Evidence of meeting #45 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was nunavut.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay. Do you have the figures for the Northwest Territories and the Yukon as well?
Regional Executive Vice-President, Northern Region, Public Service Alliance of Canada
Yes. I'll go through the list for you.
Liberal
Regional Executive Vice-President, Northern Region, Public Service Alliance of Canada
For the Yukon it would be $122 million, for the NWT it would be $173 million, and for Nunavut it would be $511 million.
Regional Executive Vice-President, Northern Region, Public Service Alliance of Canada
It's $122 million.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay, and for the Northwest Territories it's $173 million?
Regional Executive Vice-President, Northern Region, Public Service Alliance of Canada
It's $173 million, and $511 million, yes.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay, great. Thanks.
I want to go to Ms. Mackenzie concerning increasing the royalty payments and setting up a separate fund. Would that fund be able to help alleviate some of the needs we heard about today?
Policy Analyst, Pembina Institute - Arctic Energy Solutions Program
I think it could be. When you have a non-renewable permanent fund, it can be used in a really wide variety of ways. Depending on the goals of the government, it could be used, for example, for training programs. That's partly why we're recommending a review process. We feel that you need not necessarily a long review but a very comprehensive one to look at all the different options—see what the Norwegians are doing, what the Alaskans are doing, what Alberta has done—and figure out what kind of fund you want and also what goals it could help you to reach.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So you would be open to anything. The first step would be to conduct that review.
Policy Analyst, Pembina Institute - Arctic Energy Solutions Program
Yes.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Now, would you just blanketly increase royalty revenues, or would you wait for that review? Would the revenues go into a fund managed by the territories, or would they be managed by the Canadian government?
Policy Analyst, Pembina Institute - Arctic Energy Solutions Program
We recommend that the review be done before devolution. Right now INAC is responsible for the oil and gas revenue system. So we'd recommend a review before devolution so that a system that would better benefit the people in the territories would be in place. For example, the Yukon went through devolution, and they had to keep their royalty system that was in place for, I think, up to three years. Also, we're kind of on the cusp of some likely major developments, like the Mackenzie gas project. We feel it makes a lot of sense to get this review done well before those large developments take place.
Does that answer your question?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Yes, that's great.
I'm going to ask you, Mr. Connell, to comment on that. What is your feeling?
Corporate Director of Sustainable Development, Corporate Office, Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited
I won't comment on oil royalties; that's not my area. I don't know anything about them.
But at Meadowbank we're in a very unique situation. Meadowbank is, I believe, the first mine in Nunavut that's being built completely on Inuit-owned land, land that was granted to the Inuit as part of the band claim agreement. While we have royalties that flow to the federal government, those royalties, in turn, float back to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to be administered by the Inuit people. The rates are set by the Mining Act. But with some of our sites, the royalties are set by the Inuit people who are landowners. So we're in a bit of a different situation in that our royalties are flowing back to the Inuit people.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Was that as a result of a review as well? How was that determined?
Corporate Director of Sustainable Development, Corporate Office, Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited
That was determined through the Nunavut land claim act, which is now 11 or 12 years old.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you.
Quickly, Mr. Schultz, you're asking for money for infrastructure and equipment in your first recommendation. What kind of infrastructure would this be? Are we looking to renew some of the equipment the colleges have, or is this for totally new structures?
Executive Director, Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes
Well, we're looking for both. As I indicated, the federal government was largely responsible for the creation of the community college system 50 years ago. And 50 years is a long time. Lethbridge College just celebrated its 50th anniversary. So a lot of the missing infrastructure--
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Sorry, what was the purpose of that? I'm from Quebec, and we have the CEGEP system, so it's a little bit different.
Executive Director, Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes
At the beginning of my presentation I talked about recession and booms and busts. It was 50 years ago that we were going through a situation similar to what we're going through now. There was infrastructure money sent across the country to build community colleges, creating jobs and creating opportunities to get more people through the post-secondary system. So we have infrastructure issues, deferred maintenance issues, but we also need to expand capacity. Capacity is a huge issue for post-secondary across the country, not only in Alberta, and certainly at the college and technical institute levels.
We're talking about alternate energy and wind sources. I mentioned money for research as well. We have colleges in Alberta that are doing research in biomass, environment, and wind energy.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
You're asking for $500 million. That would include universities--
Executive Director, Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes
No, that wouldn't include universities.
Liberal