Conservatives blast feds for delayed northern infrastructure spending

Cathy McLeod, the federal Conservatives’ shadow minister of Indigenous and northern affairs, chastised the Liberal government on March 6 for dragging its feet on northern infrastructure funding. Projects like the Grays Bay Road and Port, which would be built in part near this dock site on the Coronation Gulf, rely on federal funding. (FILE PHOTO)

David Akeeagok, Nunavut’s finance minister, says the federal government’s decision to delay spending $450 million on northern and rural infrastructure is “somewhat concerning,” and that his staff are still working to understand the implications. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

The federal government’s decision to postpone spending $450 million on northern and rural infrastructure until 2022 is a major blow to Nunavut, according to the Conservative opposition.

“This was money for roads, it was money for connectivity, it was money to reduce the need for diesel in communities,” Cathy McLeod, Conservative shadow minister for Indigenous and northern affairs, said in an interview.

The delayed spending is buried in this year’s federal budget. Last year’s budget included a promise to spend $650 million on northern and rural infrastructure over the next five years. Now that amount has been reduced to $200 million, with the remainder pushed back until after the next federal election.

The budget states this delay will give local governments more time to access those funds. McLeod said she doesn’t buy that explanation.

“I believe communities can get projects out in the appropriate timeframes,” she said. “They made a commitment in 2017 and now they have quietly pushed it out.”

These federal funding delays are “somewhat concerning,” Nunavut’s finance minister, David Akeeagok, told Nunatsiaq News on Wednesday, March 7.

“Federal infrastructure dollars that we get are critical for us when it comes to direct projects,” he said. “Those are quite critical.”

Akeeagok said he had yet to speak with his federal counterpart, Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

He said staff in his department will be looking into the details, to better understand which projects still in proposal stages could be impacted by the shuffled funding.

“I can’t pin-point [delays] now … Those are things we need to iron out.”

During question period in the Nunavut legislature March 7, Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Adam Lightstone asked Economic Development and Transportation Minister Elisapee Sheutiapik if the delayed funding was going to impact marine infrastructure projects planned for Iqaluit and Pond Inlet.

Sheutiapik, who did not have an answer, said that cabinet has yet to discuss the impacts of the budget change.

But Akeeagok told Nunatsiaq News that infrastructure projects with signed agreements like marine infrastructure projects in Pond Inlet and Iqaluit, or other projects that fall under the Gas Tax Fund or the Building Canada Fund, would be sheltered from the funding reallocation.

“Those are signed agreements with our governments… I’m confident that those would not be impacted because we are going through the tendering process right now,” he said. “It’s projects that have not been identified by Parliament or our legislative assembly that are not protected yet.”

Jen Powroz, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Canada, described the funding delays as “an updated forecast of when we expect to receive and reimburse those claims.”

She went on to tout past and present federal contributions to Nunavut’s infrastructure, including an emergency water supply for Whale Cove, a new utilidor for Rankin Inlet and the building of Iqaluit’s new aquatic centre.

“The federal government funds up to 75 per cent of eligible costs on these projects,” she said.

The 2018-19 federal budget, released Feb. 27, does make commitments towards eliminating Nunavut’s tuberculosis crisis, funding for a national Inuit health survey and building more social housing for Inuit.

Natan Obed, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said when the budget was released that Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott is proving a strong advocate for seeing these portfolios through.

However, Nunavut MP Hunter Tootoo critiqued the new spending plan for not addressing needed changes for the dysfunctional Nutrition North program.

In her statement, McLeod went on to say that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s economic policies are failing to make any impact on people in the territories, and called the Liberal moratorium on oil and gas development in the Arctic an “arbitrary” and “paternalistic” step that is crippling to the northern Canadian economy.

McLeod also raised the issue of the coming federal carbon tax because she said the change is going to drive up costs of necessities like diesel and food.

“Meanwhile the money is not getting spent on measures that can actually reduce these impacts,” she said. “I hope northerners are aware, it’s important for people to know that this is a broken promise.”