Hamlets pay down deficits

Only one of Nunavut’s hamlets ran a deficit during the last fiscal year, Levinia Brown, minister of Community and Government Services, reported in the legislature on Nov. 29.

That’s a big change from three years ago, when 13 of the territory’s hamlets ran deficits. Six of those deficits exceeded $500,000.

“Mr. Speaker, municipalities were in a financial crisis,” Brown said.

In contrast, Brown described the single deficit reported this year as “so minor that it should be eliminated within the first quarter of this operating year.”

Brown said better management within hamlets, increased training provided by the GN and more supervision of hamlets by her department are all reasons for the improved financial situation.

As well, hamlets now receive 30 per cent more core funding than they did in 2002, Brown said.