Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 1st, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ladies and gentleman, we have quorum. Accordingly, I would like to call this meeting to order.

I will start by acknowledging that we are meeting on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin people.

The committee is meeting to continue its study of support for indigenous communities through a second wave of COVID-19.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline best practices to follow. Participants may speak and listen in the official language of their choice. At the bottom of your screen, you'll see a globe, and you should have—

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

Your sound is terrible, Mr. Chair. I can't hear you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Okay. Is this better?

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

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I've only done this for 45 years as a professional broadcaster, so I'll try again.

We're meeting on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin people. The committee meets to study support for indigenous communities through a second wave of COVID-19. Once again, participants, at the bottom of your screen, there is a globe icon—

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Chair, we have nothing on you at all. We can't hear you at all.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You should select either French or English, depending on the language you wish to speak in and hear the interpretation in. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you're not speaking, your microphone should be on mute.

With us today by video conference for the first hour are the following witnesses: Kirsten Agrell, the legal counsellor of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 793; Duane Smith, the chair and CEO of Inuvialuit Regional Corporation—

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

We can't hear the chair.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

I have a point of order. We cannot hear the chair. It's echoing and very hard to understand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Once again, hopefully, we have the mike resolved. I hope you heard my instructions with regard to translation. It's really important—

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

You're gone again.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Clerk, the chair seems to have another device on, possibly, in addition to the floor audio. Maybe there is some feedback from that.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Naaman Sugrue]

We'll look into it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

The meeting has been called to order.

We've had technical difficulties, but I've given my instructions to the witnesses. They are standing by, so we're going to go for six minutes of presentation by each witness followed by questioning.

Perhaps we could start with the legal counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers. Kirsten Agrell, please go ahead for six minutes.

[Kirsten Agrell, Legal Counsellor, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 793]

Good morning. Thank you.

My name is Kirsten Agrell. I am with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 793. I am speaking to you from our office in Oakville, Ontario, which is in the traditional territory of several nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.

At the International Union of Operating Engineers, we have our roots in construction, but we also represent lots of workers in mining and in industry. We have about 17,000 members, and we operate throughout Ontario and in the territory of Nunavut. More recently, we represent about 1,000 people in a mining bargaining unit north of the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island, and about 15% of our members at that bargaining unit are Inuit land claims beneficiaries living in communities in the north. We've also been growing our representation of indigenous workers in Ontario, who continue to be under-represented in the skilled trades, in our view.

We also have an Operating Engineers Training Institute, which is our training arm that works with indigenous training and employment organizations to try to remove barriers to entry into the skilled trades, and our trade in particular.

As a representative for all our members, we've definitely seen the different impacts that the pandemic has had on our indigenous members as opposed to our other workers. Our other workers are also struggling, but it's been a different experience, I think, for our indigenous members.

We have recommendations in three areas, all coming through our lens, to try to help indigenous communities. Obviously, our focus is always on construction and heavy equipment.

The first thing we want to recommend is a real commitment to improving essential infrastructure, including broadband connectivity, water services and all these things that will help reduce the disproportionate risk that is being faced by our indigenous members compared with other people in non-indigenous communities.

The second thing is government assistance to remove the barriers to training—particularly having to travel to COVID-19 hot spots, to urban areas, to the cities to get training and to participate in the workforce.

Third, on the health and safety side, is to prioritize the availability of rapid testing, particularly for people in indigenous communities, so that if people are continuing to work through the lockdown and the pandemic, as many of our members have been, they're not doing so and exposing their vulnerable communities to increased risk.

On the infrastructure side, I know this committee has already heard about the impact on communities without the underlying sanitation infrastructure and with overcrowded housing. I know you've also heard about the impact on the economic side, on small businesses and tourism that are having so much trouble. Our view is that improvements to infrastructure are critical, not just for health reasons but also to participate in the economic recovery once this thing is through.

We're suggesting an immediate commitment to telecommunications construction projects with time frames set. It should be a real priority. We know our members who are right now trying to work from home or trying to help their children go to school from home are having real trouble because of Internet connectivity issues. We as an organization have been trying to ramp up our efforts to reach out to people online, and the lack of connectivity has been a problem.

Facilitating telecommunications infrastructure construction also provides training and opportunities for people to work close to their communities so they don't have to travel through Toronto.

We really support the universal broadband fund that we've heard about. We do want to say that you need to make sure that enough of that is allocated for indigenous communities to make sure that really good, lasting and quality infrastructure goes in there.

Of course, like everyone else, we're also very concerned about the boil water advisories and the sanitation. Any time people are having to leave their communities, even in southern Ontario, to get clean drinking water and go into COVID-19 red zones to do that, that's a problem. We definitely want to say don't leave that behind or reprioritize it because of COVID.

We know about the indigenous community support fund that was announced. We understand that is more for services that provide education and training, which is great. We would like to see some sort of dedicated funding for COVID infrastructure work.

We know in Ontario they've announced something called the COVID-19 resilience infrastructure fund, which I know has some federal funds too. We don't know how much, if any, of that is earmarked for indigenous communities. We certainly suggest it should be. This, as I understand it, is funding to go specifically towards retrofitting schools' and recreation centres' ventilation and to enable social distancing. If there is not such a fund specific to indigenous peoples, we think that would be a good initiative and something we'd certainly encourage and recommend.

There are other areas we want to recommend, including training. The IUOE works with the Aboriginal Apprenticeship Board of Ontario, which has identified barriers to training. Having to travel into urban areas is certainly one of them. Bringing training into indigenous communities is expensive and hard. It's a big territory. It's a big world. We need government assistance with that.

Finally, most of our workers have continued to work and have been providing essential services throughout lockdown. However, we have members coming from very vulnerable communities. Having to choose between continuing to work and potentially putting your community at risk has been very different for indigenous workers compared with some of our other members, particularly in the far north, in Baffin Island. Rapid testing and its availability to indigenous communities is something we think the government should prioritize. It would help put that final health and safety piece in to enable people who want to and are able to keep working during the pandemic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much, Ms. Agrell.

Next is the chair and CEO of Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Duane Smith.

For six minutes, Mr. Smith, please go ahead.

[Duane Smith, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation]

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. I want to point out that, as you said, my name is Duane Smith. That's my English name, anyway. I'm located just near the northeast tip of Alaska, to give you some perspective. It's roughly nine hours by jet to get here from Ottawa, but I'm still in the same country. The area I represent is almost a million square kilometres, two-thirds of that being the ocean in this area. That's just to give you some perspective on the size and scale of the geography I represent and the distance I'm speaking to you from, which is, again, still a part of Canada.

There was discussion earlier, as we were getting set up, that I'm so far north, in a couple of days we'll be losing the sun for about five weeks. That's part of the process here.

I want to give you an update in regard to the COVID activities we have been implementing. We have been working hard with different federal departments to access funds that are identified for indigenous organizations such as ours. We have been able to allocate funding for food baskets, as we call them, to needy households and families. We have provided support in regard to harvesting and food preservation supplies to try to enhance and/or address the food insecurity in the region. We have provided sewing supplies to communities for them to distribute. That's part of our cultural approach to our activities. We have provided household cleaning kits so that people can further sanitize and get some relief and comfort in regard to how they might be ensuring that their households are clean. We've had supplies for elders.

We have also initiated what we call an “on the land” program. We provided individuals, couples and/or families during the spring, summer and fall with help to get back out on the land. As indigenous people, we spend a lot of time out on the land, either at the coast or in the large delta we have here, which is about 18,000 square kilometres, where people have their camps, cabins, cottages or whatever you want to call them. This was an opportunity where we saw a lot of family bonding, not only parents and children but also grandparents and grandchildren; enhancing their life skills out there; giving them an opportunity to get back out and live more on the land, with nutrition from there; and making it a healthier opportunity and getting away from the communities. We saw a lot of stress and anxiety in people from the remote communities, knowing that if this pandemic gets into one of our small communities, it will spread quite rapidly. There is that concern there.

We were interested in the federal government's announcement in the past on different mobile camps. I can't remember the proper term, but we thought these would be medical camps that would be mobilized if there was a pandemic outbreak in one of our remote communities. A medical team would go in and use these camps for different testing and isolation purposes.

We've also provided activity kits to five different age groups—zero to three, four to six, and that sort of age group all the way up to 18. There are different reading, writing, arithmetic and science activities within those kits. We see the need to keep them occupied and busy. We'll be looking to do that again as we move forward. As I said, we're in a cold, dark period of the year now. People will be spending a lot more time inside.

Housing is a significant issue that we have. We have been working with the federal government to try to alleviate housing issues within our region as well as across Inuit Nunangat. Overcrowding is a significant issue in all areas of the north. That is where there's a major concern about the pandemic spreading quite rapidly.

I would support the previous presenter in regard to the need for improved bandwidth. COVID has demonstrated the dire need and the lack of infrastructure throughout Canada's north.

I would also support the comment in regard to the need for more rapid testing, especially in these isolated areas, because we don't have large hospitals or large medical teams that are easily available or ready. We have small nursing centres. Some of these communities have two nurses. My community is the hub, so we have doctors here.

Again, the other concern is testing and the potential for burnout in regard to the volume of people they're having to see.

I would also point—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I'm sorry, Mr. Smith. We're right at time now.

Perhaps your next points can come up in the round of questioning. I know we'll be back with you.

Next we have, for six minutes, Mr. Nick Vodden, the president and CEO of Perimeter Aviation LP.

Please go ahead for six minutes.

[Nick Vodden, President and Chief Executive Officer, Perimeter Aviation LP]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity.

I'll just give you a quick overview.

I'm Nick Vodden, president and CEO of Perimeter Aviation LP. We are a remote aviation operator in northern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. We service predominantly passenger, charter and freight needs to about 30 remote communities in northern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. We've been in business for about 60 years, with bases in Manitoba and Ontario. We are about an 850-employee-sized company, pre-pandemic, of course.

Obviously, it has been a very challenging nine months here. Working with our long-standing partners and relationships with our first nations communities, we put in a number of protocols right at the onset of the pandemic, from cleaning and flight segregation to thermal infrared temperature-reading equipment and you name it.

Throughout the pandemic, we have worked with each individual community and either their rapid response team or pandemic leads to assist with pre-approval processes, and we have taken any avenue we've been able to so as to help these communities do their best to keep the virus out of the community and, when it gets there, to meet the needs safely.

Among the key challenges that have appeared throughout the pandemic in the north is that the passenger volumes have reduced so much that it becomes very difficult for us to maintain the viability of operating these routes. Since most of the time we're the only carrier and we have long-standing partnerships, we have elected to continue to operate these routes in order to get in essential medical supplies, to get the members of communities out for medical appointments and to just to help meet the needs of the community.

Some of the key challenges we've tried to help them with, which some previous speakers have spoken about, are hospital infrastructure and medical shipment movement, which seems to be a challenge in these communities.

With really only small nursing stations and no hospital features, rapid testing is an immediate need and is starting to roll out to many of the communities. The problem is that the vials that operate the rapid tester are in such scarce supply that they can't use them, really, for rapid testing needs. They're only used in close contact situations up until this day. The program is moving, but there's a real sense of urgency.

The next most important thing we can do for these communities is to set up the vaccination program to prioritize the high-risk individuals and get vaccines into the communities to limit the spread, because many of these communities have unfortunately experienced cases in the last 60 days.

As for the recovery initiatives we would like to talk about—and really, these points somewhat echo those made by previous speakers—the Internet and telecommunications infrastructure is still very poor in most of the communities, with slow high-speed Internet or no cellphone service at all. That would really assist, particularly in a time like this, when we still have communities that have no high-speed Internet at all.

The health care facilities are very small-scale, with limited resources in the communities. They require a high degree of daily movement, whether for medical shipments or for nurses or patients to come back and forth. They're really not set up with adequate supplies to handle anything of this magnitude, or even a small measure that might happen.

The other item that we are really leaning on for the recovery portion of our strategy is the housing piece. It seems to be very challenged in the north. They're crowded and lots of areas still don't have running water. It's very tough for them to have a healthy lifestyle in this environment, especially when a community could be in lockdown right now.

Those are our three key long-term items.

I think that's it for our overview.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you. That brings us to time, so that's great. I appreciate that.

That takes us to our round of questioners. We'll start with a six-minute round with Mr. Melillo, shared with Mr. Viersen.

Eric, please go ahead.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Vodden, I'm the member of Parliament for Kenora so I have many communities that Perimeter and Bearskin Airlines service in my riding, as you know.

Many airlines servicing the north had to suspend service to remote communities due to the pandemic and due to financial strain, as you mentioned. For these communities it's a loss of a major service and an essential service for many. I believe it makes it more difficult for many of these northern communities to be prepared for the second wave of the pandemic and moving forward beyond that.

Mr. Vodden, can you speak to what the government has done so far to support airlines? Do you feel it's been enough to support the northern air carriers and ensure that northern communities are having the services and the resources they need during this critical time?

[Nick Vodden]

To be quite frank, we have had no subsidy to this day from the federal government, aside from the federal wage subsidy program that the entire country was offered. A subsidy program is being pushed by both the provinces, working with the federal government. That started back in May and has not got to the carriers to this day.

To bluntly answer your question, we have not had the support. There is some momentum now to try to move that forward. If we can get those lines of support we will be able to move to phase one of the recovery plan, which will be reinstating some of the service we've had to cut for economic reasons.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

I appreciate that answer and your honesty.

Back in April, I believe, I wrote a letter jointly with Mr. Powlowski who is a government member of this committee. We wrote to many ministers mentioning issues impacting tourism and seasonal businesses as well as air carriers. It's been unfortunate to see that the government hasn't stepped up to support you.

With the limited time I have, can you speak to the impact of service reduction in the north as a result of this? Can you speak to how air carriers can help to fulfill an essential role in pandemic preparedness going forward?

[Nick Vodden]

The impact has been quite large.

We made the conscious decision as a company at the onset to not stop service to any isolated community that did not have road access or other means. We took that on our shoulders in good faith that we would be able to get somewhere with the government to sustain any losses there.

As for the preparedness for the pandemic, we have a number of lanes in place, particularly in Manitoba and Ontario, to move medical patients, medical supplies, vaccines and things like that, that are ready and historically used throughout time, even recently, with the flu vaccination movement. A lot of lanes are in place. They're just not tested and set up to handle this level of scale or a pandemic like this.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Smith, I will question you a little bit.

We heard from Mr. Vodden as well about rapid testing. Is that something you would see as valuable for the north around getting people tested?

We hear with rapid testing that they can have results in under 20 minutes. If you have a checkpoint as people come in to be tested, would that be something that would be helpful for you, Mr. Smith?