Evidence of meeting #25 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 program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
The channel selector is on the bottom. You can rotate that left or right, to choose the channel, and the volume controls are on the top.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Is everybody okay with that? Voilà.
We have a motion by Monsieur Lévesque. The motion was circulated to the committee towards the end of the session. However, that said, we had only one item of business--I'll get to you, Mr. Payne--on the orders of the day for our committee today. I would just ask if there is consent to proceed to committee business for the purposes of entertaining Monsieur Lévesque's motion.
Mr. Russell.
3:35 p.m.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
First of all, let me congratulate you, Mr. Chair, on your re-election. I want to welcome the new members that we have with us, Mr. Weston, and congratulate Ms. Glover on her new appointment. I look forward to working with you and your colleagues throughout the course of this session. I also welcome back, of course, our committee staff and all returning members.
I would just like to remind members what the motion is. I think I might have it in front of me now.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Just to be clear, before we can actually consider the motion, we do need consent from the committee to proceed to committee business.
Mr. Payne, did you have a point that you wanted to add in that respect?
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and congratulations to all the chairs and vice-chairs, and welcome to our new committee members, in particular John and Shelly.
I just wanted to support Mr. Lévesque's motion. I think we've already started a study. We've had one meeting and I think it would be appropriate to continue the study on nutrition.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Your point is noted. But just before we carry on, do I have agreement to proceed to committee business?
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
The motion distributed to the members of the committee reads as follows:
That the committee request the terms and conditions of the new Nutrition North program so that its members can study the program and the Committee report its observations and recommendations to the House.
The motion did meet the notice requirement, so we now have it on the floor and we'll take speakers to the motion.
Mr. Lévesque, would you like to introduce your motion?
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I take this opportunity to congratulate you. I'm also welcoming Mrs. Glover.
There has always been a certain cordiality in our committee, and we sincerely hope to maintain it. That will allow us to move forward with the work a lot faster than in many other cases.
We listened to a presentation on the new Nutrition North Canada program. Department officials vaguely explained to us what the program was about and how they were planning on implementing it. At the time, the methods were not clear. Even the current minister, who was at that meeting, did not understand very well. He did not understand the gist of the program and its impacts.
In my opinion, in the interest of the communities being served, it is important to know the real impacts of the new program. It is important to know who will come out a winner, the communities or those serving them. That is why it is essential for the committee to make sure the program is implemented since it was established for the good of isolated communities in order to provide them with fresh food products at lower prices. Are we reaching this goal or are we moving further and further away?
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you.
First, I would like to thank everyone for inviting me to appear before your committee and for being so welcoming. It is a pleasure for me as a Métis woman and as someone who cares deeply about the Aboriginals in our country.
I completely agree with the spirit of Mr. Lévesque's motion. But could we correct the translation? The French translation suggests that the committee “fasse”, or do, a report, whereas the English version says that it “can” do a report. I would like Mr. Lévesque's intent to be clear so that the English and French texts say the same thing. I think he really wants a report and does not want the committee to decide whether to do one after the fact.
I would also like to know the details he needs so that the department can start working on the presentation. The English version says “terms and conditions” and the French version talks about “modalités”. What does that mean? Could Mr. Lévesque explain what he wants exactly?
I would also like to inform the members of the committee that the website really has a lot of information. In my opinion, this program will be fantastic for Aboriginals and for all people living in the north. I encourage you to read that. This project touches on a number of areas and will help to improve the situation of Aboriginals, especially in terms of health and nutrition.
I just wanted to share these ideas with you and ask Mr. Lévesque to shed some light on these issues.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Thank you very much. I would be happy to try and clarify my intent as much as possible.
The program currently in effect was established 30 years ago and still continues to develop. In the past, it used to be in effect though it was not subsidized. It was created specifically to serve the territories north of Quebec—known as Baffin Island at the time and called Nunavut today. It was done at full cost for the Inuit on these territories and on some territories northeast of Quebec.
Later on, subsidies were awarded to carriers so that communities could get perishable products at a reasonable price and so that people would be motivated to use healthy products and be in better health.
And now we are changing the Nutrition North Canada program. At first glance, the broad strokes of the program are commendable, but, as we often say, the devil is in the details. In this case, we don't know how these subsidies will be applied, or who the watchdog of the program will be, or how frequent supervision will be. Ultimately, when will the program be introduced in the community, and how much will people have to pay? Will prices be lower or higher? Are we going to be able to have higher or lower quality products? That's what matters most at the moment.
I'm not denying the department's good intentions. When we met with Minister Strahl, he seemed surprised about the implementation of the current Food Mail program, with Canada Post as the national supervisor, which ran a tight ship in applying the criteria of the program. Could we now apply the criteria that we want to establish for the Nutrition North Canada program in the same way?
I'm not sure if that gives you a clearer idea of the issue. It will become clearer when we hear from the witnesses who have already applied the program criteria and those who want to do so today in order to make recommendations to the minister based on what the committee will decide.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Okay.
There was a slight difference in the interpretation of the question. In the English translation it indicates that, to pick it up partway through, “its members can study the program and the Committee can report its observations and recommendations to the House.” It seems that in the French version it is in fact intended and expected that the committee indeed report to the House. I would suggest to the committee that you might consider, if you're willing, to remove the second “can” in that. In other words, it would read “can study the program and the Committee report its observations and recommendations to the House.”
If that's acceptable, we can take that as an accepted amendment--not an amendment but a correction to the translation.
Is there agreement to do that?
3:45 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Okay. I think we've clarified that point.
I have another question for Mr. Lévesque. How many meetings will be required for this study? One meeting?
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
I think more than one. I would like to hear from the person who was responsible for the program at Canada Post. I would like all the members of the committee to hear those who were previously involved in the program. I would also like to hear from department officials. They will probably be able to clarify some things, but that might take a full meeting—just so that the officials can clarify everything.
We know the details of the old program. We talked so much about it that we know everything that went on with that program. Many changes have been made in the new program, so we will have to examine a lot of things. To be able to make a fair decision, we will have to know the ins and outs of the program. That may require two meetings, if not three.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Todd Russell Liberal Labrador, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly agree with what Mr. Lévesque has said. Certainly this is an important program for constituents in Labrador, throughout northern Quebec, and indeed the north, in places like the Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, of course, and in some of the northern regions of the provinces.
When I've had a chance to review the website that's referred to in INAC, not all the terms and conditions have been set out yet for that particular program. There are some facets of the program that are going to be finalized, as I understand it, before April 1, 2011, when the new program is supposed to come into force. It may be an opportune time to get in touch with departmental officials to see just when those terms and conditions are going to be made known to us, so we can give this a real hearing.
My second observation on this would be that this study is important and we should do it.
In terms of the timing of it, seeing that we still have our northern economic development study under consideration and we have a draft report, could we adopt this motion and then refer it to the steering committee for the timing of this particular study?
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Certainly the committee can do what it wishes. We can determine our own work plan on that basis, and we will need to discuss the whole work plan for the coming session. I would take it as a given that if this motion is adopted, we would consider it in addition to the other work we have in front of us. The committee can decide what the order of that would be.
I was particularly interested to know the number of meetings Mr. Lévesque was anticipating.
Let's go to Mr. Dreeshen.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you.
Just to comment on the number of meetings, as Mr. Lévesque has indicated, there is a lot of detail and there would be a lot of people. I would make the suggestion that if we're looking at three or four meetings, I think perhaps that would cover that.
The other aspect of this, and it's just a friendly amendment...Nutrition North Canada is the program. Do we want to put that into it? That's what's on the website. That's my suggestion, that we actually call it by its name.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
