The Kivalliq Inuit Association will be doling out nearly $6 million in Covid relief funding.
“The Kivalliq Inuit Association is very pleased to announce that we will be receiving additional dollars from the federal government and through Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated for Phase 4 of the Indigenous Community Support (ICS) fund,” said Jonathan Pameolik, manager of communications.
“We’ve outlined 11 projects that we have come up with to promote the objectives of the ICS funding.”
Those include addressing food security, providing Covid relief activities, creating on-the-land programming, offering gift cards and bolstering community freezers.
Most of the funding is tied to specific projects, but $1 million is set aside to fund proposals made to KIA. Those proposals must meet the goals of the ICS funding program to be approved.
New in this round of funding is a greater focus on urban Inuit. That includes $35,000 going to the Manitoba Inuit Association to promote food security, as well as making the $500 gift card program available to all Kivalliq Inuit, whether they live in southern centres, other regions or communities.
“We identified the need to provide support for the urban Inuit from previous projects, that maybe they weren’t included (in previous funding),” said Pameolik. “This time around, we decided to provide that support to the Kivalliq Inuit regardless of where they live.”
KIA estimates 1,361 Kivalliq Inuit live outside of the region, out of 7,700 registered Kivalliq Inuit in total.
Funding for this round of gift cards totals $3,278,500 and will be made available in January.
KIA will also be upgrading freezers in each community, with $50,000 set aside for each of the seven Kivalliq communities to improve their freezers.
Just over $100,000 will be headed to food banks in the Kivalliq, with the same amount contributed to RCMP food hamper programs.
For mental health and prenatal programs, KIA will be doling out $140,000, with another $210,000 headed to the Pulaarvik Kublu Friendship Centre to promote programs that curb domestic violence or provide women’s shelters in the Kivalliq.
Prizes will be available for double-vaccinated beneficiaries. A total of $232,000 went toward purchasing one Honda 420 ATV and one 900 Ace Skidoo Expedition for every Kivalliq community to be given away in a prize draw, for a total of 14 winners.
Hunters and trappers organizations in the Kivalliq will each receive $25,000 for community hunt programs.
Finally, KIA will provide $105,000 to school breakfast programs in the region.