This Canadians can explain who funds the Government of the Northwest Territories.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Federal Government provides funding to the NWT, but they do have income from royalty payments, from resources like Diamond mining. But the Federal government provides funding to many provinces and both territories, including Yukon254's home. These funds are called transfer payments.
In theory the provinces that are doing well contribute more to federal coffers than those that are struggling. Many of you would call it socialism. While not perfect it has helped the country to grow and you never know which region might provide the next cash influx. Historically Alberta and Ontario contribute the most.
More interesting is the NWT governments fur incentive program. A great effort to keep folks on the land in my opinion. They did not have it for the all the years I trapped there but fur prices were so high it was not needed.
Yep Brian you are 100% correct. I am a big supporter of the Yukon Party, but my one complaint with them is the fact that they were really good at getting more money from the Feds. Don't want to hijack this thread, but more money isn't always a good thing. To much waste. Right now in Yukon there are about 2900 employees that work at Renewable Resources alone, most contribute very little. In fact I would argue that they do just the opposite. They love writing policy to justify their existence. Policy that does nothing but stifle business. Remember that the total population in Yukon is less than 35000 people. Not sure what the ratio of Govt employee to private citizen is, but it would be mind blowing.
In my little community of 350 people we have fire equipment that would make any city drool.....two brand new fire trucks, a bush truck, and enough assorted equipment to supply a small army. All this is housed in a huge building thats heated 24/7. Sounds great right...problem is we have no one to use it! We have a fire chief and two firemen on paper, but they are never here. Just last week on an ambulance call, my wife and I called for assistance...no one was available. Its a complete waste of good taxpayer money, but it looks good and gets votes. That kind of thing is rampant up here. In the meantime Canadian healthcare and other essential services are going broke.
I've got no problem with the NWT fur program, but at the same time it doesn't really solve anything. A better idea in my view would be for the Govt to spend that money on trade negotiations, and public relation campaigns that would help trappers long term.
