Kakivak denies contract with Baffin school board

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT—The Kakivak Association has filed a statement of defence with the Nunavut Court of Justice denying that it had a contract to provide funding to the Baffin Divisional Education Council (BDEC).

The education board is suing the Kakivak Association for $325,000, after the community development organization pulled out of a $1 million funding deal to help the council hire elders, additional classroom support assistants, and two specialists who would assess and identify students with learning disabilities and to provide raises to some existing staff.

The statement of defence, filed last week, admits the BDEC asked Kakivak for funding, but denies allegations contained in the BDEC’s statement of claim that say the two organizations entered into a contract.

The document says an e-mail and a letter from former Kakivak CEO Pat Angnakak to the BDEC’s assistant director, Lorne Levy, did not constitute a contract but only discussions about entering a contract.

“The said Proposal was, at all material times, the subject of ongoing discussion among Lorne Levy (“Levy”), Assistant director of BDEC, and Pat Angnakak (“Angnakak”), then Chief Executive officer of Kakivak,” the Kakivak defence document states.

It also says that Kakivak representatives were not given the opportunity to discuss the proposal with BDEC representatives.

The statement of defence also says that the BDEC ought to have known that any agreement would have to be approved not only by the Kakivak executive, but also by the “Ulu Board” — a joint meeting of Kakivak’s board of directors and the board of directors for the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation.

The funding proposal would have constituted about one-quarter of Kakivak’s annual budget, the document says. The statement of defence also says that the BDEC was aware that the proposal was “entirely outside the scope of Kakivak’s usual and ordinary activities.”

It also says the BDEC was aware that no other proposals of a similar magnitude to fund institutions of public education had ever been made by Kakivak.

Levy said the school board suffered damages because it began to hire the new staff and announced pay raises on the understanding that the funding agreement was a done deal. But Kakivak’s statement of defence says Kakivak never told the education council to try to implement any of the proposed programs in the 1999-2000 school year.

Levy told Nunatsiaq News that the school board made Kakivak well aware of the deadlines it was facing for hiring for the new school year.

The BDEC’s statement of claim alleges Angnakak and other Kakivak representatives indicated that the board should try to get the proposal in place for the coming school year. Kakivak’s statement of defence denies anyone from the organization ever directed the education council to do so.