Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the record, my name is David Bob, and I am the vice-president for Northern Territories Federation of Labour. With me is Ms. Sandra Lockhart, the regional vice-president for Tlicho/Somba k'e.
On behalf of the more than 9,200 members of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour I would like to thank you for providing this opportunity to express our views on part 4 of Bill C-15.
The NTFL is comprised of many different unions representing workers from a full range of occupations in both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. We have been chartered with the Canadian Labour Congress since May 1980 and are dedicated to ensuring the protection of both organized and unorganized workers' rights.
At the outset, it is important to state that we are concerned that only one day of meetings has been scheduled and that the meetings are only in Yellowknife. Bill C-15 is very important legislation that fundamentally changes how we operate in the Northwest Territories. While it is generous of you to have provided financial assistance for travel to Yellowknife, there are many other effectively silenced voices in our territory that also deserve the opportunity to be heard.
Bill C- 15 should really be split into two distinct bills that can be debated and voted on separately. Combining devolution legislation with amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is a tortured exercise and one not worthy of a government wishing to be transparent and democratic. While some may quibble over the details and outcomes of devolution, that part of the bill will probably earn general consent from the people of the NWT.
The part of the bill that completely disrupts our existing regulatory system, however, is sure to elicit substantial adverse reactions. The intent of devolution is to transfer greater authority over land and resource decisions to the north and northerners, but we do not believe this would be achieved by the proposed changes to the regulatory regime contained in part 4 of the bill.
To make it perfectly clear, our primary concern is with the proposed elimination of regional boards. In our opinion and the opinion of what we believe is the majority of the people in the regions of the NWT, creating one mega-board will only allow greater outside political interference in the development decision-making and will adversely affect working people in the Northwest Territories.
Jobs are the essential driving force of the local economy in our communities. Many in the outlying communities continue to suffer from impacts of the current recession. Good well-paying jobs are very hard to come by. We are not arguing that regional boards should be operated solely as a make-work project, but we argue that some of the professed savings that are claimed to result from the creation of the mega-board are at the clear and direct expense of the economies and local communities where the regional boards now reside. The loss of these local jobs takes money out of the community. That in turn impacts local often struggling businesses that rely on these consumers' dollars.
We believe that these harmful effects have not been given the weight they deserve in the drive to centralize regulatory affairs in a mega-board far from the communities its decisions affect. The development of a mega-board based in Yellowknife will surely limit the regional input, reducing people's sense that they have a meaningful say in decisions that will affect their very way of life today and forever.
Consultation and effective democratic control over development decisions are being sacrificed in the drive for some ephemeral efficiency that may or may not be achieved through the workings of Bill C-15. Though quick decision-making may help a proponent get a faster response to the proposal, it does little help to ensure that the decisions are in the wider public interest. The Northern Territories Federation of Labour believes that the timeline provided for Bill C-15 places undue hardship on the individuals who represent their regions.
An average person's ability to fully understand the language contained within a proponent's proposal may be challenging at times. The burden this places on a board member to efficiently and fully communicate the nature of the proponent's proposal to the members of his or her community is difficult. Also, to gather and represent the region's concerns can be very challenging. Making their job harder by imposing arbitrary, unrealistic, or unnecessary deadlines is counterproductive.
In particular, those who sit on the new mega-board would face increased challenges in the collection of information if they represent regions that do not have fibre optic and high-speed connectivity. It is well-known that communities outside of Yellowknife that transmit signals through means other than fibre optic cable, and this is most of them, have regular interruptions of service. The lack of reliable communication infrastructure in much of the NWT makes emailing a risky business with many outages and dropped messages.
Communications problems are compounded by the seasonal nature of winter roads and the closure of highways and airports due to weather. Even mail service cannot be counted on at all times in the NWT. These are the realities that northern members of boards and agencies deal with day in and day out.
Having board facilities, services, and meetings in Yellowknife will greatly reduce the smooth and reliable flow of information, both inwards and outwards. The very attendance of board members and their ability to stand and speak for the concerns of those who reside within their regions are jeopardized by moving decision-making out of their communities and regions.