Natural Resources Committee on June 12th, 2012

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Mr. Graham, just on the principle, should it be the polluter that pays—the industry that has polluted—or should it be the taxpayers who are affected by the pollution who should pay for the cleanup?

[Hughie Graham]

Is it bad to say I see job creation from that?

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

You see job creation from environmental degradation? I would say that would be bad. I would say that's not the vision I want for my daughter. I would say, yes, that is bad.

There is a lot of economic growth from hardship in our economy. When people get divorced, there is economic growth. Lawyers are hired and we see growth, but the fact that we see economic growth from bad things doesn't mean that is the vision we as Canadians want. As a public administrator, I don't see that is the way most Canadians want to go. Most people I talk to in my community want to safeguard the environment. They don't want to think about job creation from environmental degradation, so I have to disagree with you on that point.

Ms. Babcock, you testified at the finance committee in the fall, and you talked a bit about a housing crunch and housing affordability. Could you elaborate on that?

[Sandy Babcock]

Yukon is still experiencing a housing crunch. It is not only the city of Whitehorse. It expands into the communities. A large part of that challenge for us is probably because there is a lack of planning and foresight into how much our population is going to expand, recognizing that the demographics are changing, that our children are now in the housing market, so more pressures are being created there.

Our challenge, from the chamber's prospective, is to have housing that is affordable. The rental market is extremely low, with a vacancy rate of probably about 1% right now, a situation that is creating huge problems in attracting young professionals to the territory or in keeping our own younger people in the territory to stay here and work.

Government at all levels is very responsible in its commitment to social housing, whether it's the government of first nations, Yukon, or Canada.

We're talking about housing that is affordable for people. Right now we just don't have that. That lack is creating problems within the business community. They can't attract or keep skilled and unskilled people here.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

If I have time left, Mr. Chair, I'll pass it to Mr. Cleary.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Babcock, I'm a member of Parliament from Newfoundland and Labrador. In Labrador the problem that we have, which you just touched on in your answer to Mr. Nichols, is the vacancy rate. The vacancy rate in places like Happy Valley-Goose Bay—and the mining industry is booming with iron ore, for example, precious metals, copper, cobalt, you name it, we've got it—is practically zero.

You mentioned a vacancy rate of 1%. What exactly is being done to tackle that problem?

[Sandy Babcock]

One of the things the chamber has been involved in, because we have devolution in the territories, so we have authority over our lands.... The Yukon government has actually been the land developer in the territory for many years, and is only now opening up to private sector development. In the past, the private sector has not been able to come in and acquire enough land to put a development together. We then experienced a shortage in our inventory of land that was available to develop. We don't seem to be able to attract private developers to build apartment complexes, partly because there's just no land available to do that in, so it's really an issue of land availability.

The Yukon government is now opening up tracts of land for private development. So we're anticipating, within the next year or two, that some of this pressure will be alleviated; however, we're still not seeing enough being done in terms of the rental market and what that is going to look like.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Ms. Babcock.

Thank you, Mr. Cleary and Mr. Nicholls.

Mr. McGuinty, go ahead, please, for up to five minutes.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

Ms. Babcock, can I go back to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act? When was that brought into being?

[Sandy Babcock]

I think it received assent between 2002 and 2004. I'm sorry, I can't remember exactly when.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

That was under a previous government.

[Sandy Babcock]

Yes, and it was a work in progress for many years before that.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

For how many years was it a work in progress?

[Sandy Babcock]

The Umbrella Final Agreement, I believe, was finished in the early 1990s, and then probably in the mid-nineties work was started to develop YESAA itself and its regulations. It probably took at least five to eight years.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Is it fair to say that YESAA, as a process, is supported by first nations?

[Sandy Babcock]

Yes, absolutely.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Is it supported by environmental groups?

[Sandy Babcock]

Yes.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Is it supported by industry?

[Sandy Babcock]

Yes.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It is supported by labour?

[Sandy Babcock]

Yes. Actually I'm not sure that labour has played a large part in that, so I'm going to retract that.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

So, generally speaking, it has widespread support across pretty much every stakeholder group in the Yukon?

[Sandy Babcock]

It didn't start out that way, but as we've seen it implemented, yes.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

So consultations were extensive leading up to this, and dialogue occurred. This wasn't buried in a budget bill, was it, when it was launched? Was it just sort of announced?