Debates of May 9th, 2013

Indian Affairs and Northern Development—Main Estimates, 2013–14

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Does the hon. member for Yukon have a question for the minister?

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Chair, I do. I have a few questions, and I am not sure how much time I have left for those. I have five minutes? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, our Conservative government has just announced a historic agreement for devolution in the Northwest Territories. This is an outstanding achievement. Once finalized, the agreement would provide the Northwest Territories with greater decision-making powers, which would lead to jobs, growth and long-term prosperity in the territory and indeed across Canada.

As the member of Parliament for the Yukon, I can speak first-hand to the benefits of devolution. Our government knows that it is northerners who are best placed to make decisions to manage their economy, contrary to the position taken by the member for Western Arctic on the devolution agreement.

I would like to ask the minister this. What do northern regulatory improvement initiatives mean for devolution in the Northwest Territories?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the member for Yukon for his good question. He referred to the Prime Minister's visit to Yellowknife on March 11 to announce that consensus had been reached on the terms for an agreement. This is indeed a historic accomplishment.

On the regulatory front, we will soon launch consultations on additional improvements, particularly in the Northwest Territories, where we want to ensure that an effective and efficient regulatory system for the benefit of all Northwest Territories residents is in place prior to the devolution of the responsibilities for the management of lands and resources to the Government of the Northwest Territories.

It is important that these regulatory regimes in the north work right to create the predictability and certainty needed to attract investment and create jobs in the north. This, of course, advances the objectives of the northern strategy and builds on our government's commitment to jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Chair, obviously we know no government has done more to advance the interests of Canada's north than we have. I know we will certainly continue to do so. We introduced the northern jobs and growth act to allow northerners to benefit from projects in mining, oil, gas, transportation and other businesses across the north and across Canada.

Could the minister tell us briefly how Bill C-47 fits into the broader northern regulatory initiative and what this means for the future regulatory improvements?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, the northern jobs and growth act, as members may know, would fulfill obligations flowing from land claim agreements, and it would respond also to economic development and needs of northerners, and it would build on our government's commitment to create jobs, new wealth and long-term prosperity for all Canadians.

Bill C-47 would establish in legislation the Nunavut Impact Review Board and the Nunavut Planning Commission, which we know stem from those land agreements, as well as systems for environmental assessment and land use approaches in Nunavut. The bill would also establish the Northwest Territories surface rights board act, which would resolve disputes in cases of access to the land.

Importantly for the member asking the question, because it touches his homeland, Bill C-47 would amend the Yukon Surface Rights Board Act, advancing the objective of the northern strategy. A more predictable regulatory regime would allow northerners to benefit from 24 major resource projects worth more than $38 billion. That is huge. There is a lot of potential there and, with the government as an ally of the north, we will see that development occur.

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Resuming debate with the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay. Would he like to tell the Chair how he would like to spend his time?

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a number of questions to get through, so I would like to follow the standard of keeping the questions and answers to roughly the same length.

I would like to begin by congratulating the minister. This is the first chance I have had to officially congratulate him in the House on being chosen for this very important role.

I would also like to note that we are coming up to the third anniversary of the death of Shannen Koostachin, the youth activist who fought so much for education. I will be focusing my questions tonight mostly on the issue of education.

Can the minister tell me what the total funding envelope is for instructional services within the elementary and secondary education file under aboriginal affairs?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, it is $27 million. In the main estimates there is not a detailed answer for that question because over $1.55 billion will be invested in education. As the estimates indicate, there are no specific numbers, but what is important to realize is that when we look at the investment in education that is made throughout the—

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Order, please. I want to stop the clock for a second. I want to remind all hon. members that an attempt will be made to keep the length of the answers similar to the length of the questions. The Chair will try to keep to that. Sometimes I recognize it is difficult for that to happen.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, I understand what the estimates provide, but any school board in the country will be able to say what is in the funding envelope for education. How much is in the instructional funding envelope for elementary and secondary education?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, the Government of Canada invested $1.55 billion in first nation education for about 117,500 students. This represents an average of about $14,000 per full-time equivalent student in 2011-12. According to these instructional services, that is the cost for 2011-12. Since there are no reductions in the estimates for that envelope, it will be about the same amount this year.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, this is a big issue. I was a school board trustee, so I am a little hung up on this.

In the school boards, provincially, the funding envelope comes with the students per capita, and one knows what it is. It is ring fencing. The envelopes are specific, so this is a specific question that the minister does not seem to be able to answer. He does not seem to be able to tell us if he knows what is going in for instruction, not in terms of what is being spent by the bureaucracy, not what is being spent on all manner of other things.

What is being spent in terms of the instructional envelope?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, for instructional services, it is $1.3 billion.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, if he wants to put that on the record, he can. I do not think he understood the question. I am not going to make this hard for him. He is the education minister of one of the largest school systems in the country. These are things that are fairly straightforward.

What is the backlog of schools on reserve right now that need to be replaced?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, in the last few budgets and again this year, in the estimates, we are investing over $115 million for schools throughout all of the reserves in Canada. In action plan 2012, we had invested $175 million over three years to build and renovate schools and—

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Order. Once again, the member for Timmins—James Bay is asking questions in the range of about 20 to 35 seconds. I appreciate they are complicated, but I would ask the minister respectfully to try to keep his answers to something similar to that.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just asked what the backlog of schools is. How many schools need to be replaced? What is the plan? How many?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, the schools are being replaced according to a system that analyzes which school is in need of being replaced in order to protect the health and safety of the students. That is the ranking that decides which school is done.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, then the minister does not know how many schools need to be replaced. Again, we are talking about children here. This is an issue on which he has a responsibility to understand the importance of protecting the health and safety of children. I am surprised that he does not know the number. I could give him the number 48. Maybe that would help him.

I would ask him how many schools on reserve have been listed as substandard or condemned.

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, if the member has the answer then why does he ask the question?

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, I was asking the question because I was hoping the minister understood his portfolio and was able to see the importance of making sure the children are able to go to a school with quality education. If the minister does not think it is important or thinks maybe it is a joke, that is unfortunate.

I would like to continue on.

Since he does not know what the instructional services envelope is, we know that under the provincial system there are specific funding envelopes for libraries, computers and extracurricular school activities. Will the minister tell us if there are any specific funding envelopes that exist for those services? If not, why not?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, the member is comparing this education system among 633 first nations in Canada to a school board in downtown Toronto. I mean, this is not the same thing at all.

I indicated earlier that the overall investment is $1.3 billion for instructional services. He is not satisfied with the answer, but that is the fact.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Chair, it is not just the school board in Toronto. These are school board standards in every jurisdiction in this country. He should understand whether or not there is a funding envelope. I would like to tell him that there is no funding envelope for libraries. Is he not aware of that? I find that very surprising.

I would like to continue on with the importance of post-secondary education.

How many students who were eligible to receive post-secondary funding support were not able to receive it this year? What are the numbers?

[Bernard Valcourt, Conservative, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, access to post-secondary education is key, of course, to ensuring that first nations have every prospect for improvement, with access to post-secondary education and opportunities. We provide $320 million yearly in post-secondary funding to students. In budget 2013, the government announced an additional $10 million to support bursaries for first nations and Inuit students through Indspire. We have also allocated $5 million for the Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies and a new aboriginal bursaries search tool with close to 700 links—

[The Deputy Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Order. The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.