GN donates seed money for United Way

MIRIAM HILL

Nunavut came a few steps closer to having a territory-wide chapter of the United Way, after the Government of Nunavut donated $15,000 last week.

Ed Picco, the minister of health and social services, presented the cheque at a barbecue in Iqaluit on Friday. The GN gave the money to the City of Iqaluit, which gave it to the Illitiit Society.

Bill Riddell, president of the Illitiit Society, an incubator for organizations concerned with social issues, said for the last few months people have been meeting to talk about the idea of a United Way. They formed a committee of volunteers who have committed themselves to forming a branch in the territory.

The money, Riddell said, is a good chunk of “seed money” for the new branch.

The national United Way acts as an umbrella group allowing participating charities to apply for money collected in an annual fundraising drive. Member organizations should have charitable status with Revenue Canada and be not-for-profit.

“A lot of people in Nunavut know nothing about the United Way,” Riddell said. “It’s a way of once a year at least being able to contribute voluntary dollars through payroll deductions or corporate donations or fundraising activity.”

The monies raised can be allocated to a particular cause, he explained, or put into a kitty. A board of directors, elected by the membership, would decide where the money would go. The interim board in Nunavut has been appointed and will be responsible for constituting the branch as a charitable organization.

Iqaluit businessman Gordon Rennie will spearhead the interim board.

“Right now, all not-for-profit organizations are totally dependent upon the government for funding and the government has, number one, not enough resources,” Riddell said.

“It’s unhealthy to have the government say what it is that they want organizations to do and therefore will fund them. It’s much healthier to have volunteer dollars.”

Many people who have moved to Nunavut from the South continue to contribute to southern-based United Way chapters because they can’t give money to a Nunavut branch — there isn’t one. When the Nunavut chapter is up and running, dollars that were going South will be able to stay in the territory.

“Let’s say for instance if there’s a person working in Arviat and they have a payroll deduction they’ll be able to say, ‘I want my dollars to go to the women’s shelter in Arviat,’ and that will happen,” he said. “That’s why we’re doing it on a Nunavut-wide basis.”

There are about 125 local United Way organizations in Canada, each with its own board of directors and allocations committee who decide how money should be doled out.

The only local United Ways in the Canadian North are in Whitehorse and Yellowknife.

Riddell said he hopes Nunavut’s first fundraising campaign will go ahead in the fall of 2003.