We’re so proud to announce that our hard work at QIA has paid off. This year our annual budget has grown from $18 million to $25 million, allowing us to offer even more services to Qikiqtani Inuit.

This money will translate into more resources, activities and initiatives to serve Inuit in our region. As well as more staff and office space for QIA.

This growth in our organization’s budget is a result of a number of key projects:

• $19 million is from Q-STEP, the Qikiqtani Skills and Training for Employment Partnership.
  • This Inuit employment and training program will continue in the next four years. Q-STEP is made possible because of funding from the Skills and Partnership Funding program. Our partners in this program include Baffinland Iron Mines, the Government of Nunavut, Kakivak Association and the Government of Canada.
  • We expect to administer $2.5 million of SPF funding towards training this year for Inuit. This is not including the in-kind contribution provided by our partners.
• $1 million is from the contribution agreement we have signed with Parks Canada to negotiate the Tallurutiup Imanga Inuit Impact Benefit Agreement (IIBA)
  • This is another new item in this year’s budget.
  • We have now completed a community tour to ensure we include Inuit wishes for benefits as the basis of our negotiations.
• $1.9 million is from QIA’s Benefits Fund, which is a result of the QIA Revenue Policy and Legacy Fund
  • This is also new this year. $2.2 Million is the interest generated by the QIA Legacy Fund from the various sources of funds that are invested on behalf of Qikiqtani Inuit and will now be available this fiscal year for programming

• $500,000 is money QIA has received from Makigiaqta for early childhood programming
  • This is another new item in our budget. We expect to deliver $420,000 worth of program this year towards early childhood programs.

Our subsidiary company QC also has had a successful 2017/18 year. As a result QIA was able to announce the $1.8 million dividend we received from QC. Meaning, in the last two years, QC has contributed a total of $2.8 million for QIA’s revenue policy to the legacy fund that goes towards our Benefits Fund programs.

We are expecting to continue operating at this level for the next two to four years. After that, the projects will be complete, and our budget should go back to $18M annually, unless we get more funding for other new projects.