National Defence Committee on Nov. 5th, 2009

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

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

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to reinforce that the Quebec National Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution in late 2007 calling on Ottawa to include the region in the Arctic strategy.

The Inuit say that sovereignty begins at home. With that in mind, reinforcing Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic should obviously entail building up healthy regions or communities. These would obviously require a significant level of economic productivity, self-sufficiency, acceptable levels, trend lines, et cetera.

Can you comment on this notion—that sovereignty begins at home by dealing with healthy regions and communities—in terms of the kind of strategy you would see to assist your part of the country to be much more self-sufficient?

[Michael Gordon]

I'd like to give you an example of what happened in the 1950s in the Canadian Arctic. The Canadian government had a policy of trying to make Inuit into farmers. I'm not sure you're aware of this, but there were a whole lot of sheep and chickens brought up north, and we had some Inuit who tended to these chickens and sheep. There must have been some pigs too.

This happened in many of the communities—not all of the communities, but in the centres that were becoming major centres. We have a person still alive in Kuujjuaq whose name is Chicken Sam. That's not because he shies away from fights, but because he tended to those chickens. I'm bringing this up just to highlight the point that the Canadian government tried to bring into the Arctic—how would I say it?—an outside economy.

Going to your question, I think the land-based economy should be given more support. The people's ability to go hunting.... By the way, we pay taxes. We probably pay even more taxes than anybody else, because there's an extra transport cost on the groceries that come up north, and there are taxes levied on the transport costs too.

To go hunting—I'll give you the example of the snowmobile—is very expensive, as you probably know, but an elder or an Inuk hunter requires that machine to go hunting to provide food for the family. If at all possible, we'd like to see taxes not being charged on snowmobiles, for example, for the north, because they are a big contributor to the local Inuit economy. They provide a lot of food for the families. That's one point.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

So looking at the tax regime would be helpful, in terms of developing this. I mentioned trend lines for basic social wellbeing. You won't get that unless you have such instruments as a different type of tax regime.

I think the comment that sovereignty begins at home really deals with this issue of helping communities not by trying to import strategies, but by trying to learn from the very people who are there. Maybe we need to do better listening and then take more action.

[Michael Gordon]

Exactly; that's the point I wanted to raise. Don't bring in farms, don't bring in the chickens and the sheep, but support those hunters who can provide for their families or support the tourism industry, for example.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

That way, you will build a much healthier community.

[Michael Gordon]

Yes.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

And also, people will take better ownership in the north.

[Michael Gordon]

Exactly.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

One of the things I've come to a conclusion about is that a coherent, whole approach rather than a sectoral or fragmented approach in dealing with these issues is much to be preferred. You have to be part of the solution and not be viewed as on the periphery.

[Michael Gordon]

Exactly. In the Canadian Arctic, community development is economic development. We have a small population base with a large land base, so that's what it ends up being.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Just to make a very quick comment, a number of aboriginal communities work with municipal governments in economic cooperation, in joint ventures, etc. Does this happen to any degree in your region?

[Michael Gordon]

Yes, it does with Inuit regions outside of Nunavik. Our municipality has sister communities, in Greenland as well as just outside Montreal. But there hasn't really been an economic impact from those.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you, Mr. Gordon.

Now I will give the floor to Ms. Gallant.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll speak through you to the witnesses.

During your presentation you expressed concern about the security of our nation and its ability to take care of accidental situations such as, for example, the cruise liner scenario you described.

Whether we like it or not, we have nuclear-powered vessels transiting the Canadian Northwest Passage. My question to you is whether you feel that any deepwater port along the Arctic coast of Canada should be equipped to deal with the radioactive aspects of any accident involving one of those types of vessels.

[Michael Gordon]

Most certainly it should. If those types of ships are going through the Arctic, that could be one of the mitigation measures. Maybe we should be more worried about the nuclear ships, but we're even worried about oil tankers—any ship. If there's an accident of any kind, oil is going to spread and destroy some habitat. We're not even at the point of discussing nuclear-powered ships; it's more the regular ships. If there's an accident, there's really no way for there to be a speedy cleanup. It would take too long to do those cleanups.

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

The subs are already in the area. Are there tankers using the area that you're aware of?

[Michael Gordon]

I don't think there are tankers, but every ship has to have fuel to run, so any accident would be magnified, since the response time would take too long and would not be very....

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

The preservation of the environment, then, far exceeds any potential for economic development through commercialization of the Canadian Northwest Passage?

[Michael Gordon]

Yes. Many of our people still live not off the land but from the land and its resources: the animals, the game, and the fish. Any time there's an accident with the waters or the land, it's going to impact the wildlife. That's really close to the heart of what people feel up north.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you very much.

I want to thank all our witnesses

for having taken part in our study on Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.

Thank you very much, Mr. Ricard.

Thank you very much, Mr. Gordon. We appreciate your presence here. Your testimony will be very useful for our future work.

Thank you everyone.

The 38th meeting of the Standing Committee on National Defence is now adjourned.