Tuktoyaktuk told to ‘find funding within’ after major flood

By Aastha Sethi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cabin Radio

MLA Lucy Kuptana says Tuktoyaktuk is being left to deal with the aftermath of a historic storm surge on its own, despite widespread damage to roads and homes.

Speaking at the Northwest Territories legislature on Tuesday, Kuptana – who is a cabinet member and the Nunakput MLA, representing Tuk – described the flooding on August 30 as an event “never experienced before in recorded history.” She said water levels reached 2.6 metres (nearly 10 feet) and winds gusted up to 130 km/h.As a result, she said, the Arctic community was cut off from essential services after roads were damaged and blocked by high water and massive piles of driftwood.

Kuptana said Tuktoyaktuk had been “proactive over the last 10 years” in its work to prepare for this kind of event, but nonetheless came “very close to evacuating.”

“One road by the reservoir was eaten away half by the storm surge, the road leading to the hamlet garage was underwater, so the staff had to come up quickly with an alternative route through airport lands.”

Fourteen homes were surrounded by floodwaters and many smoke houses and workshops were swept away, she added.

Kuptana said the local council met but did not declare a state of emergency, unaware that such a decision would affect territorial and federal disaster funding. There was also a belief that the N.W.T. Association of Communities would cover road and clean-up damage through an insurance claim.

Kuptana said council later requested that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs pay for both the clean-up and road rebuilding, but the MLA said Tuk is being “told to look from within.”

“A small community with limited funding is told to take care of themselves and not look to the GNWT for funding assistance and use their own limited funds to clean up from a major storm event,” she said.

Emergency declaration wouldn’t guarantee cash

Communities minister Vince McKay said the GNWT is still assessing the full extent of the damage and has not offered Tuktoyaktuk any disaster assistance, as the territory’s disaster assistance policy has “not been applied to this event with the information that Maca had received.”

McKay added the hamlet continues to receive its regular community government funding, which he said is distributed “evenly and equitably” among all N.W.T. communities.

Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Denny Rodgers asked if the department was aware of how Tuktoyaktuk’s insurance claim through the N.W.T. Association of Communities had progressed.

Rodgers noted that Tuktoyaktuk was advised not to declare a local state of emergency and instead apply through the N.W.T. Association of Communities’ insurance program for support. He asked whether the minister was aware of how successful that application had been.

McKay replied that declaring a local state of emergency does not always guarantee access to disaster funding, which depends on the kind and scale of emergency. He said questions about the insurance claim would have to be directed to the hamlet.

Rodgers said Tuktoyaktuk, like other Beaufort Delta communities, is already struggling with infrastructure debt because of a new water treatment plant and its shoreline erosion project.

McKay said the hamlet can use its existing community funding “essentially any way they want,” and has about $2.8 million due from a federal fund that could help if certain reporting is received by the GNWT.