Quebec’s education ministry to investigate funding to Nunavik school board
Kativik Ilisarniliriniq board has $27.4M debt; board director general calls it chance to show Nunavik’s unique needs
The Quebec government is set to investigate Kativik Ilisarniliriniq’s administration of human, financial and material resources after the school board reported a $26-million debt last year. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Quebec’s Education Ministry is launching an investigation into Kativik Ilisarniliriniq’s governance and administration.
The investigation is welcome, said Harriet Keleutak, director general for the school board that governs schools in the province’s Nunavik region.
“I believe it will provide an opportunity for the Quebec government to better understand our needs and specificities of the environment in which we operate,” she said in a statement released Monday.
The investigation was spurred through a decree from Education Minister Bernard Drainville, as reported in the January edition of Quebec’s official gazette which lists information on provincial laws and legislation.
It will look into the school board’s administration of human, financial and material resources.
According to notes from a December council of commissioners meeting, which the school board organizes four times a year, Kativik Ilisarniliriniq had accumulated a $26-million debt.
The 2023-24 budget approved at that meeting includes a further deficit of $1.4 million.
“The deficit is the result of inadequate funding,” the notes state.
“[This] is particularly evident where material resources are concerned (building construction and maintenance of existing infrastructures), as well as human resources required to provide expert support for Nunavik students.”
Kativik Ilisarniliriniq president Sarah Aloupa is calling for more support from Quebec’s education ministry.
“I am hopeful that this investigation will help us move forward on several fronts,” she said in the statement released earlier this week from the school board.
The Kativik school board told Nunatsiaq News it will not be giving interviews on the topic.
First of all, there we have it. A debt of millions for almost zero return on the investment in the first place. If only we had educated students on the end of the day, then, we all could somehow justify something at least. The staff, the buildings, the equipment, the trucks, the plane trips to south, hotel and meals, rentals car service, and board meetings and and decorations of ki this and that. It’s about time someone wake up and do the math. And do the justice to tax payers. And once again do justice to our children. Who suffer most in this debt for nothing ki world.
I’m going on strike 🚷
A brief story/instance where several years ago an elder teacher in Akulivik had his chair yanked away in the classroom as he was about to sit, And upon striking the floor he injured his back. The devil is in the details, Every Child Matters! Teach your children well.
That kid is lucky, if I was the teacher, it would have been front page news, me not teaching any more and the kid that never graduated.
Kativik Ilisarniliriniq had accumulated a $26-million debt? In a northern community of Nunavik, there was an adult education course been given to students for about 5 years. in those 5 years only one Inuk successfully graduated from this multimillion dollar course. The K.I at Montreal decided upon themselves (without consulting the community) that an Arctic Guide Course would benefit the Inuit of Nunavik. But in return, the only people that benefited were southern consultants brought in to teach the various courses. These consultants had their flight paid from Montreal, hotel accommodations paid for up to 14 weeks, were given a food allowance, had a per diem, also had their flight paid to return to Montreal and finally if they had excess personal cargo, the K.I paid for their cargo freight costs.
In the mean time, a classroom in a Nunavik community had a broken door handle which caused the students and teacher to be locked inside their 2nd floor classroom until a maintenance man heard through the local F.M. Station (waiting for 25 minutes) that there was an emergency at the school.
If K.I. has a debt of over 26million dollars, then K.I. in Montreal, who chooses to make these loss financial decisions, should be investigated. For us who live in Nunavik, we hear but no one ever talks about the misspending of taxpayers millions of dollars and sooner or later, the tax payers of Quebec will be saying enough is enough and will begin making complaints about where their tax paying dollars are being misspent. If I were a tax payer from the south and heard that my tax dollars are disappearing, I would be very concerned. I think the investigation should include how of the funds were being misspent on travel costs from the south to Nunavik communities and making sure that K.I. Montreal does not have a say in how Inuit govern Nunavik.
And , just think , when ” SELF GOVERNMENT ” kicks in !!