Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 08/05) - Nunavut communities can expect to see cash flowing their way in the coming years.

Federal transport minister Jean Lapierre was in Iqaluit on Aug. 3 to announce $69.5 million in municipal funding.

The first pot of money is the federal gas tax funding. Worth $37.5 million, it is spread over five years. Year one allows for $4.5 million and by year five, the funding will reach $15 million. That money is earmarked for sustainable municipal infrastructure with goals of decreasing greenhouse gases and improving water and air quality.

The second deal is the municipal rural infrastructure fund, which consists of $16 million from the federal government and $16 million from the Nunavut government. The combined $32 million dollars will then be distributed to communities.

The Nunavut government and the municipal association created an advisory committee to decide on a ranking system for projects, to see which projects will receive funding first.

The committee consists of three territorial government representatives, three voting members from the municipalities association, with other members being added through mutual agreement.

The committee has been charged with developing a point system, where each project will receive a score that decides its priority. The higher the score, the sooner the project will be completed.

The committee will generate a multi-year plan for each community, an annual capital plan for the legislative assembly, a five-year plan for spending in all communities and an annual needs assessment for each community.

The gas tax money is more than Nunavut would have received had the southern formula been used.

That system works on a per capita basis and doesn't reflect the added costs of building anything in the North, or the small population.

Ditching the per capita funding was music to Johnny Ningeongan's ears.

As the president of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities, he was hoping for an agreement that could help the smallest hamlets.

If the government had followed the per capita model, there would only be $2.5 million in gas tax funding, instead of the $37.5 million, he said.

Lapierre gave credit to Liberal MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell, explaining that she is always telling her Liberal colleagues that "things are different in the North."

"There is no one model (for funding), especially here," Lapierre said.