Mr. Speaker, I first want to thank the Prime Minister and the finance minister for the tremendous job they have done for the north in this budget. It puts the north on the map, which is very exciting. My counterparts from the other territories and the people in the north were excited when they talked to me about the budget. It is a landmark budget for the north. I will explain a number of provisions that provide to the north, which have made us so excited about this budget.
First, of course, is the $90 million for northern economic development. My colleagues have talked a lot about regional funding. We know regional development funds were sometimes not available for the north but were available for other parts of the country, but now we have the funds for the north. We are tremendously excited.
We are in the process of transiting the north for ideas on the best federal investments in economic development. I can tell members that the people I talked to across the north so far have been very excited about the potential of this investment.
Furthermore, the northern territories are funded through transfer payments and very complicated formulas. They are in the process of renewing them now. In that process will be a $150 million increase in transfer payments over five years, bringing the projected territorial transfer payments over the next five years to more than $10 billion.
As we know, for a couple of years there was an increase of $20 million in health because of the unique circumstances the north finds itself in health care and its unique needs. Now that has been permanently put into the next five years of this formula financing cycle. We are very excited about this increase in health care money for the north.
I now want to talk about northern gas and oil development. The Mackenzie Valley pipeline is on the verge of occurring. The Alaska Highway pipeline will be the biggest industrial project in history, with wonderful wealth creation, not only for the people in the territories but for all of Canada. This budget puts $75 million in to help the process for the federal government to do its role in making these projects possible. This money is needed for the agencies, the environmental boards and the federal departments.
Last week, the minister and I were in the Mackenzie Valley as they are getting ready for this potentially great economic development project in the north. The environmental boards that have to go through this complex procedure need capacity. The local small communities will be impacted. Their infrastructure, their social programs, their health care system and their employees will all be impacted by such large projects. They need the capacity to deal with this. The federal departments in the region, which do not have the capacity to analyze and be involved in coordinating such large projects, need to be upgraded.
The $75 million is needed so that the federal government will do its part to help industry and to help the local people in the north to take advantage of and develop the capacity to have the jobs in the north that this project, which everyone has been working so hard on, can create.
I was also delighted to see once again for the north the $3.5 billion toward the cleaning up of federal contaminated sites. Sixty per cent of that will go to the north. This is a wonderful initiative by the federal government. This is the largest amount of money that has ever been provided by any government in Canada for an environmental program. The money will not only ameliorate the environment, clean up the environmental problems that have been left over the years in hundreds and hundreds of sites, but it will also be a great economic development generated in itself.
As northerners develop the skills to do this through mediation, to clean up these sites on our own territory, we can then sell those skills around the northern world which will have a lasting effect on economic development, as well as, of course, the usage of the sites that are cleaned up.
Another exciting item for the north is the $51 million investment over 10 years for seabed mapping of the Arctic continental shelf. People have heard me speak a number of times in the House about the importance of northern sovereignty and of ensuring our sovereignty in this developing part of Canada, especially with global warming as the seas are opened up.
The mapping of the continental shelf, which is possible for us after we recently signed a convention on the law of the sea, will allow us to expand our boundaries beyond the normal 200 mile limit. Other Arctic nations have already done this mapping. Everyone can see that it is very expensive. This will allow us to extend our boundaries, our sovereignty and make sure that it is Canadian laws and Canadian environmental control over precious parts of the waterways around our Arctic islands. I think this is very exciting for all Canadians.
Another item that will have a great effect on the north is the rural infrastructure program where municipalities apply for projects. Past versions of this have been a tremendous success in the north. Virtually every municipality in the Yukon has had projects through this. As we know, this was announced before. In our jurisdiction the $15 million will be a great influx into our economy as cabinet and the government took heed of the fact that it is a lot more than we would normally get per capita because of the very difficult conditions in the north. We appreciate the government's understanding of the difficulties of developing infrastructure in the north.
What this budget did was accelerate the distribution of that money from 10 years down to 5 years, which means our municipalities and communities can spend twice as much each year of that money in developing projects. Once again this provides for more economic development and environmental protection as green infrastructure projects are done in communities.
I also wanted to talk about some of the other things that will be helpful for the north, although I will not be able to get through all of them. I guess I will have to do it during the next budget debate.
Northerners are happy with a number of things in the budget which will help them in a lot of ways, but will also help all Canadians. One in particular is the assistance to the voluntary sector and moral support for the voluntary sector. This is a very important part of our society and I think some people underestimate the importance of it to the smooth running operation and cooperation in health and safety that millions of Canadians put in.
We will receive $12 million over the next two years to continue with the government's initiative in that area. There are some very innovative ideas, such as looking at a bank for the voluntary sector, looking at non-profit organization legislation that would remove some of the red tape, and of course the change in the capital percentage so that a trust fund or endowment fund can be built. They will not have to spend as much each year on operations and it will make it easier for voluntary giving.
Also in my portfolio I am delighted about the amounts of money to help the great needs of the aboriginal people. I will not go into all of them as there would not be time. There is $125 million for the aboriginal human resource development and this is just one of a number of things in the throne speech and the budget is reinforcing and providing the funding to do what is in the throne speech.
There is also $495 million, as we saw in the main estimates, to help aboriginal people, which is about a 9% increase, and that will go toward land claims, water, program funding, education and to capital rust and northern air mail food, once again another program for the north where food is mailed to the very remote northern communities at lower cost.
I will finish by saying that the $7 billion for communities and the new deal for municipalities has been very well received. In my riding it is a substantial amount of funds for the municipalities that they can use on environmentally sensitive infrastructure and other things that municipalities need to help their local communities. It is an exciting budget for the north and I thank the Prime Minister and the finance minister for so much commitment to the north.