Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on April 28th, 2009

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

North of 60°, do we deal with it because it's a legal obligation?

[Martin Egan]

I would assume so, yes.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Yet we do the evaluation of the economic impact. So why would we not do it south of 60°, especially if you have substantial amounts of money being used? I'm not criticizing that it's being done. It's just that once it's done, do we not have an interest in knowing whether it's positive or negative, or do we not have any role there? I'm not trying to crucify anybody; I just need to understand.

[Sara Filbee]

The issue of whether there have been specific results for specific lands added is a much smaller question than the bigger issue of what is necessary to increase economic development results across the spectrum in terms of aboriginal populations, in our case, south of 60°. Have we focused on the specific issue of economic benefits because of specific lands? No, we haven't. We've done a lot of work and a lot of research and investigation with respect to the important factors for economic development so that we will know how we can best operate to promote economic development. That's where we have been spending our energies with respect to that nature of inquiry.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I have a final question, Mr. Chairman. What are the tools you have for evaluating these economic development initiatives or results? What tool do you use to evaluate them? Do you have any such tools?

[Sara Filbee]

I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by tools. We're really at the stage of developing a method of analysis and planning with respect to how we can best support economic development. In this case, because we're talking about ATRs on reserves but also for the rest of the aboriginal population, there are a number of tools or levers, many of which are not under the control of the federal government. There are some tools we have, such as aboriginal economic development programming, for funding of aboriginal businesses and funding of community development planning and planners. So there are a number of tools along those lines.

I'm not sure I quite understand the question.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'm not sure why, then, it's called lands and economic development division. That throws me off.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

That's it, Monsieur Bélanger.

I don't have any more speakers at this point, so I would just say, in wrapping up, that there were a couple of important questions on which you undertook to get some responses. We'd certainly appreciate that, if you could contact the appropriate officials in the department.

On behalf of the members and the committee, I thank you for your presentations, your answers and your comments.

We certainly appreciate that.

For the members, we're going to see you Thursday morning at 6 a.m. near the Confederation Building.

You have a question, Madam Crowder.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

It's not about Thursday.

When the Auditor General came last week--Monsieur Bélanger pointed this out--she did a presentation on the northern reports. I wonder if at some point it might be of value to have the department responsible for those particular areas come to the committee, because there were a number of issues raised that she specifically said we need to talk to the department about. The department is here today. It's not their responsibility to deal with those issues north of 60°. I wonder, if we have some time, if we could look at our schedule and have the department in for those particular areas.

I think Mr. Russell also raised child welfare. I think it would be timely to have the department back on that. We had them in initially when the AG's report came out. It committed to an action plan. I think it would probably be good to hear about their progress.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay, we do have a meeting coming up, a third meeting on this particular subject, so we will undertake to see if we can do just that and make the officials appropriate to the issue available.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Can I ask a question about the treaty land entitlement meeting to deal with Treaty No.1? I don't know if other members are getting calls, but my office is getting calls about the number of chiefs who are coming and the amount of time they have to speak. My understanding is that there are a number of chiefs coming. They've been told that they have just 10 minutes for the whole group, and I just need clarification on that, because we are getting a number of phone calls.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

When there is one witness, essentially. They can come as a group, but normally there is just one presentation.

I'll ask the clerk, though. Have there been other requests to make more time available?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Graeme Truelove]

No, they haven't contacted me about that.

I understood this was one organization, so I told them they would get ten minutes per organization, as per usual. If the committee wants to consider it in another way, then I'll certainly call them and make a change.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

They're coming for an hour, and we only have one set of witnesses in that hour.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

There has been another request on the same subject. The Treaty Land Entitlement Committee was the other organization that wished to speak in that regard, from Manitoba, I believe

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

We have two witnesses in one hour, then, so that can be problematic.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We do. C'est cela. We were going to spread that across the whole two hours, so with the two witnesses there now, we would likely have the availability to work both of them in.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Okay, so it's two hours for the two witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We were originally planning some committee business as well. The thought was that we could put the committee business off to the end of that meeting. We'd still need perhaps twenty minutes or so to wrap up, but we'll try to accommodate them. And as with the chiefs, if there are more, we do have some latitude there. We'll try to accommodate them as best we can, while still giving time for members, of course.

Okay. That's all. Thank you very much.

This meeting is adjourned.