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December 21, 1998

Anawak unveils plan for Nunavut government's first budget

Another milestone on the road to Nunavut: A framework for how the Nunavut government may spend its $620 million budget for 1999-2000.

Nunavut's first budget: By the numbers

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Nunavut residents last week got their first look at how the Nunavut government will spend its first year's $620 million budget.

Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak, who unveiled the plan Dec. 18, said that the budget framework provides for a balanced budget and some flexibility for Nunavut's first batch of MLAs.

"It does not pre-empt major policy decisions that will be taken by the duly elected representatives of the people of Nunavut," Anawak said during a press conference at Office of the Interim Commissioner (OIC) headquarters in Iqaluit.

Nunavut MLAs must formally approve the Nunavut government's first budget at a session expected to be held soon after April 1, 1999.

Anawak says his office has made provision for special warrants to be issued that will ensure the Nunavut government has enough money to operate until the Nunavut assembly formally votes for the government's new budget.

Under that proposed budget, roughly two-thirds of the $580 million earmarked for programs and services would be allocated to health care, education, transportation, community government and social housing.

More on leases than language

Spending on culture and languages will be paltry by comparison — just $6 million is allocated for the Department of Culture, Languages, Elders and Youth.

That's far less than the government expects to spend on leases for staff housing and office space.

The Nunavut Construction Corporation, for example, will receive $10.2 million in fiscal year 1999-2000 from the Department of Public Works for the lease of 146 staff housing units, the Legislative Assembly, and two office buildings in Arviat and Kugluktuk.

Although the budget framework envisions no spending increases for either education or health care, the OIC's finance department does allow for the creation of two special-reserve funds.

First, a $30 million policy reserve for "high-priority services, programs and projects" would be placed at the disposal of MLAs.

Anawak suggested that this fund could be tapped to enhance Nunavut's beleagured health care system.

He added that spending more money on nurses' and doctors' salaries will not necessarily be the way Nunavut's Legislative Assembly chooses to go about fixing health care problems.

"We want to take a look at the whole department and see where we can make some improvements," Anawak said.

The fiscal framework also calls for the creation of a $10 million operating reserve "to offset unforeseen shortfalls in revenue or unforeseen increases in expenditures not caused by policy or program changes."

Numbers contained in the preliminary budget for fiscal year 1999-2000 are based partly on the assumption that current negotiations with the GNWT for for dividing assets and liabilities will produce no big surprises.

A surplus for first year

Negotiations are reported to be in their final stages and Bob Vardy, Nunavut's deputy minister of finance, said the Nunavut government will most certainly begin its mandate without a debt load or a spending deficit.

"We expect there will be an operating surplus on the books for both Nunavut and the West," Vardy said. "And we think it will be $5 to $10 million."

The OIC budget framework projects that federal transfer payments will equal roughly $558 million, or 90 per cent of the Nunavut government's total revenues in its first year of operations.

Most of the federal operating money, $503 million, will flow from Nunavut's formula financing agreement with Ottawa, signed earlier this year.

The other 10 per cent of government revenues, $63 million, is expected to come from taxes and "other own source revenues."

Where the money's going

Here's a breakdown of the proposed budgets for the Nunavut government's 11 departments:

• $142 million for the Department of Education;
• $127 million for the Department of Community Government, Housing and Transportation;
• $112 million for Heath and Social Services
• $ 75 million for the Department of Public Works, Telecommunications and Technical Services
• $ 35 million for the Department of Justice;
• $35 million for the Department of Sustainable Development;
• $23 million for the Finance Department;
• $10 million for the Department of Human Resources;
• $10 million for the Legislative Assembly;
• $7 million for the Department of the Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs;
• $6 million for the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

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