Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik ( Jun 02/00) - Inuvik town council may be forced into cutting "around $65,000 to $70,000" from municipal programs if the GNWT goes ahead with current plans to cut block funding.

Minister for Municipal and Community Affairs Jim Antoine announced last week that beginning in August, tax-based communities will have block funding cut by 4.73 per cent.

Mayor George Roach said the cuts come at a very inconvenient time, as town contracts for the year have been awarded.

"Common sense tells me that we should have at least a year's notice on base funding cuts," he said. "We do our budgets back in November and December and we've made commitments and signed deals with people based on X-number of dollars coming in."

Roach said although council has not yet determined what specifically will be delayed or cut, he said there will have to be changes made.

"We're looking at some programs that are going to have to be deferred or cut. It's a matter of trying to find one that will do the least amount of damage to the community," he said.

"Each department will be doing their best to protect their own budget, but we'll find it, somehow -- we have no choice," Roach said.

"This throws everyone into a bad situation," he added.

Because the town has already made commitments to this fiscal year, they will be forced to go ahead with projects they would otherwise put over to another time.

The initial talk of the cuts came last spring, he said, but when communities protested, the GNWT quickly retreated.

"We were caught off guard back in March when they announced a seven per cent cut," he said. "We protested long and loud there, and they decided that they would consult with us to find a better way.

"Very little consulting took place, and then they founds some other little pots of money and reduced it to 4.73 (per cent), but still that's $65,000 to $70,000 on the community of Inuvik and we've made commitments to suppliers of goods and services."

Roach said at last week's meeting of the NWT Association of Municipalities in Fort Simpson, the minister said he would try to postpone the cuts.

"We're hoping that when Mr. Antoine goes to the Standing Committee on Finance, that they'll realize their error in cutting it (block funding) this year."

Minister Antoine could not be reached for comment at press time.