Federal budget falls short on funds for new housing
Territorial finance minister was expecting more from Ottawa
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Saturday, March 26, 2016
NUNAVUT
Nunavut Finance Minister Keith Peterson is disappointed in the first Liberal federal budget released March 22.
Residents' deduction
boosted in budget
The good news for Nunavummiut in the federal budget released March 22 is the Northern Residents Deduction increase to $22 from $16.50.
"That's positive. That's something we've lobbied for. That translates into $3.5 million in the back pockets of Nunavummiut - that's an estimate based on our tax returns," said territorial Finance Minister Keith Peterson.
Unfortunately, the change translates into less tax revenues for the GN, to the tune of about $900,000.
"So we gave up something to gain a lot. And people will be spending money so there's a multiplier effect in the community when they spend money."
Also on the tax front, the new Liberal Canada Child Benefit will replace a two-payment Conservative plan recently introduced, which will see families benefitting receive an average increase of almost $2,300.
This new program is geared to assist lower-income families more than higher-income families.
"Low-income families with lots of kids, that's going to put a lot of money into their back pockets. They should be able to buy more food and clothing," said Peterson.
He also points to Nutrition North, which will see an increase of $64.5 million over five years, with another $13.8 "per year ongoing to expand Nutrition North Canada to support all Northern isolated communities," according to federal budget documents.
"That looks like a positive. That should help people in the communities," Peterson said.
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"I was expecting more," he said.
Peterson presented two business cases to federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau -- $525 million over five years to build 1,000 homes in a territory deeply mired in a housing crisis and $250 million to upgrade failing power plants.
"We didn't get it," he said. "Not near enough that we hoped to get."
Instead, the federal budget provides $76.7 million over two years for houses.
"That translates into 140 to 150 houses. Although it's welcome, it's not really going to address our long-term needs," said Peterson, adding it is more than the last two federal budgets, which saw no money at all for housing.
The last investment was $100 million in 2013 and the territory still needs an estimated 3,500 new homes, at an estimated cost of $1 billion.
George Hickes, minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, says those numbers are a moving target.
"That's based on the needs list from each community," he said.
"Some people don't even put their name on the list basically under the historical assumption that they're never going to get a unit anyway. That's one of the things I'm trying to encourage people to do, to make sure if they're qualified to be on the needs list in their community to fill out an application and follow through with that process to give us realistic numbers."
The cost of an individual unit is roughly $500,000, although that number fluctuates from community to community. Building a unit can be a two-year process, some take as long as three years - including land development, planning process, tenders out and awarded and construction. For these reasons, long-term, stable funding is critical.
"One of the challenges that we've had, and that we want to continue to bring awareness to, is that when we get this feast or famine-type funding it makes it challenging to have our capacity, from the Nunavut Housing Corporation side of things, ready and able to put as many units on the ground as possible," said Hickes.
However, both Peterson and Hickes say Nunavut's housing stock is aging and the $573.9 million over two years dedicated to "supporting energy and water efficiency retrofits and renovations to existing social housing." is a potential boon.
"We're going to try to get our share of the money," said Peterson.
Hickes says he would like to explore energy efficiencies more aggressively "to lower our utility costs."
"That's a very large portion of our budget, covering utilities."
There was no mention of Nunavut's 30- to 45-year old power plants in the federal budget.
"We've long argued for that," said Peterson.
"I think it's the third time I've put the request in with the federal government and again we didn't get any help. They're talking about clean energy and climate change and we'll have to leave that to the Qulliq Energy Corporation to work on. See how that goes," said Peterson, adding the $200 million increase in the territory's borrowing limit at the last federal budget has been added to Qulliq's borrowing limit.
Hickes, who is also the minister responsible for the Qulliq Energy Corporation, says that although there isn't direct funding for new plants, or updating generators within the plants to increase efficiencies, there are programs that were announced he hopes Nunavut can access.
"To look at retrofitting some of our existing infrastructure to maximize their efficiencies with newer technologies," he said. "We've got 17 power plants that are over their anticipated life span right now so I don't think there's any argument in addressing the need. But at the end of the day, we're still going to be very reliant on fossil fuel just due to the geography of our territory."
As Peterson says, "We're not just going to sit around and do nothing. We've got to invest in our assets and keep them running. It's a problem that's not going to go away," he said.
"Nunavut has 26 power plants and they're burning P50 diesel that's going to enter the atmosphere - that's greenhouse gases. If we could make our power plants more efficient, burn less P50 cleaner .I'm hopeful we can have those conversations."
Another disappointment for Peterson is a lack of funding announcements for major infrastructure investments in the Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions.
"We'll keep lobbying for that. We do need major infrastructure investments. I keep calling them investments - investment in our housing, investment in our municipalities, investment in our private sector to support business development," he said.
As Hickes notes, any investment in Nunavut benefits southern Canada because everything is imported.
"Overall I'm glad we got something but I thought they could do more - a bit more pizazz," concludes Peterson.
But he understands there were a lot of demands being made of this first Liberal budget.
"There are a lot of problems. They made a lot of promises."
