Evidence of meeting #7 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 north.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Mitch Bloom  Vice-President, Policy and Planning, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
Janet King  Assistant Deputy Minister, Northern Affairs Organization, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Sara Filbee  Assistant Deputy Minister, Lands and Economic Development, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

So the companies would maintain their own....

5:25 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Northern Affairs Organization, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

How do we know if we and others are getting good value for money and if the arrangements are good?

5:25 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Northern Affairs Organization, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

Janet King

We continue to track broad socio-economic indicators across the north.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

It would be levels of employment and those kinds of things?

5:25 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Northern Affairs Organization, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

Janet King

Yes--levels of employment, levels of education, all kinds of measures of socio-economic status development progress. We use those indicators as well. We also maintain a good relationship with the companies, so we have an informal understanding at the same time.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

Do you see tangible medium- and long-term benefits from them?

5:25 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Northern Affairs Organization, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

Janet King

If you look at, for example, the Ekati mine, I think it's very public the amount of employment there has been. There's been an impact on employment from a variety of communities, with tremendous economic benefit. In terms of the social impact back to those home communities, I think Mitch spoke briefly to some of the differences one sees.

So yes, one sees tangible benefits around any individual project.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

Do you have any of that information that you could provide to the committee?

5:25 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Northern Affairs Organization, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

Janet King

I could see what formal information we have, with pleasure, and get back to you on that. I'm not sure how extensive it will be, but we'll certainly pull together what's available.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

Okay. Mr. Trost and others had mentioned it earlier, so I think it's important that we're able to take some sort of a look at whether this is working or not for the people who live there.

Thank you very much.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit

Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson.

Thank you very much to all of the members of the committee for their questions, and to the witnesses for the information. I think it helps provide a good solid base from which to work.

Mr. McGuinty, you have something you would like to say--a point of order?

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON

Mr. Chair, I'd raise this with you not as a point of order, perhaps, but simply for clarity of information.

I know that we've all addressed our minds to the question of submissions by witnesses. And I know that this is a case today where a submission was made as of the meeting's commencement, and it was not translated and able to be distributed.

Can we get your guidance, Mr. Chair, on how we can avoid this going forward? I know that all of us would like to be able to get the submissions beforehand.

From the tone and tenor of Mr. Bloom's testimony, I think he's a pretty experienced witness who's been around for a while, including at PCO.

I'm just wondering how we might be able to facilitate this going forward so that when we arrive, the presentations are available for us.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit

Thank you, Mr. McGuinty.

We're at the early stages of calling witnesses for the committee. There wasn't a lot of time given, which makes it a little more difficult. As we move along, hopefully briefs will be submitted in time, and I'm sure they will. The clerk is encouraging witnesses to submit the briefs in time so that they can be translated appropriately and so that you can get them ahead of time. I think we'll see that work better as time goes on.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Thank you again to the witnesses. This was all very much appreciated.

The meeting is adjourned.