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Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, December 18, 2012

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Federal employees in Yellowknife will have to wait another year to know whether the Deh Cho Bridge will have an effect on their Northern living allowances, experts say.

NWT politicians have promised that the Deh Cho Bridge will lower the cost of living in Yellowknife because it allows steady shipping in and out of the community. Here, Premier Bob McLeod, centre, attends a fire feeding ceremony during the official opening for the bridge on Nov. 30. If this promise holds true, federal employees could see a cut to their Northern living allowance by this time next year. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

"The impact, if any, of the completion of the Deh Cho Bridge will not be known until a living cost differential survey for the Northwest Territories, scheduled for early next year, is completed," stated Fiona MacLeod, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, in a written response to Yellowknifer.

"Statistics Canada will review all locations in the Northwest Territories to determine the appropriate cost of living levels. Yellowknife will maintain its current level until the new survey results are published in 2013."

A Statistics Canada spokesperson confirmed that a cost of living survey for the NWT is scheduled for February 2013. The target date for publishing the results of the survey is December of next year, stated Linda Fortin-Dorion, the unit head of the isolated post index team with Statistics Canada. The survey will examine the cost of living in NWT communities and compare it with the cost of living in Edmonton.

"The (survey) collects information on prices at the isolated posts and the point of comparison and also information from employees at the post about where they shop," stated Fortin-Dorion in an e-mail response.

"Whether employees purchase locally or import goods to the posts is taken into account in calculating the cost of living. It is possible that these purchasing patterns will change now that there is a bridge."

Based on information from the 2009 census, 792 federal employees work in Yellowknife. Employees with dependents currently receive an average Northern living allowance of $24,735 annually on top of their salaries if they live in private residences, and an average of $25,761 in annual living allowances if they reside in government accommodations. Yellowknifers working for the federal government who do not have dependents receive an average of $17,680 per year in living allowances if they live in private dwellings, and an average of $15,456 if they live in government accommodations.

On top of negotiated salaries, federal employees in Yellowknife receive extra money to offset the high cost of living in the form of isolated post allowances. The purpose of these allowances is to enable the government to recruit and retain staff for isolated locations, stated MacLeod.

"Its provisions are designed to recognize the inherent disadvantages and abnormally higher costs of living and working in isolated posts, as well as to ensure that employees in government housing are treated in a manner equivalent to employees renting or owning similar accommodation from private or commercial sources," she stated in an e-mail.

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