Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 18th, 2021

[National Chief Elmer St. Pierre]

Just like my other colleagues here and the ones before...it's unforeseen weather. Maybe the airplanes are heading up to northern Manitoba and all of a sudden there's a big rainstorm or whatever coming in and they can't get there. That's a problem. Those people in northern Manitoba may have to wait for a week before the weather clears up so these airplanes can fly again. If there was a way for them to go by boat...but with a lot of the rivers up through there, you're looking at canoes, so you can't put very much food in there.

It's always been an issue for the northern people, because most of the time they can't get the proper fruits and vegetables that the young kids and adults need. Then with the restrictions of COVID-19—well, COVID-19 now, but prior to that....

Most of our families cannot hunt or fish. Back in the day when I was a kid, my dad and my uncles all went out and hunted and fished. I'm not going to say they didn't do it the right way, but that's how we survived in the winter time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Elmer, we'll leave it at that.

I'm sorry, Ms. Blaney, we're over time.

[National Chief Elmer St. Pierre]

That's okay, Bob.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Maybe hovercraft....

We'll move on for a shortened round because we have a noon deadline.

Mr. Viersen, go ahead for five minutes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank our guests for joining us today. Normally we get to fly you all into Ottawa and see you in person. I apologize for that not being the case today. Nonetheless, here we are.

Mr. Settee and Mr. St. Pierre, you mentioned a bunch of the things that are perhaps going in the wrong direction when it comes to food security.

We heard that there are more cattle in the Yukon than ever before. They're starting to grow their own grain and cereal crops there, as well. I understand that the Yukon's mountainous valleys grow things quite well compared to the Canadian Shield, so I don't expect to be grain farming in northern Manitoba anytime soon. Nonetheless, livestock and animals, the harvest of caribou and things like that, do happen in your community.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is population growth. I've been to Iqaluit and visited with Inuit people. They tell me that population is another major food problem. Not only is food tough to get, but their population has gone, over the last 50 years, from about 14,000 Inuit to about 140,000 Inuit.

I'm wondering whether that is a similar scenario where you're from.

[Grand Chief Garrison Settee]

Absolutely.

Population explosion has altered the ability for first nations and their families to sustain themselves. The inflation of food continues to rise as the population explodes. That's the dilemma we're in.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Could you give us, in number terms, what the population has done over, say, your lifetime?

[Grand Chief Garrison Settee]

For myself—

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Your own community, for example.

[Grand Chief Garrison Settee]

There were 4,000 people in my community when I was a teenager, and now we have 8,000.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

It's basically doubled.

[Grand Chief Garrison Settee]

It's doubled, yes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. St. Pierre, is it a similar story where you're from?

[National Chief Elmer St. Pierre]

Actually, I live in the urban area of Kingston.

The numbers have grown. If you go with Stats Canada, I think there's something like 30,000 or 40,000 aboriginal people who don't belong to an organized nation, but it's part of our mandate to make sure they are looked after.

Every city is the same way. I'm not quite sure about the northern country, to be honest about it. I know that all of the urban areas are growing year after year.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Settee, one of the things I've noticed is that animal harvest is a big part of all of these northern communities. When I was up in northern Quebec, they were using the kitchen from the large performing arts centre to clean the animals. That was the largest commercial kitchen in the entire community. They were hauling the moose into the back of the performing arts centre. It seemed like an odd thing to me. They said that this was the best place they had.

Are there butcher facilities in your communities?

I know in rural Alberta many of us have participated in chicken slaughter co-ops and things like that. Is there stuff like that happening in your neck of the woods?

[Grand Chief Garrison Settee]

As Ms. Nikkel mentioned, neither the infrastructure nor the facilities are there. We have a fish plant where our fish get treated, but as far as facilities and spaces, we only utilize the fish plant and also behind the building where they are able to look after the game. That's basically it.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Okay.

Is there any interest?

[Grand Chief Garrison Settee]

The interest is there. If infrastructure was there, they would have people lining up to volunteer and do this for their community.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Okay. Interesting.

Mr. St. Pierre, I guess it's quite a different story where you're from and the people that you represent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You only have 10 seconds.

[National Chief Elmer St. Pierre]

When we do hunt, by that time, all our people pretty well know how to harvest and to do their own cutting up and everything. If not, there are local butcher shops in the countryside where a lot of our hunters take their deer or moose—whatever the case may be—to get cut up and wrapped.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. Zann, please go ahead for five minutes.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you.

Hopefully I won't get interrupted again. Sorry about that folks. My Internet became unplugged.

Ms. Nikkel, first of all I just want to say thank you so much for all the work you're doing for Second Harvest. It's an amazing organization. You've definitely helped so many people across the country including in my riding of Cumberland—Colchester here in Nova Scotia. I was very glad to receive communications from you saying that you provided 2,789 kilograms of food, a donation value of $17,453 and $65,800 in federal funding to support the emergency food access needs for seven different non-profit and charitable organizations in my riding. I'm really grateful.

Also, I know that you are concerned about the surplus food rescue program, which has done so much good work. You would like to see the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada continue to invest in this program.

Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit for us, please?

[Lori Nikkel]

Sure.

The federal government—Agriculture and Agri-Food—has food security funding. They allocated about $250 million. We were grateful that we were one of the organizations selected. We've allocated grants. There is a surplus food rescue program, which I think is critical because not only does it actually help get food to people, it ensures that the producers can be paid for the food. We can process it properly. Then we can distribute it to northern communities and it's all paid for. It also it doesn't go into landfills creating greenhouse gases. There's this win-win-win.

I am a strong proponent of not only keeping this during COVID; there's a definite legacy program here. We have to address this enormous amount of food we have in Canada that is just going into landfill.

Thank you for giving me that opportunity. I would appreciate it if everybody could support and advocate for the continuation of the surplus food rescue program.