Nunavut government rescues Sanikiluaq DEA

The Nunavut education department has given Sanikiluaq’s cash-poor district education authority a bail-out of $130,000 to cover its urgent debts and other obligations.

Louis Tapardjuk, the education minister, said the money will allow the DEA to buy necessary supplies and hire casual staff, like supply teachers, two of its major financial responsibilities.

Of the $130,000, $25,000 will go to buy cleaning supplies, $45,000 to pay off debts, and $60,000 to cover expenses for casual staff.

Tapardjuk said the problems at the DEA started when the group decided to do their own bookkeeping.

These problems came to a head this past fall at the start of the current school year, when the 300 students at Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq had to wash their hands with dish soap because the DEA had no money to buy cleaning and hygiene supplies.

And when a teacher got sick, students were sent home because the DEA had no money to hire substitute teachers.

“The bottom line is that the students need to get a good education and this kind of little problem does have an impact,” Tapardjuk said.

To ease the crisis, the education department advanced $38,000 to the DEA in September and launched an internal audit.

Tapardjuk met with members of the DEA last week in Sanikiluaq to discuss the results of the audit, which the GN is not releasing publicly

While Tapardjuk couldn’t say exactly where their money had gone, he said “they certainly overspent.”

The DEA, which now has a new chairperson, Mina Ijaittuq, must re-pay the loan in six years.