Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 29th, 2020

[Sébastien Michel]

Being a Quebec-based airline, we didn't profit from that. However, we have been receiving help from the Quebec government. So far, we have reduced our operation by a large amount, by 50%. Right now, we are able to provide a very good, essential service to the communities. However, it's not going to last. We have to secure the next months ahead, very soon.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I have only about a minute and a half left and I—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

No, you haven't. Actually, you have less than that.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Oh, I do. I have only 15 seconds left, so I'll just say thank you.

I would love if the witnesses could provide any comments on how they could be involved in the recovery, how indigenous business could be involved, when we get there.

Chair, thank you for allowing me to ask that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

That's a great question.

Ms. Bérubé, you have six minutes.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, everyone. I want to thank all the witnesses for their participation and, more importantly, for their testimony.

My name is Sylvie Bérubé, and I am the member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou. I will put a question to Sébastien Michel, the director of flight operations at Air Inuit.

The airline companies in my riding are very important. Can you tell me what measures are being implemented by Air Inuit to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Nunavik?

[Sébastien Michel]

Good morning, Ms. Bérubé.

Measures are being implemented by the Nunavik Regional Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee, NREPAC, which operates in Nunavik. Right now, I am being told that Nunavik is closed to all air transportation. Authorization is required to travel to Nunavik. Air Inuit obtains that authorization from public safety.

Measures are implemented for travellers. Those include distancing inside aircraft. Aircraft capacity is at about 30% for travellers. All operations have been brought back to Air Inuit's technical centre. We have a room for passengers that can hold 150 individuals. Questionnaires are filled out on site and people don't need to go to the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport terminal, for example.

The situation is the same in the north. Distancing is the most important measure used to limit the spread. We have implemented measures even within our crews. For example, the same crews always work together. Changes to crews are no longer being made. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the same crews have been staying together and working together over the course of an entire month. That is one way to limit the spread. So far, I think we have managed not to contaminate Nunavik. To date, I don't think there have been any deaths caused by COVID-19 in Nunavik, although there have been 14 cases, all of whom have recovered.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Michel.

Regarding the impact of the pandemic on your company's financial health, so far, have the federal government's economic measures been adapted to your needs?

[Sébastien Michel]

Unless I am mistaken, we have not had access to the federal government's measures so far. We are hoping that the next measures implemented will help our company make Nunavik safe.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

When it comes to the post-pandemic phase and a return to a semblance of normal life, are you concerned about a drop in service for Nunavik and the North Shore in terms of airline transportation?

[Sébastien Michel]

Yes, absolutely. It is very difficult to predict how people will resume their travel activities. A balance must be established between profitable operations and regular flight service in order to provide good service. If the number of passengers drops dramatically—for example, by 95%, as is currently the case—it will become impossible to provide frequent flights in certain communities.

In particular, I am thinking of Canada Post and mail transportation. If not all the communities can be served daily, certain services, even government ones, will be affected. So a balance must be struck between flight frequency, the number of passengers and the work available. By promoting initiatives to enable work and economic growth, the authorities will help businesses achieve profits, which will be used to provide the communities with all the services.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

That is very clear. According to what you are saying, indigenous communities in the north can expect the cost of airline tickets to increase.

[Sébastien Michel]

Yes, and they can also expect a drop in flight frequency, which will have a big impact on their life.

There is no denying that communities' social and economic growth cannot occur without aviation. Many northern communities are completely isolated from the rest of the world, except perhaps when they have a ship dock once a year or get visited by a risk-taking snowmobiler.

So the Northern Air Transport Association really wants to send a message that northern operators must receive immediate and ongoing financial support. What is more, the opportunity could be used to organize the network, so that southern Canada's major companies would not compete too much with local northern companies that provide an absolutely essential service to many communities. Companies are competing in a number of Canadian regions—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We're quite a bit over time, Mr. Michel. Pardon me for interrupting.

We'll go to our next questioner for six minutes. From the NDP, we have Ms. Gazan.

Please go ahead. You have six minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My respected colleague, Ms. Qaqqaq, will be taking the second half.

My first question is for Shannin Metatawabin.

We know that subsection 89(1) of the Indian Act prevents first nations from using property on reserve as collateral. We also know that access to equity and capital is a barrier for indigenous businesses. This is especially the case during COVID-19.

Do you feel that the government has adequately responded to indigenous businesses in terms of being able to access equity and capital during this time of extreme financial insecurity?

[Shannin Metatawabin]

I think the announcement that the Prime Minister made more than a month ago is a good start. We wanted more flexibility. We wanted the ability to provide more capital to some businesses and less to others and to not have this paintbrush of $40,000 applied throughout, but we're going to work with what we have.

I think that, as a general function, the government is supposed to enable the market capital to be attracted. We lack capital for business, but we also lack capital for houses and for infrastructure, and I think it's really important that the government recognize that we're dealing with a major crisis, like after the war, where we have to create tools to attract private sector capital to ensure that we can get back to business. It's important for the government to work with us to develop these tools so that we can attract and build these partnerships we've started to attract.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you very much. I have another question for you.

Indigenous tourism, as you know, is the fastest-growing industry within Canadian tourism, but it is the most vulnerable because it's the newest industry, and of course we're currently in a pandemic. Have the programs that have been rolled out so far met the needs of indigenous tourism? If not, could you explain some of the gaps for the committee?

[Shannin Metatawabin]

I think some of the biggest gaps are support for larger types of businesses. Indigenous people own large hotels and other services that are related to transportation, as you've heard, and they've been left out of any sort of support. Forty thousand dollars per business is not going to get us very far. It might take us to four or six months, but beyond that we have to have a better plan. We just don't understand enough about how long this is going to last, but we're already starting to talk about what we are going to need to do and what we need to have in place in order to take this beyond the six-month threshold.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Okay, thank you. That brings me to my next question in regard to tourism.

Some of the estimates show that indigenous tourism expects to lose 48% of its business permanently across Canada, and this means about 900 of the 1,875 total indigenous tourism businesses. Do you believe there should be a recovery plan for indigenous tourism in order to keep the jobs in these businesses? I just want to add [Technical difficulty—Editor] indigenous communities with high rates of unemployment, sometimes as high as 95%, so knowing this in that context, I want to hear your thoughts about that.

[Shannin Metatawabin]

I think the tourism industry has come to a standstill. A lot of businesses have already closed down. They are really one of the major areas and industries on which we have seen a negative impact. NACCA has supported 47,000 loans and a majority of those are for those businesses you referred to, so our members and our businesses are going to be severely impacted. It's important that we work together to ensure that we save them and then grow them after we're done.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you very much.

My next question is for Sébastien Michel.

With a push from the NDP, the government agreed to increase the amount of the wage subsidy to 75%, and it will be available to businesses for only up to 24 weeks and is set to expire soon. I know that your organization recently wrote a letter to the Prime Minister calling for an extension of this program. Can you explain how extending the wage subsidy would help the northern air transport industry?

[Sébastien Michel]

As I mentioned, the objective is to stabilize as much as possible the operations of the northern operators in the coming weeks and months. As I was saying, many of the operators had significant expenses throughout the winter or they invested through the winter and have huge overheads right now that they cannot substantially reduce. That's why it's important that the program be carried over. I was mentioning that some labour needs to be kept. Navigating people and maintenance people need to be kept, so that's the issue.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We're right at the time, Ms. Gazan.

Now we go to a five-minute round of questioners. We have Mr. Schmale, Mr. Battiste, Mr. Viersen and Ms. Zann.

For five minutes, Jamie Schmale, please go ahead.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair. I appreciate the testimony from all the witnesses.

I have a question for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Ms. Bull.

Can you tell us, given your feedback, as we get through this pandemic and as businesses slowly start to open, how long you feel it will take for businesses like restaurants and those kinds of things to fully get to the point where they are able to cover their expenses and survive, so to speak?