Nunavut Sivuniksavut eyes $2.3 million building

Expansion plan would double program to 80 Inuit students a year

Nunavut Sivuniksavut wants to raise a building fund of $2.3 million, mainly from Inuit organizations, to buy a former school at 339 Wilbrod St.. in Ottawa. Their expansion plan would double the number of Inuit students at its two-year college program. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NS)

Nunavut Sivuniksavut, the Ottawa-based college preparation program for Inuit students, wants Inuit organizations to help pay a down payment on a big new building in Ottawa.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut has asked each of the three regional Inuit associations in Nunavut to contribute $500,000 towards its building fund.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut needs to raise a building fund pot of about $2.3 million to acquire and renovate a former school at 339 Wilbrod St. in Ottawa.

Brenda Jancke, a Nunavut Sivuniksavut board member, came to the recent Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay, where she asked if KIA would commit money to the project.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut has already raised $200,000 for the new building, Jancke said.

As a registered charity, Nunavut Sivuniksavut provides tax deduction receipts for all donations it receives.

If Nunavut Sivuniksavut becomes a property owner instead of a renter, it could save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, according to information Jancke handed out at the meeting.

Over its first 24 years of operation, Nunavut Sivuniksavut shelled out $1.5 million, with no equity to show for this money, it says.

“Receptive” is how Jancke described the response from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association to NS’s request for $500,000.

As for KIA, its president Charlie Evalik said he couldn’t provide an immediate answer.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut has not approached Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to contribute to the building fund because NTI already supplies the program with core funding.

It was NTI’s predecessor, the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut, that started Nunavut Sivuniksavut back in 1985 to help young Inuit understand the land claims process.

Since then, Nunavut Sivuniksavut has developed a much wider focus, with the goal of helping participants prepare for higher education or better jobs.

Of Nunavut Sivuniksavut’s former students, eight in 10 have gone on to higher studies or work, with about 40 per cent ending up with the Government of Nunavut.

The biggest problem that the program now faces is lack of space.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut says it has outgrown its current facility on Dalhousie Street, because the number of students and staff grew from 23 in 1997 to 37 in 2009.

Murray Angus, the co-ordinator of Nunavut Sivuniksavut, said storage space is overflowing, so 10 years’ worth of accumulated “stuff” is piled around the edges of rooms.

When a counsellor began work there last year, the only place Nunavut Sivuniksavut could find for the new staff member was the vestibule that was closed off and turned into a counselling office.

Now, the only way up to the third floor is through an emergency stairwell at the back.

“Our current facility lacks a quiet place for students to get their homework done; every room is bustling all the time it seems,” Angus said.

That could be resolved with the purchase of a three-story former school building that Nunavut Sivuniksavut wants to buy.

Built in the 1930s, its top two floors have four large classrooms plus several smaller rooms. One of the classrooms doubles as a gym.

All levels have 12-foot ceilings and large windows.

But if the building, which is in good condition, could be bought for $2 million, it would still need “significant renovations” to meet Nunavut Sivuniksavut’s needs, the organization says.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut wants to double the program’s size to accommodate 80 students, instead of turning away 40 applications a year from interested young Nunavummiut.

The Nunavut Sivuniksavut board approved an expansion plan in 2008 and asked consultants to develop an expansion strategy.

They suggested Nunavut Sivuniksavut would need a building of about 13,500 square feet, much larger than the current 4,500 square-foot space Dalhousie St.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut has submitted its five-year expansion plan to the federal government, but has not received a response, Angus said.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

“The sooner we know [about whether funding], the greater our chances to stay in the running for this particular building. Our bid gives us till early December to pull together our financing,” Angus said.