Trust chides NTI over unpaid loans

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Inuit in Nunavut are missing out on tens of millions of dollars in programs because their main land claim organization is failing to pay back its loans, says the Nunavut Trust.

Archie Angnakak, chair of the trust, recently warned Inuit leaders that the trust lost $82 million in potential earnings due to defaults on loans owed by NTI.

Angnakak brought the issue up at the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. board meeting in Kugluktuk last week.

He said the lost opportunity comes from a massive accumulation of unpaid loans to the trust, which is NTI’s main source of funding.

If NTI had repaid its loans, the trust would have been able to give NTI and regional Inuit associations $82 million more in funding between 1993 and 2004.

“It’s your loan,” Angnakak said in an interview after the meeting. “You have to take measures to pay it back.”

Now, the trust is firmly rejecting NTI’s request for $10 million in extra funding, earmarked for economic development projects, such as building a banking service for Nunavut.

The trust was set up in 1993 to handle $1.2 billion in federal government transfers under the land claim agreement. The trust invests interest from the transfers to make more money, and uses their income to fund Inuit organizations.

The trust currently stands at over $900 million in capital.

Angnakak suggested that trustees won’t take future requests for funding above pre-approved amounts, until NTI cleans up its loans.

“That extra $10 million was going to be a loan,” Angnakak said. “Our job is to give what we’re supposed to. We’re saying they can look elsewhere for that money.”

However, the trust will honour its legal obligation to replenish NTI coffers to their current levels, each year, with room for a pre-approved three per cent annual increase.

Paul Kaludjak, NTI president, said he didn’t view the trust’s presentation as a rejection of their additional request for funding.

“I think it’s too early to say anything is impossible,” Kaludjak said.

He added that the NTI board has directed staff to review repayment plan options, and promised to bring them to trustees before the end of March. The repayment is complicated by the current cash crunch NTI faces, with a budget calling for $1 million in cutbacks.

Kaludjak said the trust needs to be flexible on their stance, because Inuit jobs are at stake, as the extra funding will go towards economic development. If the Trust doesn’t chip in extra money now, he said, NTI could miss the chance to help Inuit take advantage of mining projects in the near future.

According to Kaludjak, the sizeable loan stems from a decision by Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut, predecessor to NTI, in the early 1990s, to borrow more than their pre-approved amounts.

“They had nothing to start with,” he said. “They had to find money, and it was arranged this way.”

Even if NTI fails to set up a repayment plan, trustees have agreed to absorb part of the loan, in profitable years.