Evidence of meeting #49 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was animals.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Chair.
I have a question for MP Tootoo.
You made a reference to “broken”, regarding the food part of the harvest or the government assistance. Could you elaborate on what you referred to as “broken”?
9:55 a.m.
Independent
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Okay. Could you explain how it worked? Obviously, it's not working now, because you've referenced that it's broken.
9:55 a.m.
Independent
Hunter Tootoo Independent Nunavut, NU
I think that's something the government made very clear during the campaign, and I think it's falling under a review from the INAN standing committee. It took a program that's meant to provide affordable food to northerners.... The change from the food mail program to the nutrition north program is just not working. Fewer things are being subsidized. As a result, the other things that used to be subsidized aren't anymore, so the cost of buying stuff that you need actually goes up and not down.
9:55 a.m.
Independent
Hunter Tootoo Independent Nunavut, NU
It's just a matter of being able to afford to go out and harvest. A lot of people in Nunavut right now can't afford the equipment or the ammunition. They're more worried about having to spend what little resources they have just trying to buy the food they need. They can't afford to buy the equipment, gas, ammunition, and other stuff to go out and harvest.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
What will they replace their traditional food with if they are unable to secure it?
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
You made reference to food-insecure households, which concerned me.
9:55 a.m.
Independent
Hunter Tootoo Independent Nunavut, NU
That's the problem in the north. There's very little economic opportunity. The decline in the ability to pursue the fur market took away a source of income that people had to generate to afford to live.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
The selling of the fur subsidized the harvest of food for Inuit people.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Is that what's leading to the insecurity, the non-viability of going out and harvesting?
9:55 a.m.
Independent
Hunter Tootoo Independent Nunavut, NU
It all has an impact. Earlier the suicide rates were mentioned. Our suicide rates are extremely high. We heard in the INAN standing committee that a loss of culture and identity leads to that. Many people can't maintain and continue the seal harvest, so they lose their identity, they lose their culture. That's why it's so important. It affects so much.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
If the government could do one thing that would have the greatest positive impact on the issues that you've referenced, which are culture, lifestyle, and food security, what should that be?
10 a.m.
Independent
Hunter Tootoo Independent Nunavut, NU
For the north, for Nunavut specifically, I think it's a matter of just recognizing the uniqueness of it and the challenges that are faced, and looking at new ways, outside the box, of addressing those issues. It's as plain and simple as that. The same old, same old isn't working. Things aren't going to change. We have to take a look at a new way of dealing with those issues.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Could one of you elaborate, because actually this surprised me, being an MP from the Maritimes, on the European seal cull and the extent of it? Could you just elaborate a bit? Probably Mr. Simms could.
10 a.m.
Liberal
10 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
As Mr. Tootoo said, remember, they keep it under the rug. I was not aware of that.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Pretty much. It's one of those things that.... As was said here in testimony some time ago when we asked about the seal problem, they just said, “Well, they just go away.”
10 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
10 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Right, so I don't know what to tell you. I've heard stories about Sweden and Scotland. Scotland does have a lot of seals, incidentally, along their coast, and people don't realize that. They've just become a nuisance species; therefore, the cull has to be made.
At Hyde Park in London, there was a British MP who was at a committee meeting several years ago that I was at, and he showed some compassion towards the general argument. He said, “You know, we actually cull a type of deer in the park because they just become too many and they conflict with the human population. Of course we do it humanely. If we went out there and clubbed them or shot them, I'm sure there'd be a huge outburst.” But the animal is still, at the end of the day, dead.
10 a.m.
NDP
