No new housing this year, but GN happy

If you’re one of Nunavut’s many homeless couch surfers, be prepared to wait longer for a unit, because Nunavut will see no new social housing construction until 2007.

That, and more, is revealed in the Conservative government’s first budget, which Jim Flaherty, the finance minister, unveiled this past Tuesday in the House of Commons.

In his speech, Flaherty said his government will make a “one-time” payment of $300 million for social housing in the territories, to be spread over three years. The Yukon and the Northwest Territories will get $50 million each, while Nunavut will get $200 million.

But the federal government will not release the money until at least this fall, after Arctic shipping deadlines for the 2006 season have expired.

Still, at an estimated construction cost of $250,000 a unit, $200 million will buy about 800 new social housing units in Nunavut over the next three years — more than the GN could ever afford to buy with its own money.

So Premier Paul Okalik said he was “pleasantly surprised” when he heard the news — even if the amount is much less than what the old Liberal government promised at the first minister’s meeting in Kelowna, B.C this past November.

“I think it’s a good start, for three years. We’ll continue to lobby and try to meet the targets set out in Kelowna. That’s something we will continue to do,” Okalik said.

At Kelowna, the outgoing Liberal government promised to meet 35 per cent of Nunavut’s housing need within five years. But the $200 million promised this week meets only about 20 per cent of Nunavut’s need.

And it falls far short of the $1.9 billion that Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Government of Nunavut pleaded for in its 2004 Ten-Year Inuit Housing Action Plan.

In that document, NTI and the GN said Nunavut actually needs at least 3,000 new units to meet its current backlog, and 200 new units a year just to keep up.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, the MP for Nunavut, accused the Tory government of “failing to honour the Kelowna accord,” pointing out that Flaherty’s commitment is a one-time payment and not the “multi-year plan” that the Kelowna deal promised.

Karetak-Lindell also said Flaherty’s budget “fails to address the issue of climate change and global warming” and they have no clear commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.

Flaherty announced that his government will spend $2 billion on climate change. But the details won’t be known until the fall, when Rona Ambrose, the environment minister, unveils a “made-in-Canada” climate change plan.

The budget also sets aside $2.2 billion to pay for the recently announced settlement agreement for residential school survivors.

But the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Jose Kusugak, is still less than enthused about Flaherty’s budget.

Kusugak, who promised earlier this year that construction materials for new houses would flow into the Arctic this summer, had to admit that this won’t happen.

“With funds not being released until September of this year there does not appear to be a way to get supplies on ships for this year,” he said in a press release.

The ITK release also said Flaherty’s budget “shows troublesome signs the Conservatives are either just ignorant, or intend to deal with aboriginal issues in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ manner.”

But David Simailak, the Nunavut finance minister, and Olayuk Akesuk, the housing minister, share Okalik’s warm feelings towards the Tory budget.

“We believe that this government is attentive to many of the social and economic challenges that we face here in Nunavut,” Simailak said.

One big disappointment for Simailak, though, is that in spite of their making numerous tax cuts, including a one per cent cut to the GST, the Tories did not reform the Northern Residents Tax Deduction.

Simailak said this benefit has not changed since 1985, and should be turned into a tax credit — which means the value of the benefit would be deducted from the amount of tax owing, rather than from taxable income.

Other tax measures that Okalik, Simailak and Akesuk welcome include the following measures:

* tax-free student scholarships, grants and bursaries, which Okalik said is “great help to our students;”
* a reduction, as of July 1, in the GST, from seven to six per cent, which Nunavummiut actually pay several times over, because of the application of the GST to transportation costs;
* a $500 “physicial fitness” tax credit for parents whose children are enrolled in sports programs — Okalik says that’s good for the many parents whose children play hockey;
* the $1,200-a-year childcare benefit for children under six — but at the same time, Simailak said he’s disappointed that there’s no new money to create new childcare spaces.