Evidence of meeting #39 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 training.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you very much. Just to follow up on the broadband, will you be doing a business case analysis of the fibre optic access? If so, have you been requested by a department to present it to them?
I think you mentioned the end date of February next year. This committee will still be in place and still on this study. Would you be happy to forward it to us at that time?
Chief Executive Officer, Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation
I have it in my five-year plan, and I'm bottom-feeding for this year's money from our INAC funders. I'm in discussion for that; I don't have it approved. I also have the commitment or go-ahead from our board. It's part of the approved pieces of work for the vision, so I'm hoping to do that in this timeframe. It's certainly on my to-do list.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
So in that timeframe would you do the proposal for the project, or would you actually be able to do...?
Chief Executive Officer, Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation
There are two things. For certain it's in next year's money proposal, but I'm hoping to secure some of the money out of this year's year-end that comes available. So effectively every year we've tried to bottom feed off of those things, if you will. It's not certain if I'll be able to do it this year, but I'm trying very hard to. I think it's one of those things that if it were to be done, it's a very long-term project, so it's best to start this right away.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Right.
I don't think we got a number from you. You said that 60% of the people in Nunavut had access to banking. What is the number for access to broadband?
Chief Executive Officer, Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation
I think there is an actual financial banking report, finished a couple of years ago, from the initial work. I hope I'm not misremembering that, but the uptake for that is at least that high, if not more. There are 5,000 QINIQ accounts, which is our network in Nunavut. That represents a lot more people, of course, because that's a house, a family could be using that, plus there are other providers, such as Northwestel in Iqaluit here, with DSL.
Essentially, everyone has access. It comes down to a financial decision. There are many reasons why someone might choose to not access broadband, but theoretically it's within reach of everyone--certainly geographically and arguably financially.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Okay.
Brian, I think we're all curious about the soapstone quarrying. Is a member of the general public allowed to buy raw soapstone?
Senior Business Advisor, Nunavut Development Corporation
To buy raw soapstone, rock? I don't see why you couldn't. Pardon me for maybe being flippant, but it's just a rock, right? But I wouldn't be surprised--
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
So is argillite, but it's very difficult to find argillite. The Haida very much guard its possession and ownership. That's part of their....
Senior Business Advisor, Nunavut Development Corporation
There are a couple of rocks, lazuli lapis, or something like that--I can't remember the name exactly. It's a very bluish-toned rock, and it would be very difficult to obtain, but soapstone shouldn't be a problem. You could probably go and buy it from the guy who sells it to the carvers. I don't think there'd be any issue with that at all.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Well, the people who carve soapstone locally, in my area, get it from the U.S. That's why I asked. But it's probably quarried commercially in huge quantities, and it's very different.
Senior Business Advisor, Nunavut Development Corporation
Our preference is to use the native stone, because if you're making an Inuit carving, you would like it to be on rock from Nunavut. But we have looked at bringing soapstone in from other jurisdictions.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Okay.
When you talked about roads and power lines, is the logical first step that way, Manitoba to Arviat? Is that the kind of thinking that is behind that?
Senior Business Advisor, Nunavut Development Corporation
In my mind it is. There's now a power line to Churchill, Manitoba. Manitoba Hydro extended that power line around five years ago. You're relatively close to the 60th parallel already, so to move it up would be relatively efficient in that way, because you don't have to bring it all the way up from, say, the middle of the province. You're essentially already well into the north. Moving into Baffin Island, obviously, would certainly be a challenge.
To me, it makes perfect sense to move it up. There are potential mines in Kivalliq. We have a gold mine that's going to be producing its first gold in Baker Lake come early 2010. There are some deposits inland, and if you had the access to hydro-electricity at a lower cost, I think some of those properties would probably be in development, including the one that's 15 miles outside Rankin Inlet. To me, it makes perfect sense. You're sort of halfway there.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you very much.
I think my time is probably about up.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
It is, you're right. In fact, I gave you almost the same amount of time as Mr. Gaudet before you, so it's okay.
Before we finish up, there's one question for clarification, perhaps to Ms. Kimball.
On the housing subsidy, you mentioned the value somewhere at about $1,200 per month. Are we given to understand the actual unit renter would pay that, and then the $22,000-odd per month is paid by you over and above that? Could you clarify that point?
Chief Financial Officer, Nunavut Housing Corporation
The $1,200 a month is actually what it costs for the utilities, on average. So when we say $22,000 a year, that includes that, plus any maintenance.
Chief Financial Officer, Nunavut Housing Corporation
It includes that, plus any maintenance and support the LHO is doing. They provide administrative work as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
In a typical subsidized unit, then, what does the user actually have to give over--
Chief Financial Officer, Nunavut Housing Corporation
We have something called rent scale. It's really dependent on the income of the family that's within the home. It ranges from $60 a month, if they're a low-income or no-income family or on income support, to about $1,500.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Very good. I just wanted to make sure we had that for the record.
Members, thank you very much for your questions.
To our witnesses, let me say that this has been very informative. I appreciate you taking time this afternoon to come and help with our study. You can be sure that the responses and the presentations you've given here today will be taken into consideration.
If there are any follow-up items that came out of today's meeting that you'd like to feed back to us, by all means do so in a written form to the clerk of our committee, and we'll be happy to add that to the information, to what will, I'm sure, be quite a large amount of information that we'll gather here in the weeks ahead.
Do you have a question, Mr. Lévesque?
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Mr. Chair, I would appreciate it if the witnesses could include some specific information in their report, namely with respect to housing. I would like to know what the development costs and land costs are in their community. I would also like to know how much it costs to buy a lot from a private individual and whether those lots can be rented to owners who want to build their own home.