Evidence of meeting #15 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was projects.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
Director General, Electronic Commerce Branch, Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Sector, Department of Industry
I'm afraid I can only speak to that question from the perspective of the Broadband Canada program. I guess I would say that we have tried to work very closely with all recipients to help them understand the program requirements, as well as the environmental assessments requirements and various Industry Canada policies, but unfortunately I don't have a broad perspective on program delivery in the department.
Shane.
5:25 p.m.
Director General, Program Coordination Branch, Science and Innovation Sector, Department of Industry
I could talk from the knowledge infrastructure program. We rolled that out in fairly quick time and we're quite proud of that.
There were some issues on which we were able to work very closely with our colleagues in the aboriginal affairs department to sort out. Building permit issues, for example, on reserves--that was a challenge, but we did get great cooperation from our colleagues and were able to overcome that, so the projects could get done on time.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Before I go to the panel, Mr. Chair, through you to the analyst, in this report from the chamber they reference a report called Closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage: the challenge for Australia, dealing with Australia's rural and remote areas. From the outline in this report, it seems it would be a good report for the committee to look at, so I wonder if it's possible for a copy of that report to be circulated to the committee, or at least the executive summary on it.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
That would be great.
I want to come back to Mr. Clarke for a moment.
In your testimony you indicated, and I think all committee members would agree, that the best way to address poverty in communities is through economic development. I want to come back to this report from the chamber for a second, because it references a couple of things, and one of them is on page 15: “Infrastructure that will attract business investment”, and they reference a whole bunch of areas, but I want to focus on three: water, housing, and health care.
I know when the aboriginal affairs committee did some travelling in the past and looked at the economic development north of 60, those issues were critical in terms of business investment. So I think there are two pieces to this.
First, you talked about the historical context for many first nations in remote communities, and the reality is that first nations were forced onto some of those lands through a reserve system that didn't meet their needs. That's a bit of an historical context for some first nations. Secondly, there's been resource development on their lands where they receive absolutely no royalties, and Attawapiskat was mentioned. The De Beers piece is an interesting case where first nations are not benefiting from the resource development on what has been their traditional territories. Thirdly, there simply hasn't been the infrastructure investment in housing, water, education, health care, rail lines, whatever it is; there's a whole list of things in this report.
So in your view, to look at economic development in rural and remote communities, particularly with a view to first nations, Métis, and Inuit, what are the two or three critical things you think need to be in place for that to be successful?
5:25 p.m.
Director General, Policy and Coordination Branch, Lands and Economic Development Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I don't know if my personal view is relevant to the deliberations of this committee, but I think there are some obvious things that people are doing that make a lot of sense.
I think you go back to the Indian Act. I think everyone would recognize that it is a rather imperfect tool when it comes to helping people participate in the Canadian economy. It's effectively been able to isolate aboriginal Canadians from the economy for 140 years.
I think we need to find ways of dealing with some of the more important regulatory or legislative barriers to economic development, things that get in the way, things that inhibit first nations from attracting investment or developing businesses on reserve. I don't necessarily think it's always a question of money. It's also a question of having the right tools, and the tools are not just money, although money is important too, I suppose. But we could be looking at many other things as well.
The way a local government in the non-first-nation context manages its financing is unavailable to first nations, for instance. So there are real limitations on how money can be spent. I think those are some of the things you need to fix as well.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Your time is just about up. We have 15 seconds. It's probably a good place to—
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
In that 15 seconds I have a comment on the financing. I think that's a really important piece, which the committee might want to look at, because financing on reserve is a very difficult challenge because of the way reserve lands are set up.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
That's certainly a point the committee can consider, and I wouldn't object to the committee deciding at some point that they may want to have a meeting or two following the agenda we have, but we'll leave that open.
Thank you very much for your extensive presentation and your responses today. We certainly appreciate it.
With that, we'll adjourn.
