IQALUIT - He may have been wearing brand new kamiks, but Finance Minister David Simailak had an old message for Nunavummiut at budget time.

The familiar calls for increased federal funding and devolution were the basis of many of Simailak's comments when presenting the budget to the legislative assembly on March 8.

Finance Minister David Simailak ties up his brand new kammiks before presenting the 2007-08 Nunavut budget. Rosie Oolooyuk from Rankin Inlet, the finance minister's relative, made the kamiks. - Kent Driscoll/NNSL photo Nunavut Budget: Deficit: $6.6 million Revenue: $1.05 billion Capital expenses: $91.8 million Nunavut's current debt: $141.4 million Nunavut's federally set debt limit: $200 million Source: Nunavut budget address 2007-08

Revenues are expected to reach $1.05 billion with total expenditures of $1.057 billion.

That compares to projected spending from 2006-2007 of $1.028 billion, and revenues $1.021 billion.

"The growing gap between our revenues and expenditures leads to deficits, which will eventually limit our ability to deliver the services and programs that Nunavummiut need," said Simailak. "We need to break out of this vicious cycle to ensure we can continue to provide the government services Nunavummiut deserve."

Nunavut writes the cheques, but Ottawa foots most of the bill.

"Nunavut is heavily reliant on the Government of Canada for the bulk of our revenues for everything government does. Our annual grant from Ottawa is the backbone of this budget, accounting for over 80 per cent of our revenues," said Simailak.

Nunavut expects to get $966.8 million from the federal government this year, in territorial formula financing, the Northern Strategy and other federal transfers.

Counting the beans

There was little change in spending, but the way the GN counts their dollars has changed. The territory has switched to accrual based budgeting.

"Under this method, receivables and payables are recognized when a sale is agreed to, even though, as yet, no cash may have been received or paid out," said Similiak during his address.

In an interview following the address, the minister was less specific when asked about the new bean counting method.

When asked to explain accrual based budgeting in layman's terms, the minister started with a chuckle.

"I'm still trying to learn that myself," laughed Simailak.

Curiously, a definition for accrual budgeting was not in the glossary of terms attached to the main budget estimates.

The federal budget comes out in the middle of March, and the contents of that budget will impact Nunavut's bottom line.

"I'm hoping to see a better TFF (Territorial Financing Formula) agreement with Ottawa," said Simailak.

In November, Minister Simailak hinted that the new cigarette tax was to be followed with an increase in the price of alcohol. That didn't appear in this budget, but the minister still has his eye on booze money.

"It is still in the works," he said. "We haven't finished the background work for that, we are still looking at the whole idea. We didn't consider any (new taxes) for this budget."

With a deficit of $6.6 million, spending may be at current levels for the foreseeable future.

"We don't want the deficit to grow, but $6.6 million is something we think we can control at this point," said Simailak.

That November announcement also contained supplementary spending for departments that overshot their budget. The minister is hoping the same will not be true this year.

"The departments did their best to budget as accurately as possible for the upcoming year, and that's all you can ask," said Simailak.

While there is no new spending, some of the numbers have been juggled within individual departments.

A good example is the Department of Health and Social Services. Its total for purchased services dropped from $7.341 million to $6.140 million, and the budget for fees and payments went from just over $34 million to just over $33 million. Both savings were from a new purchasing program, where all of Nunavut's medical supplies are purchased from the same source.

While saving there, the department boosted its budget for contract services from $40.994 million to $45.566 million. The $5 million bump is to cover placing agency nurses in communities without a permanent nurse.

When you look at the bottom line, Health and Social Services spent $255.735 million last year, and is budgeted for $225.622 million for this year.

Most other departments had similar variations within their budgets.