November 25, 2009

Infrastructure

In Canada’s Far North, stimulus not reaching everyone

OTTAWA

Rankin Inlet Mayor John Hickes has become a voice for discontent about federal stimulus money in the North. He reads about government money gushing to infrastructure projects in the south, and he hears about government officials making announcements across the territories.

But he’s yet to see anything actually happen in his burgeoning Nunavut community on the northwestern shore of Hudson Bay, a hamlet where diamond prospects hold promise but four litres of milk cost $15.

“If this stimulus package is working, it went somewhere else. It sure as hell didn’t stop here,” Hickes said in a recent interview.

The mayor is voicing a dissatisfaction that has spread through many of the small far-flung towns that dominate Northern demographics. Critics there feel the federal stimulus program has been designed for the rest of the country, and when it’s spent in the North, it only goes to the main hubs.

When Hickes heard Ottawa was offering money for infrastructure projects that were “shovel ready,” his chief administrative officer quickly prepared a list of projects worth $140 million.

None of them got the green light. The entire territory of Nunavut received just $3.2 million from the government’s flagship Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.

But understanding the flow of stimulus money in the North is complex and involves far more than just the infrastructure fund,government officials at the federal and territorial level argue.

That fund, and the Recreational Infrastructure Canada fund that pays for hundreds of rinks and playgrounds in other parts of the country, are distributed on a per capita basis to provinces and territories.

By any measure, the North gets its fair share, but since its populations are so small, the contributions are minimal.

So Ottawa also allowed the territories to have accelerated access to another large block of infrastructure funding that was initially meant to be spent over seven years. Each province and territory has been allocated $25 million a year for seven years, but under the stimulus plan, they can have it all at once.

There are strings attached. Unlike before, the accelerated money needs to be matched by territorial governments, and in some cases, municipal funds too. And the federal government has to sign off on the list of projects.

So the take-up on the federal offer has been substantially less than 100 per cent.

Indeed, the Yukon government turned down the federal offer and is sticking to the original seven-year schedule, said Premier Dennis Fentie in an interview.

The territory has all the infrastructure funding it can handle right now, he said, and accepting money to rush out more projects would be foolhardy.

“We have to manage the situation in the North to make sure we can deal with projects that can be completed,” he said.

He is more than happy with the amount of money coming his way, and sees his territory bounding out of the recession sooner than other parts of the country.

Yukon was the first recipient of money from the federal Green Infrastructure Fund, receiving $71 million to expand hydro-electric power capacity. And at least two major construction sites in Whitehorse are in huge plastic tents so work can continue through the winter, said Dave Austin, president of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce.

But Austin is worried the influx of stimulus cash, coupled with the influx of funding the federal government is injecting through its much-touted Northern strategy, is stretching the construction crews too thin.

“There’s almost too much money sometimes,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’ll probably all be hollering to get an extension.”

The harsh weather and the remoteness of the North also slow down the stimulus efforts considerably, says Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighen, who is also the president of the NWT Association of Communities.

Construction projects can take up to two years of planning before ground is broken, he said, because materials need to be shipped from the south, and the building season is short.

Communities depend on barges or winter roads to import building materials, he said. The timing and planning have to be perfect for the materials to be affordable.

“You can miss the window, or lose the winter road, and you’ve tacked a year on the project,” he said.

As for the construction season, it usually lasts about three months, although the plastic contraptions spotted in Whitehorse can extend the season.

Despite the slow pace, territorial and municipal leaders alike argue that the best way Ottawa can establish sovereignty in the North is to persist with infrastructure funding. With modern modes of transport, more housing, better sewer systems and water treatment, communities can flourish and exert Canada’s hold on the North more effectively than navy frigates, they say.

That reasoning is not lost on Rankin Inlet’s mayor. More infrastructure funding in his community could go a long way to solving entrenched social problems there, Hickes argues.

Proper water and sewer systems would open the door to more affordable housing, which would alleviate the overcrowding problems that drive young people to drink and exacerbate unemployment, he said.

“We don’t give up hope.”

Canadian Press

Print | Email | Comment