Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on March 30th, 2010

[Paul Quassa]

I can say that when we're developing a land use plan, we talk with all the stakeholders: planning partners, Nunavut municipalities, Inuit organizations, the Government of Nunavut, the Government of Canada, industry, non-government, environmental organizations. All these are full partners in identifying what types of lands are going to be used for what and what areas are not going to be used for any development.

Right now a consultation process is going on here in Ottawa with all the federal departments, whether it's Environment Canada, Transport, DND. All of them are here, meeting with our colleagues. I think we try to involve everybody.

If I understood your question correctly, I don't see any problem in that area.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Where do you identify the problems in coming to a conclusion on a land use plan?

[Paul Quassa]

Again, it's the monetary sources that slow us down a lot. In some cases, it's slowing us down when we don't have enough resources.

As Marg had stated earlier, we're operating on a 1993 budget that hasn't changed since. It's the monetary issue that slows us down.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

You really haven't had the debate over land quantums for protected areas—

[Paul Quassa]

No, not that I know of.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

—not like in the Northwest Territories.

[Paul Quassa]

No.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay. Thank you.

Do I have some more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

You have one minute and a bit, Mr. Bevington.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay.

Mr. Edjericon, when you talk about having sufficient resources to conduct environmental assessments, what's the present state of that in terms of your board, the expertise on your board to conduct the environmental assessments going forward: the staffing, the expertise that you might have within your operation to do that?

[Richard Edjericon]

Thank you, Mr. Bevington.

Right now, we have a staff of around 15 people in our office. We have people who are very educated in their fields, and scientists, in a lot of ways, bringing a project to our table and breaking it down into plain language so that the trappers, business people, and everybody we have around the table can understand it.

It's important that we have people like that around the table working for us. It makes our job easier when we have to make decisions on very important files. We've always encouraged staff like that, who are educated, but sometimes they are really hard to find and we have to find them wherever they are in Canada. It's important that we have scientists like that on our staff.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Mr. Bevington and witnesses. We have time for only two brief questions, maybe two minutes each, from Mr. Duncan and then Mr. Bagnell. After that, we'll take a brief recess.

Go ahead, Mr. Duncan.

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

Are you're sure we can't have three and a half minutes each?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

No, two minutes, right on the nose.

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

I want to go to the financing question. I was hoping to get an answer from each of the boards and commissions.

Paul Quassa, you're talking about the 1993 formula. What is the anticipation going forward in terms of revision of your financing? Is it not conceivable, possible, or probable that the Government of Nunavut will want that activity and sphere to operate efficiently, for multiple reasons, and they will prioritize that it should be funded to get to the desired objective; or is it somehow constrained from doing so? That's my question.

[Paul Quassa]

Maybe I'll get Marg to reply. She's our economic adviser.

[Marg Epp]

I'm not sure what the role of the GN would have to do with that. We work directly with INAC on the funding issues. Every year, we are asked to put together a budget. We put together a needs-based budget, and then they turn around and tell us, “Well, you have x number of dollars that you can spend this year.” So I'm not sure what the point of that process is, because we're consistently $1.5 million short.

Going forward here, the draft of the land use plan is going to be done this year. As the land use plan gets implemented, we will be reorganizing to some degree. Our focus will then change from creating the land use plan to implementing and monitoring it, which needs a reorganization of our staff and dollars in different places.

When you add the extra layer of NUPPAA onto that and the implementation that we have to follow through on, based on what NUPPAA requires us to do, we're way short. We're $2.5 million to $3 million short, because we have to create the public registry. We have to add additional staff, because then it's going to be very heavy on conformity determination versus creation. So we're very short on funding in terms of moving forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much, Ms. Epp and Mr. Duncan.

Let's go to Mr. Bagnell for two minutes.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Just on a point Mr. Rickford brought up, if there were 3,000 units in Nunavut—just to point out the shortage—if they got $200 million of the $300 million, that would be only $67,000 a house. I was on a reserve in Vancouver on the weekend and the chief told me it was $140,000 a house. I know it left a huge majority of the housing still to be done.

That's why I hope they have a new program. There was a big scandal when the minister said it was for aboriginal people, and then they flowed it through another government. That was a huge scandal in my riding. Hopefully that's not repeated.

My question is about appointments to boards. I only raise it because this isn't the first time we've heard about it. We've heard about it all over the place, and I'm worried that the minister is saying he's going to cut the number of people on boards. I'm worried about someone's representation, or as you said earlier, quorum or any of these things.

Have you heard of any cuts to boards in the north in your areas, or even in other boards? Or are there problems with boards not being filled? Anyone.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We'll start with Mr. Edjericon, and we'll go across the panel.

[Richard Edjericon]

Thank you, Mr. Bagnell.

Because the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act was created as a result of land claims in the Northwest Territories, there's an obligation there by Canada, and a constitutional obligation as well. So in terms of appointments to the board or anything like that, we don't see.... I think it's status quo as usual. I'll leave it there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Quassa, do you have any comment on that, whether you've heard of any such reductions?

[Paul Quassa]

No. Again, our land claims agreement is constitutionally protected. It's already identified as to how many board members or commissions or any other IPGs we'll have.

Nothing can change until it's amended. The amendment process is such that the Inuit and the federal government have to agree first before any amendments can be taken.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Finally, Mr. Overvold, is there any indication there for you?

[Robert Overvold]

No. We're just looking quickly at the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the actual land claim agreement. We seem to be safe.