify the territorial or Indigenous partners.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout raised the daycare’s struggles in the House of Commons on May 21, asking the Liberal government to ensure Tumikuluit does not “fall through the cracks.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded at the time, promising to look into the issue.
Now, Idlout said “we’ve got the federal government’s attention, the Government of Nunavut, as well as Inuit organizations.”
“I think if we all bound together, we can all make sure that the daycare gets the support it needs.”
The daycare is mostly funded by the Government of Nunavut. Parents pay $10 a day, with the GN adding $43 per child.
It temporarily closed once before, in 2019, due to financial issues.
In an interview last month, executive director Simiga Lyta told Nunatsiaq News there were six permanent staff members, including herself, working at the daycare with 20 children enrolled.
On May 15, the federal government announced an extra $10.9 million in funding for daycares across Nunavut. That was in addition to the $66 million it committed in 2022 as part of the Canada-Nunavut Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.
There is lots of public funding out there. I don’t understand how any daycares in Nunavut would close its doors due to a lack of funding. If you need more you can also fundraise. My son’s daycare sells chocolates, runs fifty-fifty draws and does other draws for prizes. You can do chase the ace too, just apply for a licence.
So when is nunavut going to start funding something on thier own. Perhaps some of the millions in royalties received annually from mining companies could be used. Even the annual interest earned could be used without touching the precious bank roll. Some day someone will have thier hand out and it will be slapped and the politically wrong will be said ,”Do something for yourselves, enough of this endless asking”
QC should be funding this, it falls right in line in what they’re supposed to do, promote inuit language and hiring inuit. It’s teaching inuktitut to the youth at a very early delicate age.
Most of the benefits / royalties from mining end up in the pockets of the RIOs, the GN doesn’t get much. Thank the hapless design of the NLCA.
What about QIA, NTI, NANPO, Annauma Charity, all these orgs have millions of dollars that supposedly go towards children and youth and none of them can help community-led childcare facilities?? Doesn’t kakivak have a whole section devoted to childcare? It’s financial mismanagement at its core with those wealthy elites that decide who and what gets funded it seems!