Thirteen Inuvik teachers losing jobs, union says, as BDDEC makes cuts

The NWT’s teachers’ union says it is “very worried” about the state of education territory-wide as Inuvik prepares to lose more than a dozen teaching staff.

NWT Teachers’ Association president Rita Mueller confirmed to Cabin Radio that 13 classroom teachers in the town have received notice they are being laid off.

Mueller described the layoffs as “very unusual,” saying that form of job loss hasn’t been experienced by the association’s members in some 30 years.

She attributed the cuts to changes in federal Jordan’s Principle funding made last year, which have already jeopardized hundreds of other education jobs across the territory as schools lose access to millions of dollars in funding.

The Beaufort Delta Divisional Education Council, or BDDEC, has not commented. Its acting superintendent and its board chair did not respond to interview requests last week.

Mayor of Inuvik Peter Clarkson said the municipality had received no notice of the changes, which he described as a “huge hit.”

“When you hear that many jobs are being lost, you do the multiplier effect of that. Let’s say of the 13 people, there’s almost $2 million of salaries and related costs going out,” Clarkson said.

“That’s less money in the community, less money for the economy.”

The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, which described the news as “important,” said it would comment later this week. The Gwich’in Tribal Council did not respond to requests.

Jordan’s Principle loomed large in BDDEC budget

A loss of 13 people represents roughly a quarter of Inuvik’s classroom teaching workforce, based on BDDEC’s most recently published operating plan.

Cabin Radio understands the cuts initially extended to more than 20 staff, but some of the affected positions are being absorbed by leaving vacancies unfilled or using other approaches that don’t involve layoffs.

Jordan’s Principle is a federal program to help First Nations children receive equitable access to services, alongside the Inuit Child First Initiative for Inuit children.

The federal government has changed its criteria to make NWT schools ineligible for help from Jordan’s Principle after years providing tens of millions of dollars in funding across the territory. The territorial government stepped in with some emergency funding but says there is no way it can afford to fully plug the gap.

BDDEC’s 2025-26 budget included an expectation of $14.7 million in Jordan’s Principle funding, about 28 percent of the education body’s overall $52.2 million in budgeted revenue.

BDDEC is also understood to be working through a separate financial concern related to how staffing costs were managed in recent years.

The planned cuts are not believed to significantly affect teaching positions outside Inuvik, but other Beaufort Delta communities’ schools will almost certainly be affected by similar cuts to support assistant positions, which were also funded through Jordan’s Principle.

Inuvik’s East Three Elementary School is also ending its French immersion program this summer.

“I think the last time people were given any kind of notice was in the mid-90s,” Mueller told Cabin Radio, referring to NWTTA members being laid off.

“The reason I say that with some confidence,” she added, is because she was one of them. Mueller was just starting her teaching career in the NWT when she received a layoff notice in 1995. Ultimately, because of other staff departures, she kept her position.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Mueller said. “It certainly hasn’t happened in the past 30 years in the North.”

The likely impact

BDDEC’s use of Jordan’s Principle to fund teachers is not quite the same approach as other NWT education bodies applied, though it had a similar outcome: the money was used to ensure kids got more help.

Across the territory, the most commonly expressed concern as Jordan’s Principle goes away has been that specialist supports will evaporate.

Mueller said she expects BDDEC’s cuts to mean fewer adults in Inuvik’s East Three school, larger class sizes, and a reduction in the variety of courses available.

More broadly, she said the territory-wide list of concerns includes “a real lack of specialty supports” for students with complex needs.

“They won’t be getting access to the people or the supports that they really require,” said Mueller, “and of course, the immediate ripple effect will be on everybody else in the school, because teachers and the remaining support assistants will be pulled all over the place in trying to help the students that need help.”

The layoff notices don’t have immediate effect. Ordinarily, teachers receiving those notices are told their jobs will be lost at the end of the academic year in July.

Mueller said that leaves her “very worried” about how things will look in the fall.

“The association is incredibly worried about what 2026-27 is going to look like in schools across the North,” she said, “in every community.”