IQALUIT, Nunavut — Nunavut has tabled a mostly stand-pat budget that plans modest spending increases to fight some of the territory’s social problems.
Finance minister George Hickes forecasts a tiny deficit of $12 million on revenues of about $2.2 billion.
New social spending includes almost $5 million for addictions and trauma treatment.
Nearly $3 million has been added for law enforcement, and emergency shelters are to receive another $2 million.
Nunavut is coming off a financially healthy year and expects economic growth of almost five per cent in 2019.
That growth is driven by mining, which increased 20 per cent last year.
Hickes noted Nunavut has much to be proud of as it enters its 20th year as a territory.
He says the size of the economy has more than doubled since 1999 and the territory’s population has increased 40 per cent.
The Canadian Press
