Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Monday, August 6, 2007

IQALUIT - The northern regional council of the Public Service Alliance of Canada wants to put more money in your pocket.

Regional representatives of the union across the three northern territories have been circulating a petition, asking that the Northern Residents Tax Deduction be increased by 50 per cent immediately, and for the deduction to be indexed to Northern inflation.

Geoff Ryan holds a petition that will be submitted in the House of Commons this fall, asking that the Northern Residents Tax Deduction be increased by 50 per cent. - Stephanie McDonald/NNSL photo

The petition will be presented in the House of Commons when it resumes sitting this fall.

The tax deduction was brought forward by the Mulroney Conservatives in 1987 and hasn't increased since.

"It was introduced to try to bridge the gap between the isolated posts and the rest of Canada," said Jean-Francois Des Lauriers, regional executive vice-president of the PSAC, speaking from Dawson City, Yukon last week.

Every resident of the three territories is eligible to receive the tax deduction. The buying power of the $5,475 maximum allowable tax-free income benefit is worth only $2,463.75 in 2007 dollars, due to inflation rising 65 per cent in the past 20 years, according to the union.

Yet the cost of living in the North has increased by approximately two per cent a year since 1987, Des Lauriers said. On average, Northerners spend $15,000 more on living essentials than southern Canadians each year, the union stated.

"We are trying to communicate to the government that there is broad support for this, at least in the North," said Des Lauriers. "The cost of living in small communities in Nunavut is horrendous."

The campaign began in June and employees and volunteers with the PSAC have been collecting signatures in Iqaluit, Yellowknife, and Whitehorse. Those who wish to add their name to the petition, but live outside of the territorial capitals can download a petition from the PSAC website.

Des Lauriers expects that the union will collect several thousand signatures by the time the House resumes sitting.

At the Parks Day event at Sylvia Grinnell Park in Iqaluit on July 21, Geoff Ryan, territorial director on the PSAC North Regional Council, was informing people about the lack of interest the federal finance minister, Jim Flaherty, has shown in increasing the tax deduction.

"We're trying to put it on his radar," Ryan said.

Dennis Bevington, MP for the NWT, raised the issue in the House of Commons on May 3, 2007. According to the official transcript, Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice's response at the time was:

"At this point we are focused on economic development in the North. That is the key to create jobs and employment opportunities... This is a government that is committed to the north. The Minister of Finance has been very committed to economic development and prosperity in the North."