Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 24th, 2009

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

The one question I had, because I'm not sure if I'm going to have a chance, was to Nicole. You mentioned something about INAC not adhering to policy. I was just wondering if you could elaborate on that.

[Nicole Sikma]

I'm going to ask my colleague to answer that.

[Stéphane Daigle, Regional Manager, Regional Office - Nunavut, Arctic Co-operatives Limited]

It's more or less when it comes to tender proposals and tender contracts, not sourcing out. I think it's relative to the NNI policy as well—not following the NNI policy from the start, really. The fact that some tenders are awarded to companies in the south without even taking a look at the companies in the north first is really a disadvantage to a lot of the businesses in the north. It's creating a huge problem for the economy, because the money doesn't stay here; it goes back to the south.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Are you actually being forced to take on whoever they choose, as opposed to your tendering it locally?

[Stéphane Daigle]

Could you say that again?

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

You're saying that your local people don't even have a chance to bid on the projects, or...

[Stéphane Daigle]

I don't know about the chance, but the numbers prove that there are more tenders being awarded to companies in the south than to companies in the north that could easily fill the tenderer's needs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

That will have to do it. Thank you, witnesses.

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

Before you start, I must say that I'm sorry about the extra noise we're dealing with. I know it's a bit of a distraction. But there's nothing better than the sound of happy customers, so let's bear that in mind.

Go ahead, Mr. Duncan.

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

Thank you very much.

I just want to let Daniel know that I'm not far behind him in terms of school background.

I did have some questions, largely for Colleen. I think you said that the basic mandate of CTC is not applicable to Nunavut. You didn't really have a chance to explain that, and I'm trying to understand what you mean. I have a vital interest, so please enlighten me. I'm from British Columbia, and CTC is the only federal agency that's headquartered in British Columbia.

[Colleen Dupuis]

What I said was that the CTC mandate in terms of Nunavut is not necessarily being followed. In the copy of the presentation there's a screen that shows the mandate of the CTC so you don't have to look up exactly what that is. One of the things is that it's supposed to provide information about the Canadian tourism industry and about Canada. As I mentioned, in working on some projects with the CTC we found that there are a lot of opportunities, and they've been helpful, but they don't always present correct information.

In a project for 2010—a passport project—that all the provinces and territories are buying into.... On conference calls, we are not the only jurisdiction having issues with them. I know that Labrador is also having issues with how things are being portrayed. As I said, when we got our draft of what they were presenting and we checked the website, we have reindeer, and there was information that you can hunt narwhal here, which you can't do on a sport hunt, and a number of other issues. If their mandate is to portray Canada to the world, they need to figure out what they should be portraying for Canada and the north so they're doing it correctly.

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

Can I assume there's a capacity issue? That is, if you had a larger ability to input into what they're putting out there, that obviously they would get it right?

[Colleen Dupuis]

When we are given the opportunity to correct it, we can do that. One of our other challenges with our limited budget is that every time there are meetings for something—and partly it's because they've moved to Vancouver—we have to go to Vancouver, which is at least a three- or four-day trip across the country. We're looking at around $5,000 to attend a meeting. We don't have the dollars to attend every meeting we could potentially attend.

We have asked to be video conferenced in so that we can participate. We have that option here. The chamber of commerce has a facility, and that would be a couple of hundred dollars. We have been told that opportunity does not exist; we need to be there in person. They're not looking at ways they can bring us to the table and get us engaged when we have provided suggested solutions.

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

That's quite helpful. That will perhaps lead to a recommendation from the committee.

Funding is an issue for you. Are you aware that with the $30 million over five years for each of the territories from SINED—administered by CanNor in the Yukon—they've pre-agreed that 20% of that allocation will be for the tourism sector?

[Colleen Dupuis]

We have discussed our allocation. It is nowhere near 20%.

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

You haven't come to a determination, but you are--

[Colleen Dupuis]

We have had an indication of what we should be trying to put in a proposal for the four years, and it is not 20%.

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

Okay.

I asked this question in NWT, and of course we got the response in Yukon. It was 20% in the Yukon for tourism and 10% for culture, so that's some background for you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

You're about out of time there, Mr. Duncan.

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

A very quick question, then. What does the trail bridge you were talking about do? Is that for recreational use? What is it?

[Colleen Dupuis]

That has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks. It is whether it will have vehicular access or only be pedestrian. It has gone back and forth. This is a project the military engineers are working on. INAC has committed money to this over the years, but that has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks. We're hoping that within the next six months we will go ahead, because, as I said, the first time we discussed it was in 1995.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Mr. Duncan.

We'll now go to the second round. I'll begin our questions with Mr. Bagnell for five minutes.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. West, so you know, CanNor and INAC knew about this a long time ago. In fact, they were witnesses weeks ago on the thing.

Colleen, my first question is for you. I don't want too long an answer, but you said that we need more planes, small planes in the north. I don't think you'd expect the government to buy a bunch of small planes.

[Colleen Dupuis]

No, but if the government provided assistance... There are a number of our tourism operators who have outpost camps or more remote facilities and right now are relying on the airlines for charters, and there are only so many planes available. They have applied for funding to get their own planes, because with a limited number of planes and a very short tourism window, as we have, everybody's trying to get the same plane to go to 15 different places at once. As a result, they can't take advantage of some of the opportunities. So they have applied for funding to assist with that type of purchase—not to provide the planes—and have been told that type of infrastructure is not covered by a government program.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

Stéphane, you may not know this, and if you don't, make the answer short, because I have other questions.

Related to the federal government procurement, my understanding is that in the last two or three years the government has actually stepped back. It was actually doing better before, somewhat better. Or is it simply that the policy is totally weak and has always been weak?

[Stéphane Daigle]

I think it has always been weak.