Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. The Manitoba government is basically waiting for the federal government signal on how we move forward with this project. I think our private sector partner is there to stay, as long as we get the federal support to move the project forward. Right now, as it is, withou

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. The urgency is that there will be renewable energy investments in the north. For us, the goal is to maximize community benefits, and this project does that. It gets five communities and two mines and fibre all in one shot.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Not too many years ago in Rankin Inlet our power plant shut down. All the generators were out of commission. They had to fly emergency generators into our community. That had a lot of impacts on the people. Also, it's not just that in terms of our infrastructure. Our community is

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When we lost all our power, it happened in the winter. The community scrambles to get temporary generators to be connected to the furnaces or a boiler. Not every house has that opportunity. Not every individual who owns a home has that option, and not even the public housing un

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. Housing is a real issue right now in all of the Nunavut communities, as you heard, but that is not allowing other people in the region to come to Rankin to work at the mine. We really appreciate, Agnico, as an Inuit organization, investing millions o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are a lot of opportunities with this hydro fibre project. It will allow for more businesses to be developed in the region. Recycling, for example, or bakeries, which cost a lot of money to run, will be available for that opportunity. Specifically on the fibre optic, educa

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure. We are working closely with federal ministers to refine our ask to the federal government for the 2019 federal budget. A federal commitment would allow the Inuit to be a joint-equity partner in this project with the private sector. There needs to be a federal government bac

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are other Inuit associations. I'm from the central and they're from the west. There are three regions: eastern Nunavut, central, and west.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It could be a combination of road or rail coming up from Manitoba into our region. Whether it comes from Churchill, The Pas, or Thompson, that would have to be studied. The Kivalliq Inuit Association applied to the national trades corridor funding to try to access road monies so

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It will be a challenge, but also it will be an opportunity, because it will allow for development to happen and allow us to go after green energy that we did not have the opportunity to move to in the past. I think the stars are aligned right now to allow us to get this project o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. The cost for this project is about $1.2 billion. This project brings in fibre, as well, which we do not have. We're on satellite bandwidth right now. This would bring fibre optic cable into our region. It is our preference as a project, as it's goin

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely, it's for both. It will connect five communities and two mines. It's not piecemeal.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I know our territorial government did look at river options in the region, but that does not bring up the fibre part of the project. Other options have been looked at, but for us, fibre is the key to allowing our region and the territory to be able to open up that bandwidth—satel