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From http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/60421_01.html

Prentice: I’ll study, review, discuss and consider
But I’m not ready to spend on Kelowna, DIAND minister says
JIM BELL - April 21, 2006

Prentice meets the press: Jim Prentice, the DIAND minister, with Levinia Brown, Nunavut’s minister of community government and transportation, and Lorraine Thomas of the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. which gets $575,000 in federal money to expand its services. - see Funding announcement at http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/nr/prs/j-a2006/2-02759_e.html

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He’ll study, review, discuss, consider and assess, but the one thing Jim Prentice won’t do yet is spend.
That means Nunavut residents will likely wait longer to learn whether the new Conservative government will pay for Nunavut’s latest big-ticket demands, including Thomas Berger’s expensive fix for Nunavut’s school system, and up to $300 million worth of northern social housing discussed at last year’s premiers’ meeting in Kelowna, B.C.
Prentice, the minister of Indian affairs and northern development, stopped in Iqaluit this past Monday and Tuesday on the first leg of a pan-territorial tour that will take him to Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Whitehorse.
While in Iqaluit, Prentice “announced” $6.36 million in federal spending, from a stash of economic development money approved for 2005-06, when the former Liberal government was still in power.
The money will pay for a long list of projects, most of them related to mining, the fishery and Nunavut’s Broadband Development Corp.
But he’s a long way from saying how he plans to deal with the enormous expectations raised by last year’s meeting in Kelowna, B.C. between Canada’s first ministers and national aboriginal leaders, saying no money has been committed to pay for the things listed in its final communiqué — worth about $5.2 billion over five years.
And he doesn’t even use the word “agreement” to describe the outcome of the Kelowna meeting.
Instead, he calls it a “process.”
“At the close of the Kelowna process there was a single-page document tabled that described a series of numbers. I think it’s important to note that there never was a financial plan built around Kelowna. None of the monies that were ever discussed were ever budgeted for by the Parliament of Canada and none of them were approved by the Parliament of Canada,” Prentice said.
This means Nunavut’s social housing tenants, and would-be tenants who languish on waiting lists for years, won’t likely see large amounts of new housing coming up on this year’s sealift, contrary to expectations raised earlier this year by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and others.
Prentice says only that he supports the “targets and objectives” discussed at Kelowna.
“I think they were laudable. I think they were very optimistic... But there was never a specific plan with concrete measures that was adopted and financed at that time,” Prentice said.
And because of the absence of that plan, Prentice says “the work continues.”
He also dismisses an assertion made last month by Ralph Goodale, the former Liberal finance minister, that money to pay for Kelowna was provided in the federal budget.
“I was present in the House of Commons when there were several Liberal budgets. Kelowna monies did not form part of those budgets,” Prentice said.
But housing, nonetheless, appeared to be at or near the top of his to-do list in meetings with northern premiers and aboriginal leaders. Prentice said he wants to use those meetings to “assess” the situation.
And he did hint that when he is ready to spend, northern housing may be a priority.
“Some of the first meetings I had after I became minister related to the housing circumstances here, and the overcrowding circumstances, and I have heard consistently and clearly from your leadership in the North that overcrowding and housing is a major issue. One of the reasons I am here is to assess that so that we be proactive about that,” Prentice said.
As for Thomas Berger’s recommendations for fixing Nunavut’s school system so that the Nunavut government can better meet its Article 23 Inuit employment targets, Prentice is equally non-committal.
In his final report, which was aimed at helping create a new implementation contract for the Nunavut land claims agreement, Berger recommended two things: $20 million in immediate spending to help raise the number of Inuit at the Government of Nunavut, plus more federal spending to pay for a complete bilingual school system from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Again, Prentice said he supports the goal set out in Berger’s report.
“We have to achieve better levels of graduation than we currently are and that’s a big concern for all of us,” he said.
But he’s also not ready to make a commitment, especially in paying for a revamped bilingual education system for Nunavut.
“The concept is there and the idea is there and it warrants study and attention,” Prentice said.
And since no one knows how much the scheme would cost, Prentice said he’s open to the idea of creating a “working group” to look at the idea and figure out how much it would cost.
Prentice showed little interest in following up on a motion from the last Parliament that would see the creation of an independent inquiry into the killing of Inuit sled dogs in the 1950s and 1960s.