Evidence of meeting #37 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tourism.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
I actually used to work with the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec, so I am always glad to meet members of provincial labour federations and the Canadian Labour Congress.
Mr. Furlong, you said that your federation has 4,000 members in the Yukon, unless you meant the Yukon and the Northwest Territories?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Yukon Federation of Labour
No. Just in the Yukon, we have roughly 4,500.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
In Quebec, we use the Rand formula. Once workers become union members, union dues are automatically deducted. Do you use a similar formula?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Yukon Federation of Labour
Yes. Most of the per capita fees, which is I think what you're referring to, are automatically paid by the larger organizations. When the members here in Yukon affiliate to the federation, they're automatically paid by the national organization.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Do you distinguish between construction workers and workers in the manufacturing sector, for instance, or does it all work together?
Do you have a good agreement with Mr. Curtis's organization in terms of developing programs that your members need?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Yukon Federation of Labour
Yes. Certainly our largest affiliate is the Yukon Employees' Union, which is part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. It sits on the board of Skills Canada here in the Yukon and contributes financially; our organization funnels money back through YEU.
Most of the organizations, from the labour essentials perspective, we fund in some manner, whether it's directly or indirectly.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
The person from the Public Service Alliance of Canada officially represents your federation, as a spokesperson, and stands up for the needs of your members.
Mr. Curtis, how successful are you at keeping first nations people who are registered for courses in school until they have completed their training?
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Do these people manage to find and keep a job?
Executive Director, Skills Canada Yukon
It's very good. The measurable results are most certainly there.
It's not to say that we have 100% people retained, but for a lot of these people, they didn't have the skills to begin with, and they become very employable after taking our programs, be it at an entry level or even a bit more. We have many success stories of people who started through the program.
It's our hope to get people engaged in a trade or technology, and from there take the fear away from a post-secondary level or whatever level it is they may decide to move on to. That's what we really try hard to do. We try to get them engaged in the beginning.
We can just go so far in a club with a mentorship, but from that, with the tangible knowledge they have received, they typically go on to employment, most certainly.
Conservative
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Merci, monsieur le président.
I'm very pleased to have the presentations from you tonight.
To me, the emphasis on art and culture is playing out also in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Although I do believe the Yukon has had a great deal of success with it, Nunavut has as well, to some extent, in terms of the film industry and in terms of their ability to produce art.
The arts and cultural industry is so important for people here. It permits them the sense of expression that combats the elements and makes their lives complete here. I think a number of other elements come into this as well. Do you have a sense of the magnitude of the industry here in the Yukon? Can you give us an idea of the number of people who would be engaged in the different aspects of the art industry?
Film & Sound Commissioner, Yukon Film and Sound Commission
From the film and sound perspective, I do have some numbers here.
The largest film in recent years to be filmed here was called The Big White. It was a Hollywood picture with Robin Williams. That film shoot employed 200 Yukoners.
We have a live action animation series called Anash and the Legacy of the Sun-Rock. It's written by a first nations woman from Teslin and is a co-production with Alberta. They are filming episodes right now, employing 90 Yukoners.
In the music industry, there was a report done by a company called kisquared several years back, in 2005-06, I believe. They put the revenue from the music industry in Yukon at about $8 million.
That gives you a little bit of a sense of what's going on in those two industries.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
And they're good industries for turning around the money in the economy.
Film & Sound Commissioner, Yukon Film and Sound Commission
Absolutely, yes. There have been lots of spinoffs, particularly if there's a big production here. There are equipment rentals, hotels, restaurants, venue rentals. It spins out into the community very nicely. So if someone comes from another part of Canada, or another part of the world, like the BBC in Britain, they employ Yukoners, and they leave a lot of money behind.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
And they provide a lot of public relations for the rest of the country.
Film & Sound Commissioner, Yukon Film and Sound Commission
Yes, there's always that tourism factor. We need something like the The DaVinci Code, where everybody comes to the Yukon to see the sets after the film is done.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Did you want to add anything about the number of artists you're familiar with, the extent of artistic production in the Yukon?
Founder, Sundog Carving Program, Sundog Carvers
There are a couple of different levels that this question can be answered on. Five years ago, if you had asked who were the master carvers in the Yukon, you would have been given three names: Keith Wolfe Smarch, from Teslin; Eugene Alfred, from Pelly; and Kenny Anderson, who lives here in Whitehorse. They were considered the three best master carvers. These three gentlemen were making their incomes from carving, and they were fairly good incomes.
The idea of the carving program was to try to expand that. Now we have five or six senior carvers in our carving program. Although Keith and Kenny might disagree, these new carvers are pretty close to matching the skills of the older ones. They're certainly gaining on them, and their abilities are increasing dramatically.
At a different level, I was talking to an elder here in town, Anne Smith. She and her husband went to Ross River a few years ago and did an informal census within the community to see how many people self-identified as artists. Brian and Ann said that it was over 90 people in the community of Ross River. It's a relatively small community of, I don't know, 200 or 300 people. But there's a very strong sense of identification as artists. Most of them aren't making a serious income from it, and one of the big problems is the lack of training, which Keith, Eugene, and Kenny all suffered from.
In the past, if you wanted to be a carver, you found an uncle who might teach you for a few weeks here and there. At the Sundog, we have trainers who come in and train, and the response has been overwhelming. We always have a waiting list. I don't know what the actual industry figures are, though, and I think it would probably be fairly hard to track.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Thank you, Mr. Finton and Ms. Dunlop.
Now we'll go to Mr. Rickford.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my thanks to the witnesses for coming and joining us this evening.
I have questions for Dan Curtis and Barbara Dunlop.
Dan, I wanted to give you an opportunity, for the benefit of the committee, to describe this mobile training facility. In the great Kenora riding, we're floating this idea. We're actually involved with another riding next to mine. Together we cover a vast area of northwestern Ontario. We've been looking at this as a serious option, because it brings short- and long-term training to isolated communities. I have more than 25 isolated communities in my riding, not accessible by road, so this is a key strategy for some long winters.
Can you, in 90 seconds or less, fill out a little bit more space on this? You alluded to it and I think the committee members would benefit from hearing about it. This is an important addition to skills capacity.
Executive Director, Skills Canada Yukon
I'm glad someone asked me that question, because I think I failed horribly in trying to explain it earlier. We use a lot of the carving skills to get people engaged. We use this as a hook. But the real focus is trades and technology that are relevant to the region and to Canada. We talked about our skills clubs. Ross River is a small community. We have 11 trade-related clubs in Ross River: welding, carpentry, cabinetmaking, culinary, TV and video. There's just so far we can go without proper expertise and equipment, but they've really gone a long way with the tools they have.
People are in these communities because they've been in them for thousands of years and they want to stay. They want to live and work in these communities, and they're really short on tradespeople in welding, carpentry, plumbing, and a variety of other things. We can go just so far, but if we had a mobile vehicle to bring in a trainer, even for short but regular stints, it would make a tremendous difference. We're bursting at the seams with our skills clubs, but they're only relevant for a certain age group. I know that with a mobile unit, which we've talked about with Yukon College, we could move mountains in creating opportunities to make a living in the trades.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Dan, I concur. I think the group in northwestern Ontario that's dealing with this is seven generations. Again, there's some cross-fertilization between ridings. This is a great concept. As you rightly point out, there is more of a desire than most people think for folks to stay in their communities. In fact if they get the training in the communities, the retention statistics are far more achievable in terms of keeping skilled people in their communities. We could talk more about that.
Barbara, like the Yukon, we receive some community adjustment funding. It's a great program that is offered by this government to diversify during these difficult economic times. One of the things I'm struck by, which you mentioned, is that it isn't just about raising the capacity of people around film production. In my riding an identical kind of thing was going on. It raised the profile of the region, which I think is something that didn't get out.
I'd like to hear a little bit more from you. I know where we're from, we were delighted that Sunset Country was not just going to be featured on OLN in the United States and that it would develop some of our film production capacities in the riding, but it would also get the message out that we have a beautiful part of the country and we want to celebrate that with North America.