Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
My voice is a little bit rough today, so I appreciate your bearing with me.
I'd like to thank you for the opportunity for the Federation of Labour to present our views on aboriginal affairs and northern development. As well, to the committee members, thank you for taking the time to travel to each of the three northern territories to hear from northerners about the concerns that we have.
I understand that my colleague Alex Furlong spoke to you in Iqaluit yesterday. Our Federation of Labour actually covers both the NWT and Nunavut, so I will be speaking primarily on those two territories.
No study of northern economic development would be complete without taking into account the socio-economic indicators that drive our northern reality. Building bridges, pipelines, roads, and mines won't improve the lives of northerners without a serious investment in social infrastructure.
While there are many aspects of northern living that require attention, today I will talk about three fundamental areas that need to be addressed immediately: unemployment, lack of housing, and the high cost of living.
I am hopeful that other presenters in your visits across the territories will outline the importance of settling outstanding land claims; the serious impacts of family violence, specifically the high rates of violence against women; escalating rates of suicide; the need for effective pay equity legislation; and implementing measures to reduce the wage gap between the rich and the rest of us.
On the issue of unemployment, from July 2008 to July 2009 the employment rate in the NWT fell to 66.3%. According to our bureau of statistics, this is the largest change in unemployment rate in any jurisdiction in Canada. Out of our potential working population of 31,500 persons, 1,500 are unemployed and 9,000 are not in the labour force, and they're not in the labour force largely because they've given up looking for work. This means that 33% of NWT residents are actually unemployed. And if you take into account that the NWT is actually the only jurisdiction in Canada that's losing population, this is a relatively conservative number.
The situation in Nunavut is much worse. According to the Nunavut Bureau of Statistics, the total potential working population in September 2009 was 18,600. Of those, 1,700 were unemployed and 7,100 were not in the labour force. This equates to 47% of Nunavummiuts are not working. And if you only take into account the Inuit population, this rises to over 56%.
The Northwest Territories and Nunavut, with the highest percentages of unemployment, are also the only jurisdictions in the country without our own EI board of referees. What happens when a resident of either territory wants to appeal an EI decision? They have to go to the board in Edmonton, Alberta. Workers and employers in the NWT and Nunavut do pay huge amounts of money into a federal EI system that is largely inaccessible to us. If a worker is laid off and lucky enough to access EI, the level of benefits are insufficient to live in the north, so they end up moving south, adding to the out-migration I spoke of earlier. There needs to be some form of indexing EI benefits to adjust for regional costs of living.
The other really important issue that relates to unemployment is education. Sadly, the number of students who graduate from high school is less than 70% in the NWT, and as low as 42.6% in Nunavut. Statistics Canada figures show that rates of graduation from post-secondary institutions are just as bad.
I know that education is technically a territorial responsibility, but the federal government does need to recognize that children cannot learn effectively when they are crammed into over-crowded houses, lack basic health and dental services, and have no access to affordable, nutritious foods. So funding in all these areas needs to be increased.
On the issue of the lack of housing, in 2004 the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson stated:
...the conditions in far too many aboriginal communities can only be described as shameful. This offends our values. It is in our collective interest to turn the corner. And we must start now.
Unfortunately, almost six years later, northern aboriginal and Inuit communities are no better off.
According to the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition, in October 2008 Yellowknife had a vacancy rate of 0.7%, and 34% of households were spending more than 30% of their income on shelter.
My brief has a lot of other statistics about the serious rates of housing. I'd like to highlight in this area that in Nunavut there are situations where people aren't classed as homeless because they have shelter, but they're sharing shelter. They're living in shifts in one house. So if it's someone's time to go to work, they go to work, and when they come home they kick somebody else out of the house so they can have a space to sleep. There's just not enough room in the houses for them to even sleep.
One of the most disastrous outcomes of this lack of housing is poor health. Nationally, eight out of ten Canadians had contact with a medical doctor in 2008. In NWT it was one half of that, and in Nunavut only one out of ten residents had access to a doctor. In both of the territories the infant mortality rates are far greater and the life expectancy of those who do live is much less than the national averages. Northerners, especially our aboriginal and Inuit peoples, are plagued with health problems that put them on a par with some of the poorest parts of the world. In a country as wealthy as Canada, this is unconscionable.