Finance Committee on Sept. 22nd, 2016

[Dr. Janet King]

One covers a number of bases and is one I'm proud of. I can say that because it was started before I arrived at CanNor two years ago. It was our contribution to building the biomass sector in the NWT, which is also impacting the Yukon.

We were able to work with partners, including entrepreneurs, aboriginal communities, and as a priority, with the territorial government very early in the concept. We worked year over year with the entrepreneurs' needs and communities, building the planning, the feasibility, and the technology, so essentially now we can say a bioproducts sector is being established and it's embedded in the local aboriginal communities, providing local wealth.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you.

Could I have one more question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

You have 10 seconds, if you can do it.

We'll move to Ms. Raitt.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Thank you very much for being here.

I was in Iqaluit on August 13 for a round table with the chamber, so I have some questions coming out of that, if you don't mind. I said I would bring them up with folks if I ever ran into you, and guess what, you're here.

Perhaps the northern projects management office can help me on this one. What is the status of online staking and how close are we to getting this sorted out so the mining companies can get on with it? Is there anything you can do at CanNor to help?

[Matthew Spence, Director General, Northern Projects Management Office, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency]

Thank you for the question, and you are right.

An online staking process is being developed by Indigenous Affairs. It's getting close to being implemented. The issue is that it started in Nunavut, so there's also Inuit-owned land. The big issue at the moment is trying to get a line between the regional Inuit associations and INAC on staking. There was going to be a workshop with all the regional Inuit associations, ourselves, and INAC next week, but it's been put off because we're dealing with the Nunavut land use plan next week. However, we're working toward it, and I think we'll find alignment.

One of the underlying issues is protection for caribou. You'll find that also in the Nunavut land use plan. Caribou are a very fundamental part of Inuit culture, so they want to implement some measures because they're facing declining caribou herds. Therefore, we need to have some discussions around what is leading to these significant declines in the caribou so we can then come up with informed science-based protection measures.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Could someone explain what online staking is?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

I can. It means you don't have to take a helicopter to physically tap in a stake for people to make claims for the purposes of mining in future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you. Go ahead.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Is that okay? I have some skills from my NRCan days.

My second question has to do with the Nunavut land use plan. The way it's been pitched to me from the mining sector up there is that it's going to kill exploration, and they're very concerned about the process.

[Matthew Spence]

That's an important question. You're right. Right now some fundamental work needs to be done with the Nunavut Planning Commission to look at a more evidence-based approach. Again, the caribou herds are really a preoccupation of the Inuit. We need to work on determining why there are significant declines in the caribou populations. I think one of the herds has gone from 450,000 to 16,000 caribou. There are moratoriums on hunting, so in some ways we're infringing on indigenous rights.

We need to take a more science-based, evidence-based approach to looking at that, and the vast geography sometimes limits our ability to get out there and figure out what's going on. We need to incorporate more traditional knowledge. This summer we had the Tlicho as an example. The Tlicho are in the NWT but they hunt herds. There are no borders for those herds. They're testing their traditional knowledge and they're going to bring back that information.

That all helps to inform us as to what's going on, and that will help inform the protection measures that the NPC wants to put in place in protecting caribou and caribou calving grounds to ensure industrial development doesn't impact on that. At the same time, we have to be balanced in our approach. We need to ensure that we have a sustainable exploration industry, because that's how you have a sustainable mining industry, given the contribution that mining resource development makes to the north.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

I have two questions specific to your organization.

I heard a complaint about, not when programs are available but with construction and infrastructure, and you guys facilitate infrastructure stuff for the federal government in terms of RFPs, I believe. Anyway, what they're indicating is that southern companies are coming in to compete with local companies. They don't have capacity in local companies; therefore, it makes local selection very difficult. The question was whether or not there's a possibility to amend to have a local content part of the analysis when you're doing RFPs. I don't know if it's going to be with you guys.

The second question I have specifically for you is, are you making announcements on Canada 150 projects? There is a big day that's being planned next year, in my understanding, Nunavut Day, August 1, and they really want to get on with it. Can you let me know if you're going to be making any announcements on their funding?

[Dr. Janet King]

We do not do any procurement or do any direct construction in Nunavut, so we would not be involved in those processes.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Okay, thanks.

[Dr. Janet King]

Yes, we will be making announcements on Canada 150 and we would certainly hope to have them well prepared in advance of Nunavut Day next year.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Okay, and what are you doing with cruise ships? Are you helping to facilitate what they did this year up in Cambridge Bay and do you want to continue doing it?

[Dr. Janet King]

Actually, we had an interesting role in that. They knew the very large ship, the Crystal Serenity, was showing up and they wanted to take optimal advantage of that within the community to have the community ready to receive that number of passengers and potential buyers. We actually funded the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association to mobilize the artists to hold their annual meeting and training session in Cambridge Bay at the same time as the Crystal Serenity came through, so the arts and crafts members of Nunavut were mobilized in Cambridge Bay and ready to receive the many paying customers of the Crystal Serenity.

That seemed to work very well. I've heard that very large, record amounts of money were spent in the community at that time, which served our artisans very well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That will be it. It's a little over time.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Fine. We can tackle the CRA another time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Caron.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank the witness for his presentation.

I have looked at all the programs you have presented.

Actually I'll switch to English because I have the document in English in front of me.

I'm just looking at the successes, or what you're promoting as successes, in terms of SINED, the strategic investments in the economic development program, the adult basic education program, and the northern projects management office. When I'm looking at the plans and priorities for 2016-17, it basically says that those programs are due to be sunset. Basically that's a government decision.

At this point, what can we know about the future of those programs, the future of funding and future commitment toward these programs?

[Dr. Janet King]

The SINED program has always been a cyclical program, so this is nothing new for our organization. It was renewed in budget 2016 for two years. We are busily strengthening our performance measures, our business analysis, and so on, so that we can bring forward the best possible investment case to the government next year. I would echo the same comments on each one of our programs that are sunsetting.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Has each of them been renewed for two years?

[Dr. Janet King]

Each one has a different length. For example, the northern projects management office initiative was renewed for four years. There are reasons each time for the number of years they are renewed.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Was the renewal announced earlier this year during the budget?

[Dr. Janet King]

That's right.