Evidence of meeting #73 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was yukon.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Project Manager, Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association
They say it's over 3,000. They say most everyone is an artist in some sense.
Conservative
Project Manager, Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association
Yes, it's probably over 10%.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much.
I want to welcome Ms. Talarico from the Yukon Chamber of Commerce. We understand there was a misunderstanding about timing. We want to thank you for taking the time.
We'll give you an opportunity to give us your opening statement and then we'll continue with our line of questioning. How does that sound?
Darielle Talarico Chair, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
It sounds good. Thanks. Sorry about that.
To begin, my name is Darielle Talarico. I live here in Whitehorse in the Yukon. At the moment I am the chair of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce. I'm also a board member of the Canadian Polar Commission, and, of course, like most northerners I'm on a whole bunch of other committees as well.
Just to follow the theme of what you're doing today, I have some quick thoughts that you may or may not have heard. What we find here in the Yukon, which crosses over into an international perspective, of course falls under the realm of energy and energy issues. Across the north we have an isolated grid electrical system here. We have issues with trying to supply enough affordable clean energy for industry in the Yukon. That has us talking with our neighbours the Alaskans quite a bit about the fact that they have access to hydro resources and other sources of energy. If we were connected to them through a grid system, we'd be able to share some of our resources. We have surplus hydro here in the Yukon in the summertime, and they need that electricity for the cruise ship industry they have coming up in the summer. There are some cross-synergies there that are being explored. That's in the electrical area.
I'm also a proponent—this is not foreign policy—of having a north-south transmission connection between the Yukon and Alberta or British Columbia. I think looking at that would bode well for Canada. That's something the Northwest Territories are looking at as well. That's an electrical area, but there's also the issue of energy in general.
Just like everybody else in Canada, we are dealing with the oil and gas industry and the various exploration and development needs, environmental assessments, and social and economic needs. I guess the best way to look at those is through sharing more best practices across circumpolar countries around these issues and to look at how we can share technology but also to think about transportation and about sharing those markets across the circumpolar north.
I've lived in the Yukon now since 1984, and being on the Canadian Polar Commission has brought me back in touch with the perspectives across Canada for issues in the north. When I say best practices, I'm also talking about empowering us in the north to be able to lead on these issues. I'm finding that there's somewhat of a southern tendency to lead these processes, when especially in the Yukon—where we're somewhat more developed around some of these issues having had devolution in place for a number of years now—there's a desire for us to be leading more and to be helping the rest of Canada understand what we're dealing with in the Yukon and across the north and to be sharing that with our sister territories. That's one thing we've done with the Yukon Chamber of Commerce. This has happened in the past, but we're trying again to get that conversation going among the three territorial chambers, to help us as territorial chambers to lead that conversation about what our shared interests are, and to look at solutions for that. I know the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has been involved with this issue as well and has been helping us with that. That deals with some of the issues around energy.
One thing that is also interesting to point out is that we do have a lot of conventional oil and gas in the Beaufort delta, which we're missing out on in terms of Canadian interests because it's stranded as well. We have a lot of issues of resources up here being stranded. Although there are hydraulic fracking issues and other shale gas plays, I think we can't forget about those Beaufort Sea resources.
There are transportation routes through either the Northwest Territories or the Yukon for those resources. Another key and important aspect of that is having first nations be partners in the development of any resources in the western Arctic and in the Yukon and also be partners in the development of any of the distribution or transportation needs associated with that. And I mean being real partners, not just benefiting through benefit agreements. We're looking at—and the chamber has been working hard at trying to develop and promote—true business partnerships.
Of course, we have transportation needs that are shared across the circumpolar north as well. In the Yukon in particular, we have a lot of roads, so we have a lot of issues with permafrost and our roads. At the Yukon College, we have been working towards looking at innovative ways of dealing with some of these issues, but again, that would be great to share in a circumpolar way.
Those are the three areas that I was thinking of talking about. Are there questions?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
That would be great. Here's what we'll do. We're going to resume. We had started a round of questions, and we're going to continue with the Liberals and Mr. Eyking. We'll just continue with the questions. They'll be given to all of the witnesses.
Thank you for your presentation.
Mr. Eyking, you have seven minutes.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the witnesses for coming.
I might only have one shot at this and I want to get a question to each group, so if you can be “half short”, we can get in my three questions.
The first one is for Justin and Chris. There's no doubt about it: your artwork that you people do up north is beautiful and it's in high demand.
My question is about most of the resources that you use in your art. They're from plants and animals in the Arctic, I guess. As the climate changes, is that going to change your resource base? How connected is it to the rules and regulations from the south on how much harvesting you can do, whether it's polar bears or walruses? I don't have a grasp of exactly what products you use, but is there a challenge that you're going to be facing, and are you having a good dialogue with DFO and others about how you're going to obtain the resources you need for your artwork?
Project Manager, Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association
I don't know if that's really going to affect the arts industry that much. Like you said, a lot of the resources they use for their art include quarrying for stone and that kind of stuff for the carvings and the sculptures. I guess one thing would be sealskin. A lot of sealskin is used for garments and in the arts and crafts sector, but I don't know if that will have a huge impact.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Okay. Most of the products you are using are in abundance, so it's not really an issue.
Project Manager, Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association
For the most part, yes. They're mostly in abundance, yes.
Director, Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association
I think probably one thing worth noting would be international bans on sealskin. That certainly would be a factor.
As far as plants and animals go, as we seem to get more green in the north, we'll probably find more uses for the plants that will come. On the animals, like Justin said, traditionally the Inuit have hunted seal. They don't waste any of the seal they catch. What's not eaten is used for things like arts and crafts. I think that's important.
I think it's important also to bring the arts and the use of the resources to the fore. In the territory, we have a lot of stone, and stone is easy to get at. I think it's important that we understand how the arts relate to the culture, and the culture is based on the production of art through stonework and tapestries. I think that's important to note.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Thank you.
James, you mentioned the NLCA quite a bit. Are you a member of the NLCA? I take it you are.
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Services, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
Yes, absolutely.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
You mentioned how the government is not maximizing the use of the NLCA. Is that because your group would be able to help them more on your sovereignty issue? And what is your sovereignty issue? Is it that you're looking for more rights like the provinces have? I know that you alluded to the Northwest Passage and things like that, but what does it really mean when you say that the government is not maximizing the use of your group?
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Services, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
I can start and maybe—
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Services, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
Sure.
With the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, we gave up our entitlements to the land in exchange for promises made by government—
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Services, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
—in 1993.
A couple of examples could be employment and the lack thereof right now, which translates into Inuit not being involved or productive. We interpret this as not implementing the promises the government has given, as outlined in NLCA. As a result, we interpret it as our not being a fruitful part of the Arctic sovereignty process or efforts, to put it in a nutshell.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Thank you very much.
I'm going to Whitehorse now.
You may be aware of what's happening in eastern Canada. We have a major project going on in the lower Churchill, the Muskrat Falls project. To a certain extent, it is creating a great opportunity for our electricity grid. It's going to go from Labrador to Newfoundland and to Nova Scotia.
Often people talk about the grids that are in southern Canada. Could you expand a little bit about the grid you're talking about? Is it from Alaska to the Yukon? What exactly are you looking at here?
Chair, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
Are you talking to me?
I'm getting French translation here; I'm not getting English. I cannot understand; I'm sorry.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Chair, we're connected.
I want you to speak more about the grid that you're talking about. Where does it go right now, and what do you hope to see in the future with your electric grid?
Chair, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
Right now, the transmission line is connected between Whitehorse up to Dawson City and to a few of the other communities in the Yukon. So inside the Yukon we have an integrated grid now, which just came into place within the last three years. We are short now in not having a connection to anything outside of the Yukon.
So we have a very vulnerable system. If there is any new industrial or commercial client, or even if a new subdivision comes onto the grid system here, we have a predicted shortfall of electricity, whereas if we were connected to Skagway, Alaska—a two-hour drive from here—we could be connected to Alaska's system. Or, if we could connect down to the Prince George area, we would make a connection to there, because the electricity has been coming up, and we could be going down.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
The federal government could invest or, as we did in eastern Canada, back a loan to help that grid system, because you need a lot of money to do that.
