Hamlets lose out in capital plans

Three MLAs asked in the legislative assembly last week why much-needed spending items have disappeared from hamlet capital plans.

Nanulik MLA Patterk Netser said that a fire truck was to be replaced in Chesterfield Inlet next year, but this has been delayed until 2006-2007. Funding for snow-fencing in the community has disappeared altogether, and a request for a community freezer has not appeared in the capital plan at all.

“There is absolutely nothing for the smaller communities in the five-year capital plan, especially for Kuugaruk,” said Akulliq MLA Steve Mapsalak.

Mapsalak says that Kuugaruk was included in the Government of the Northwest Territories’s capital plans, but “since the creation of Government of Nunavut, everything has disappeared.”

He says the hamlet’s priorities are a breakwater, airport improvements and roads.

A breakwater and docking facility for Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay have both been deleted from capital plans in the past, said Quttiktuq MLA Levi Barnabas.

Peter Kilabuk, the minister of community and government services, promised to investigate.