Evidence of meeting #123 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infrastructure.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
Councillor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
Thank you.
In regard to what the mayor is saying, there has been no help whatsoever since this moratorium. We have the road built now. There's no funding for a restaurant to buy coffee and no hotels in Tuk. It's all B & Bs. We've had over 5,000 visitors. When I was driving out of Tuk, the day before yesterday, there was a 40-foot camper that was still trying to come to Tuk in -15°C and it's all whiteout now.
That being said, getting back to that moratorium, you basically handcuffed us in regard to anything that's going to go on—or no, sorry, whoever did it. I'm just saying it has to be lifted. We want to work. We want to be able to do good for our people.
In regard to the offshore, as the mayor said, we've been doing it since.... We were doing it in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. We were doing it before the east coast. That's where the action was happening in the 1980s, in Tuktoyaktuk. All the ice technology was done in Tuk. Now, all the icebreaker technology has been all over; that same hull is being designed now.
There are so many pieces to the puzzle. You can go back and say, “this, this and this”, but at the end of the day, we just need that moratorium lifted, to give our opportunity to us. You may not hear our territorial government beating the drum for us, saying that we need that lifted, but we do need it lifted for the people we represent, the people of Tuktoyaktuk. If you get the oil and gas going there, you're going to affect nine communities that surround Tuk.
The mayor of Churchill said we're going to affect nine communities. Even in Nunavut, from Kugluktuk on this side, they always came to Tuk to work because we had fly-in, fly-out. Yellowknife is just like a big vacuum. Yellowknife got their diamond mine, so everything is okay for them. They're okay. They have jobs. People in the smaller rural communities, in the Nunakput area and the coastline communities, they're the ones who are hurting. Our youth are hurting.
You guys have it pretty cushy down here, in regard to living. If you come up to Tuk and come visit, you'll see our youth. We need help from this government to lift that moratorium.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you.
Thank you for being here with us today.
I'll start with you, Mayor Gruben, if I could. One of the things you talked about was the challenges with siltation. Can you tell us a little about what that looks like? Is that happening because of climate change? You talked about needing to dredge it out. Could you just tell us a bit about what that would look like?
4:05 p.m.
Mayor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
With the siltation, that's natural. That has been happening as long as the rivers have been running. In the past, when the government used to run northern transportation, they'd dredge it constantly, at least every two, three or four years. They had their own dredges.
After the government slowly got out of it, they sold all that equipment, so nobody's doing it anymore.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
I represent a southern riding, and if it snows this much, everybody stays at home because they don't know what to do. I grew up in a more northern community, but that's the reality, and I do represent a lot of remote communities. To get their food and to get their resources, it's so expensive because you have to ship it out—it goes on boats and it goes on planes.
One of the things you talked about was that whole shipping part being such a challenge. When things have to be flown out to communities, how much more of a cost is put on those resources?
4:05 p.m.
Mayor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
—but it is at least double and sometimes triple.
You are familiar with these. In our day, it's worse.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
I really want to make sure that we understand this in the committee, because for you guys it's a reality. For so many of us here, we don't have a number to attribute to it. I want to make sure that when we do the report it's reflected really clearly. If you have any information on that, it would be helpful.
4:05 p.m.
Councillor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
In regard to the shipping, for four litres of milk in Sachs Harbour, say, you're probably paying about $24. In Inuvik, it's about $13. If you start flying it in now, supposedly no cost is going to get passed on to the customer; it's going to go to the territorial government.
They have planes parked in Inuvik hauling all the freight out of Inuvik right now, which is probably going to take about two to three weeks of straight flying—when they could have trucked it into Tuk before and had it shipped out two months earlier. They were too focused on their sailing time for the fuel. I'd say the increase in cost is probably between 30% and 40%.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
That's perfect. Thank you.
You also talked about the Coast Guard. I'm curious. I was in another committee, the national defence committee. We had different levels of the military, especially the navy, talking about tourists thinking that they can just go up there, that it's all melted and everything is good, but it's not, so search and rescue is dealing with that.
I'm wondering if you're experiencing any of that, because you talked about really needing the search and rescue and the Coast Guard there on the ground. Is that one of the issues you're dealing with?
4:05 p.m.
Mayor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
We have another pro here. He's with the rangers as well. They do a lot of search and rescue.
4:05 p.m.
Councillor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
Last year, we had 23 sailboats come into Tuk harbour.
4:05 p.m.
Councillor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
Some of them were coming all the way from the Bahamas and passing through.
On the Coast Guard aspect of it, they are starting a Coast Guard auxiliary, but we're not there yet. They're just getting their boats started and stuff like that. All power to them, and I wish them all the best, but I've been in the Canadian Rangers for 20-some years now. I'm the sergeant back home. We do all the search and rescue with the RCMP and work hand in hand to get stuff like that done.
4:05 p.m.
Mayor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
Yes. They do all the search and rescue, not the Coast Guard.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
That's interesting.
You talked about being left out of the consultation process and how you don't even really know what that looks like. From your perspective, what would a meaningful consultation process actually look like?
4:05 p.m.
Mayor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
Yes, that's what we've been calling for. If we'd had any say, we would never have closed it, because we were working on a lot of stuff on the offshore at the time. Then to just blanket the whole Arctic.... That was a crazy thing to do. The government owes it to us to open it up now and at least start training. We have to train our people.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
How do you think a consultation process would actually be more meaningful? I understand you're saying that this is what you want, but just not having it happen.... What would you have expected to see happen?
4:05 p.m.
Mayor, Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk
Well, come to our community and hear what our people have to say.
