Nunavut Arctic College to train Inuit health workers

SARA MINOGUE

Despite the dual pressures of budget cuts and a student body that has grown over 50 per cent in the last three years, Nunavut Arctic College is planning several new programs to meet the urgent call for more Inuit in government jobs.

College president Mac Clendenning said he is working closely with Nunavut’s Department of Health and Social Services on three programs that would prepare Nunavummiut for work in the health-care sector.

Among those is a two-year mental health care worker program that Clendenning hopes to start at Nunatta Campus in Iqaluit next September.

Talks are underway to develop a maternity care worker program at Kivalliq Campus, with an eye towards preparing staff for the birthing centre in Rankin Inlet.

And a full curriculum has already been plotted for a program that would train therapy assistants – people who work as support staff for nurses or other health care professionals.

“We’re just looking at how we can secure funding for that program,” Clendenning said.

If those programs go ahead, they will help the Government of Nunavut with one immediate concern – finding local health care workers to implement Nunavut’s new “Care Closer to Home” health strategy.

They would also help the GN get closer to its goal of a representative government workforce, where four out of five government workers are Inuit.

Article 23 of the Nunavut Land Claims agreement says that the government should set up training to prepare Inuit for the workforce.

To help meet that goal, Nunavut Arctic College is working with a committee of deputy ministers to plan other programs that could improve the level of employment for Inuit.

The college is also working closely with the Department of Education on a trades training strategy. College officials are looking at where a trades training facility could be established, and what kind of programs they should offer.

These developments come at a time when Nunavut Arctic College is not in a rosy financial position.

The most recent financial statements show that the Crown corporation has a deficit of $785,000 at the end of 2003.

Part of the shortfall may have been due to management issues. The college ran for two years with no vice-president of finance after its headquarters were moved to Arviat under the GN’s decentralization plan in 2001.

Another was due to government-wide budget cuts made last year. Cutbacks in base funding from the government forced the college to trim about $1 million from its annual operating budget, which this year, is running at about $22 million.

The legislative assembly recently approved one-time funding of $1.3 million to allow the college “to address their current deficit and to assist them in implementing recommended improvements in management effectiveness and accountability.”

Clendenning said he is “confident” that, by the end of this fiscal year, the college will have its deficit “pretty much eliminated.”

But the college is also under another strain – more students.

In 2001, there were 817 full-time students enrolled at campuses across Nunavut. In the 2003-04 school year, there were 1,366. That’s more than a 50 per cent increase in enrollment in three years.

Several programs, such as management studies in Rankin Inlet, and the arts and crafts and environmental technology programs in Iqaluit, are now at capacity.

Overall, that’s good news.

“I think it’s because students are seeing that they can come to Nunavut Arctic College, they can take these programs, and they can get a job,” Clendenning said.

But base funding from the GN, which is about $14.5 million this year, has not increased at the same rate. Instead, the college now produces 50 per cent of its training programs with the help of funding partners.

For example, the Department of Justice funds the Akitsiraq law program. The Kakivak Association funds several programs, including an early childhood education program that recently graduated about 80 students in seven Baffin communities.

The sheer volume of students continues to strain the college’s infrastructure.

Clendenning said the college views housing, particularly family housing, as a high priority.

“Enrollment has increased here in Iqaluit to the point that we can no longer accommodate all of our students with families,” Clendenning said. “Four years ago, we could.”

Now, all 26 family units in the Nunatta residence are full, and the college leases a further 33 private units, an expensive short-term solution.

To meet rising demand, a new 20-unit student residence will open up in Cambridge Bay next fall. And just two weeks ago, the college won approval for a $6 million project that will see accommodation for 80 students in Iqaluit, with construction starting next spring.

Rankin Inlet will have to be next.

The lack of accommodation means some students in the Kivalliq region have to be turned away, Nanulik MLA Patterk Netser told the legislative assembly on Nov. 18.

The college is gearing up for a comprehensive review of all of its infrastructure needs, from community learning centres to state-of-the-art classrooms to student accommodations.