Ng: premiers’ plan good for Nunavut

QUEBEC CITY — Nunavut Finance Minister Kelvin Ng says the combination of tax cuts and increased social spending endorsed by Canada’s premiers this week is good for Nunavut.

“It’s good for the people who are working because they’ll have more take-home pay,” said Nunavut Finance Minister Kelvin Ng.

He also suggested that more professionals, discouraged by high taxes and Nunavut’s higher cost of living, would find the new territory a more attractive place to work if their tax burden was decreased.

The effect of the tax cuts on Nunavut would be small, Ng says, because the amount of money that taxes bring to the territory is only $13 million. Around 80 per cent of Nunavut’s budget comes through transfers.

“Anything that we would lose in territorial income tax would be picked up in some new way,” said Ng. “It’s very neutral to us, revenue-wise.”

On the other hand, if the federal government beefed up its investment in social programs, Nunavut would see more money.

“There would definitely be some benefit,” Ng said.

Ng maintained that supporting tax cuts wouldn’t necessarily hurt Nunavut’s case for a larger budget in the future. Ng said that he felt that the premiers at the meeting were receptive to Nunavut’s needs.

“People recognize that Nunvaut, being brand new, is just beginning to catch up and we’re lacking some of the infrastuctures that other jurisdictions have inherited or established through some significant federal investments,” Ng said.