NTI beefs up finance department

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. made two appointments in its financial department this month, in a move aimed at strengthening the organization’s ability to control its finances in the future.

Ashley Sinclair has been named to fill a newly-created job: Chief Financial Officer. For the past two years, Sinclair has served as NTI’s director of finance.

Annie Tattuinee, formerly NTI’s assistant director of finance, will now serve as director of finance.

The schedule for paying out the $1.1 billion in compensation money for Inuit, negotiated through the Nunavut land claims agreement, will end in 2007.

The Nunavut Trust, which invests that money to produced earnings that are used to finance NTI and the regional associations, has warned NTI that it’s unlikely that the entire $1.1 billion in capital will be intact when the payments from Ottawa cease.

That’s because NTI has, in addition to using investment earnings, borrowed money from the capital retained by the Trust to pay for its operations and programs

In the press release, James Eetoolook, NTI’s vice president of finance, says that NTI must develop “measured and productive” strategies to reduce its dependence on the capital.