Budget’s impact on Nunavut unclear

Nunavummiut may eventually find some badly needed help in the federal government’s new budget — but no one can say how much until details emerge over the coming weeks and months.

John Manley, the federal finance minister, tabled the federal government’s 2003-04 budget on Feb. 18.

In it, Ottawa will spend a whopping $14 billion more than last year in various policy areas, but Nunavut government officials won’t know how much of it will get to Nunavut until they pore through the fine print.

They’re especially wary of federal spending programs that use per capita methods to distribute money.

“If they continue to use the per capita funding, you know we’re going to be short-changed big-time based on needs and higher operating costs, so dollar-for-dollar we’re going to be short-changed,” said Kelvin Ng, Nunavut’s finance minister.

In the past, Ottawa’s highly touted municipal infrastructure programs have disappointed territorial officials.

But Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the government’s political spokesperson in the North for budget matters, said a new 10-year, $3-billion infrastructure fund that Manley announced this week may be divided up under different rules.

“The wording hasn’t cornered us into a per capita amount, so we’re hoping that it leaves it flexible enough that we can get more than we usually get.… I was assured of that, anyway,” Blondin-Andrew told Nunatsiaq News this week.

There’s no doubt, however, that lower-and middle-income families in Nunavut will see at least one immediate benefit that will put real money into their pockets.

That’s an increase in the amount that families may claim on their income tax returns through the child tax benefit. For the first child, it will rise to $3,243 by 2007, a 30 per cent increase over the current level.

“That’s the one thing that I can say for sure that will have an immediate impact,” Ng said.

Manley said in his budget speech that, when it’s fully implemented, a poor family with two children under the age of seven would get a $563 cheque every month under the increased child tax benefit.

Manley also announced that low-income families raising a disabled child will get an income supplement worth $1,600 a year.

Other spending announcements include $1.7 billion over five years on energy efficiency and renewable energy, $1.3 billion over five years for aboriginal health, $2.4 billion over three years for national defence, $935 million over five years for daycare, $320 million over five years for affordable housing, $256 million over two years for home renovation, $60 million for northern scientific research, and more money for aboriginal languages and national park creation.

As well, the government’s air traveller’s security tax will drop to $14 from $24 for return flights, and employment insurance premiums will decrease.

Some critics, however, say Ottawa’s new spending plans are spread out over too many areas all at once, and over long periods of time.

“I think the government has tried to do a little bit of everything, but has done nothing well. The damage that the Liberals have done over the last decade has not been addressed meaningfully in this budget,” said Judy Wasylycia-Leis, the New Democratic Party’s finance critic.

Wasylycia-Leis admitted, however, that the government “has made a step in the right direction” in some areas of social spending, but that the money is spread too thinly.

“The budget is a real disappointment on those basic issues where people are really struggling,” Wasylycia-Leis said.

As an example, Wasylycia-Leis said the child tax benefit increase isn’t high enough, and should rise to above $4,000 for the first child, as social advocacy groups have recommended.