Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 19th, 2009

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Has this funding already been allocated to certain projects?

[Peter Vician]

Yes. We have seen in the initial year an allocation of $1.2 million towards the geoscience investment this past year, which was recently announced by the federal government. That's a key first step. However, there's been a slow rollout of the current year and subsequent year priority setting. Part of the statement I made today was to assist in guiding where we think those priorities should be set. We've not yet heard a definitive statement on that basis from the federal government.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

There are only 30 seconds left, Mr. Clarke.

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Do we have Mr. Rickford?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We have Mr. Rickford as one of the next speakers.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

I'll just jump in.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Sure.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Are your CanNor people in place locally?

[Peter Vician]

Mr. Chair, yes, CanNor has been established. There is additional staffing to be filled. There are some positions to be filled. We've met with the deputy and the senior staff of CanNor.

We're quite pleased, in the formative stage of the organization, with how they're trying to work through the building of the organization. As you know from my statement in April, the GNWT strongly supported the establishment of CanNor as an economic agency in the north.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

We had an indication in Whitehorse, or confirmation, that they'd allocated over the next five years 20% to tourism and 10% to culture. Do you have any of those kinds of guidelines?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Please give a yes or no answer.

[Peter Vician]

We do not yet.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

If we want to come back to that, there will be time.

Thank you very much, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Duncan.

Now we'll go to Mr. Bevington for five minutes.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I just want to redirect back to the question of devolution and the terms and conditions of resource development. We're engaged in a hydro project development right now that was never identified by the federal government in the original environmental assessment for Acadie Mining. We're playing catch-up with the hydro development.

We have a situation in the Northwest Territories of having the highest per capita gross domestic product in the country, yet our population has declined in the last three years. In some respects, the development of projects in the north without the firm position of the territorial government putting forward the interests of northerners means these projects are developing in a fashion whereby the benefits may not be as great for northerners as they could be if they had northern control.

Is that a fair assessment of some of the things happening right now? You could talk as well about road development.

[Floyd Roland]

I think, again, that devolution resource revenue sharing would allow us to simplify, to streamline, and to make decisions, I believe, in a way that reflects the interests and aspirations of northerners, both aboriginal and non-aboriginal. That development would spur a better economy.

What we have, in our smaller communities, are many people leaving the communities, because the cost of living is just so high. We have businesses that want to do business, but a small community store, and we're talking small--$80,000 a year, for example, is used as small.... When we talk about the Co-op in the Northwest Territories, we're talking about a small building with a couple of freezers, not your Co-op store down in Edmonton or Ontario or other places. Just the cost of doing business affects whether one can actually make that investment up front. Our challenge is how we do that.

With that type of authority in the north, we could see development happen in a sustainable way. For example, when the diamond mines first started up in the north, the Government of the Northwest Territories pushed for trying to get as much aboriginal employment and contracting done as possible. We had to push for a socio-economic agreement with the federal government of the day and with industry, because industry was used to doing business in a certain way and it didn't involve consultation, to a larger degree. That has definitely improved.

Step by step, we have been improving. It's about the final pieces of authority, and that goes back to the other question about first nations. When we talk about devolution resource revenue sharing, we want the authority to make decisions in the north. We're not interested in taking over federal responsibility for first nations. And that's the other thing. There is a special relationship between first nations and the federal government, and we're not going to fetter that process.

In fact, if you look at some of our legislation in the assembly, our legislation speaks to the fact that this piece of legislation will not take away a right of a first nation.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Minister Miltenberger, the federal government is going into a $60 billion deficit. I know your government is also suffering in the same way, just as every provincial government across the country is.

We need to invest right now in order to accomplish the goals that we have for our territory. We have a situation with the NWT Act where our investment is limited. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about how you see the future of our finances in the Northwest Territories with the rules that are in place right now that fetter our abilities.

[Michael Miltenberger]

Our assessment of the state of the economy is that we're going to be working through this recession and economic downturn for some time. We have a borrowing limit that's partially subscribed to. We are anticipating that we're going to carefully manage the fact that we have to go into some debt here on what we see as a short-term basis.

I think the finance minister tried twice to expand our borrowing limit. We were successful once. The second time we were told no. So we have to manage our finances, and it limits what we can invest in and the amount of debt we can carry. It does force us to be very careful. It is a challenge. There are other things that are going to be potentially happening that could even erode that borrowing limit more. That is another issue of concern for us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much. That wraps up our five minutes.

We'll now go back to Mr. Rickford for five minutes.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that it's true. We have engaged in deficit spending during one of the hardest-hitting recessions, perhaps, in recent memory and for more than a century, particularly for Canada's isolated and remote regions being impacted by that.

As a function of our gross domestic product, the goal would be to use that kind of spending in the most pragmatic way. Certainly, the critic for the Arctic had an extensive list of things he'd like to see in the face of deficit spending. We need to understand whether we're getting it done in that regard.

I don't have the transcript of the list of things that my colleague mentioned. I know that at some point this summer there was an announcement from Minister MacKay with respect to a reserve unit being established here in Yellowknife.

Is that true, Mr. Premier?

[Floyd Roland]

There was an announcement of a reserve unit being established here in Yellowknife. That is correct.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Do you remember when that was stood down?

[Floyd Roland]

I don't recall a specific date.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

I believe it was 1965, under Prime Minister Pearson.

This is going to be an important partnership with the Canadian Rangers. Can you talk a little bit about the Canadian Rangers and the relationship with this reserve unit in terms of protecting the interests of the vast territory?

[Floyd Roland]

We could definitely get into a discussion about the relationship there. We talk about boots on the ground in the Northwest Territories. When I spoke about that idea, it was about the people already living here. We have people on our most remote islands in Canada who call it home, who occupy it, who help formulate and make up the Rangers. They have a good working relationship with our forces in the Northwest Territories and in Canada.

Realistically, though, we talk about living there, and an economy, and about making investments in the right way that makes those communities habitable so that we can have a claim. When we talk about climate change and Arctic sovereignty, for example—

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

We can go there in a little bit, Mr. Premier. I appreciate that.

I've actually lived in Cambridge Bay and in Arviat, so I'm not unfamiliar with the conditions there. I might add that this is the third time here in Yellowknife, and the last time was five years ago. It's a credit to the local government and the territorial government on continuing to improve and build on successful businesses and franchises here in the north.

I want to talk a little bit about economic development. Maybe I'll sign off on the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. My understanding is that the Minister of Indian Affairs was able to make an announcement on a fairly substantial contribution to the support of that group. Is that true?