Evidence of meeting #13 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
I'm concerned that the finance minister is only looking inward rather than recognizing the outward pressures that will arise.
Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Lakehead University, As an Individual
I can't read the mind of the finance minister, but essentially 30% of our output is exports—30% of our national income is exports—so whatever we do, we have to pay attention to our competitors, and it's probably very important that we be as nimble as possible in assisting our firms to take advantage of economic opportunities wherever they may be in the world.
It's important to focus on the domestic agenda, but it's also very important to keep an eye on what everybody else is doing.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Okay, we will have to end it there. We are a little over the time.
Mr. Stratton, this committee has also called for a comprehensive review of the tax system a couple of times.
We will turn to Mr. McLeod and Ms. Dzerowicz who are splitting six minutes.
Michael.
December 11th, 2020 / 1:30 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll try to be quick.
Mayor Napier, I want you to speak a little about infrastructure. You mentioned it as your first pillar. While we know that a lot of progress has been made on infrastructure in the north over the last five years, we know there's still a long way to go.
Could you speak on the importance of having infrastructure funding programs that are able not only to address the costs of construction in the north but also flexible enough to be effective?
Mayor of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Association of Communities
The unique conditions of the north greatly affect how municipal infrastructure is built and maintained. We face extreme isolation and a shorter and highly variable construction season. We have limited resources and capacity available, limited access to funding. We have growing demands from aging and existing infrastructure and unique project needs.
Because of all of those factors, we find that the gas tax fund works very well in the Northwest Territories because of its flexibility, predictability, and it doesn't require cost sharing. This also helps the communities be flexible so they can manage their projects based on their own priorities. This keeps the focus on our asset management, which has been encouraged by all levels of government.
Liberal
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
—is about connectivity. You know that the Prime Minister last month announced $750 million in new funding to get 98% of Canadians connected to high-speed Internet by 2026.
What recommendations would you have to make sure that northern communities are able to benefit as much as possible from this funding?
Mayor of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Association of Communities
Is this for me as well?
Mayor of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Association of Communities
Thank you.
As the MP is probably well aware, broadband connectivity in northern and remote communities is, I would say, ghastly. We do not even have fibre optic to a lot of communities. As very remote communities, we can't really even connect video. We face challenges all across the north. Connecting our governments is a challenge. In these times especially with COVID, we try to connect, just as we are here today, electronically, by Zoom meetings and we are not able to do that. We don't have consistent, basic, reliable and affordable service across the territory in all of the communities.
I cannot consistently schedule meetings with people and know that I am going to be able to connect with them. We have the same problem with schools, where schools are trying to do education remotely, but it is unaffordable for a lot of families. It is unreliable. And to that end, a lot of families face economic difficulties where they don't have their own equipment to be able to connect.
Affordability, I would say, is number one, and then getting the fibre optic or access to lower orbit satellites, whatever we need to do to get connectivity to the north so that we can even get on par with what is available to the south right now.
Liberal
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to everyone for the interesting presentations.
My questions are for Mr. Stratton with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
I'm particularly interested in your recommendations under the “Get Canadians Back to Work” section of your written remarks. You talk about labour market strategies and real-time data. One of the things we've heard is that we actually don't collect local and regional skills and labour data.
Could you just confirm that's correct and that it's important for us to do so?
Chief Economist and Vice-President, Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Absolutely, I confirm that's correct. It would be very important for any economic recovery plan to have that data.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Okay. I have a second question for you. This is odd to say, but there's often a huge disconnect between the jobs that are out there and the employers, that is, with matching the employers with the employees.
How can the federal government be helpful on this moving forward?
Chief Economist and Vice-President, Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
I think what's going to be very important is creating collaboratives of employers at the local, community level, because there are different.... When it comes to what skills are being supplied in the labour market, we generally know and have information on that. We don't necessarily know what skills are being demanded by employers.
If we can bring together employers at the local community level to be able to talk about what skills they are going to need, looking forward, and to be able to create labour pipelines or talent pipelines with educational institutions in those communities to fill those needs, then that could be a really key program to help bring Canadians back to work.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Is that something you see the federal government being able to do?
Chief Economist and Vice-President, Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Absolutely. We have been looking at a model that's been done by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce down south, which has been piloted in 30 different states very successfully. We're looking at bringing that up to Canada with potentially 150 different pilot projects across the country.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We will have to end it there. We were already a little over a minute over the time.
Could you send us that information, Mr. Stratton, on those pilot projects? I think it would be helpful if you could send it just so that we know where to connect on that for the future.
Okay. We turn then to Mr. Ste-Marie.
The floor is yours.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I would like to say good afternoon to the witnesses and thank them for their presentations, which were all very interesting.
My first questions are for Ms. Napier, the mayor of Fort Smith and the president of the association representing the communities of the Northwest Territories.
Ms. Napier, I found your presentation and your answers to Mr. McLeod's questions very moving. So I'm going to pick up where you left off.
In 2020, and even in 2000, Internet access was supposed to be considered an essential service, and it is even more so during the pandemic. You have provided examples demonstrating its importance, such as being able to hold meetings via Zoom or webcast. My understanding is that the communities you represent do not have access to fibre optic Internet services because fibre optics do not reach them.
Is that correct?
Mayor of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Association of Communities
That is correct. Not all communities in the Northwest Territories have fibre optic service.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
How do communities connect to the Internet? Is it through cable or is it old-school satellite?
Mayor of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Association of Communities
Many communities still connect through satellite, which is not very reliable. As a personal reference, my parents live in Rankin Inlet, and they have satellite service. I am completely unable to connect with them through video. Their cell service is extremely spotty. I cannot always get through to them on their cellphones. Their community in Rankin Inlet is quite similar to many communities across the north that do not have fibre optic.
When we are looking at health appointments in the Northwest Territories, our major medical service centre would be in Yellowknife. If we are unable to get services in Yellowknife, we go south to Edmonton. Because of COVID, many medical appointments are postponed. In our community, we go to video appointments, but if you are in a northern or extremely remote community, those services are unavailable to you.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
It's really sad to hear that. It should be considered an essential service.
To your knowledge, have any concrete projects been proposed? You talked about the possibility of connecting communities to the Internet through fibre optics. That's what it should be. Otherwise, it could be done using the new technology being announced with low earth orbit satellites, which are more numerous than conventional satellites.
To your knowledge, are there any such projects in the works, with the potential of changing things quickly over the next few months?
Mayor of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Association of Communities
I want to clarify what I said earlier. Ten of our communities are satellite communities. I believe Northwestel is working on service to some communities, but I'm not sure that those would affect the current satellite communities. I'm not sure what is to be done in the next couple of months. I don't have that information with me right now.
Additionally, we have the two parts of telecommunications. One would be the Internet fibre optics, and the other is cell service. Both are in need of upgrades. We require accessibility in the north. Just when travelling, there are long distances where there's no cell service between communities, and that has a negative impact. In the past three weeks, I've seen medical incidents or accidents on the highways that could have had a quicker response had there been cell service available for those people.