New tax revenue for addictions treatment?

Quttiktuq MLA Rebecca Williams suggested last week that the government of Nunavut divert some of the money raised by tobacco taxes and liquor sales back into substance abuse treatment programs.

“In yesterday’s budget speech, the minister projected almost $10 million in revenue from tobacco taxes and alcohol sales, liquor sales. Will the minister consider earmarking all or a portion of this revenue for substance abuse treatment programs instead of putting all this money back into the general pot?” Williams asked Finance Minister Kelvin Ng.

Ng responded by saying that the department of health and social services budget already contains funding increases that are “significantly more” than any amount that could be generated by the tobacco tax increase announced last week.

Williams countered that by saying that she had just finished reading a document produced by the government of Yukon that suggests using liquor and tobacco revenue to help pay for substance abuse programs, and that the Yukon government is considering a recommendation to do just that.

Ng then said that program funding is worked out after each individual department makes proposals to the finance department.

“Having said that, I know that Minister Picco has aggressively moved forward and argued for money for addictions abuse or sorry, addiction abuse funding and he’s more than happy to go into those details once his budget comes before the assembly,” Ng said.