OTTAWA
For a budget focused above all on reducing and eventually eliminating Canada's deficit, Conservative MP Leona Aglukkaq said there are "improvements all around" in the 2013 federal budget, and called it "fantastic for the North."
Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq adjusts her glasses as she reads her budget address from her regional office in Iqaluit on March 22. - Peter Worden/NNSL photo
|
Aglukkaq, who was in Ottawa March 21 as federal Finance Minister John Flaherty introduced the 2013 budget, said her pre-budget consultations in the North were well-reflected. Among funding for specific initiatives, Nunavut will receive $1.4 billion this year in territorial transfer money to spend as it sees fit.
"We would not balance the budget on the backs of provinces and territories," said Aglukkaq. "Since I've been elected I've been proud to oversee literally billions of dollars of federal investments in the North."
Nunavut Finance Minister Keith Peterson called the overall budget "pretty good from a Nunavut point of view."
"There were no big pending announcements," said Peterson who had met with Flaherty last December. "Obviously we'd like more but we completely understand – I do, anyway – Minister Flaherty's situation with respect to balance the federal budget reduce their deficit."
High on the list of infrastructure initiatives in Nunavut, social housing was allocated $100 million federally specifically for Nunavut to be spent in the next two years on 250 housing units. This works out to roughly $400,000 per unit, compared to the GN's previously announced budget of $13 million for 30 units (or about $433,000 per unit).
"I hope the territorial government will use the money most efficiently to construct as many houses they can with the $100 million," said Aglukkaq, who added the money will "go a long way for housing in the North," although she preferred not to speculate on the cost drivers or discrepancy of per unit price between the GN and the federal government.
"It's expensive," said Peterson, explaining different communities have different costs associated with materials, access, tenders and land development costs. "It's not cheap to build here."
Peterson said the government had been lobbying for a long time for such funding and said the money for social housing was good news and a good start.
"For us to get $100 million when funding is hard to come by, I think it's pretty good."
So far details are scant on when and where the homes will be built due to the tendering process and seasonality. Funding will come through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Aglukkaq said there is $52 million allocated in the federal budget to improve health services across Canada for First Nations and Inuit. An unknown portion of that money will filter into the GN's ongoing Territorial Health System Sustainability Initiative. According to THSSI, which began in 2005, its current aim is to develop strategies for mental health and chronic disease management, address human resource gaps in the health system and help make medical transportation more efficient.
Prepping Ports
After years of revised plans and scaled-back models, the Nanisivik port near Arctic Bay will receive about $116 million over five years to build up its facility in order to support offshore patrol ships in Canada's Arctic, the budget read.
Flaherty also announced nearly $1 billion to repair and maintain small craft harbours across Canada. In the spring sitting of the Nunavut legislature, several MLAs raised the issue of safe and easy land-sea access. In February, Minister of Economic Development and Transportation Peter Taptuna called the lack of proper land-sea access "a major deficit that hinders economic development in Nunavut."
The budget also sets money aside to speed up the construction of the harbour in Pangnirtung, which Aglukkaq said she looked forward to opening officially this August.
"What was announced was not unexpected, but of course very welcome," said Pangnirtung SAO Ron Mongeau, who explained the money is the final instalment of federally allocated money to bring in the floating docks this summer and double-check for trouble spots in the harbour. "It will definitely help support the fishing industry and provide a harbour for recreational sport hunting."
Currently a feasibility study is ongoing in Qikiqtarjuak for a similar harbour and Aglukkaq said the GN has put forward an idea of other eligible communities for the federal funding.
Also in the federal budget, $4 million will be used to protect against invasive species and inspect vessel ballasts in Arctic waters.
