Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on March 18th, 2010

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Strahl, for coming in today.

Being from a first nation myself and watching the 2010 Olympics and seeing the participation of the first nations, aboriginals across Canada, I think that was paramount in bringing Canada together more.

We see the Paralympics taking place as well, and the participation of first nations communities. My foster brother is from one of the communities that participated in the opening ceremonies in Vancouver, B.C.

I am experiencing quite a bit of pride. I never actually got to go to Vancouver, but watching the opening ceremonies and seeing the participation of the first nations I think gave the world a different perspective of first nations and how proud a culture we have. With the music, the hospitality, and the culture that was showcased in Vancouver, the world got to see an aspect of specifically Vancouver in the light of participation and how closely the communities can work together even though we all come from different backgrounds.

With the four first nation communities in Vancouver, what type of legacy has been left as a result of the Olympics and Paralympics?

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

That's a great question. I was there when the torch came in. The torch ended up at the aboriginal pavilion. That was its final spot before it went into the stadium, and I was there with the four host first nations when the torch came in. I don't know if it's the right expression or not, but I thought they were going to pop all the buttons on their vests.

They were so proud, and understandably so, of the part they played. It was not only at the Olympics, of course. The torch had gone through more than 100 aboriginal communities across the country. We helped to pay for an aboriginal youth gathering that brought kids in from all across the country. They were part of the opening ceremonies. They did leadership training and so on that went with it.

As you mentioned, the four host first nations did a spectacular job of integrating not only the west coast culture, but.... I think people, whether it was Inuit carvings and culture or food.... Different days of the pavilion had different food, different emphasis, and so on. It was really spectacular. I think we all felt that as Canadians.

I was particularly proud for the aboriginal people, who I think felt for the first time that they were included. Not only were they included in the proposal to host the Olympics and in the planning for the Olympics, but they actually hosted the Olympics. What a change from what both of us probably grew up on. It's quite a change in attitude.

Each of the four host first nations ended up with a significant legacy fund. We helped pay for certain things in each of the four host first nations to help them take advantage of the economic opportunities. It was a little different in each of the communities, but certainly there was an economic emphasis in all of them, both on promotion of tourism and on economic development opportunities. I think some $50 million or $60 million in aboriginal procurement happened during the games.

We funded everything from people to help with tourism aspects to.... Anything we could do to help, basically, we rolled out to try to maximize that. As Tewanee Joseph said when he welcomed people there, when the torch finally came in, he just said it was.... Everything had been done top-notch. They feel it's been a launch for opportunities. Again, it was one of those watershed moments, an opportunity for them to host the world and show the world what they're all about.

For example, the Squamish First Nation has $1 billion worth of development on the books now. The other communities, whether Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, or Lil'wat, are all thinking about world-class, big opportunities for aboriginal people. Tewanee Joseph was a wonderful spokesperson, but the message you'll get from all the chiefs there as well is “If we can host the world, then surely we can overcome whatever problems we have here in Canada and show the world we can do this, not just during the Olympic year but non-stop”. It's going to be a great legacy, not just for the four host first nations but I think for aboriginal people across the country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Mr. Clarke.

Minister, thank you again for coming and spending a little bit of extra time with us here today. I know there were a couple of items for follow-up, and as I say, your department's always great about getting back to us on that.

We know we have a bill that will be here at some point in the not too distant future. I'm sure we'll have you back as our opening witness for that. We wish you well for the rest of your afternoon and for the weekend.

[Chuck Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Merci. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We'll take a two-minute suspension, members, and then we'll resume immediately after.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay, members. We'll continue.

I've invited Ms. Jauvin. We really just had the minister prepared with opening comments today, but since the deputy minister for the agency is here with us today, perhaps we'll hear some opening comments, and then we'll go directly to the same questioning list that we had originally.

I have Ms. Crowder up next. Let's go with just a few opening comments, if you will, and then we can pick up those other questions at the same time.

[Nicole Jauvin, Deputy Minister and President, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency]

I did not prepare any remarks separate from those of the minister. At CanNor, we have made what I would call considerable progress.

I think you will recall our priorities from the get-go--you may not recall, but I certainly recall--and the first one was we needed to ensure we were delivering, that there was a smooth transition in the program delivery, and we've continued to do that. I can go into a little bit more detail perhaps later on in the question period with respect to some of the progress we've made on our programs.

I'm proud to say that in this first year, a transition year, we've committed 98% of our funding, and we anticipate we will have spent 80% of it in this fiscal year. So that's something we were very focused on and I'm very pleased to say we've accomplished. We're also busy setting up the agency. Essentially all the foundation pieces are either in place or about to be in place, and our report on plans and priorities has been tabled through the minister and we're very pleased with that.

We also have an integrated business plan, which we are starting to put the final touches to. It's a three-year plan, which will drive our business over the next while.

We also have an HR strategy, which is especially important for CanNor because we want to be very representative of the people we serve, so we have the strategy and we're starting to implement it.

We have a plan to move. The headquarters are established in Iqaluit, but we need to move more people there over time, and that is of course dependent on having accommodation in Iqaluit. Those of you who visited Iqaluit last fall will know that, first of all, accommodation is very tight and we are now sharing with INAC, but we do have a request for a proposal for appropriate accommodation for CanNor headquarters over the next little while and we're hoping to have results. This is all managed by Public Works.

We also had undertaken to launch the northern project management office as soon as possible. This is going to be launched in the coming weeks, as we undertook to do. We're very excited about this, because we think there's potential for this project management office to really make a difference, first of all, to proponents who are trying to navigate the regulatory system in terms of all the permits and the environmental steps they have to go through with respect to their projects. Having situated this office at CanNor allows us to, wearing our economic development hat, see what linkages we could make in terms of economic development and how we can make economic development opportunities available to communities in the context of these projects. So that is happening in the next little while.

The last thing is we have been working really hard to build relationships across the north. As I was saying the last time, Michel, my vice-president, and I were both new to the north, so we needed to build relationships, but we're very thankful that most of the staff across the regional offices are northerners and have been established in the north for a long time, so they had great working relationships with people in the north and that has been very helpful to us. So we're continuing to build these relationships.

We're also building linkages into the federal government, because we realize we may have a certain amount of money to spend, which we're happily spending, but we need to ensure that we take advantage of the fact that the federal government as a whole is spending quite a bit of money in the north. So our role is to ensure that we can develop opportunities based on all this other funding that's being committed in the north and ensure that our agency can help communities, help territorial governments, aboriginal and Inuit groups take advantage not only of our spending, but the spending of the federal government as a whole across the north.

This capacity is something we need to develop, but I think that potentially we can have a very powerful impact.

I will stop there. Sorry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

No, there's no need to apologize. That was a good update.

[Nicole Jauvin]

It's exciting work, and it's hard to stop once you start talking. I apologize.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Of course.

Let's go to Ms. Crowder now, for five minutes, followed by Mr. Rickford and then Mr. Martin.

Go ahead, Ms. Crowder.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Thank you.

I want to come back to the question I asked the minister about the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

In the supplementary estimates, under the major specific initiatives, it says:

The number of students claiming sexual and/or serious physical abuse and the severity of abuse has proved to be much higher than initially estimated, resulting in total projected payments in 2009-10 to exceed the $160 million annual allocation.

We know that in the subsequent budget, additional money was allocated around the payout of Indian residential school settlement money. The 2009 report that the department commissioned acknowledged that research has shown that it takes ten years of continuous healing efforts before a community is securely established in healing from the Indian residential school trauma. The report goes on to say that in some communities, in particular in the Inuit projects, the healing process was delayed due to the later start of the age of projects for Inuit.

It seems the government acknowledges that more people are applying for payment or getting payment through the dispute resolution process, that the department's own evaluation of the programs indicated that they are successful, that there were some delayed starts, and that the healing needs to continue. That report also indicates that the Health Canada support programs are designed to provide specific services that are complementary to, but different from, those of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

What steps will the department take to ensure that there are no serious gaps or implications for these communities that have already started on a healing journey and are going to see funds withdrawn? In fact, just to close, in the AHF's report that the minister mentioned, which was tabled in the House, 23% of the projects estimate that they are not going to be able to continue to function without the money and another 56% are unsure of their future.

In light of the apology and the recognition that payments are still needed, what steps are you taking to ensure that there are no serious repercussions for communities?

[Colleen Swords]

Could I ask if the report you're referring to is the evaluation of the work?

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Yes. That's the evaluation for the period of April 2007 to 2009, and it was commissioned by the department.

[Colleen Swords]

Right.

I think the report indicates that the Aboriginal Healing Foundation does a lot of good work. There's no question about that, and we certainly thank them for it.

The original intention for the funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation for matters related to the residential schools was that it would be somewhat time-limited. The obligation that we have in the settlement agreement relates to providing assistance and emotional and mental health supports. Our expectation is that the existing facilities that Health Canada provides will be able to provide that help and support to those who may need it.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I'm sorry to interject, but how do you know that? You're making an assumption. Your own document indicates Health Canada's services are not the same as those of AHF.

[Colleen Swords]

That's a document produced by evaluators and provided to the department, so in effect it's a judgment that they have provided. It's not ours--

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But how do you know that Health Canada's services are going to pick up the slack?

[Colleen Swords]

Well, Health Canada did get additional funds in the budget. They got an additional $65.9 million over two years.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But again, obviously there's some dispute on whether those numbers are sufficient. I want to know what the evidence is. Where is the evidence that what you're proposing is going to fill the gap when these healing centres close? What's the evidence that you've based your decision on?

[Colleen Swords]

The healing centres themselves won't be closing right away. The 12 healing centres across the country will continue.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But the projects will close.

[Colleen Swords]

It's specific projects that were funded. Not all of the projects are funded entirely by the federal government. Some of them obtain funding from other organizations. So that will be the question in the first instance: can they find and locate funding elsewhere? But the second thing is that Health Canada got additional funds in the budget—it's in the budget documents—and they will be making sure that the necessary emotional and mental supports are provided.

The program is about halfway through now; it's not at its initial phase. Things are not at the point where everything still has to be done. It is partway through.

So that is the plan and that's the expectation: that Health Canada will be able to assist, that the aboriginal healing centres themselves continue. So it's just really the project funding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Ms. Swords.

Before we go to Mr. Rickford, I also want to recognize Madame Marie-José Bourassa,

who is the Director General, Corporate Services, and Chief Financial Officer.

It's great to have you here today. Thank you very much.

Let's go to Mr. Rickford for five minutes.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is a question about the funding for the north—obviously coming above 60 degrees north, even though my own riding is pretty north and borders the north. This 2010 budget is really part two of Canada's economic action plan rolled out in 2009 and is having tremendous success across Canada but has particularly benefited ridings with vast space and needed infrastructure, in the wake of more than a decade of, in my view—

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Darkness.