Idlout hopes ‘austerity’ in federal budget won’t shortchange Nunavut housing
NDP MP says needs of Indigenous people must be acted on in government spending plan
Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idoout says there might be cuts coming to important Indigenous programs in the federal government’s budget to be tabled Tuesday. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
With Tuesday’s federal budget expected to include targeted cuts in some areas of government spending, Nunavut MP Lori Idlout says she is taking a wait-and-see approach before deciding whether she will vote for it.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government has been signalling it will be an “austerity budget,” Idlout said Monday. “If that includes making cuts to Indigenous Services Canada, it’s a huge concern given that they have been underfunded for decades.”
Idlout said she is concerned that Arctic sovereignty and Nunavut’s need for more and better housing might be shortchanged as the government focuses on national defence and Arctic security.
“I’m going to be quite critical of that” if that happens, she said.
With Carney’s minority government three seats shy of a majority in the House of Commons, the possibility the budget could be defeated and trigger a snap election looms large.
If the budget is not passed, Idlout said, the blame should be laid at the feet of the Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois.
“This budget is totally up to the Liberals. [They] should be making sure to meet the basic needs of Indigenous people,” she said. “If the three major parties can’t do that, then that is their failure.”
Idlout confirmed that after the budget is tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday around 4 p.m., the NDP caucus will work into the evening, reviewing it before deciding whether or not to support it.
“It is too early to tell. We are going to be looking at [the budget] very carefully,” she said.
A Globe and Mail article Sunday suggested the NDP, with seven MPs, might abstain from voting on the budget.
If that were to happen, it would mean the budget could be approved without the NDP being seen as supporting Liberal government policies.
Idlout said the NDP caucus has not discussed abstention.
With the NDP decimated and left leaderless after the last election, hope is all Ms Idlout can offer us.
If you have a problem with the budget and the current state of the country is leaving you hungry, blame the Liberals. If this budget doesn’t pass, it’s because the Liberals forgot they are a minority government and need to make concessions to secure support from other parties.
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Trying to blame the NDP or an individual MP from a small party for whatever the party in power does/fails to do is ridiculous. It’s barely one step above blaming the Green Party – the NDP hold no power over the budget, and if the Liberals want their support, they need to make it worth supporting. Any blame should fall on the shoulders of those in power, and then the minority parties according to their size – especially when the Conservatives and Bloc have already supported some Carney Liberal bills already.
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What else do you want an MP to say when they are not in power, or a part of the second smallest party in power? Lori has no idea what the budget will be like right now, only some Liberals do.
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Getting upset at Lori/the NDP over this Liberal Budget is like getting upset at some ants you found while your house is on fire – there are more important priorities to focus on right now.
NDP should be blamed and bigtime. They supported the lieberals and kept them in power much longer than they should have been. The responsibility for destruction of this country lies in the ndp as well as the lieberals. Indigenous are not the only one hurting – all Canadians are.
You missed my point: That was then, this is now.
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If this budget fails now, it’s not the NDP’s fault, it’s not Lori’s fault. It would only be the Liberals fault for proposing a bad budget that other parties can’t support, when they know they need their support.
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The Liberals take everything and everyone for granted.
Does she not know that both Nunavut public housing and staff housing have some of the lowest rents in Canada? Good old NDPs thinking everything should be free.
LIKE CUBA !!!
NDP sold their party out to Justine Trudeau and the Liberals, Jack Layton is still rolling over in his grave.
Nobody is listening to her and vise versa.
Our governance system could use some changes. When we have the gift of a natural immunity to avian flu as occured in the flock of birds in British Columbia last year, And when the responsible CFIA (Health Canada) sides with drug companies to kill the flock for monetary gain, then we have a huge problem. And when media goes silent on the story… it’s worst. To succeed we could but won’t change to a system that produces results lifting people out of impoverishment as has China’s, And stop the kow tow behavior to the corporate execs.
A Christmas election would be a huge boon for the Conservatives.
Low turnout benefits the CPC because of the Liberal’s insane vote efficiency, so anything that makes voting harder benefits them. I’d be curious to see how it would impact Lori. I would wonder how many of her voters would be out of town at Christmas.
But sending me to the polls already, and at Christmas will only serve to solidify the vote I cast for the Liberals this Spring.
Our health care (Tommy Douglas) and dental care (Jagmeet Singh) were delivered with the NDP party. Liberal and Conservative owe to their lobbies their success in the polls. In return favours are filled, favours such as buttressing the corporate world.
Our health and dental care is not delivered to us by any particular individual or political party.
The provinces, territories and federal governments deliver health and dental care to us with revenues derived from personal, corporate, GST/HST and other taxes on an 80/20% split according to the Canada Health and Dental Benefit Acts.
50% of that is from income taxes. We pay for our own health and dental care by working for it, mostly by working for corporations (65% of Canadians).
20% of that is from corporate taxes. You know, from the buttressed corporate world not going out of business, but actually having the audacity to make a buck.
12% of that is from GST/HST. That is, what most Canadians pay when you buy stuff made by a corporation with the money you have working for a corporation.
3% of that is Non-Resident taxes. That is, people from elsewhere who come here to work (for a corporation) or to study.
The rest, (15%) comes from Energy and Customs taxes. Taxes paid by corporations to generate and sell energy to us, and duties paid by other Corporations to bring in stuff we do not make here to sell to us (GST/HST added).
EI is separate, but related. Both the worker and employer (a corporation, mainly) pay into it so you do not lose income if you are sick or hurt.
If you are going to attribute health and dental care to anyone in Canada, you can safely say we ourselves along with corporations deliver most of this one way or another.
Socialism ignores this. Douglas and Singh would be bankrupt millions of times over if what you say were remotely true.
Look after the local employees who looks after the roads and water services. By laws and all Inuit employees.