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Underfunded women’s shelter plans to close

“We’re giving a lot but we’re not getting a lot back”

JANE GEORGE

Unless they get help soon, the board that runs the Qimaavik women's shelter will stop accepting clients on Jan. 31. (PHOTO BY JOHN THOMPSON)

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The Baffin Regional Agvvik Society, which runs the 21-bed Qimaavik shelter in Iqaluit, said it plans to stop accepting clients on Jan. 31, 2007.

The three people left on the society’s board - Sheila Levy, Julia Demcheson and Jeannie Smith - say a lack of money is the main reason for their decision to close the shelter: the Government of Nunavut provides $600,000 a year, but with rising costs and a growing list of urgent needs, the shelter needs $1 million a year and can’t make ends meet.

A meeting between the Agvvik Society and the GN last week produced no promise of extra help, but the society is expecting an answer by the end of the month.

“It is so sad to come to this point,” said Qimaavik’s executive director, Napatchie McRae.

“We do want to offer our help to the women and children. I want the government to come forward and realize we need this women’s shelter. We hope we will open the eyes of the public, too, about what we do.”

The announcement came on Oct. 2, the same day Statistics Canada produced a report that reveals staggering information about violence against women in Nunavut.

Research from the report, called Measuring Violence Against Women shows:

• the level of domestic violence is at least two times higher in Nunavut than the rest of Canada;
• the rate of spousal homicide is seven times higher;
• the rate of sexual offences is more than 10 times higher;
• Nunavut women are more likely to suffer “potentially life-threatening forms of violence;”
• and Nunavut women are 10 times more likely to go to a shelter.

In 2003 to 2004, 372 women and 534 children in Nunavut went to a shelter for help during a crisis.

Most of Qimaavik’s clients come from the Baffin region. As the only shelter in Nunavut that is open every day all year long, it’s nearly always full.

“It’s come to the point that we don’t want to turn women away, but we don’t have room,” McRae said.

Since 1986, Qimaavik - known in its early years as “Nutaraq’s Place” - has served as the last and often only hope for thousands of women and children victimized by violence.

Its volunteer board, the Agvvik Society, was born after a meeting held in Iqaluit in December 1985, attended by dozens of Inuit men and women from every community in the Baffin region.

The former Inusiqsiuqvik treatment centre building in Apex became Qimaavik’s new home in 2000. It’s set up to offer six-week stays for women in crisis, although many stay for 12 weeks.

Forty-five per cent of the shelter’s clients are referrals from the communities, and some of those women have no place to go back to. These women have to live in Iqaluit for at least one year just to get on a waiting list for public housing.

Qimaavik has 18 employees, mostly part-time, at wages not competitive with other social services agencies.

Although the GN provides most of its funding, the Agvvik Society runs Qimaavik, not the government. That means its employees don’t get the generous salaries and benefits, such as staff housing, paid to unionized government workers.

Short of cash, Qimaavik’s facility has also done without badly needed repairs and equipment.

“We have so many needs,” McRae said. “We’re giving a lot but we’re not getting a lot back.”

McRae is urging Nunavummiut to contact their MLAs and tell them “the government isn’t doing enough to help them out.”

“We’re hoping we don’t have to close on January 31,” she said. “This is very scary.”

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