Evidence of meeting #38 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 nwt.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you very much.
Mr. Noseworthy, I'm a little curious as to how your Community Futures boards work in the NWT. I know they have to work quite differently from the way they work where I am on Vancouver Island, where the business community is very much represented on the board, so that there are entrepreneurs directing entrepreneurial resources. Do you have that luxury?
Chairperson, Northwest Territories Community Futures Association
I'd say that the boards vary from region to region. If you get a chance to read my full notes, you'll see that I mention board training and the fact that we don't have access to a large pool of professionals who are interested in business development. You have to have both: you have to have the professionals and the interest. In some places, such as Yellowknife and Hay River and Inuvik, they probably have better access and are able to attract people who have the skills.
In places such as mine, I might be lacking in the skills. We try to get community representation, which makes it even harder. We have communities of 70 or 80 people. What are the chances of finding someone who has even a business to come and sit on a board? We do the best we can with what we have, but there is a significant difference from Community Futures down south.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you.
Here is a question for Mr. Kennedy.
We had testimony in Whitehorse about the issue you're bringing up as well, about the bidding on contracts. One Yukon-based company has done business in NWT and won't come back, but they bid in Alaska with no issue. You are stating that you are at quite a disadvantage in Nunavut. You use that as an example. Is this also true in NWT and in Yukon, or are there shades? Or is it only true in the one territory?
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
It's really only applying in Nunavut before the split of the territories. This is part of the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., their birthright agreement with the federal government. It's been politicized into regulations and procurement policy. In fact, prior to that we had the status of a northern business and we were fine with our role competing across the Northwest Territories as it was then. What's happened since, and it continues, is this issue that you have to be majority Inuit-owned to bid on a contract. In a very thin economy, you can imagine how competition gets restricted even further.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
So BIP, the business incentive program, is not a barrier for North West Company in NWT.
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
It has not been, no.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Okay.
You mentioned your one very leading-edge store in terms of green technology. I can assume you did that for more than altruistic reasons. Is there an economic payback from lower operating and maintenance costs?
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
Yes, and it's the latest iteration of it. We have stores from Iqaluit to Inuvik that run refrigeration on ambient temperature, so the coolant is recycled through the exterior of the building, and that goes back many years. The current version is our best step forward. We're looking for paybacks of five years or less. Based on that, if you looked at our capital spending plans, which are very public, we're talking about several millions of dollars--$5 million to $10 million a year, from zero three years ago--because of where the price of fuel has gone and the search for substitution. That's why we're doing it.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
You operate 227 stores in multiple jurisdictions. I was curious about how you ended up in the Caribbean and the South Pacific. Is it the similarities in remoteness and isolation and transportation that drew you there, or is it by some accident?
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
I'd like to think it's a strategy. It's not getting away from the cold.
It's just what you said and what I said in my remarks: there are skills that tie to remote-market logistics. We've been to Greenland and done some business there. We've looked at Russia. Hemispherically we're not deterred. We have a store in Fiji, and there are a lot of similar aspects. That's why we're there.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Duncan.
Now we'll go to the second round.
It would appear that we have four spots on the list, and we probably have only enough time for that, so we'll try to stay right to the five minutes if we can.
We'll begin with Mr. Russell. You have five minutes.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
Thank you very much.
Mr. Robinson, you're from Makkovik originally.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
You know the way it is in the north: often if you see a name, you can affiliate it with a particular community, but Robinson didn't hit me as a particularly Makkovik name.
Executive Director, Arctic Energy Alliance
Thirty years ago, it would have.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
Yes, okay. Thirty years ago...man, I was in diapers. I shouldn't say that, should I?
Anyway, let me get to the point.
As well, Mr. Kennedy, I represent the people in Nain, and I've been to your store there many times. I want to know a little bit more about the food mail program and hear comparisons with what's being offered by the United States. Can you give us a bit more background to that? You mentioned SNAP, for example.
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
It's an electronic benefit card. It's means-tested. It's not indifferent to income; it's on a means-tested basis. I believe it's also determined by the size of the family. That card is loaded at the first of the month, and food stamp-eligible product, which is identified on the shelf of the store, is shopped by consumers. We still call it food stamps, but now SNAP is the new acronym. They may spend it all, but usually they spend it throughout the month, and it's loaded again the next month.
What you get there is assurance that it's being spent on nutritious foods, and it's very simple.
All these other comparable machinations we were talking about--how you're going to show the savings and run it through the post office--cost time and money and waste product, because it gets delayed going north. That's how it works in its simplest sense.
The bypass system, as the name suggests, bypasses the post office. We've proposed that to INAC as well. We would just run it to the stores as we normally would, through the most efficient means possible, and then claim a subsidy, so it's similar to what we proposed to INAC. I have to say that it's broader than it probably should be: a lot of items on the bypass list aren't very nutritious or essential from a healthy living standpoint.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
With this SNAP program, you would have the regular price on the shelves.
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
The everyday price that everyone pays.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
So in Pond Inlet a person would go to the store, for instance, and a jug of milk would be how much?
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
It would be a lot. It would be in the $20 range--$20 plus.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
Okay. Let's say I'm a resident of Pond Inlet. I go to the store, and on the store shelf there's a jug of milk or a carton of milk--$20--but because it's an eligible item, I have a card to buy that item with. Is that right?
President and Chief Executive Officer, North West Company
You have a monetary value. Also, the value of that card would be means-tested and it would be cost-tested. The northern living allowance would be a lot more valuable on a family basis in Pond Inlet than it would be in, say, northern Manitoba, where there's all-weather road access. Those communities might not even be eligible. There would have to be an affordability calculation.
Going back to the envelope, I don't know if you could do it for $55 million, but you're not doing much for $55 million now. You're doing something, but you're not carving what you could. For $100 million, maybe you could do it, I don't know. I'm just giving you....