Thank you. Merci beaucoup. Good morning, everyone.
I'd like to thank the chair for the opportunity to appear today. I have with me my colleague Sheilagh Murphy, assistant deputy minister of lands and economic development at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.
My responsibility, as the assistant deputy minister for northern affairs, principally involves the three territories and the structures therein. Today my remarks will focus on our role in mineral development in the north, principally the mandate for northern development and its regulatory responsibilities, which arguably are a bit different from other parts of Canada.
There's a gentleman I believe you may have heard about in academic circles, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Ken Coates. He is involved with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He has written quite a bit about the relationship between indigenous players and government. One of his many theses that he refers to is how the north can actually provide a lesson to the rest of Canada with respect to relationships with indigenous peoples and industry.
Mineral development in Canada's north is important to northerners and all Canadians. Mining and related activities are the largest private sector employer of Indigenous peoples and the largest private sector contributor to territorial GDP.
Mineral resource development has played an integral role in opening up the north. Mr. Rae remarked upon the Sudbury experience. Going back even further, it started with the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon in the late 1800s; to over the past 50 years, gold mining in Yellowknife and the development of its hydroelectricity capacity; to the building of the railroad in Hay River for the Pine Point lead-zinc mine in the Northwest Territories; to the present-day mining of diamonds in the Northwest Territories, making Canada the third-largest value producer of diamonds in the world.
Current gold mining activities in Nunavut also have the potential to be transformative, with the development of areas that have high potential to be mining camps' equivalent to the Abitibi belt in Ontario and Quebec, which has produced precious and base metals for over 100 years. With this type of sustained development can come important legacy infrastructure that Nunavut desperately needs, such as the Manitoba to Nunavut infrastructure corridor, development of green hydroelectric power to replace Nunavut's current dependence on diesel, or a Yellowknife to Arctic coast “road to riches” that can facilitate other discoveries, and enable sustainable mineral development for generations to come.
Through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Act, the minister is responsible for the economic and political development of the north. More specifically, the minister is directly responsible for resource management, including lands, waters, minerals, and oil and gas, in Nunavut, in the same manner as provincial governments in the south.
The minister exercises these responsibilities in the management in two ways: first, through the issuance of rights for land, minerals, gravel, and oil and gas; and second, through policy development and decision-making in the regulatory process.
Mining development on crown lands in Nunavut is managed pursuant to the Territorial Lands Act and its related regulations, including the Nunavut Mining Regulations. These regulations deal with mineral tenure and royalties on mining, and are administered by the department.
The northern regulatory regimes were created to ensure responsible resource development in a remote region while providing for environmental protection. Each northern territory has its own resource management regime depending on its particular political development.
In the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, the administration and control of lands and resources was transferred to the respective governments through their respective devolution agreements. Territorial legislation was passed to regulate the transferred responsibilities.
Nunavut has a single land claim agreement, which the Inuit of Nunavut and Canada signed in 1993. This agreement establishes the regulatory regime for project development and the establishment of five boards to manage these projects. Those boards deal with the following five areas: land use planning, environmental assessment, water rights issuance, surface rights disputes, and wildlife management.
These co-management boards and institutions of public government are tremendous examples of how indigenous peoples and communities are meaningfully engaged through all the stages of mineral development. At their core are the principles of the land claim agreement that was signed.
Nunavut is unique in that Inuit are the largest freehold landowners in the world. Their Inuit-owned lands represent approximately 20% of the two million square kilometres that make up Nunavut, over which they have surface rights of 20% and subsurface rights of 2%. During the negotiation of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, the subsurface land parcels were selected for economic potential based on advice provided by geological consultants. As a result, approximately 70% of the active mining leases are located on 2% of the Inuit-owned lands with the subsurface rights. This offers tremendous opportunity for economic development but also presents a great challenge due to remoteness and lack of infrastructure.
As I have briefly outlined, the department has a role in northern mineral development, from political evolution through to devolution and land claims, and we retain responsibility for lands and waters, including improving the environmental assessment regimes.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to the discussion.