Yes.
Evidence of meeting #29 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #29 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
Yes.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Right now it's being held up by the federal cabinet. Is that right?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
It's being held up. There's an issue around consultation and getting that cleared up. I'm assured that they're working on that right now.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Right.
Speaking more broadly about the energy sector, which is one of the most important industries in Canada—it accounts for about 10% of Canada's GDP—we have seen, I would submit, a relatively limited response from the federal government. We are seeing $1.7 billion dedicated to orphan wells and some relatively minor liquidity measures for smaller companies. Are you satisfied with the federal response to date, or do you think more could be done to support this vital sector?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
I think the federal government, in its first round of labour funding and small corporation funding, or smaller and medium-sized.... Then with the larger corporation funding, where companies can apply and would be eligible for liquidity, bridging loans and so on.... We're optimistic that the program can be helpful across the sector.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Would you agree that in terms of medium and larger companies in the energy sector, the federal government has not provided sufficient liquidity supports or there's certainly room for improvement in that regard? We've heard that from other witnesses.
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
We'll have to see what the program uptake is. It's early. We would certainly like to have seen a program like that earlier, but we're optimistic. We'll have to see what the uptake is. We're optimistic that it will help some of our companies.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Now, do you have any specific recommendations that you would like to see by way of a further federal response? Are there any specific policies that you would like to bring to the table?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
I think there are a couple of policies. One is that clearly, as I've outlined, the industry has a significant number of projects that can be undertaken, not just in the transmission pipeline industry, but also in petrochemicals and other aspects of the industry. To enable those projects to move forward in a timely way, I would think that clarity on the regulatory runway would make sure that those projects get off the ground and get going as soon as possible.
6 p.m.
Conservative
6 p.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Speaking a little bit about the regulatory environment, would you agree that legislation like Bill C-69 has not helped?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
Well, certainly we had a long discussion about Bill C-69 a while ago. It's now been put into law. We're working with it. We're hoping that, through the implementation of it, we'll get more clarity than we had. We just have to work with it.
6 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you.
I'm just wondering, Mr. Bloomer, if it would be possible for you to send us, through me or the clerk, an overview of the kinds of projects that really should go out to the Minister of Infrastructure. That way, everything is on the table and we can get a quick start on infrastructure to try to get the economy going again. If you could do that, it would be helpful.
6:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
Yes, I certainly agree.
We have provided that, but we will provide it directly to this committee.
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the presenters today. These were very interesting presentations.
My first question is for the National Association of Friendship Centres. I'm a founding member of the friendship centre in my community. I live in an indigenous community, and I really see the benefit of having friendship centres. I think every indigenous community should have a friendship centre—and an aboriginal head start program, for that matter.
One of our challenges in the north is to have good information. We don't seem to get the same level of tracking that the southern provinces get. Indigenous communities are always looking for better data. If you're going to make good decisions, you need good information.
We're lucky in the Northwest Territories that we have no COVID-19 cases. However, we continue to talk about what kind of data collection would be helpful, so I'd like to ask Chris if he could talk a little about what he would need in terms of information and what his approach would be.
6:05 p.m.
President, National Association of Friendship Centres
Thank you, Mr. McLeod.
Jocelyn and I have previously stated in front of other parliamentary committees our frustration that the jurisdictional issues around health information and the current structure of case identification do not include urban indigenous people. There's a reason that the cases in La Loche, for example, outnumber the total declared indigenous cases. If you are not on reserve, you typically don't get the same disaggregated data, which you would need to create good policy.
I would also argue that even when we have good data, public policy has not matched what that data tells us. For example, the majority of indigenous people live off reserve, off Inuit-governed territory, off Métis homelands, but the financial contributions have never matched that number.
We've already reached out to try to gather as much data as we can with our partners—I'm sure Jocelyn can follow up with some specifics—but we also want to make sure that this data is communicated in a way that's appropriate and comes from indigenous ways of knowing. Indigenous people don't typically talk about mental health. When we hear that word, it's not something we're comfortable talking about, but if you ask people, “How are you? How are you managing during this time?”, they're much more willing to tell you that they're not doing that well.
Jocelyn has some more specifics on the health data and the work we're trying to do in that area, but I'll just be very clear: We don't know how many urban indigenous people have died from COVID-19, period.
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you for that. As a former member of the friendship centres, I'm very aware of the history of all the programs they deliver and, certainly, of some of the challenges. I've always appreciated the fact that friendship centres don't fall under a political structure. They don't fall under the band council, the Métis council or any of the indigenous governments, so they really can speak openly about the real challenges in the community.
However, there have been real challenges with the whole association. I want to ask you about how COVID-19 has exasperated the structural challenges that friendship centres were dealing with pre-pandemic and what steps we can take to help the friendship centres not only survive these challenges times, but ultimately come out of this with greater certainty.
May 19th, 2020 / 6:05 p.m.
Jocelyn Formsma Executive Director, National Association of Friendship Centres
I can jump in and add a bit on the data.
A lot of the indigenous data that's being collected is very rightfully being collected by indigenous entities, such as The First Nations Information Governance Centre, various Métis nations and Inuit-formed entities. What we're saying is that we don't currently have a similar entity that collects the data within an urban landscape.
Anecdotally, we know there have been hundreds of COVID cases in the indigenous population within, say, Toronto, but we do not have any way of formally recognizing those cases of illness or any of the deaths that have occurred. Furthermore, a lot of the community members who have had the virus and passed away from it are largely unseen by society in general, such as the unsheltered homeless. We've had numerous young people in care. It's not to say that they've had the virus, but as a population, unless you know who they are and where they are, it can be very difficult to do outreach.
As our president said, we've been there from the beginning. This is another emergency in a long line of emergencies that friendship centres have responded to. Whether it's flood, fires, extreme heat, extreme cold or previous pandemics, friendship centres have been there on the front line. We were there previously, dealing with violence prevention, trying to advocate for affordable housing and dealing with homelessness for those very.... I don't want to say “vulnerable”, but I'll say they're a population that has been pushed to the margins through systemic measures.
What we're calling for is to look to us as an answer. We know this community very well. We think indigenous people living within urban settings are going to be very key for Canada's economy, not just now, but going into the future. We'll need a workforce. We'll need their thinking, and we'll need their leadership. We'll need young people to have the skills and knowledge to engage with the workforce and lead through entrepreneurship. We need this population, and we need to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support them to participate fully.
We certainly need the infrastructure. We need the physical space, safer spaces, for friendship centres. We need enhancements to our current programs. This will allow us to not just provide the status quo in the programs and services we currently provide, but also be a lot more innovative with those programs, as we have also had to move to a virtual type of service delivery. Quite frankly, there should also be a vast investment in child care, young children's development, early childhood development and young people.
I think those are the things we would be calling for as part of the recovery for and investment in friendship centres.
6:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Okay, we will have to end it there, Jocelyn. Thank you very much.
We'll turn to Mr. Ste-Marie, followed by Mr. Julian.
Gabriel.
6:10 p.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to acknowledge the presence of all the witnesses and thank them for their presentations.
My questions are for Ms. Wardle, of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada.
The Institut du Québec is asking that the aerospace industry be recognized as a strategic industry. In concrete terms, this means that specific programs need to be developed for it and that it must not be allowed to collapse.
Does your association agree with those conclusions?
6:10 p.m.
Chair of COVID-19 Committee, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada
I apologize, Mr. Ste-Marie, but I don't speak French. I'm not sure why the English version didn't come through on my phone. I understood a few words, which I picked up from my daughter taking French immersion, but I didn't understand the question. I'm not sure why I didn't get the English version.