'We're on the back burner.'

Northerners won some goodies from last week's federal budget but reviews from Nunavut MLAs were decidedly mixed.

Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty tabled his budget Feb. 26. It posts a $2.3 billion surplus on $241.9 billion in revenues, and while the budget lacks the sweeping tax cuts of earlier Conservative budgets, northerners will get to keep a little more of what they earn this year.

The Northern Residents Deduction will rise 10 per cent to more than $6,000. Northern politicians have been lobbying for more than a year to increase the deduction, which has not changed since 1987.

Louis Tapardjuk, Nunavut's finance minister, said the measure will serve as a boost to the territory's economy.

"This is a good start on increasing our competitiveness in attracting and retaining skilled workers," Tapardjuk told the legislature. "This is also evidence of making our voices heard by standing together to unanimously pass the motion in November asking the federal government to increase the deduction."

There's also money for a new polar icebreaker, geological mapping, an $8-million commercial harbour for Pangnirtung, and the extension of a 15-per cent tax credit for mining exploration. Nunavut will also benefit from a share of $147 million for aboriginal and Inuit health programs.

But speaking to reporters after question period, Tapardjuk backed off his praise of Ottawa somewhat.

"I am satisfied in that it's a start," he said, adding the government will consult with leaders in the Northwest Territories and Yukon before pressing the federal government to increase the tax deduction even further.

Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo was less enthusiastic, calling the increase in the deduction a "half-step forward," but said "it's good to see some movement on this issue after years of federal inaction."

More troubling, Tootoo said, is the lack of any new money for the Northern Housing Trust. Nunavut received $200 million for housing in the 2006 budget.

"I think if the federal government can find [billions of dollars] for military hardware and facilities related to Arctic sovereignty, surely it can find adequate resources to better address housing needs and the human dimension of sovereignty," Tootoo said.

Tagak Curley, MLA for Rankin Centre, also said the budget doesn't go far enough in increasing the northern residents tax deduction, downplayed the impact a new icebreaker will have on Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, and criticized the lack of new money for social housing.

"We have one dock and one ship, so I would like to tell all of the members in this House that we're being put on the back burner by the federal government," he said.

People in Pangnirtung are excited the community is getting a proper harbour, said Ron Mongeau, the hamlet's SAO, adding he's still waiting to hear details about the dock's construction.

Mongeau said the community and its MLA, Peter Kilabuk have lobbied for "two or three years" for the port, which Mongeau hopes will allow fishers to ship more fish out of the community. Right now processed fish goes out in airplanes, which can haul much less fish than a boat.

"We have a strong vibrant fishery here [and] the only thing that's slowing it down is infrastructure," he said.

The mayor of Iqaluit, which has been lobbying Ottawa for years for the construction of a deep-water port in the capital, was disappointed there is once again nothing in the budget for the project.

Elisapee Sheutiapik doesn't begrudge Pangnirtung its fishing harbour, but said Iqaluit, as the main point of entry for big-ticket construction projects with a booming demand for dry cargo, won't stop lobbying for a dock.

"We're going to need significant pieces of infrastructure like that, so it only makes sense that we get the port," she said.

And there's good news for the capital too, Sheutiapik said. The gas tax fund that provides $2 billion per year in infrastructure funding for municipalities, started by the previous Liberal government, is now permanent. Money from that fund will help the city pay for badly-needed upgrades to its water and sewer systems.

Sheutiapik also praised the increase in the northern residents deduction, which she hopes will help the chronically short-staffed city recruit workers.

"It hasn't gone up since it was established," she said. "It's about time."

Exactly what Paul Okalik, the premier, thinks about the federal budget isn't clear. He referred all media questions to Tapardjuk.