Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2009

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Good.

Now on to Environment Canada. The Northwest Territories government has come out with a water strategy in the last months. This is the dominant issue in the environment. How is the federal response coming to that water strategy proposal from the Government of the Northwest Territories?

[Virginia Poter]

I'm sorry, the water file is not within my area of expertise, but we could certainly endeavour to come back to the committee with a written summary of what's being done.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay. I would appreciate that, because that water strategy is one of the dominant environmental issues and overrides many of the other considerations.

For fisheries, we have just seen the United States government put a moratorium on fishing in the Beaufort Sea. Are there any Canadian plans to do that for Canadian waters?

[David Burden]

That's a good question. Thank you. It's a question that has come up since the U.S. moratorium.

The reality is that we don't at this time have any commercial fisheries in that part of the Beaufort, so it is not a pressing issue from a commercial perspective.

That being said, I think we share the concerns expressed by the United States government on ensuring that we have appropriate conservation measures on that in place and we have the appropriate scientific knowledge to advance any commercial endeavours in that part of the Arctic.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Yes, I think that's similar for the U.S. They may have some issues with Chugach Bay or the Bering Strait, but do they have any issues with fishing in the Beaufort Sea right now?

[David Burden]

There are some commercial fisheries in the western part of the Beaufort. I don't believe there are any in the part that we bought up against the American border, but I'm not an expert on that.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Going back to Environment Canada, we just passed the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act. What additional resources are you putting into environmental protection in that area, since we passed that law in the last six months? What's the plan for further protection, extending those limits, and further manpower or equipment or resources that will go into that?

[Michael Wilson]

We're not the department that administers that piece of legislation, but we certainly do have regulatory responsibilities and program responsibilities in those waters. We have resources in environmental emergency response and weather forecasting in that area. Those would probably be the principal ones that we would apply there, but we don't physically administer that piece of legislation, to my knowledge. That's Transport Canada, I think.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay, but you're familiar with the—

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Sorry, Mr. Bevington. We're basically out of time.

Maybe I'll take this opportunity, because it has come up a couple of times, to say to the department officials that when you get back and take a look at the transcripts from today's meeting, if there were individual commitments that you made to get back to us on certain questions.... We'd certainly appreciate your taking the time to just take a quick look and get back to us in due course. That would be very helpful.

Now we'll go to Mr. Payne, for seven minutes.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'd like to welcome all of the witnesses. I appreciate your attendance here today. It's very important in terms of the study on northern economic development that we're engaging in.

I think I would like to start off by asking Parks Canada a question in terms of tourism. It's obviously taking on a more important role in the north. I would like Mr. Fisher to give us a sense of how Parks Canada can contribute to tourism in the north in the years to come. Second, what are the plans to expand that role in northern economic development?

[Bill Fisher]

Thanks very much.

In terms of contributing, I mentioned the parks and sites being tourist attractions. By their very nature, they provide opportunities for visitors who want to come up.

However, one of the things we've done just over the last six months is create new positions in our organization that are focused on tourism opportunities. We have product development officers who will be working with local economic development authorities and with the other levels of government to develop new tourism products with the private sector. An example is the work we're doing with the cruise ship industry in the eastern Arctic, particularly with Nunavut. We're also providing opportunities for enhancing promotions, with funding that will go along with that.

Finally, part of getting the word out, from an outreach point of view, is creating staff positions that will focus on Internet and new content media to really push the message out to the millions of people, not only in southern Canada but around the world, who have an interest in coming to the north.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

I have a question in terms of traditional knowledge. How do you see that playing a role in economic development?

[Bill Fisher]

I think it has a number of roles. One is in terms of opportunities for local guides and outfitters. A lot of people are looking for an authentic visit to a northern community or park, and having people who have lived on that land and are as familiar with that area as their ancestors provides a unique market position, a product that cannot simply be taken up by an outfitter out of the south.

If a southern outfitter or guide really wants to make their product unique and add value to it, then working with the local elders and aboriginal peoples helps provide that. They can provide that traditional knowledge.

That would be an example from a tourism point of view.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you.

I'd like to continue on that theme with Industry Canada. How would you see tourism being different from other economic drivers in the north?

[John Connell]

I think it's a significant economic driver because it's a growth industry. When we look at patterns of tourism internationally, notwithstanding current economic difficulties, the forecast is for significant increases in tourism, as there are greater numbers of leisure travellers. It's related to demographics as well, with people having more leisure time.

From some of the research we've carried out, the north in particular is outstanding, because people really want that authentic experience. A lot of adventure travellers want to seek the unknown, and the north offers that in spades. So it's a real jewel in terms of the Canadian Tourism Commission's branding activities for Canada. It figures importantly in attracting visitors to Canada overall, including the north. I think that particularly as we have economic weakness in certain areas--jobs being shed--tourism has a great opportunity to pick up some of those and offer some jobs in communities in the north and throughout Canada.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

You said there are something like 400,000 visitors to the north. Do you have any projections over the next couple of years of what that might look like?

[John Connell]

I do not. If there are such projections, I'll get back to the committee. We get the information essentially from Statistics Canada's tourism surveys. I don't believe they forecast, but I will confirm that with the committee clerk.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you.

Obviously, technology plays an important role in our lives today, and it's certainly going to in the future. How do you see the broadband service being able to help in terms of tourism?

[John Connell]

Do you want to try that?

[Shari Scott]

I think the impact broadband connectivity can have on the tourism business is similar to businesses in general in terms of being able to connect to the outside world to promote services, to do online commerce, online bookings. Certainly you can have much more elaborate websites and marketing tools at your disposal if you've got a higher capacity infrastructure and connection to support it.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

In terms of connectivity, do we have any idea how many organizations, businesses in the north, already have access to that, or...where are we going?

[Shari Scott]

I've got the population statistics with me, and I can get back to the clerk with business connectivity figures from Statistics Canada.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Okay.

How much time do I have, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

About half a minute.