Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 27th, 2016

[Sean Willy]

I don't support a cap, because I think even leaders I've met with from my traditional territory were pushing to get it even with provincial schools. In northern Saskatchewan, you will see two schools—one on reserve, one off reserve—with totally different funding structures. But to live and work in the north, there is a higher cost of living. To even get to the same level as provincial is not going to meet that gap.

I think in Saskatchewan you've seen a lot of unique, leading-edge work around programs such as NORTEP in La Ronge that have promoted homegrown teachers within the communities. Historically, you'd get a lot of teachers coming into the northern remote communities for one to two years to get their experience and then they'd go. I think communities saw this as a way to invest in their own people, to ensure they had a base level of teachers within their home community.

On the post-secondary side, I think it's supporting institutions like Indspire, Roberta Jamieson's organization. She has a plethora of resource companies, banking companies, on board to help fill that gap in the post-secondary space.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

Mr. Smeenk, I just want to get some clarification around your comments on carbon credits. I've been involved in some big projects that were funded to some extent by large amounts of carbon credits, millions of dollars' worth, but in my experience it involves additive work. I was just curious as to how carbon credits with the Chinese would play into the Ring of Fire project. I'm a bit mystified, so just go ahead.

[Frank Smeenk]

Fundamentally, if we start producing ferrochrome here to get a significant share of the global market using natural gas, they will stop using the dirty methods that they're currently using over there. So in the big picture, that's what they would like to achieve, and it meets the commitments of both sides to the declaration on using clean technology.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Okay. Sorry, I guess I got confused, because you were talking about sphagnum bogs being carbon sinks, and then I was wondering how that played into this. I got sidetracked there.

Mr. Willy, you talked about road infrastructure. One of the witnesses from this morning mentioned kind of a conflict involving road infrastructure in some first nations because some of their funding is geared toward not being linked by road. Is that an issue, in your experience?

[Sean Willy]

The most recent example I have involves the community of Hatchet Lake Dene, which is one of the last communities not connected by road in Saskatchewan. We personally worked with them, from a corporate side, when I was at Cameco to help lobby both the federal and the provincial government to get them road access. The idea was to have a P3 partnership driven by the community. The thing about engagement is that resource companies, if they want a road, need to make sure they have the community onside with that. This was the community driving the road, which we were trying to partner with.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Another thing that came up with the previous witness, Ms. Murphy from INAC, was pilot projects, I think in the Ring of Fire area with the Matawa First Nations, around trying to smooth out some of the permitting, basically all the forms you have to fill out to do anything with first nation issues. I hear that all the time in my riding from first nations.

I just wondered if you could perhaps comment on how first nations businesses would benefit from a real streamlining of that part of the federal bureaucracy, which we here could perhaps help out with.

[Sean Willy]

On the regulatory side, yes, there's still a capacity gap with some first nations that don't have homegrown talent to handle that. They're always at the will of outside agencies and securing funding for mining issues. From the perspective of an aboriginal company, of course we'd always love less red tape and a smoother process. I think it's critical now, because there are some first nations and economic developments—Des Nedhe is of them—that have more capacity. We are prepared for the next wave of economic development and to apply for opportunities through government funding programs, but we worry about those communities that don't have resource development on their traditional territories. They're going to fall further behind, because I don't think they have the capacity or the people entrenched to apply for those same grants and applications. It does create a bit of a gap between those who have capacity and those who don't as of yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

That's all your time.

Mr. Harvey, you have about three minutes.

[TJ Harvey, Liberal, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

I want to first thank you all for coming.

We don't have a lot of time left, and I had some questions, but I think I'll just thank you all for coming and ask Mr. Willy if he wants to take the remainder of the time I have here to offer us some concluding remarks, especially around the first nations early childhood education piece.

I know that in my riding, one of the first nation communities established the Mah-Sos School. That school has grown in enrolment by double digits every year since it was founded. They have an excellent early childhood education program that's carried on in part of that school, and it's amazing to see the opportunities that have abounded from that school being in that first nations community.

If you just want to offer some concluding remarks, I would appreciate that.

[Sean Willy]

First, I want to say that a report that you should read is the joint task force on education, which my friend and my boss behind me, Gary Merasty, a former MP in northern Saskatchewan, helped drive. It's a great baseline. Gary was tasked by Premier Wall to look at educational components. Most of the stuff I say is from my coffees with Gary.

There is a jurisdictional challenge that our politicians have in this country when 90% of the population lives within 100 kilometres of the United States border, but our resources and the key to those resources are engaging indigenous people in the northern part of the province, where you might have one MP for each of the northern regions. It creates political jurisdictional chaos, because it takes a lot of gumption to invest somewhere where there's a lack of population. We have a growing population, so as leaders you're more inclined to invest in health care for the baby boomers in Mississauga than investing in early childhood education in northern Manitoba, but these are the decisions that need to be done for the long-term benefit and the future resources and the people in Canada.

I think to accompany early childhood education, children need role models. People ask about the value of hiring indigenous people. One of the big things is that when I was three and four, I saw my Dene mother going to work every day. My kids see me go to work every day. I'm sure your kids do. You saw your parents go to work every day. It changes the context of what we see. As indigenous people, like in every culture, we all want to outdo our parents. I'll be more invested in education as a kid if I know that my mother and father are going to work all the time. That's a multiplier effect that will only spur more growth in this country and value for all Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you very much.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have. One of the problems we have with this committee is that we just don't have enough time sometimes. This day is a perfect example of that.

Thank you all for joining us today.

The meeting is adjourned.