N.W.T. MLAs say capital budget doesn't reflect housing priorities, again

It's a familiar tune in N.W.T. budget discussions: not enough money for housing. 

The minister of finance tabled a proposed $339-million capital budget last Friday. Nearly a third of the spending is dedicated to highways and roads, $103.7 million.

Just under a fifth, or $60.8 million, is earmarked for healthcare.

Three per cent, or $11.3 million, is earmarked for housing. 

Housing is listed as a priority of this 20th assembly, as it was for the 19th assembly. Why then, does it continue to get one of the smallest allocations of public dollars? 

According to some MLAs, the problem is the budget setting process. 

Julian Morse, MLA for Frame Lake, is calling for a "procedural reset" so that the government works holistically rather than departments working in isolation.  

He said Monday that would help to connect the budget setting with the assembly's priorities.  

"These outcomes will not change until we change our processes," he said in the legislature.

Some of the infrastructure projects listed in the tabled document include planning and design for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, planning and design for the Taltson hydro expansion project and an environmental assessment for the Slave Geological Province corridor. 

The proposed budget lists upgrades to highways 1, 3, 7, 8 and 10 and the design and construction of a new Frank Channel bridge in Behchokǫ̀. 

For housing, there are major retrofits slated for public housing units in 18 N.W.T. communities, including 14 in Fort Providence, 12 in Yellowknife and nine each in Aklavik and Fort McPherson.

Material and labour for five new units in Inuvik are also listed in the budget. 

The waitlist for a public housing unit currently sits at 897 people, according to the territory's housing minister.

Shauna Morgan, MLA for Yellowknife North, echoed Morse's concerns.   

She said the territory needs to embrace its responsibility for public housing, rather than wait for the federal government or Indigenous governments receiving federal funding to solve the housing crisis. 

Requested debt increase to fund capital projects 

Before tabling the capital estimates on Oct. 18, Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek told the assembly that the N.W.T. is in the process of asking the federal government to increase its borrowing limit. 

That debt, if approved, will in part fund the projects in the capital estimates.

Trevor Tombe, a professor of economics at the University of Calgary, said the request to raise the N.W.T.'s debt ceiling is no reason to worry and is a natural part of a growing economy.

Though the territory has so much infrastructure in need of repair or expansion, in addition to its big ticket items on the books, Tombe says capital investment creates long-term benefits and borrowing to fund these projects is a normal part of government spending.

"As long as you're tying debt finance to capital investments that actually will generate a return," he said. "So the question is really just around whether the infrastructure is a worthwhile investment or not."

Wawzonek hasn't said how much the territory is asking to increase its borrowing limit by.

The previous two times the federal government has increased the N.W.T.'s debt ceiling, in 2020 and 2015, it's increased by $500 million.