Federal government to review finance agreement
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Mar 12/01) - Nunavut will not get any additional funding over the next three years from the federal government, despite the $12-million debt projected for the fiscal year.
Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin visited Iqaluit last week where he met with territorial Finance Minister Kelvin Ng. They signed the extension to the present formula financing agreement, which expires March 31, 2004. Nunavut received $615.4 million in federal transfer payments for fiscal 2001-2002.
"By and large, it's the same agreement," said Ng. But Martin said the federal government will begin a review of the current agreement in the next four to six weeks.
Said Ng: "We have to undertake this review and we're hoping it will demonstrate there are some realistic, unique needs that have to be addressed in Nunavut."
The federal minister also defended his government's fuel rebate program, which missed its mark in Nunavut. The money wasn't enough to purchase fuel for more than a week or two in most hamlets and many cheques were sent to those who don't pay for their own fuel. Martin said GST rebate recipients were targeted for funding instead of the territorial government.
"What we wanted to do was to make sure we got the cheques out," Martin said. "I stated at the time there were flaws. The best list we had was those people who were receiving a GST credit."
