GN loses $3-$4 million from Tory cuts

Ed Picco, the education minister, told MLAs during the last sitting of the legislative assembly that the Conservative government’s recent cuts to the budget of the federal Human Resources department, and other federal agencies, likely cost Nunavut between $3 and $4 million.

Picco provided the information in response to a question from Keith Peterson, the MLA for Cambridge Bay.

Picco said cuts to federal literacy programs deprived Nunavut of about $378,000 in expected funding, $256,000 from the Nunavut Literacy

Council, and $122,000 from Nunavut Arctic College.

Those cuts prompted the Canadian Council of Ministers of Education to write a letter to complaint to John Baird, the president of the Treasury Board, Picco said.

“I am in the process right now of reviewing our budget to see where I can step in and support the Nunavut Literacy Council,” Picco said.