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

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Bevington, go ahead if you wish.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

I don't know if you want to comment on that, Mr. Kruger, but I was also referring to the food industry. The Government of the Northwest Territories has estimated the replacement value of the subsistence harvest at about $60 million a year. Do you have any comment about that? I keep making this point because I feel it's something that economic development agencies should take into account, as well, when they're moving forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Please make it a short comment, if any.

[Terry Kruger]

Yes, I think the only thing I'd like to say is that it's important to support and develop community infrastructure to make communities healthy and sustainable and affordable for people to continue to live and pursue their traditional lifestyle. That's the only thing I'd like to add.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay, thank you.

Did you want to add something there, Mr. Ritchie? Sure, go ahead.

[Doug Ritchie]

I would agree that food security is going to be a vital issue, and I think it's important that we support the traditional economy and look at other ways of pursuing food security as well.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay, thank you, Mr. Bevington.

Now we'll go to Mr. Dreeshen for three minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you very much to you, gentlemen, for being here today. It is certainly appreciated. And happy birthday to you, Mr. Ritchie.

I guess just to expand upon what Dennis was talking about, like the farming industry, foreign interference can affect livelihood. I think perhaps that's something you have to take a look at, as well, when you have some of these granola-eaters who are coming in. As you mentioned earlier, sometimes they bring in their own misguided conceptions, and some of the issues such as trapping and fishing and hunting then are affected by them. I think that's an important aspect. I think that's something we have to recognize.

Really, where I wanted to go was that I wanted to talk about education as well. I can only repeat what we've heard so many times: it takes a community to teach a child. And I think these are some of the things we're looking at. I know you spoke of zero to six. As I also heard from Mr. Kruger, a lot of these communities are 40 or 50 people and so on. I'm just trying to get my mind around how this would work without bringing in some type of institutionalization, which we've been trying so hard to get away from.

I just wondered if you have any comments on how you see programs like this advancing.

[Doug Ritchie]

It's a great question. We have some exciting programs with the aboriginal head start program. I think it's aimed at three to six, and that's important. I don't think there has to be an excessive degree of institutionalization. There's the important healthy start program in Hawaii. There are programs such as adult literacy, which gets the adults involved in learning as their children are learning. I believe that if we are to get northerners to participate in managing the northern economy, rather than just getting labour jobs, we need to emphasize education.

I think it's important to work with children under six. Quality day care is important. If young mothers and fathers are struggling with child care and completing their education, they may need some help. I think you can do it without an excessively institutional setting. It's important to encourage the appropriate culture, each of the language groups, to make sure that they have an opportunity to teach the culture. If you're happy and proud about where you come from, you feel good about yourself. Then you are ready to learn. I think it's essential that we get culture into children six and under. We need to continue those supports throughout the education system. I don't believe we have to replace the existing system. We have an adequate system, but in light of our circumstances it has to be reinforced to get all the benefits that northerners richly deserve.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Bagnell.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

I will ask all my questions at the beginning, and then let you answer. You might have to write the questions down.

Terry, we heard from an airline in the Yukon that in remote communities the runways are shorter. If they were paved and longer, then they could get airplanes that would be more efficient, use less gas, and make things cheaper.

I haven't heard anything about harbours yet. Could more harbours make the cost of living cheaper in Nunavut?

Mr. Ritchie, I'm the founder of the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition. What can we do to get poor people into this economic development equation? We always talk about businesses and things, but what about people in poverty?

Finally, I'd like to ask both of you about the rural-urban split. There's a huge difference outside Yellowknife in how people live and the challenges they have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Try to keep it as compact as you can.

[Terry Kruger]

I can't address the issue of airport runways. I'm not familiar with it, but I could get the information from our members and get back to you. Neither can I comment on harbours. If memory serves, Tuktoyaktuk is interested in harbour development. I can get the information and forward it to you.

[Doug Ritchie]

Anti-poverty is something I don't know a lot about. I know that members of Alternatives North have worked on it and are passionate about it. I have not been following it, so I can't speak authoritatively.

I would like to mention one thing regarding the urban-rural split. One phenomenon that we are seeing in the Northwest Territories is that a lot of people are moving from the smaller communities into the larger centres—not only Yellowknife but also places like Behchoko and Inuvik.

One of the challenges, particularly in Yellowknife, is that often we have young families interested in giving the best opportunities to their youth, yet they may be just on the poverty line. They may not be able to access all those sporting-type events. They're extremely expensive, and they may be more vulnerable to a lifestyle that includes drugs. For example, if they're from the Mackenzie Delta, they may not have a lot of family support or even band support for moving. This is a phenomenon we have to be cognizant of. This is where outreach to aboriginal youth in Yellowknife, who may not even be from local first nations, is critical. There is a growing population that is fundamentally underserved by both sports and education.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Merci.

We're out of time. If you've got a very brief comment, ten seconds....

[Terry Kruger]

I want to just emphasize the need to develop communities, to make them places where if young people are going away to university or college in the south, they'll want to move back and keep these communities viable.

We've got hundreds of millions of dollars invested in community infrastructure, and people want to live there. They have ties to the land. So we need to support and make them places that they want to come back to, with jobs in the community government or jobs in industry or tourism or what have you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bagnell.

Lastly, we will go to Mr. Gaudet for a quick question. I believe Mr. Lévesque also has a question. However, there are only three minutes left for both questions.

Mr. Gaudet.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Chair, we've been discussing education for a while now. Do all children between the ages of 6 and 12 have access to a primary and secondary school education? Are they able to attend school, even in a community with a population of 40, 60 or 75 persons? It's all well and good to talk about post-secondary education, but there's not much point if children don't have access to primary and secondary schools.

[Doug Ritchie]

One of the real challenges is even if the schools are there.... Every community does have the primary and secondary. Most communities now have up to grade 12, but a real challenge is keeping kids in school. Those dropout rates, those participation rates, and attendance are huge issues. We can build the schools, but we can't make students attend. That's a real challenge, trying to figure out how to make it interesting.

Look at Finland. They have shorter school hours, yet they have some of the best outcomes possible in terms of educational test results. So I think we really do have to figure out how we get kids motivated to attend school.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Lévesque.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Let's imagine for a moment that you could rub a lamp and a magic genie would appear and grant you one wish. What would you wish for, first and foremost?

[Doug Ritchie]

Ours is alternative energy throughout the NWT.

[Terry Kruger]

I think our first priority is the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, gentlemen.