Ng delays 2000-2001 Nunavut budget process

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — Finance Minister Kelvin Ng has pushed back his schedule for the preparation Nunavut’s 2000-2001 budget due to last year’s round of pre-budget consultations.

That means MLAs won’t get a chance to look at draft budget material until the end of this month or early February, and a final budget may not be tabled in the legislative assembly until late March, Ng said.

MLAs had been expecting to get a look at draft budgets for each department early this month.

“We have to back up the tabling of the budget mainly because of the community consultations,” Ng. said, explaining the schedule needs to be pushed back to allow for full debate.

“It will allow us as much time as possible, to allow the committees to do a proper review of departmental budgets, and the budget as a whole,” Ng said.

Last fall, ministers and MLAs visited Nunavut communities to listen to public’s expectations for Nunavut’s 2000-2001 budget. Government officials needed extra time to incorporate the results of the tour into the draft budget.

The end of the Nunavut government’s fiscal year is March 31. But Ng said it may not be possible to get the spending bill passed through the legislative assembly by that date.

If that happens, Nunavut’s 19 MLAs will have to pass what is called a “supply bill” before March 31 to allow the government to function.

“There’s lots of circumstances you can get by with what’s called a supply bill,” Ng said.

But at least one regular MLA is disappointed that the government isn’t ready to get the pre-budget committee work underway by now, and he’s worried the 2000-2001 budget will get passed without sufficient debate.

“It’s going to be rammed down our throats again,” said Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean. “I don’t think it would give us enough time,” McLean said.

McLean said MLAs will want to get the budget passed in time for orders to be placed on this year’s sealift.

McLean expected that pre-budget work would take place through January, and that an official budget would be tabled in the legislative assembly in February or early March. If that doesn’t happen, McLean said there will be problems.

Under the new schedule, MLAs will feel pressure to approve the budget in time for the sealift season.

“We’re not going to get the amount of detail that I would like to see,” McLean said. “They’ll say, ‘well if you don’t approve it, it won’t get done this year.’ ”

“As an MLA you can’t do that, because that may affect projects in your community and programs. That’s the last thing you want is for everything to stop,” McLean said.

McLean says that during last year’s budget session, debate became mired in capital spending and not enough time was spent analyzing how the government spends its operational budget.

McLean wants to know how much money is spent on government administration and if it’s money well spent. But he says regular MLAs lack the staff, the information, and the experience to get enough detailed information on the budget.

“I think they should give us the resources to critique departmental plans. We don’t know if they’re being run properly,” he said.

The 2000-2001 budget will be the first territorial budget made from scratch by the new government. But Ng said not to expect drastic changes to departments’ operational budgets.

“There’s not going to be a dramatic change from one department or another. A lot of the work that was done to set up the base budgets for ’99-2000 you have to accept as being fairly accurate.

Except for Nunavut’s health boards, Ng said, there were no departments that showed signs of major overspending or underspending.

Regular MLAs are scheduled to meet in Cambridge Bay this week to start planning the next schedule. During the meeting Ng will meet with the MLAs to hammer out a schedule for pre-budget committee work.

“That’s part of the whole process of my going up there and seeing what their expectations are and to try and make it work for them as well,” Ng said.

During the committee sessions, MLAs will get a sneak peek at the proposed budgets for individual departments. Ng said that during that process there’s opportunity for regular MLAs to ask questions and make recommendations.

Once a final draft is tabled in the assembly, further debate takes place within the standing committee of the whole meetings in the legislative assembly.