Evidence of meeting #11 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was development.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's certainly an honour for me to return to the aboriginal affairs and northern development committee. I served here a number of years ago. We had an opportunity to go into the territories to look at some of the barriers to development in the north when we did a study there, and of course we had a chance to speak with a lot of different aboriginal leaders.
In regard to one of the things in the deck that was given out, page 8 shows that we have 57 new aboriginal companies that have been created in the last 15 years. I think one of the things that we want to talk about are the opportunities that exist, not only for the large mining companies and for oil and gas exploration but also for local individual groups throughout the north. I know that I certainly appreciated that, and in some of the discussions we had with individuals, I met some amazing aboriginals that...quite frankly, when I came back down to the south, I said that if you want to find some CEOs to run your companies, those are the people, because they understand the types of things that are needed. I'm sure that many of them are working in these 57 companies that we've spoken of here.
My background is in education. One of the key aspects is the training. It's the aspect that is significant there. I know that various companies have looked at different training models. That's one of the issues I want to talk about. Also, earlier, Mr. Regan mentioned the size of the Northwest Territories. When my family came, the Northwest Territories was much larger. That was in 1903, so area-wise there are some changes that have taken place.
I'd like to acknowledge the contributions of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to regulatory improvement, including those we studied when we looked at Neil McCrank's study of regulatory regimes in the north. In CAPP's submission to Mr. McCrank, it suggested that the boards in the Mackenzie Valley be consolidated, which is, as you know, a feature of this bill.
Could you speak to how this proposed approach, along with others such as the time limits, can enhance the investment climate in the Northwest Territories?
Vice-President, External Relations, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
As I mentioned in my talk, we look at the opportunity for increased certainty in the process as a real positive step.
On the consolidation of the boards—and some of our projects in the past have been linear projects and things like that, which cover more than one region—you can see that a larger board would have more consistency in being able to approach that kind of an opportunity. Also, by virtue of the timelines themselves, it adds more certainty to when a decision can come forward.
Those two things in themselves offer I think a step in the right direction towards having a greater sense of confidence in the process.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you.
Of course, being new, I haven't had a chance to go through Bill C-15 in as much detail. However, when we were there, we did talk to folks from the Yukon. Many modern and efficient regulatory systems and settled land claims have resulted in tremendous success in the Yukon since 2003.
Also, of course, there's a wealth of oil and gas deposits in the Northwest Territories. I was just wondering what your level of confidence is in the potential of Bill C-15 to unlock the Northwest Territories' petroleum resources.
Vice-President, External Relations, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
That's speculating a little bit on the economic opportunity. That has to be evaluated. We have to evaluate it through the process of exploration to determine the quality of the resource and then assess the overall cost structure to come to terms with its overall viability. It would be a little bit premature to predict how much of that will come to fruition in the near term.
Certainly the first step in the process is to support the exploration phase, to facilitate the timely programming going on to do the evaluation work. That is the first step, particularly in the current work in the Mackenzie Valley.
So to the extent that the processes that are put forward to do the reviews of those projects as they come forward are well defined, timely, and thorough, with defined outcomes for timelines, I think that's all very positive to support the exploration activity.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Mr. Dreeshen.
I want to thank our witnesses for coming. We know that you have busy lives and important things to be doing, so we appreciate that you took the time to spend part of the afternoon with us. We know that you travelled to be here, and we certainly appreciate that.
Colleagues, we'll suspend for a moment and go into committee business when we return.
[Proceedings continue in camera]