Northern affairs minister drops in on Iqaluit to tout Liberal budget
Daniel Vandal visits city, meets with Nunavut premier
Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal speaks about his government’s 2023-24 budget Tuesday at Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit hotel. (Photo by David Venn)
The 2023-24 budget continues the federal government’s wholesale approach to making the North more affordable and solving health issues, says Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal.
Vandal was in Iqaluit Tuesday to meet with Premier P.J. Akeeagok and tout the Liberal government’s recently released budget.
The budget offers a tax rebate on groceries of up to $467 for some families, among other spending promises.
Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout criticized the rebate last week, saying it isn’t enough to make a dent in Nunavut families’ food expenses.
The issue of access to food won’t be solved by this rebate but could be alleviated with help from other affordability measures, such as the $10 per day childcare and the Canada Dental Benefit programs, Vandal said at a news conference Tuesday.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a specific program that’s going to be the solution to solving food insecurity,” Vandal said.
“We think the grocery rebate is a part of that solution.”
Idlout also called on the Liberal Party in November to reform Nutrition North, saying hunters aren’t well enough aware of funding opportunities offered through the program.
Vandal didn’t comment on whether the federal government would reform Nutrition North, but said last year’s $163-million injection into the program will help make the North more affordable.
The budget also promises $16.2 million for fighting tuberculosis in Inuit communities, which Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed has taken exception to, saying it’s only a quarter of what’s needed.
Vandal didn’t say if he believes the government has allocated enough money toward fighting TB in this year’s budget, but emphasized the federal government’s commitment to eradicating the respiratory disease in Nunavut by 2030.
He used the $4-billion spending promise made in last year’s budget for northern, rural and urban housing as an example of that commitment.
“Part of the housing investment is an address to tuberculosis. We’re moving forward on the determinants of health in order to provide a solution,” he said.
Overall, Vandal said the government is making a number of investments nationwide that will benefit the North, such as turning Canada into a global producer of batteries through its critical mineral strategy, which could lead to investment in mining in the North.
“The plan we brought forward last week will mean big things for Nunavut: new instruments, cleaner air and water and new opportunities,” Vandal said.
“We’ve done big things together before and we will do them again.”
Remember when they used words like “eliminate” TB? The significance of the language being change here shouldn’t be lost and is indicative of a shift by the Liberals and their financing plans for the north.
I don’t think it has anything to do with funding, but with the reality that after 9,000 years TB has not been eradicated, and though that is possible (optimists believe it could happen by 2045), its global reach makes the possibility of eliminating it from any given region a near impossibility. The ‘messaging’ on this is finally catching up with reality.
This is non-sense. TB was not a problem that Inuit had before colonialism. It’s a disease that was brought by Whiteman. Not by blacks, not by Asians, by Whiteman.
Get your facts straight, and don’t apply facts that are irrelevant, as if you’re educated, and know something.
What difference does it make who brought TB to Nunavut? How is it relevant that it was (probably) a White person?
Is it relevant that the genus Mycobacterium, an environmental organism that evolved in the soil and from which TB later mutated is estimated to be 150 million years old? Is it relevant that early strains of M. tuberculosis appear to have evolved in East Africa about 3 million years ago? Or that current strains evolved 20,000 to 15,000 years ago?
Is it relevant that the first person to discover the bacteria was a ‘White person’ (Robert Koch)? Or that the first vaccines for TB were also developed by ‘White persons’ (Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin)?
Yes, no?
All interesting facts (I hope they are ‘straight’ enough for you) but ultimately the only relevant point to the discussion above is that TB is here not likely to be ‘eliminated’ any time soon. Telling people it will be is poorly considered marketing.
Northern, rural, and suburban housing/ 4 billion. Does anyone in Nunavut have an idea how much of that Canada-wide funding is going to come to Nunavut? We certainly can’t compete with any other territory/province and won’t come close to the 3000 units promised. But keep electing NDP/Liberal candidates folks. You get or should I say don’t get what you deserve.
Nunavut NDP voicing concerns loudly while supporting Liberal agenda and Budget quietly at the House of Commons. Nunavut may be steering towards Conservatives at the next Federal Election.
I’m surprised he wasn’t touting the new Carbon Tax.
Every politician at every level of all jurisdictions across Nunavut should be calling out this scam being played on us by the Trudeau Liberals and also supported by the NDPs, when there currently is NO ALTERNATIVE in Nunavut for fuel oil to heat.