No. I don't think that would be the only answer at all.
Evidence of meeting #47 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
Evidence of meeting #47 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
11:45 a.m.
President and Chief, Native Council of Prince Edward Island
No. I don't think that would be the only answer at all.
11:45 a.m.
President and Chief, Native Council of Prince Edward Island
I do know that at this point in time the Native Council is actually fortunate to access Urban Multipurpose Aboriginal Youth Centre funding. There is no friendship centre here in Prince Edward Island. We provide services similar to the friendship centre, although the Native Council also has a political role to play.
That program is currently under review, so there's a lot of uncertainty in terms of the programs we provide as a result of that funding. Looking at that fund and the state of the current review, I think it needs to be....
I guess my two points would be that, one, the funding needs to be continued. Second, the Urban Multipurpose Aboriginal Youth Centre initiative funding shouldn't be specific to friendship centre organizations or administered through friendship centre organizations. I think it needs to be adjusted so that organizations like the Native Council, or other organizations similar to ours, can also apply without going through the friendship centres to do so.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
Fair enough.
Also, when you say “continued”, that's with an eye to the fact that it will be continued over the long term.
11:45 a.m.
President and Chief, Native Council of Prince Edward Island
Yes, that's correct.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
Thank you.
I'd like to turn to the Every Woman's Centre and Louise Smith-MacDonald.
In the interest of transparency, Ms. MacDonald and I worked quite a bit on a poverty reduction strategy for Nova Scotia prior to my election.
Clearly you know that I agree with the first recommendation. My question to you is on the poverty reduction strategy, a housing strategy, and specifically those two recommendations.
If those recommendations were adopted, how would you envision their impact on Canada's economic well-being in 20 years?
11:45 a.m.
Director, Every Woman's Centre
In terms of a national housing strategy and a poverty reduction strategy, sometimes it's hard to allow your vision to go somewhere if you don't really believe it's going to happen. But it would certainly improve the lives of many in Canada, where people, especially women, don't have to wonder how they're going to supply the necessities of life for their families and they are able then to concentrate on being able to increase their education through community college and what not. There is just so much time and energy that goes into poverty, and if that time and energy can be spent in doing things that are valuable for your family and yourself, then I envisage that in 20 years the whole outlook for the Canadian population will be quite different.
As far as a national housing strategy goes, we certainly take part in, for example, and have been very fortunate to access some SCPI money through the feds, which allows us to operate the only women's homeless shelter in Cape Breton, as well as building some second-stage housing. The problem with that has been that while we can get the capital costs, we can't hire anyone to coordinate the facility because that money is not included. While we appreciate the capital cost, we really find it difficult to sustain that.
As for other examples of things that have happened in our area, housing is in a deplorable condition. It is really difficult to nail down who's responsible. The municipality says it is not, the province says it is not, and the federal government is not. When you have housing units that are in a deplorable condition and women and children are living in unsafe housing, where in some cases there is asbestos and other things, it's really difficult to know where to go for the answers. It should be available. I can see, for myself and the women I work with, that it can be tied into community college; it can be tied into all kinds of areas where people are taught skills--and that would include a phenomenal amount of things--and get down to the business of being in charge of their own lives. I just see positive things about that.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS
I will just let you know that our national housing bill passed second reading last week, which is a great accomplishment, despite no support from the government on that.
If I can turn quickly to the Atlantic Policy Congress, in 20 years, how would you see the economic well-being of Canada improved by your recommendations?
11:50 a.m.
Metepenagiag First Nation, Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat
If the tools of governance are in place for all first nations...it is critical for first nations to be generating their own-source revenues. Nobody wants to be dependent on the federal government. Just like the Atlantic provinces, we don't want that dependency.
You have to remember that the Indian Act has fostered a culture of dependency in our first nations communities, and that's what we are trying to break free from. By fostering the culture of dependency, we now have to transform a mentality that exists on the reserve that is based on dependency. That is a very real issue, and that is a very challenging issue. How do we break free from that? Number one, it's a transformation of mentality, but we have to do that by transforming our economy. We have to be participants in the economy, and we have to do that with the government in cooperation, working with us, to help us with the tools of governance to generate those own-source revenues, so that we can in turn reinvest those dollars back into the community, into housing and social programs--long-term programs.
The problem with the federal funds is that they come in and we have to deliver them. Basically, we are just delivery agents for Indian Affairs. We're basically managing poverty on first nations communities. We don't want to be in the business of managing poverty; we want to manage growth and development. But we need the tools of governance to do that, and that is the direction in which we are moving, so that in 5, 10 or 15 years.... Tomorrow night I have a community meeting, and that's exactly what I'm going to ask my community: where do you want to be 10 years from now?
In order to get to where we want to be, this is what we have to do. We need to get those tools of governance. We need to generate our own-source revenues so that we reinvest in some of those priority areas in our communities.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing.
It is not easy to ask questions to all the groups, so bear with us.
My first question may be more of a comment, but just quickly to the Every Woman's Centre, believe it or not, Ms. Smith-MacDonald, you're the first one who talked about the gender lens. Nobody has brought it up.
My understanding was that all programs were evaluated with a gender lens. Do we not see that?
11:50 a.m.
Director, Every Woman's Centre
Do I see that? My term of reference for that, I believe, is through the stimulus money that has been released so far and that has really focused on infrastructure.
There are very, very small portions of women, maybe 7%, who would be involved in doing what is called non-traditional work. Therefore, it really hasn't had any effect on women and their families, and it has done nothing to bring women out of poverty.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
That's one of the recommendations that we've made in the past in the finance committee: to make sure that every program is analyzed on a gender basis. I happen to agree with you.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Speaking of stimulus money and infrastructure money getting out, Mr. English, you refer to the present money not necessarily getting out but having shovel-ready projects ready to go. You talked about certain projects being bogged down. What is happening in your municipality?
11:50 a.m.
Chief Administrative Officer, Halifax Regional Municipality
Mr. Chair, we just received word approximately three weeks ago on our stimulus funding package, which was about $36 million, but we had been dealing through the federal government since April on project applications to get them approved. There was a lot of back-and-forth and there were some serious delays over the summer months.
As I mentioned in my notes, we submitted two applications, one for a four-pad arena, which was rejected. We never received anything official, but unofficially it was rejected because the federal government didn't think we could complete that project by March 31, 2011, even though we were more than confident. We had projected that it would be open by September 2010. The second list of projects was for paving and street works in the Halifax and Dartmouth area, which was worth about $30 million. They told us that those projects wouldn't qualify.
So in the final analysis.... And I think a lot of it was motivated by the possibility of an election, because things started happening much more quickly over the last month, let's say. We did get approvals, but as I mentioned in my speaking notes, it's too late to get any of those projects under way in this construction season, so it will be next spring before we get them under way.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So you would have been approved for $36 million. How many projects would that represent?
11:55 a.m.
Chief Administrative Officer, Halifax Regional Municipality
In that $36 million, I think there were about eight or nine. It was a mixture. There was some major highway work.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Of the eight or nine, would they have been approved?
11:55 a.m.
Chief Administrative Officer, Halifax Regional Municipality
Yes. The $33 million was made up of about eight or nine projects, but they weren't our initial priorities.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Right, but none of them with shovels ready to go?
11:55 a.m.
Chief Administrative Officer, Halifax Regional Municipality
Well, “shovel-ready” means they have to be completed by March 31, 2011.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
No. That would mean that if I went to Halifax today, I would be able to see a shovel on the ground and the work being commenced?
