Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Finance. Our fiscal relationship between Ottawa and the NWT will reach an imminent crossroad in less than one year when our current Territorial Formula Financing, or I’ll refer to it later today as TFF, comes up for renewal.
I cannot stress enough, the very fabric of our territory’s survival depends clearly on this funding. Yet, with less than one year from now we have not discussed the austerity effects should a major shift occur.
Could the Minister of Finance clearly indicate to this House what is the current landscape and ongoing discussion with the upcoming renewal date of the Territorial Formula Financing arrangement? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Formula Financing Agreement as we know it is going to be continued until 2018. Thank you.
Thank you. Ottawa expects a North of self-reliance, vital communities, the management of our own affairs, strong and responsible and accountable governments, but it appears that the subject of how to finance these healthy initiatives are being offered, as we heard, a status quo position. It is clear that we have inadequacy of federal financing for the North, so what is this Minister going to do to mitigate the situation? Thank you.
Thank you. This agreement we have with the federal government has stood us in good stead and will continue to do that. It recognizes the commitment from the federal government to provide certainty until 2018, especially with the health transfer and the social transfer. In fact, we’re one of two jurisdictions that saw an actual benefit and increase on the health side because of this new arrangement.
We’re doing the things that we’ve talked about as a government to control our expenditures, to put money aside for infrastructure to do all these types of good things. We have devolution coming which is going to give us royalties, resource royalty sharing agreements, which is a very critical piece. This is real money coming from development that currently happens where the benefit to resources now goes to Ottawa. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Before we continue with oral questions, I’d like to welcome former Member Mr. Krutko back into the House today. Welcome, David. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you. I disagree with the Minister. I don’t believe our territorial financing formula has served us well. In fact, our constitutional principle is that every northern Canadian should enjoy, “reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation.” This is coming from the Government of Canada Northern Strategy: Our Vision and Our Heritage, 2009. This clearly shows that the TFF falls short of this principle. So what is this Minister of Finance doing for all NWT residents to address our right to equality for a better deal with Ottawa? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are getting about $1.1 billion. Over 70 percent of our income as a government comes from the Territorial Financing Formula for 43,000 people. If the Member does the math on a per capita basis, we have one of the best deals in the country.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I categorically disagree with the Minister on that comment. We have been told too many times in this House that devolution dollars will solve all our financial problems and I say, with caution, this is not so. I equally say that the TFF is also not the panacea for the territorial expenditures that we have. We have had long-standing deficiencies in infrastructure and socio-economic development in the territory. What is this Minister and what is this government going to do to balance the equation with Ottawa? Thank you.
We have one of the best deals on a per capita basis when you compare us to any other jurisdiction, with the possible exception of Nunavut, for how much we get from our relationship either through equalization or Territorial Formal Financing with any other jurisdiction in the country. We have a budget of $1.6 billion for 43,000 people. So we have a budget of $1.6 billion for 43,000 people.
I know we have a huge list of demands that outstrips the resources available. But we get well over $20,000 per person in this territory. So what we’re going to do is manage our finances.
We have one of the best run jurisdictions in the country. We are going to sign the Devolution Agreement. We are going to have resources flowing into the territory, both to us, the territorial government, and to the Aboriginal governments. We are going to take over the levers of control of resource development, land and water management and we’re going to do a better job than the federal government has ever done for us once we do that. If we look at the business plans and the priorities of this Assembly, I think the answers to Mr. Dolynny’s questions are clearly self-evident in the work and the direction this Assembly has set. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, I’m going to call a 10-minute break.
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Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Yakeleya.
