Natural Resources Committee on March 8th, 2021

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you, Grand Chief.

I have one final question, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Unfortunately, Mr. McLean, you're over time a bit, but we will have time to get back to you or your colleagues, so don't worry.

Next is Mr. May for five minutes.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here.

One of the challenges with going a little later in the order is that a lot of the questions I had have been answered, so I wanted to circle back on a couple of things to maybe give the witnesses a few more moments to elaborate on some of the things they maybe got cut off on a little too early by our fantastic chair.

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I mean no offence.

I want to maybe start with Grand Chief Bosum. You talked in your opening remarks about being the battery of the north. I want to continue a little with that theme. MP McLean just talked about things like what is stopping this from happening and what some of the challenges are.

Really boiling it down, what is your greatest headache with this? What are the biggest challenges right now that you have that are getting in the way of this?

[Grand Chief Abel Bosum]

I would say it's the unknown. Our experience has been that resource development has come to our doorstep sort of at the last minute, so we're unprepared. At the end of the day, we don't necessarily pick up all the benefits that we could. That's why we want to change the approach.

We want to work together with the government to develop a 30-year infrastructure plan so that our people will know exactly what's likely to happen. We see the maps. We see the geology. We see all these explorations. We have over 300 explorations [Technical difficulty—Editor] territory, but we don't know when a project is going to happen.

Even these lithium mines.... There are five of them, and if you ask all of them how they're going to transport the material out, they have five different answers. There's no coordination, as we say, in transportation. That creates concerns and confusion. If we can plan better, have a better plan together that includes first nations people, then we'll see more projects and partner projects where benefits will be shared.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

In addition to extracting and shipping the materials, we've heard a lot today about the need to be processed before going into finished products like electronics and batteries. Do you believe that your band has the process capacity, or would you be able to provide that capacity in the medium or long term?

You talked about not being prepared. Is that something that, if given support, you think could exist?

[Grand Chief Abel Bosum]

Definitely. We're the population that's here to stay even after the mine is closed. It's in our interest to see not only the short-term impact but the long-term impact. We also have the need to develop our economies and create jobs, and if we know ahead of time and work together to plan better, then of course we can put in place the necessary training programs or encourage our students to pursue professional careers. We see that the future can be bright if we start working together.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Quickly, Mr. Steward, if that were to happen, if we were to see those resources being put into place to create some added value and sort of control the supply chain a little bit, do you see that having an impact on that volatility you talked about with regard to prices?

[Dr. Nigel Steward]

I think the more manufacturing, demand and use within Canada for some of these products, the more this would greatly help to reduce the volatility in price. I think as the markets mature and there becomes more of a manufacturing base in Canada, that will help.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thanks, Mr. May.

Mr. Simard, we go back to you, sir, for two and a half minutes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I tabled three motions three weeks ago. I want to go over them quickly. They have already been discussed by the Board of Internal Economy and the Liaison Committee.

The first motion concerns translated documents. I'll read it quickly:

That all documents submitted for Committee business that do not come from a federal department or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau be sent for prior linguistic review by the Translation Bureau before being distributed to members.

The goal is quite simple—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Can I just interrupt you for one second, Mr. Simard? Which motion are you introducing?

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

The three motions were tabled.

The first concerns documents translated by the Translation Bureau.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I'm sorry. The interpretation is not working again.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Is it working right now? This is where we see the importance of interpretation.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

If for no other reason than to make it easier for the members, I think we should do them one at a time.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Okay.

I read you the first motion, which concerns the documents translated by the Translation Bureau.

May I go ahead and read the second motion, which concerns technical tests for witnesses?

Is the interpretation working, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

It seems to be working, yes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Okay.

Here's the second motion:

That the clerk inform each witness who is to appear before the committee that the House Administration support team must conduct technical tests to check the connectivity and the equipment used to ensure the best possible sound quality; and that the Chair advises the committee, at the start of each meeting, of any witness who did not perform the required technical tests.

I just want to say that this motion has been passed in every other committee where it was introduced.

I'll now read the third motion, which concerns substantive motions. “That the text of any substantive motion or any motion—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Hold on, Mr. Simard. I would suggest that we deal with one motion at a time.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I may be wrong, because the translation wasn't working perfectly, but I think you've read the text of two motions. I would ask that you pick one and we'll deal with it, and then move on. Which motion would you like to deal with first?

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

We can start with the first motion, which concerns the documents translated by the Translation Bureau.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Okay.

I have the English text here, and, Mr. Simard, perhaps you can just verify this is the right motion. It says:

That all documents submitted for Committee business that do not come from a federal department or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau be sent for prior linguistic review by the Translation Bureau before being distributed to members.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

That's right.