Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 10th, 2012

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Brampton West, ON]

I see I'm almost out of time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Mr. Seeback, you are out of time.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Brampton West, ON]

I wanted to ask a question about the carbon tax, but....

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Maybe Ms. Crowder will answer you on that. It's her turn next, and she'll have five minutes.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I appreciate the language that's been put out there, but I think it's worthwhile reminding all committee members that a number of the projects the minister mentioned are under way and this bill is still before the committee, so I don't think you can attribute those to this bill.

Thank you for coming, Mr. Minister.

I want to correct the record on the issue around consultation. The New Democrats in the House did indicate that the consultation process around the Nunavut part was a good example of how consultation could happen. What you see as a result is this bill. Although some amendments have been proposed, when you see the complexity of the bill, I think that 10-year process speaks to how a good consultation process can be effective.

The challenge we have before us is that the same process didn't happen in NWT. You had a two-year process, I think I heard you say 2010, so you haven't had the same kind of process in place.

Minister, you indicated in your speaking notes that this is urgent, so I wonder why the government didn't reintroduce a version of Bill C-25 and deal with the Nunavut piece of it as a stand-alone piece of legislation, given that there was such a good consultation process and largely consensus, and then allow the NWT process the amount of time it needed to get that same level of consensus?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

I've already explained that there is a real advantage to having comprehensive environmental assessments north of 60. We—

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I don't disagree with that, but why couldn't Nunavut be introduced as stand-alone legislation? Why did it need to be tied with the NWT?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

It obviously could be, but there is such a thing as utilizing the Parliament of Canada in an efficient manner. Getting House time has proven to be somewhat difficult—

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

That's only because of the nature of the legislation introduced.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

—and I don't see any of this as being super controversial. The only people who are finding it controversial are basically the opposition.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Again, I think you would have had agreement on the Nunavut bill. We had some preliminary discussions way back in May 2010 around that piece of legislation. It was disappointing to see it bundled when it came before the House. Clearly you have an agenda around that and we have a different opinion, but I'd like to move on.

My understanding is that the Nunavut Impact Review Board and the Nunavut Planning Commission have been in operation since 1996. What this piece of legislation does is it gives them a statutory basis. Just so people are clear, these two bodies have been operating. This is now with a statutory basis.

The funding is an important piece. I know the deputy minister, again, back in May 2010, had indicated that money would be forthcoming. You've indicated that there have been some discussions going on, but we also heard the Government of Nunavut, when they came before us, talk about good faith. Forgive me, we're both from British Columbia, but in British Columbia we are still waiting for funding for the B.C. First Nations Education Act.

When will this money become available? I'm not asking you how much. I'm not asking you to say May 25, but will it be within a year, within two years, next budget cycle?

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Jean, we've already had some top-ups in the last year and a half or so.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But there are new roles and responsibilities as a result of—

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Yes, there are, and there is some money that goes with it already. There is already some money that's earmarked and there is an acknowledgement that we'll have to....

Until we have the legislation, we can't very well ask for work plans and a budget. But—

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But you would have a sense of that. You know that the legislation is going to pass because you have a majority, so I think a prudent department, and I'm sure the department is prudent, would be planning for what they anticipate that workload would be.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

We can do all the planning we want but until the legislation is in place, we can't go to those boards and request a work plan and a budget. It's not realistic for us to do that until the legislation is actually in place.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But we can anticipate that in the next budget cycle there would be additional funds.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

I hope so.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

One final point—

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

When that's not possible, we can do other things. We have an economic development envelope within our department. If that's a priority item for economic development, we can always move money to support the board's functions, that kind of thing. I don't see money being a hurdle in enabling these boards to do their job. The boards are crucial.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, you're going to cut me off, aren't you?

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Thank you, Ms. Crowder.

We'll turn now to Mr. Boughen for five minutes.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Minister and your staff, for taking time to meet with us today and answer some questions, some of which even make some sense.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

The questions or the answers?