Evidence of meeting #129 for Natural Resources in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Wallace Fox  Chairman, Indian Resource Council
Raylene Whitford  Director, Canative Energy
Robert Beamish  Director, Anokasan Capital
Kent Hehr  Calgary Centre, Lib.
Delbert Wapass  Board Member, Indian Resource Council
Stephen Buffalo  President and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Resource Council

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal James Maloney

Mr. Tan.

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being with us today.

Mr. Fox and your colleagues, I guess you're all chiefs representing your own communities. Have you ever had any difficulties communicating a message to your stakeholders, either the oil and gas company or your own community members? If so, what did you do to overcome this kind of communication gap so that your message was heard and accepted by the stakeholders?

4:35 p.m.

Chairman, Indian Resource Council

Wallace Fox

In our particular case, we have technology, as we all have today. We have our newsletter. We have our notices posted up well in advance of community hearings and community forums.

Also, for our members who live in a couple of the major centres, Saskatoon and Edmonton, we have the opportunity to go and meet with the people to give them advance notice.

In terms of consultations—

4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

You're talking about the types of meetings. What I'm asking here is this. You probably have your own ideas and have made your own decisions. You want to communicate your decision to your stakeholders, and you want your stakeholders to accept your message, decision or position. Have you ever had any difficulties doing this? If so, what is your experience in solving this kind of scenario?

4:35 p.m.

Chairman, Indian Resource Council

Wallace Fox

We do it by creating that awareness, understanding the processes from there to today and how we need to move forward collectively. You can never have 100% support, so you need to have that consensus to come together to provide that opportunity. That's the challenge over here, not ever having 100% complete support, so you go with this process of engagement, as was mentioned earlier. Those are the challenges we have.

Again, with industry, it's bringing them into the community and letting our people be heard, the concerns and the questions they may have or the clarification they need on certain things they may not have an understanding of. Those are the things we have to overcome internally.

4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

How would your communities differ today if your council had not formed 30-plus years ago? What would be different if there was no such council 30 years ago? What would be the difference between then and now? What's the function for you? How effective is your council?

4:35 p.m.

Board Member, Indian Resource Council

Chief Delbert Wapass

Thirty years ago we had a council.

4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

Yes.

4:35 p.m.

Board Member, Indian Resource Council

Chief Delbert Wapass

So we were just as effective then as we are now.

4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

I had assumed you didn't have that council 30 years ago. So what's the difference right now in your community?

4:35 p.m.

Chairman, Indian Resource Council

Wallace Fox

Do you mean the Indian Resource Council?

4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

The Indian Resource Council, yes.

4:35 p.m.

Board Member, Indian Resource Council

Chief Delbert Wapass

The Indian Resource Council.

4:35 p.m.

Chairman, Indian Resource Council

Wallace Fox

Maybe you can speak to that council.

4:35 p.m.

Stephen Buffalo President and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Resource Council

Hi, everyone. Thanks for today.

The Indian Resource Council came about because of the need for advocacy, the need for our people to understand the industry and to build that capacity to where we are today. Obviously, through time, our people have learned to be active participants.

Even at that time, the environment was a concern and we did our best to protect the environment and have that balance, because it eventually led to economic development. The need for the IRC back at that time, 30 years ago, was very well thought out, and I'm glad the leaders back then came together to form it.

4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

You just mentioned capacity. In the presentation by Mr. Fox, what I heard was that 60% of your profits are being used to build capacity in your communities. What you have been able to build with these kinds of profits or funds?

4:35 p.m.

Chairman, Indian Resource Council

Wallace Fox

Speaking just for Onion Lake, in my tenure as chief, we took this revenue from the royalties, from the partnerships and from the contracts, creating employment, purchasing a construction company, where people went from getting the social assistance norm of $150 a month to making $2,000 a week driving big machinery. We built roads, lease buildings and lagoons. We invested in a carpentry program. We built 400 to 500 homes with the resources—again, with jobs, drywalling training, for both men and women. We built our own school, our own training centre. We have our own care home. We're also looking at a private hospital now, in Leduc—which is $100 million.

So, again, taking that investment, creating this physical infrastructure, there is no.... We bought land along the river, for example. I see stories and articles of our relatives in the northern part of Ontario, Manitoba, etc., having no water or infrastructure. We've accommodated that as a need. Our people gave us a mandate: jobs, housing and infrastructure, and that's what we try to produce.

4:40 p.m.

Liberal

Geng Tan Liberal Don Valley North, ON

Maybe there are more young people who can get a higher education.

4:40 p.m.

Chairman, Indian Resource Council

Wallace Fox

Exactly. Before, in the seventies and eighties, there were only teachers with post-secondary education in first nations. Now we have lawyers, doctors, dentists and architects. We have a diverse education all over the country where our people are going—not just Onion Lake, but first nations in general.

4:40 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Resource Council

Stephen Buffalo

Can I add to that, Chair?

4:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal James Maloney

Very quickly, yes.

4:40 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Resource Council

Stephen Buffalo

One thing that Chief Fox has never mentioned that is very successful is taking their moneys from the Indian trust, the Indian moneys pool, and created their own revenue heritage trust, as well as the Samson Cree Nation and the Ermineskin Cree Nation. That's very innovative, because it's protected and it's there for a long time, as long as the investments keep working for us. It's very innovative and it's where Indian Oil and Gas Canada has fallen short in its fiduciary responsibility as a trustee for our people.

4:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal James Maloney

Thank you. I have to move on, sorry.

Mr. Beamish, thank you for joining us.

Mr. Schmale, the floor is yours for five minutes.

4:40 p.m.

Conservative

Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON

Thank you, Chair. I appreciate the time.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us here today.

I think one of the common things we've heard in this presentation, from all of your testimony, is the opportunities that come with a strong economy within your nation. I was wondering—and anyone can take the floor: the friends from the IRC or Ms. Whitford—if maybe we can expand on that more often. When you are able to have the environment to create that growth, to create that economic growth, the strength of that turns into more spinoff jobs, better education, better opportunities. It just flourishes, the community as a whole. That just continues on.

I don't know who wants to talk first. I think Chief Wapass wants to; and then Ms. Whitford, we'll go to you next.

4:40 p.m.

Board Member, Indian Resource Council

Chief Delbert Wapass

That is an excellent question. Thank you very much for that.

We were probably, back in the day, a have-not community. We started with nothing. Our financial situation was dire. We went from that to coming together as a community. So, what did we do? We then negotiated a treaty land entitlement; there was spinoff from that; and then specific claims; there was spinoff from that.

More recently, we got into other investments. We got oil and gas going. We got our farming operation going, and so on and so forth. But as we were getting these businesses going, we couldn't leave the community behind with regard to training, right? We weren't getting enough dollars with regard to training. You have to understand that many of our people, in our community specifically, have come from many generations of not working, because that was taken away from them. They worked on farms and on this and that, and so on and so forth; but you had the system of dependency. It was created, and our people became dependent on that, and that's the road they got. We went from that, we borrowed money and we made other investments. We made an $8-million investment in Westleaf Cannabis, which is now a $60-million business for Thunderchild First Nation specifically.

When it comes to employment and training, that's what the spinoffs create for Thunderchild First Nation.