The Senior’s Advocate of NL will be visiting Hopedale, July 12, 2023.

They are asking seniors, elders, and residents of Hopedale to join them at the Assembly Building on July 12, 2023, start at 6:30PM to discuss any concerns and answer any questions that the Residents of Hopedale may have, in regards to Seniors and Elders of Hopedale.

Rides will be provided for any senior that may need one, and for further information you can contact Beverly Hunter, Regional Elder’s Coordinator at 709 933 3216.

The OKaalaKatiget Society had an update on Hopedale’s Rhubarb Festival.

The Rhubarb Festival was first planned to go ahead on July 10th, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the Festival had to be postponed to a later date.

The Rhubarb committee decided to go ahead with the Fishing Contest this weekend, on Saturday, July 15th, 2023. There will be a 10-dollar registration fee for ages 13 plus, a 5-dollar registration fee for 12 and under. This is consisting of Char, and Trout only, inside Hopedale’s boundaries. There will be 1 entry per person, at weigh in, weigh in will be taking place at the Nanuk Centre. The contest will start at 6am and end at 7pm, whoever will enter the contest must have their fish weighed in by 7pm. There will be a cash prize of 1st 2nd and 3rd in both age categories, and everyone who enters will have a chance at a door prize.

Once we receive more information about the Rhubarb Festival, we will be giving our audience an update.

Public Meetings and information sessions planned to discuss oil monitoring efforts.

Staff with the Environment Division of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources will hold public meetings/information sessions in all Labrador Inuit communities to discuss oil monitoring efforts, as well as wild egg consumption estimates provided by Health Canada.

Staff will also seek input from community members on the next steps.

Public meetings were held in Postville on Monday July 10, and the information session was held on Tuesday July 11.

The next public meeting will be held in Nain on Thursday July 13, 2023, at the Nain Illusuak theatre at 7pm.

Public meetings/information sessions will be held in Hopedale, Makkovik and Rigolet the week of June 17.

Precise dates and times to be announced.

For more information, please contact: Frederic Dwyer-Samuel Environmental Assessment Manager at 709-899-6702.

The Makkovik Fish Plant is offering work for anyone 14 years and up, and there is a last call to put your name in for work.

Angel Chaulk is the Clerk in Makkovik.

You must have your own accommodations, and the starting wage is $17.28 plus vacation pay.

Chaulk also mentions that there is a chance they won’t be buying any crab this year.

If you would like to work, please call 709-923-2230 and put your name down.

OKâlaKatiget Society contacted all the communities along the coast for their community freezer for updates.

In Nain, they have seal meat.

In Hopedale they have trout, and capelin.

Rigolet has chicken legs, chicken thighs, and pork roast.

In Makkovik they just have cod fish.

And in Postville they have Char, Cod Fish, and Smelts.

OKâlaKatiget Society contacted the coastal communities on Black Bear sighting in the community.

We spoke with Joe Dicker, AngajukKâk of Nain, Corporal Nicolas RCMP in Hopedale, and Barry Andersen, AngajukKâk of Makkovik.

Information is given to the communities on the coast to make sure you know what to do when you run into a bear, and who to contact.

We will have the communities of Rigolet and Postville when it becomes available.

Click here to hear the members of the communities of Nain, Hopedale, and Makkovik speak on the black bear situation.

Do you want to learn how to make your own kamek?

There will be a kamek workshop held in Nain this month.

They are planning an evening and weekend workshops that will allow 5 participants that will be randomly selected to sew their own pair this summer in Nain.

This kamek workshop will be held from July – August 2023 in Nain.

Workshops will take place in person, a few times a week and this is open to anyone ages 18+.

They are still working out the exact dates, this is why they need your input, What evenings of the weekdays of the weekend works good for you? they are looking to accommodate to the best of their abilities.

If you want to participate in the workshops? Here is the link:
https://forms.gle/LvhLS7t9eAvGinbdA

They are also looking for elders, seamstresses, storytellers, and other community members that might be interested in participating for an honorarium.

Examples of this kind of work could be showing participants how to use the seal in other ways (such as a cooking workshop, rendering seal oil, or processing other parts of the seal).

And they are also looking for people to share any stories they may have, such as stories from the land, hunting stories, and personal experiences.

If you or someone you know has a skill that relates to seal harvesting and processing let them know.

The goal of our Kisiliginik project is to share skills and knowledge about harvesting animals.

If you are interested, you can fill out the Google Form linked to this post, email kisiliginik@outlook.com, or message Kim Sharon Pilgrim or Veronica Flowers personally.

The Home Heating Supplement is available to residents of the province whose adjusted family income for 2022 was $150,000 or less and have directly incurred costs for the purchase of furnace or stove oil to heat their principal residence in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Eligible households will receive a maximum supplement of $500, where adjusted family income for 2022 is $100,000 or less. A partial supplement is available to households with adjusted family income for 2022 of more than $100,000 but less than or equal to $150,000, with a minimum supplement of $200.

Eligible individuals or families must apply for the supplement and provide furnace or stove oil invoices for the period from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023 in the name and address of the applicant or the applicant’s spouse or common law partner. The invoices must verify the purchase of at least 250 litres of furnace or stove oil. Households where heat is included in rent as well as fully subsidized Newfoundland and Labrador Housing units are not eligible for the supplement unless invoices to verify the minimum purchase of furnace or stove oil can be provided.

For more efficient processing, we encourage applicants to submit their application electronically through the webpage

If an applicant’s preference is to submit an application through the mail, it can be mailed to:
Home Heating Supplement Program
Department of Finance
P.O. Box 8700
St. John’s, NL A1B 4J6

The Government of Canada has issued Climate action incentive payments as of July, 2023.

The Climate action incentive payment is a tax free amount paid to help families and individuals offset the cost of the federal pollution pricing.

The Government of Canada has changed the payment method for the CAI from a refundable credit claimed annually on personal income tax returns to quarterly tax free payments made through the benefit system starting in July 2022.

The federal fuel charge will only come into effect as of July 1, 2023 in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Residents of these provinces will receive three quarterly payments (July 2023, October 2023, and January 2024) in the first year and four payments in the year(s) after that.

You are eligible for this credit if you are a resident of Canada for income tax purposes at the beginning of the month in which the CRA makes a payment. To be eligible, you must also be a resident of an applicable CAIP province on the first day of the payment month.

More Information will be released as we get another update.

This year marks the 18th annual Rhubarb Festival for Hopedale.

Due to unexpected circumstances, they had post pone the festival until further notice.

We spoke to Doris Dicker, one of the members on the festival.

Dicker said that they will go ahead with their fishing contest this weekend, and are hoping to have the rest of the activities soon.

Please contact Doris Dicker, Danielle Mitsuk, or Darlene Winters on the Rhubarb Festival.

Dicker says she will contact the OKâlaKatiget Society once they have more information on when they will go ahead with rest of the festival.