Nunavut budget adds spending on income assistance linked to training

It was the biggest financial move in a budget that detailed small spending increases and a small amount of red ink. The budget’s projected $28 million deficit would be the second in a row for Nunavut.

The budget also provides money to hire new teachers and to upgrade technology infrastructure. It also earmarks nearly $6 million to fight tuberculosis.

In his speech, Akeeagok pointed out the territory is being squeezed by smaller funding increases from the federal government and rising needs from social problems and its young, growing population.

“It will reduce our flexibility in coming years and is not sustainable in the long term,” he said.

Akeeagok said hospitals, schools and public housing were all underfunded when the territory was created in 1999 and those deficits continue.

“This persistent social deficit undermines the health, well-being, and advancement of Nunavummiut,” he said.

The federal government continues to provide about 90 per cent of the territory’s $2.2 billion budget. The territory’s previous budget called on Ottawa to help with the kind of projects that would help Nunavut pay more of its own bills — ports, roads, internet connectivity — but those issues remain unresolved.

The budget comes as Nunavut’s economic outlook is improving.

Akeeagok noted the 11.8 per cent unemployment rate is falling.

And in a recent report, the Conference Board of Canada predicted new gold mines and expansions at existing ones are expected to generate annual growth of nearly 10 per cent for the next five years. By the early 2020s, the territory expects to have five producing mines with gold production projected to quadruple.

Mining and associated activity is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs over the next five years, although the report warns fewer than half will go to local people.

Still, Akeeagok warned that activity won’t translate immediately into higher government revenues.

“There is not much flexibility within the government’s fiscal situation,” he said. “Our efforts to address just some of the historical underfunding have put us into a deficit budget.

“We can address only small parts of the large social deficit that has been accumulating since long before Nunavut’s creation.”

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton. Follow him on Twitter at @row1960

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Nunavut budget adds spending on income assistance linked to training

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