Land claims organization Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) has announced that $7.4 million will be allocated to regional Inuit associations for food security and on-the-land physical distancing initiatives amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
photo courtesy of Erica Oolamik
The Kivalliq Inuit Association, which oversees the region hardest hit by the coronavirus, will receive almost $4.8 million.
The Qikiqtani Inuit Association will benefit from $2 million.
The Kitikmeot Inuit Association will get $634,684.
NTI will hold back close to $600,000 in reserve in case of further Covid-19 outbreaks.
The organization noted on Tuesday that the Kivalliq and Qikiqtani Inuit associations received additional amounts to “account for the direct impact to the affected communities of Arviat, Rankin Inlet, Whale Cove
and Sanikiluaq.”
These funds come from third phase of the Government of Canada’s Indigenous Community Support Fund.
What I don’t understand, maybe because I haven’t heard what the logic is, why a community where novel coronavirus has been contracted receives extra funding. It seems to me that it is an incentive for a community to receive the extra funds that someone from that community should become infected with the virus.