Premiers support Nunavut on roads and development

QUEBEC CITY — For the first time, Nunavut’s leaders participated as equal partners at Canada’s annual premiers’ conference, which met this week in Quebec City.

“It was a real honour to be invited and to participate,” said Premier Paul Okalik. “Now, we have to start working to find our rightful place within Canada.”

In the lavish Chateau Frontenac hotel inside the old walled city of Quebec, Okalik emphasized Nunavut’s pressing need for even the most basic infrastructure.

“We’re the only part of the country you can’t get to by road, so it shows you how far we have to go to actually consider tax cuts in our territory. We need your tax money to catch up,” Okalik said.

When the premiers met behind closed doors, Okalik, as spokesperson for the three Northern territories, kept this issue on the table.

“Whenever the concerns became too focused on tax cuts, he would mention Nunavut’s lack of infrastructure,” said a high-ranking Quebec government official. “At one point he said, “we have only 27 kilometers of road,” to bring the discussions back to earth.”

Support for road

Okalik left the conference with a pledge of support for a road that would link Nunavut to northern Manitoba. In their final prepared press release, the premiers “stressed the importance” of a land link between northern Manitoba and Nunavut.

The premiers also resolved to support the efforts of the northern territories or more control over resource development.

And they asked that the transfer of current federal responsibilities to territorial governments “be accompanied by adequate resources.”

“We sought support for a connection to the rest of the country and we got that,” said Okalik.

“We sought support for our Northern economies to become more competitive like the rest of the country, to collect royalties if we wish, and we got that, so I feel quite content, and we’ll be getting more support for other areas such as education, so we got considerable support from the rest of the premiers.”

But most of the discussion, led by Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard, the conference host, focused on how to wrestle some money from the federal government’s budgetary surplus, esitmated conservatively at around $10 billion.

The premiers approved a plan that would blend federal tax cuts with debt reduction and increasing support for existing social programs, such as education and health.

They supported building up the information highway, and resolved to make it easier to stop child prostitution.

The conference’s participants also endorsed a “shopping list” of wishes and good intentions that some observers immediately called “science fiction” because of its unrealistic price tag.

With the premiers’ backing of his program, one that would give more power to the provinces, at the end of the conference Bouchard said he was “very happy.”

“When all the leaders of the territories, when all the premiers of Canada, with all their different needs and ideologies, different points of view, agree that it is a priority to reduce taxes at the federal level, they have to listen to us,” Bouchard said.