Thank you very much,
Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
On behalf of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, I want to thank you for asking us to appear with you today with our colleagues from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. I'll keep my remarks brief in order to provide the committee with as much time as possible to pose questions in support of your study on resource development in the north.
The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, known as CanNor, was established in August 2009. The agency operates a series of economic development programs that support northerners and aboriginal people. It complements these efforts through policy and research activities that advance the understanding of northern economic development challenges and opportunities. Further, it provides major project coordination services and advice to industry and governments through its northern projects management office.
CanNor's goal is simple: advance economic development in Canada's three territories by aligning and maximizing the collective impact of all stakeholders and partners in economic development in the north.
At CanNor, we recognize that energy and mineral resource development is at this time the core economic driver of the north. Developing northern natural resources allows us to stimulate the economies of northern regions and Canada; improve employment, education and social development of aboriginals living in the north; support healthy communities; enhance and expand northern infrastructure; and generate new revenue for the government.
All the partners involved in the development of northern resources have the same goal in mind. I'm talking about the implementation and enforcement of an effective regulatory system that would enable all the stakeholders to participate in a suitable process. CanNor understands that reality and focuses its efforts on moving that goal forward.
CanNor's northern projects management office, or NPMO, is one component of a broader initiative to improve the regulatory environment in Canada's north. Established in May 2010, NPMO is a service organization designed to improve the review and approval process for development projects in the territories.
The office provides regulatory pathfinding for industry and coordination of federal departments in environmental assessments and permitting processes, works with federal departments to coordinate crown consultation with aboriginal groups, and will hold the official record of crown consultation. Further, NPMO project managers located in offices in the three territories work with federal regulators, the northern boards, and industry to identify and resolve project-specific issues.
Once the projects obtain regulatory approval and the building and production phase begins, the numerous northern communities and companies must meet a number of challenges so that they can fully participate in the projects and benefit from them. Among other things, the communities and companies must ensure that they have access to an educated and well-trained labour force that is ready to begin working. They must also be able to count on the companies' development programs and capital, and the community infrastructures required for supporting regional development projects.
Here, CanNor is working with clients, industry, and partners to address these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities offered by resource development projects. The goal is to align the interests and capacities of communities and northern businesses with project proponents by accessing CanNor and other government programs.
Coordination between the project review process, as facilitated by NPMO, and regional economic development, as assisted by CanNor's economic development programs, is important. For instance, over the last two years, CanNor program strategic investments in northern economic development have assisted resource exploration by investing $10.7 million towards geoscience research, effectively building a database of geoscience information that is used by industry to strategically guide investments and by governments to assess resource potential.
There are many other examples of CanNor programs that support economic readiness planning, capacity and skills development, and infrastructure projects in aboriginal and northern communities, such as: organizing community opportunities planning exercises and workshops, like the one offered to the Northwest Territories communities last year in advance of the Avalon rare earth metals mine; providing financial support to communities and aboriginal organizations to negotiate impact benefit agreements with resource development companies; providing financial support to the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which has a one-third ownership interest in the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, with the goal of maximizing the long-term financial benefits to aboriginal peoples along the route; and
funding nautical infrastructure projects. Those projects would include moving forward the implementation of transportation networks and power generation and distribution projects, as well as broadband access projects.
So far, CanNor has been working with territorial and local partners on more than 30 infrastructure-related projects totalling over $25 million. That work has been done thanks to the Community Adjustment Fund, Canada's Economic Action Plan and the Strategic Investment in Northern Economic Development program.
Our forecast suggests there will be more than 20 northern research development projects over the next 10 years, resulting in more than $15 billion in capital investment. This excludes the Mackenzie gas pipeline. Project management and coordination by the northern projects management office will be important to move these projects through the regulatory systems. At the same time, CanNor's economic development programming will be helping aboriginal and northern businesses to take full advantage of these opportunities with the knowledge that labour and business throughout Canada are also important participants and beneficiaries in the north's economic development.
Canada is at an important time in the development of its northern territories. CanNor understands this and is working hard to fulfill its mandate of fostering economic development in the north by aligning federal efforts with those of stakeholders and partners to the collective benefit of northerners and all Canadians.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.