Evidence of meeting #18 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was nunavut.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
I appreciate that.
Mr. Page, here are a couple of background questions.
How big is your annual budget for your operations?
Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
Our annual budget is around $5 million.
Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
It's funded through the Department of the Environment.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Does the board report to one of the directors general, or does it report to Parliament, or...?
Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
It reports to Parliament, and Parliament can assign us duties, as they have under the Kyoto implementation bill.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
So if there's a specific job that Parliament wants to do, they can shunt it off to...?
Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
That is correct.
Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
We currently have about 18, but we're in the process of declining numbers in response to budget cuts.
Conservative
Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
We had one, and his term has finished. We are seeking a new appointment from the north in connection with it. If any of the MPs wish to make recommendations to us, we'd be delighted.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
I hope everybody heard that. If you have some suggestions, please send them along.
Thank you very much.
Now we'll go to the last question, to Ms. Neville.
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Thank you all for being here.
In part you've answered the question I have and in part not. It's somewhat similar to Mr. Lemay's question.
The undercurrent of what I keep hearing from all of you in different forms is that the north is not consulted sufficiently; that the people on the ground, whatever the forum, whatever the policy-making, regulation-making, or whatever, are not engaged in the processes sufficiently. I don't know whether I'm not hearing you correctly, but if I am, I'd like to hear from you what your overarching recommendation would be to engage with the people on the ground who live there and experience it. It came through in a host of different ways, but I'd like to know what we can recommend to government.
President, Nasittuq Corporation
I'd like to take it from a slightly different angle and maybe answer Mr. Lemay at the same time.
One of the problems we see is that a lot of the programs are departmental programs; they're not Government of Canada programs. So you could have a number of initiatives that come, and they might come out of the blue as far as the north, from a consultation point of view. It's very difficult to get a global picture of what the Government of Canada's overall program is going to be. What Environment Canada might be planning to do versus what DND might be planning to do are two separate entities that don't necessarily come together until we see the final picture.
One other point I'd like to make on investing in the north is that the infrastructure in the north is extremely expensive. So there will be some financial benefit to having a more coordinated plan and executed program. Somebody mentioned building airfields. DND has 10 abandoned airfields throughout the north that are hardly maintained, and we're talking of building new airfields. Some of them are clearly not in the right location, but some others could well be shared for other programs. This is just one specific example.
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
So what would your overarching recommendations be to us so that we can speak to government on the issues?
President, Nasittuq Corporation
Well, I know the government is working on a strategy for the north, and we really encourage the government to go global on that strategy. It's not only a Government of Canada issue; it's also a territorial issue.
Cambridge Bay airfield needs to be upgraded and expanded. The Nunavut government is struggling to find money. It's a wonderful central Arctic location, and from a global Canadian investment point of view, all of the governments—local, territorial, and federal—need to work together.
The north is a wonderful place, and I learned a long time ago that for people to survive in the north they need to cooperate and work together. And that is really the true message I would like to leave with the committee.
Conservative
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just have a quick question about mobile training centres. These obviously would be more for specific skills and trades. Are any of you gentlemen aware of whether you have any such thing? I know we have it in part of my riding, and my colleagues in Thunder Bay—Rainy River are obviously looking more seriously at the concept for key infrastructure development plans. Under Canada's economic action plan we're quite busy in northern Ontario.
But I was wondering if you had anything like that, or whether you were aware of it.
President and Chief Operating Officer, Nunasi Corporation
Yes, that's a great question.
Nunasi has an investment in a company called Academy of Learning, which is really a franchise. One of the things they do is hold labs in the different communities. They call them labs, and they go out and do really short-term courses for computer training and these types of things, which are very necessary.
The one issue the Academy of Learning is having is they can't seem to get enough qualified people to go out and conduct the labs, so it's always a catch-22 for them to get out there. But I would say that I am familiar, somewhat, with it, and I would encourage more of that for sure. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the communities want to see the training done at their home base as opposed to sending their people elsewhere.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Sure. I have some information on this. These are not so much computer training as they are for different kinds of welding trades and heavy machinery and stuff. It's very useful, particularly for the isolated communities. With greatest respect to the far north, I have as much isolated, remote territory, and some of my colleagues across the way do as well, where this kind of thing is not just seen as beneficial but has potential to get learning infrastructure into communities for some specific skills and training. So thanks for that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Thank you, Mr. Rickford.
Committee, we're going to take a five-minute break and then we'll come back, because we have some committee business to discuss. So we'll suspend momentarily.
I just want to thank all of the witnesses for coming today. It has been extremely helpful. You have made some excellent points, each of you, that will be helpful and informative to our studies, conclusions, and recommendations. So thank you very much, and have a good afternoon.
We'll suspend. Committee, we'll be back in five minutes.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
All right. Let's carry on.
Thank you very much.
Before we go to Monsieur Lévesque pour sa motion, we have a couple of housekeeping items.
This Thursday we have a split meeting. The first hour is on the main estimates; the documents have all been circulated to you. In addition, in the second hour of Thursday's meeting will be the first meeting to begin consideration of the draft report on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. That first draft report was sent out to you this afternoon, so you'll have the opportunity to consider it before Thursday afternoon.
As I mentioned, Mr. Russell will be chairing the meeting. He's gracious enough to do that on my behalf, and I appreciate that, so please be nice to him.
Mr. Lévesque, you now have a motion to introduce.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Let us recall that Hon. Chuck Strahl announced a new program. The Food Mail program will change its name to Nutrition North. The information on that was released at the beginning of the long weekend, but it was a bit confusing. No one knows what to expect. Everyone is spreading all kinds of rumours, which are not always true.
The motion states that:
Following the announcement by the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada of the new Nutrition North Canada program, the AANO Committee requests the appearance of the minister, program officials and Elizabeth Copland, chair of Nutrition North Canada's advisory board, to provide a full description of this new program.
We know that we spent 40 years building the Food Mail program. And today, with the stroke of a pen, the program is changing. Let us be clear that the very nature of the program is being altered. It is being completely changed.
We would like to know where the minister is heading with this and what his vision is, as well as the vision of the people in the department who supported him in this decision.