Evidence of meeting #81 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 provincial.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Director General, Sector Operations Branch, Regional Operations Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I don't have that number, but we can certainly provide it to the committee.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
Okay.
We look forward to expanding on what was positive, what was negative, how it needs to be improved, and how it could be more culturally sensitive. Some of the participants indicated that actually DND had been involved in the past and was actually more effective. Everyone has an opinion, but this year was particularly hard on those Manitoba communities.
I appreciate your indulgence in letting me ask you some questions. If the committee is engaged in this, I do have Cathy wishing to ask a question, and I see Mike wanting to. Then T.J. wanted to—
Do we wish to extend the meeting?
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Madam Chair, I thought we actually had it booked for two hours.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
Madam Chair, in light of your intervention, what we would propose is to skip our round this time and maybe go to Cathy. Then we'll continue.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
The clerk and I were of the impression that it was a one-hour meeting.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Bossio Liberal Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
It was two hours. It was Cathy who actually raised that as a concern.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Bossio Liberal Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
There was something both Kevin and I had asked that we didn't get an answer to. I was hoping that maybe Indigenous Services could provide it. What is the number of communities that have an emergency plan in place today in indigenous communities—
12:05 p.m.
Director General, Sector Operations Branch, Regional Operations Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I think that will come out in the inventory that's being done in collaboration with Public Safety. I must say that a couple of years ago we had inventoried this, and it was 100%, and the department had funded them.
I'll add one thing. It's important that the emergency plan be drafted by the community, so that they are identifying risk. It's not just the document that's important, but it's the whole process around identifying the risk in the community, having a plan in place, and having people understand and exercise the plan, so that when something happens you know what to do.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
Okay.
We're going to start over. It's now going to MP Cathy McLeod.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't perceive that we'll go the whole two hours, but at least another round, because there are still some unasked questions.
From what I hear, having someone from the first nation community in the emergency operations centre was enormously beneficial. I'd like to get a sense of how common that is, in your understanding.
Also, it was unique when they were in some of the traditional territory of one of our communities, and with the chief, they did some cultural activities with the firefighters from Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. Is that a common thing?
Third, you're talking about a review process. I'd really like to understand what that review process is going to be and how coordinated it will be in terms of the federal government. Is it incident by incident? Can you describe how you're going to review the positives and negatives from the issues throughout the country?
12:10 p.m.
Director General, Sector Operations Branch, Regional Operations Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
On your first two questions, that is not a level of detail that I have at my disposal. I trust that if I went to our regional offices, we could gather that information in terms of how often it is that we have first nations embedded in the operation centres, and when there are cultural exchanges, how often that occurs. We can get back to the committee with that information.
Regarding the review process, again, it is jurisdiction by jurisdiction. If you'd like, I could speak to the B.C. approach.
12:10 p.m.
Director General, Sector Operations Branch, Regional Operations Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
There are three things happening in particular. One is regional meetings with the leadership of affected communities to gather lessons learned, what worked and what did not. Second, B.C. has hired someone, with INAC support, to meet with each of the communities individually to get that input and go in-depth so that we don't lose anything of what has worked well and what did not from the community's perspective. Third, in January, the provincial government is bringing together all players in terms of first nations, affected or not, to have a discussion around that. The idea is to have recommendations to a governance committee made up of provincial officials, senior provincial officials, senior federal officials, as well as first nations leadership so that they have recommendations coming out of the lessons learned.
To me, that is the way a good lessons learned process should be done, where you systematically build it up and come up with something you can do about what has occurred. Then we have decisions to make regarding what we do about the recommendations.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
In British Columbia in particular, we had the pine beetle. There was an enormous amount of fuel on the ground. I know that our first nation communities were talking about the need for community protection, barricades, and mitigation efforts.
In what you've presented here, for the department this year, it looks like $34 million, but with $12.5 million spent on mitigation, it doesn't seem as though we're in good balance there. We respond to crises, but we're spending very meagre amounts in terms of what actually might have made a difference.
Was that $12.5 million a year versus the $34 million? Could we talk a little about that piece?
12:10 p.m.
Director General, Sector Operations Branch, Regional Operations Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
These are recent investments. In the last few years, we've been investing significantly in terms of mitigation and preparedness per se.
That came out of an Auditor General report. They noted that we had spent $4 million over four years on mitigation, whereas the cost of our response and recovery was, at the time, on average, $30 million. This year, we're up to $100 million in response and recovery cost alone; last year, $80 million; and the year before that, $80 million. That response and recovery cost is significant, so we have been investing more. We've spent $30 million over three years, in terms of mitigation, just on the non-structural and preparedness type of measures, not including what we're doing with the provinces, which is an additional $19 million for emergency management service agreements, so that's something.
There are also investments being made through budget 2016 on structural mitigation in communities. There was $40 million in the previous budget; 2014, $40 million over five years; and in budget 2016, an additional $25 million over two years.
That said, we can always invest more in mitigation. The important thing is to identify the risk and seek to mitigate it, to try to reduce the risk of disasters occurring. In the old adage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.