Evidence of meeting #43 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was yukon.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
So then in reality you're saying that the federal government should control the pace of development in the Northwest Territories by controlling the fiscal capacity of the Government of the Northwest Territories?
President, Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce
No, I'm saying they should be a partner in the development of infrastructure in the Northwest Territories.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
How does that work in the Yukon? Do you see that the Yukon should be going cap in hand to the federal government when it needs to borrow money?
President, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
In the Yukon we have no net debt and from everything I hear, from all politicians, there is no interest or desire to bring the territory into debt. We're quite happy with the situation that we have now.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
When you're talking about the Casino mine with a requirement of 120 megawatts, you would rather see that go to private enterprise to produce that power rather than through, say, Yukon Energy, your crown-owned energy corporation?
President, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
As a business organization, we always support private sector activities and involvement in our economy. We don't currently have the capacity to support a mine of that size from an energy perspective, and I know that the company is looking at generating its own power. From our perspective, that's the way it should be. Yukoners should not be paying for their power.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
But there's an opportunity as in the provinces where they developed hydroelectric, which actually turns out to be a bonus to the governments because it's a profitable endeavour. So you think that the governments have no role in developing hydroelectric power in the Yukon?
President, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
No, that's not what I'm saying at all actually. Yukon benefited from investment in hydroelectric power, most recently with contributions from the federal government as well as the Yukon government in the expansion of our Mayo B hydro dam. It's been very beneficial to the territories. We were able to connect more communities to the grid.
What I'm saying is that the private sector is quite willing and should be paying their own way. They should not be looking to government to provide their energy. If they are close enough to the grid, they pay the cost to hook up to it. That way, it benefits everybody.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
I know in the Northwest Territories our government takes a different attitude. It views the hydroelectric potential as something that will, in the long term, reduce the cost of power to the people of the Northwest Territories if they invest in it. That's one of the issues we have. We have a potential investment of three quarters of a billion dollars in the Taltson expansion project for servicing mining development.
Mr. Graham, how do you see that going? Do you think it should go to, say, ATCO to do that investment or should the Government of the Northwest Territories benefit from investing in its own resources?
President, Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce
I think at this point you can certainly look to a private-public partnership in order to do that. With the Taltson project as you speak, certainly untapped energy is spilling over the dam there, and if that's connected to a potential Northwest Territories-wide grid that doesn't exist yet but certainly could, that would be fantastic. And if that's connected to the Alberta grid and power is shipped south and sold at a profit to help subsidize the power throughout the Northwest Territories, that too would be fantastic. It's in negotiating perhaps a public-private partnership to be able to do that.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
I actually found that your presentation on the regulatory system, Mr. Graham, was bang on. That's what people in the north are saying. They're not saying make one, consolidate the boards, because they know that would upset the land claims process. I think what you said there and the conditions that you've laid out are the ones that are commonly held by almost everyone in the Northwest Territories. I thank you for that. It's a very good presentation.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Mr. Bevington.
We go now to the Liberal Party to Mr. McGuinty for up to seven minutes please.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Babcock, can I go back to the comments you made. You said the Yukon has a comprehensive environmental assessment regime in place. What did you call it?
President, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
It is the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act. It's a piece of federal legislation and the acronym is YESAA. Pardon me for doing that part way through my presentation.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
No problem.
I heard you on the difficulties of trying to refine and to identify what the socio-economic aspects are. But I want to go to something you said in your closing remarks, which was there is no “comprehensive economic development strategy for the Yukon” right now. By extension, I'm going to take some liberty and say there probably is no comprehensive economic strategy in Canada's north.
By economic strategy, do you really mean development strategy?
President, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
Probably, I do. I mean an economic strategy to forecast where it is we want to go, how we're going to get there, and the challenges we're going to have to overcome as we go along.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
A strategy of that kind would, of course, embrace infrastructure and labour mobility and labour needs. It would also address environmental and carrying capacity challenges in the north.
There would be some kind of trajectory, looking out say 30 to 50 years. Right?
President, Yukon Chamber of Commerce
Absolutely. We find it leaves a real hole when we're looking at development projects or environmental issues, because honestly, not everybody is on the same page as to where we want to be going.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Thank you for that.
Mr. Graham, can I go back to your comments about regulatory reform? You singled out the Mackenzie Valley pipeline issue as sort of a hallmark example of what has gone wrong with regulatory reform.
Were we misunderstanding the situation when we heard that over four years of delay was because of the project proponent? Are we misunderstanding something down south?
President, Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce
I don't think we see it that way in the Northwest Territories. The consultation took much too long. I think it was in the neighbourhood of seven years to consult with the aboriginal groups throughout the Mackenzie Valley and into Yellowknife.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Picking up on that particular case, your assessment is that this is an aboriginal consultation challenge.
President, Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce
That's certainly part of it. If there were definitive timelines set for the joint review panel in order to get their work done, I think you would see that project under construction today.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
The government is proposing in its budget—in what's buried in a hundred and some pages of environmental and regulatory reform measures—that there will be a two-year cap on timelines but that any project proponent who needs to stop the clock can do so and take all the time they need, for example, to meet the requirements of the regulatory body.
How is that different from the situation today?