Finance Committee on April 7th, 2017

[Peter Taptuna]

One of the things I've indicated is that for any kind of investment that's made by the federal government for construction and infrastructure building, especially housing units and other smaller infrastructure things that we request from Ottawa, everything has to be shipped up from other jurisdictions. We have a short window, a short shipping season. As you know, we have to ship in everything during ice-free periods.

If we don't make these shipments on time, we miss some of the communities where we can't bring fuel in when ice conditions are very bad up north, so fuel has to be flown in at an extremely high cost. That's one of the things that's just natural for the Arctic. Again, when it comes to the federal government benefiting Nunavut by making investments, it probably benefits the southern jurisdictions by 90% in terms of getting supplies, equipment, and trade up into Nunavut.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

As a relatively young Canadian, something I didn't know is that you have one of the youngest populations in the country in your territory.

What unique challenges are there for young Canadians in the territory of Nunavut, and where can the federal government be better at this? We have the Canada child benefit and we have Canada student loans program, but I'm assuming there are unique challenges for young Canadians in Nunavut, particularly on access to post-secondary education.

[Peter Taptuna]

Yes, absolutely. When I became premier I made education our number one priority.

It's very difficult when you have small, isolated communities, and we do want to have better living conditions, like housing. We have one of the most notorious health records in the nation because of overcrowding. TB is still prevalent in our territory. Of course, when you have 13 people living in a two-bedroom home it's very difficult for young people to pay attention, stay in school, and improve their school attendance.

That's why I think we're quite taken aback when we want to make sure that our people are healthy. The basic needs of shelter have to be met. Of course, again, the cost of living, the cost of food up there is just notorious. It's up to seven times as much as in southern Canada because, as you know, everything has to be flown in. When you add the extra cost of carbon prices to our fuel for aviation it will bring up the cost even more.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

What percentage of your population attains post-secondary education? It's okay if you don't know that off the top of your head.

[Peter Taptuna]

I'll have to get back to you but we know for a fact that the graduation rates are going up and attendance rates are going up. I don't have the specific numbers but I can speak to a small community in the middle of Canada, Baker Lake, where there is actual mining extraction taking place at Meadowbank. The school attendance has gone up, the health care visits have gone down, and the income recipient numbers have gone way down, so that proves the point that community wellness is happening through employment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Go ahead for a last question.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

The statistics on unemployment are rather unique in Nunavut because there are wide fluctuations and volatility in the unemployment data. Do you have any comments on why that occurs and how we can minimize it, or implement policies to minimize that?

[Peter Taptuna]

Our population is very small and we have seasonal employment that all of a sudden brings the number of unemployed down. As a government we do have a land claims agreement where, in article 23, we have to try to meet the 85% Inuit content in our territorial government, including some numbers in the federal government, but that's very difficult to get to. We're at 50% and again, when developers like the mining companies are competing for every employable person, it becomes very difficult. Maybe that's a good problem to have, but at the same time we do want to have educated younger people coming out of Nunavut.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you, Premier.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you, Raj, and thank you, Premier.

Mr. Liepert.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thanks for being here. I appreciate it.

We've had both Bob McLeod here and the Premier of Yukon on Skype, or whatever you call it.

I think the three of you have the three toughest jobs in Canada, and I'm from Alberta so I have a bit of a feel for what goes on in the north. Just to be clear, certainly all of us on this side of the table would agree with you in terms of the carbon tax, except we believe that it shouldn't just be abolished in the north; we think it should be scrapped all across the country. Let's just make sure that's on the table.

On that, one of the difficulties I see is certainly the cost of doing business in places like High Level and some of the northern B.C. communities, which—and I acknowledge—is not as high, as extreme, as in the territories or in Nunavut. The question from the federal government's standpoint is, how do you exempt one area of the country, and then where does it stop in terms of that? I would see that as a potential problem.

But I actually want to speak on a more positive vein. I'd like to know a bit more about the port you talked about. How many days a year would that port be operational?

[Peter Taptuna]

I don't have those numbers in front of me.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Roughly, are we talking three months of the year? Are we talking nine months of the year?

[Peter Taptuna]

Probably five months out of the year.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Five months, so it would be similar to Churchill?

[Peter Taptuna]

Yes.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Would that port also be a potential end of an oil pipeline?

[Peter Taptuna]

I don't see why it shouldn't be. There are opportunities here and there for opening up the markets to other countries, and especially—

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Of course, we've always had the Mackenzie Valley gas situation. That must be, relatively, within proximity of the Mackenzie River Basin as well, is it not?

[Peter Taptuna]

We're in the central part of Canada, and of course the Mackenzie is on the western side, another time zone away, so it's—

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Yes, but in reality, if Mackenzie ever developed and you had to bring all the gas down south, there could be potential.

In terms of the port's being open five months of the year, are there means for it to be open longer than that if you have the appropriate equipment?

[Peter Taptuna]

Absolutely, and that's something Canada has be cognizant of, because we want to maintain our sovereignty in the Arctic Ocean but we don't have a deep-sea port in central Canada, in the central Arctic. It's something that's critical for Canada to pay attention to, but overall, once a road is built, there are opportunities for connecting even further, into the Northwest Territories and points beyond.

As you know, the diamond mines are resupplied by ice roads. For the better part of some of these seasons—where they can't get their supplies in on ice roads because of melting too early—here's an opportunity for another road for resupply, which may even bring the costs further down for the region and developers.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Also, I read somewhere—and I don't know how much truth there was to it—about a cruise ship that was going through the north. They had to stop a fair bit off land and take smaller boats in, because there was no deepwater port for it to come into. Would there also be the potential, at least for those five months of the year, for the Northwest Passage cruise ship business?

[Peter Taptuna]

Absolutely. You see more and more cruise ships heading north, through Greenland and through our Northwest Passage. That gives the potential for more tourism activity, once you have that infrastructure in there.

Again, whatever infrastructure is put in, to alleviate some of those extremely high costs, there are opportunities for other modes of economic development. Tourism, of course, is one of them.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I'm good. Thank you.