Funding delays may force closure of Iqaluit public Internet site

MIRIAM HILL

Iqaluit’s public Internet site, called the Nuluaq Community Access Program, may shut down as early as Nov. 8 if it doesn’t receive promised funding from Industry Canada.

Nuluaq is one of 17 CAP sites in 14 Nunavut communities started by Industry Canada as part of an initiative to provide Canadians with affordable public access to the Internet.

Marilyn Scott, chairperson of the volunteer Nuluaq board, says a wide range of people will be affected if the site has its plug pulled.

“We get 20 to 30 people a day on an average day,” she said. “We get a lot of young people up to about 6 p.m. then at that time library rules are you have to have an adult accompany you if you’re under 16. After that we get adults doing their résumés, checking their e-mail and we get the older kids needing to do research papers, things like that.”

While the computers and Internet lines were donated and the space at the library is a donation in kind, the Nuluaq board pays two or three students to operate the site during library hours. They keep an eye on the equipment, assist those in need and even help people set up Web sites.

The money to pay these students comes from Industry Canada’s CAP Youth Initiative fund, and it’s these dollars that the Nuluaq board needs to keep the site open.

“If we can’t pay our youth, then we’re closing down the site,” Scott said. Since it’s open when the library is open, and board members all have full-time jobs and families, the only way to monitor the site is to have the hired students on board.

“The site would be shut down as soon as we could no longer pay our workers,” she said. Board member Neil Burgess estimated that could be as soon as Nov. 8.

One of the only reasons students are still being paid now, he said, is because a portion of the proceeds from a book sale at the library went to the Nuluaq board.

Scott said it costs about $20,000 a year to run the site, and that money goes to pay the students.

“The youth workers only get paid $12 an hour, which is not a lot for up here,” she said. “We are approved and on the first of [Industry Canada’s] list, but they promised us first in August, then they said early fall.”

And still no money.

Darlene Thompson, a CAP administrator based in Pond Inlet, is responsible for overseeing all the CAP sites in the territory. She said the Nuluaq CAP site, which used to be located at Arctic College, is one of the older and more successful CAP sites in Nunavut.

She explained that when CAP sites are created, Industry Canada supplies a pot of money, between $20,000 and $30,000, for start-up costs and the organizers have to submit a proposal showing how the site will become sustainable.

There are then two types of additional funding the site can apply to Industry Canada for — dollars the site can use as it wishes as long as it goes to promote community access, and money from the CAP Youth Initiative program to hire students.

Every year, Nuluaq has applied to Industry Canada for funding to keep a few kids working at the site. This year the funding has been delayed.

“This is horribly delayed. CAPYI [CAP Youth Initiative] usually has a winter stream and a summer stream and we haven’t seen any money from them at all. This is way worse than normal,” Thompson said.

“For a non-profit society that’s a long time to have to carry funding. They don’t have that kind of money. Some of our other CAP sites are run out of hamlet offices, or schools and they’ve got the pockets that they can hire someone and maybe get reimbursed later or they can somehow find the money somewhere to keep someone running it.”

Thompson said every indication she has received is that the money is still coming, but it’s been delayed and there has been no estimate given about when it will come.

She added the department of education is working with Human Resources and Development Canada to get money to fund one youth position in each CAP site in the territory.

Officials from Industry Canada could not be reached for comment.