Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and the committee, for the invitation to appear here today.
The AFN, as you may know, is the national first nations organization representing over 630 first nations governments and communities and some 800,000 citizens across the country.
The AFN has made a presentation to this committee every year for several years running, and as a result there is an archive of material that identifies and explains first nations needs. If you have questions with regard to any of those figures or any desire for additional information on the issues that have been raised in the past, please don't hesitate to ask. I'd be happy to provide those details.
What I'd like to talk about today during this short presentation reflects a slightly different approach on our part. I want to suggest two investments that could be made in the upcoming budgets, which we believe are of equal benefit to first nations and the broader Canadian economy as a whole. We like to think of these as win-win or mutually beneficial investments.
The first idea is designed to help Canada address its labour force replacement challenge. Canada's aging demographic and reducing birth rate means more workers leaving and fewer entering the workforce. Hundreds of thousands of workers will be leaving the workforce within the next several years, and the construction sector council estimates 62,000 workers will be needed to be replaced by 2015 in that industry alone.
The effect of the situation on productivity and competitiveness is significant and will only grow. Canada needs a labour force replacement strategy for the 21st century. The Canadian citizens with the highest birth rate are first nations. The Canadian average is 1.57 births per woman, compared to 2.6 births for a first nations woman. This is also Canada's youngest demographic, with 54% of first nations citizens under 30 years old. First nations also have the highest unemployment rate, at more than twice the Canadian average. There is a young and growing population of Canadians who want to work and a need for skilled workers in a variety of sectors in the economy.
It should be a simple and straightforward proposition to suggest that Canada invest in meeting both the labour force replacement that Canada needs and the needs of first nations youth by investing in a strategy that brings these interests together. That essentially is our first recommendation. It means investing in education and skills training for first nations youth and helping employers identify suitable recruits from first nations communities. It can easily fit within the upcoming budget, and it will provide benefits to the economy of the country as a whole.
Our second recommendation has to do with resource development and investor certainty. Business needs to know that the climate for investment is reliable and predictable. When it's not, money is spent too early or invested without return. This causes a decline in investor confidence that can be very damaging to the bottom line. In the resource sector in particular, first nations interests are seen as a stumbling block and as problems that erode investor confidence, because businesses cannot know how long a process will take and what kind of interest they will run into along the way before a resolution is found.
The reasons for this uncertainty are not as complicated as they may seem. The laws of Canada, based on the Constitution and Supreme Court cases, among other sources, require that government consult with and accommodate the interests and concerns of first nations. Where treaties exist, additional commitments may apply. Where aboriginal title exists without treaty, new court cases suggest an even higher duty. I would refer people to the recent decision of the B.C. Supreme Court in Tsilhqot'in v. B.C. from November 21 in that regard.
The essential message is that government must address the interests of first nations before authorizing resource development projects that may affect our rights or interests. This can be done by developing agreements for resource revenue sharing with first nations that will smooth the way, insert predictability and reliability into the process, increase certainty of outcomes, and enhance investor confidence. Both of these ideas are spelled out in greater detail in our submission, of which you have copies, and they were also presented to the Council of the Federation this summer to a very good reception from the provincial premiers. They are simple, achievable, and mutually beneficial recommendations that will help Canada's economy and help first nations take their rightful place within that economy.
The final matter I'd like to address is more fundamental and is not a recommendation for an investment at all. In fact, it costs nothing to fix but has enormous costs as long as it remains unaddressed, and it will provide support to investment. That is accountability.
The belief exists in some circles that investment in first nations is wasted, that money now invested is without outcomes, and that more money would be lost to incompetence or corruption. The position of the Department of Finance is that change must occur before investment can be made. First nations agree and eagerly want to engage in accomplishing such change with the government.
There are problems with the accountability framework that first nations governments share with the federal government. The AFN would like to change that. We have begun work in this area and would like to see it proceed. As of now, the federal government has not agreed to continue that work with us.
This does not just impede investment in redressing poverty; it prevents progress in improving the Canadian economy. The two recommendations I have made here today are prime examples. I ask if the committee can accept that the federal government both refuses to invest and prevents progress from happening.
I'll leave you with a simple question on this point. Is it fair that first nations continue to suffer while the Government of Canada simultaneously both insists on and impedes the structural change that needs to happen to benefit both Canadians and first nations?
Thank you very much.