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NWT finance minister hoped for more in federal budget

The Northwest Territories' minister of finance wasn't expecting the proposed 2018 federal budget to include flashy investments in the north.

Walter Strong/NNSL photo
Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod said having an MP who is a member of the governing Liberal Party has helped NWT get what it wants in Ottawa.

“Early indications were there wasn't going to be a whole lot of announcables in this budget,” Robert C. McLeod told Yellowknifer on Wednesday.

Yet McLeod did find items in the federal budget worthy of praise.

He was pleased to see a $1.7-million top-up to the NWT's territorial formula financing payment would be added in 2019-2020.

The annual grant from Ottawa is used to fund programs and services in the territory at rates comparable to those in the provinces.

The no-strings-attached sum accounts for the lion's share of the territory's annual budget.

The federal government is changing the way it calculates equalization payments to the territories, and the extra cash in 2018 is meant to offset any negative impacts that result from the revised payment plan.

The NWT is set to get about $1.26 billion from territorial formula financing in the upcoming fiscal year.

“Anytime you can get you get more money towards the territorial formula financing grant, it's welcomed,” said McLeod.

However, he added, “You always want to see more.”

The 2018-19 federal budget, tabled in the House of Commons on Feb. 27, proposes $400 million for an Inuit-led housing plan for the Nunavik, Nunatsiavut and Inuvialuit regions.

Some of this money will flow directly to the Inuvialuit government, said McLeod.

“(The Inuvialuit government) have been good partners because they've worked with the NWT Housing Corporation in identifying some of the needs the corporation's got in the Inuvialuit settlement region and they've tried to address their needs in partnership with Housing,” he said.

Even if initial funding comes from Ottawa, McLeod said the NWT Housing Corporation will likely be responsible for repairs and maintenance on any new homes in the region into the future.

There are allocations for on-reserve and Metis housing, but the 2018 budget is less clear on how housing will be funded in NWT communities that are predominantly Indigenous but not reserves.

“We've only got two reserves in the NWT, so on-reserve housing doesn't apply to us, really,” said McLeod.

He said Caroline Cochrane, the minister responsible for housing, is working with the federal housing minister to see if NWT can access more money to address the territory's housing needs.

Cathy McLeod, MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Caribou and the Conservative shadow minister for Indigenous and Northern Affairs, was more disparaging of the 2018 federal budget and its implications for the North.

She said there is nothing in the fiscal plan to offset the potential impacts a carbon tax will have on the already-high the cost of living in the North.

“We don't need to be compounding that cost of living with multiple additional taxes,” said the shadow minister.

Reflecting on territorial-federal relations under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NWT finance minister McLeod was pleased with how NWT has fared.

“We've actually had a very good working relationship with this federal government,” he said, adding it “really helps” that NWT MP Michael McLeod is a member of the governing Liberal party.

“He does a lot of work in Ottawa on our behalf,” said McLeod.

For his part, MP Michael McLeod stated he was happy to see actions in the federal budget to discourage smoking.

In a March 1 statement, the MP said smoking rates in northern communities are as much as 5.5 times the national average.

McLeod was also glad the budget included $248.6 million over three years for mental health supports for residential school survivors and their families, as well as an extension of the Mineral Exploration Tax credit.

Other budget highlights include $189 million to implement fiscal policy reforms developed with self-governing First Nations.

The Arctic Energy Fund is set to get $2 million and the Canadian Northern Development Agency has been allocated $21 million a year for the next five years.

The federal government also proposes spending $20.6 million over four years on arctic research, starting in 2019-2020.