National Defence Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2009

[John Amagoalik]

It's the type of thing that takes years and perhaps generations to work out. We need more Inuktitut teachers. We need better infrastructure in our communities. We need things like harbours and wharves and hydro development.

The way to assert Canadian sovereignty is not necessarily through military equipment but to improve the lives of the people and improve the infrastructures of the communities that we live in. Even though the statistics are still not very good, in the ten or fifteen years that the territory has existed, those statistics have been improving very slowly.

It's progress, but it's slow.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

That small percentage of the Inuit population who actually receive a post-secondary education, how and where do they receive that education?

[John Amagoalik]

We have no university in the north. If anybody wants to go to university, they have to come south. We do have a post-secondary program called Nunavut Sivuniksavut, which operates here in Ottawa and is extremely successful. But all university students have to come south because there are no institutions in Nunavut that can teach to that level of education.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Are there any challenges when Inuit students come south to receive their post-secondary education? Do they return to the north?

[John Amagoalik]

Most of them return. I think a very high percentage of students who come south for education do come back north to live. The problem they face down here is homesickness. They miss their food, they miss their families and friends. So that's the most difficult part of living down here and going to university.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you very much.

Now I will give the floor to Madam Neville.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all for being here today. I have had the privilege of visiting Resolute and look forward to another opportunity to go back.

I read the brief you presented and I was listening to Mr. Braid's questions about education. How important is the implementation of the recommendations by Thomas Berger in terms of asserting sovereignty through the Inuit community in the north?

[John Amagoalik]

It's our feeling that questions about sovereignty and about development always come back to the implementation of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. In important issues like sovereignty, we hope that the Government of Canada will recognize that implementing the land claims agreement is the best way to assert Canadian sovereignty. There are things like the creation of a marine council. The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement calls for the creation of an Arctic marine council. That has not been done. If that was done, it could be used to deal with marine issues, and there are many marine issues in the Arctic, including the Northwest Passage.

We hope that the Government of Canada will recognize that the implementation of the land claims agreement is the best way to assert our sovereignty in that region.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Has your organization in any way been consulted by the government in their northern initiatives to date?

[John Amagoalik]

The Government of Canada is consulting much more than they used to. I think many departments used to just keep doing whatever they had been doing for years and years out of habit, but in the last 10 years I think the different government departments have begun to realize that they really have to look at the words in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and that there's a duty for consultation, a commitment, legally, for consultation.

So there's a lot more consultation going on. I think things are improving in that area. We used to be totally ignored by government departments who didn't even know that people lived up there. The Arctic has always been described as a wasteland where nobody lives. Governments had that attitude for a very long time. Now they're realizing that it is not a wasteland and that there are people living up there and they have to be consulted. They have to be involved in whatever's happening up there.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you.

Is there any recourse on the 17 issues that you have put forward for arbitration that have been rejected by the government? Are you looking at any kind of reconfiguration or reorganization of those issues to put the matters forward once again?

[John Merritt]

Thank you for that question.

I'll just recap how we ended up in litigation. The first proposal by NTI, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporation, was to negotiate the resolution of issues. The federal government withdrew its negotiator in 2004, and has refused to appoint a new negotiator.

The next opportunity was mediation. We did have Mr. Berger come in. He spent a year and a half--at the expense of the people of Canada--to put together a very fine report. That mediation report sits on a shelf.

NTI then suggested arbitration and suggested 17 issues.

Those were the three preferred mechanisms, or some combination of them, to resolve the issue short of a court case. The litigation only ensued when all those other avenues were blocked.

Would NTI be willing to negotiate towards finding a solution? Obviously that would be a political call, but in the absence of a negotiator, or any indication of willingness to implement a mediator's report or arbitration, clearly what NTI faces is a brick wall from the government side.

So I think there's a practical appetite to find an approach that works.

I should point out...and I'm sure Mr. Bachand knows this. It's my understanding that in northern Quebec, for example, the Crees have been in court for almost every year since 1975. So it's not like NTI feels it's been targeted for special indifference. There's a pattern there, and that pattern has been detected by not just the Senate committee on aboriginal peoples but also the Auditor General of Canada, who has said this approach to implementation isn't working and will lead to further problems.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Boughen, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Certainly let me add my voice to my colleagues' in welcoming you here this morning and thanking you for taking time to share with us your concerns.

I'm listening to the various issues you've raised, and I'm wondering what you would say are the main concerns of your people there. Is it education, is it health care, is it infrastructure, is it economic assistance programs? As a group that's working for the betterment of everyone, what would you say are your top priorities?

[John Amagoalik]

All of those things--health, education, economic development. They're all important issues to our people.

You probably know that suicide rates are extremely high, eight or nine times higher than the national average. As I said, education achievement levels are still very low. The health of our people from overcrowded houses in our small communities is a huge problem. The housing shortage is a huge problem.

All of those areas are our priorities. It's very difficult to pick one issue. They're all important.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you very much....

Yes.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Excuse me, but I think Mr. Boughen was going to share his time with me.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Oh, okay.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and through you to our witnesses.

You described the high cost of common consumables where you live. The distance as well as the low density of the population both contribute to these hardships.

How welcoming is your community to the opening of the Canadian Northwest Passage for commercial traffic--excluding, of course, the regions that you want set aside for the purpose of marine and natural parks?

[John Amagoalik]

If the eventuality of commercial use of the Northwest Passage is to come, we want to be involved in how it happens. But first of all, we want to make it very clear to everyone that, as we said from the beginning, the Northwest Passage is internal waters. That is a position we are not prepared to compromise on.

The issue for us as far as the passage is concerned is to make sure the international community recognizes that Canada is responsible for that passage and has the responsibility for putting in regulations and measures to make sure that if commercial passage of ships does take place, it has to happen under conditions that are acceptable to the people living up there. We want to be involved in regulating ships. If they are going to use the Northwest Passage, there have to be conditions. We think about the high cost of cleaning up if there were ever any accidents. If oil tankers will be going through that passage, we're extremely concerned about that. If an accident ever happened it would be very difficult to deal with, so we have to put in measures to make sure that if a disaster happens, somebody will pay for the cleanup.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

How welcoming, though, is your community to the prospect of a potential commercialization of that passage, given there would be economic development and perhaps easing of the high cost of living in the far north?