Evidence of meeting #175 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
Yes. That first baseline is not currently at zero. That's an average over the past couple of years, but that would be a significant ramp-up from where we are this year.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
Would that be contingent on the $45 million and the leveraged $115 million?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
Yes...for that level of growth.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
Okay. Thank you.
Barbara, you did a great job. As for your nervousness, I didn't even notice it.
I have a couple of things for you.
You raised the issue of audits. Having worked in this sector for many years where the audits were crippling, I note that we negotiated with those who required the audits. If you had a number of years of compliance, such as five years—pick a number—you indeed were eligible to do an engagement review. We all know that's much less intrusive and much cheaper, so that those very important dollars you have can go to front-line services or repairing the roof or whatever is needed. Has there been any discussion or negotiation about that?
Executive Director, Women's Transition Home
Yes. We've had people within government actually advocating for that to happen, so that you have reviews, or you have reviews until they say, “You're going to do an audit”, and it's a surprise audit, which we're really okay with. There hasn't been any movement, because the feeling from government is that they have to comply with all the regulations within CMHC, and CMHC did require an audit every year. That's kind of where we're stuck.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
Okay. That's good information, because I think there are some places where we can use some common sense on occasion.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
You mentioned the labour shortage and said that people don't want to go into this field. I will just tell you that I have respect for the work that you and your team do. It is not easy work. It takes a special kind of person to work in that sector.
I understand labour shortages, and they're certainly here in the Yukon, but they are in other places as well. Burnout and PTSD are not uncommon in this field. We had a presentation this morning from Dechinta. I don't know if you were here for it. They're doing work on.... I'm seeing nodding from Chief Smith. Have you heard of them? They're an organization that is doing work to help provide those supports to get people into fields and post-secondary education in areas where it makes sense and to keep them in communities both for the education and for return to work. I think they'd be a really good organization for you to connect with, because I think that there could be some synergy there. I'm happy to provide the information to you afterwards, and if they're still around I'm sure that they will be too.
Chief Dickson, you said something, and I apologize if some of the questions are a bit.... It's for clarity, because we get so much information, and in intense listening sometimes things start to cross after a while.
I would just like clarification from you. You said something about “disincentives” to becoming self-sufficient. What did you mean by that? What are those disincentives?
Kluane First Nation
What we're talking about is own-source revenues. We're talking about clawbacks.
First nation governments want to get into business—you heard this from the other chiefs—and we want to be a part of the economy in the Yukon. For first nation governments, the clawbacks from own-source revenue are hindering us from moving forward in a lot of cases. We have to always be careful of.... If we're trying to build, trying to be part of society in the Yukon and trying to be a part of the economy, we always have to be mindful that every dollar we make gets deducted off of our transfer agreements.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
I'm sorry, but again, this is clarification for me. Is it dollar for dollar or is there a negotiated percentage?
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
At 50¢ on the dollar, is there a threshold where it starts, or does it just start at ground zero?
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
Thank you.
I'm not sure who mentioned a document called “Together Today for Tomorrow”. Did I get it right?
Do you have something, Chief Smith?
Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
It's “Together Today for our Children Tomorrow”. It was actually mentioned in the previous group's panel discussion as well. That's what she was referring to.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
You mentioned that if that document were followed, we'd be in a much better place. Is there anything specific in there that is part of this discussion we're having today?
Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
I think it's the intent of the document.
When our chiefs in 1973 went to Ottawa and presented to Prime Minister Trudeau, they spoke about this very thing. We weren't coming for a handout. We wanted to be brought back from the margins of society, because when Canada started to really show up in Yukon around the gold rush, we were a part of the economy. We were the ones who actually showed the miners and the prospectors where the gold was.
When the Alaska Highway came through, it was our people who showed the trails. We were a part of the economy. We were immersed in it. As we went along, we became more and more marginalized. All of a sudden, in 1973, we found ourselves on the sides and Yukon was just forging ahead. It was doing its own governance at that time. It was doing its own economy at that time, and we were pushed aside. We saw that our people were degrading, year in and year out. Our place, our social standing and our social indicators were going down further every year.
That document spoke about how we could retake our place in Yukon. The intent of the document was to show the government—and Prime Minister Trudeau at that time read the document and he said....and this, I think, was the first non-conscious speaking about reconciliation. If you look at his presentation back to then Chief Smith, Prime Minister Trudeau said this was a great document for stepping forward. It wasn't a document about going in for litigation. We were talking about it as a partnership and working together.
I think the overall intent of it is where we want to go today, which is for that to continue. We have the ideas of where our people want to go, and when we're supported by Canada in that effort, then we're more capable of doing it.
Liberal
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
I'll be brief, because I don't want to stand between my colleagues and lunch—that's a dangerous position to be in. I do want to thank everybody for taking the time to come here. Those of you who drove a far way and those who flew a distance as well, thank you for coming.
I have one quick question, which is perhaps more of a comment, but I'm hoping that you, Ms. Flanagan, can elaborate on some of the great stuff that you do. There's a statistic that I think is important. I can never remember it off the top of my head but I'm hoping you'll be able to help. It's about where young girls drop out of the STEM-related fields and it's in junior high. I think it's important for the committee to know that statistic or the relevance of it. As the dad of two little girls who are in grade 6 and grade 5 right now and who are very interested in science and math, I'm worried that this is their impending future, like that of so many girls before them.
Before I give you the floor, I just want to make two other quick comments. I note from your website that you've done terrific work with what looks like third partners—Google, Suncor, etc. It looks as though there's only one connection to the provincial governments. I'm hoping that you can comment on, perhaps, some of that. I'm from Alberta. I'd be curious as to whether there's any sort of connection there.
I've forgotten my last comment, so I'll open up the floor to you.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
On the first question around girls engaged in science and technology, you're very right, and for your daughters in particular, that is the danger zone in terms of the age for interest changes in science and tech.
In Canada, and in fact all of the OECD countries, girls and boys perform the same in science and math courses. It's not an issue of academic performance or ability. It's not an issue of interest, as you mentioned your daughters. We see thousands of girls and young women across the country who love science and technology.
We are incredibly concerned right now, because of the long-standing issue we've had in science and engineering with less than 20% of those fields being occupied by women. When we look at the changes that are happening within the technology sector, there are not enough computer scientists and engineers who are women. The rapid transformation of every single sector by technology means that girls are going to have to have those skills to participate in any future job, whether that is in the mining sector, the education sector or the business world. We are very concerned.
Many of our proposals are focused on making sure that we're offering programs that engage girls both in a co-ed and an all-girl environment, but also that we're engaging their parents and other people who are around them that support them, because it's the context that is the issue. It is not the girls themselves.
We've been working really hard to change that narrative, so that it isn't an issue with the girls, and that the girls need to change to participate in these skills. It's the context around them that needs to open up and be more welcoming, and that has to start early. With the recommendations we're proposing, it's not enough to start in university or high school.
For the question around provincial investments, traditionally, as a national organization we've been very focused on the national level, so we've not had the capacity to do the development work at a provincial level. The Government of Nunavut has been very involved in the work that we're doing. In fact, combined with corporate supporters, it enabled us to deliver in all 24 Nunavut communities. That is something that we will look to in the future, but currently, up to this point, the majority of our funding has come from the private sector.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you.
I have just a quick question as well to you, Jennifer. I was actually surprised when we met in Ottawa that you operated in Whitehorse. I think you know that. You're asking for $45 million over five years. Can you explain how you operate, what you do in this area, and what it would do for the country as a whole if the federal government were to invest that kind of money in the organization?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
The delivery model is that we represent and support 38 organizations across the country, located at universities and colleges. They are their own organizations within those institutions, and they hire undergraduate students to go out in communities and deliver programs.
Our role at the national level is to provide funding for those initiatives to provide support, training, and resource and content development. We do advocacy work to make sure there is understanding of why youth engagement is important, because often we get trapped in “K to 12 is a provincial jurisdiction issue”. We do work in schools to support what's happening, but this is skill development and workforce development outside of school. It's really filling the gap that exists within the formal school system.
In Yukon, for example, we would provide funding to Yukon College, who we've partnered with. Yukon College then sends teams out into communities—last year it was eight communities but they want to be in all 14—and they deliver programming in schools. They then go back in the summer and deliver summer experiences. The goal of Yukon College, of which we're very supportive, is looking at.... This is all done in partnership with community-based funds, the community leadership needs, and what they've identified as important.
We don't develop a program in Ottawa that then gets delivered in Yukon or in Nunavut, or in P.E.I. for that matter. It's very much a locally customized program that is delivered in partnership with communities. The funding we're asking for, which is essentially $9 million a year for five years, is going to scale to all the programs across the country. We're doing programming in rural, remote communities, and with communities that are having major socio-economic issues. We're doing that at no cost to the community or to the parents.
That funding enables.... We have the network already to do this very quickly. We have the relationships, the trust, the credibility and the content. Our model is incredibly sustainable. More money in is a lot more youth engaged in building those skills.
You saw that we do a lot of work to quantify the impact of our programs both to provide accountability, and also so we know how to have the deepest possible impact. We wanted to quantify the economic impact as well, so that people in decision-making positions understand how important engagement is at a K to 12 level.