Natural Resources committee  Well, first of all, it's the remoteness, and the high cost of doing any type of business in that part of Canada, in the Arctic. Geographically, we're closer to Asia than to the rest of Canada, if you look at it. Again, it's the high cost of conducting business where we are, as

Natural Resources committee  —it allows this company to sit on what we call an SDL, a significant discovery licence, forever. The minister has the discretion to tell a company to develop, but that has never been exercised. We need to do that.

Natural Resources committee  I'll apologize in advance if I am going a little quickly, because I think I have more than 10 minutes in my presentation here. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. First of all, my name is Duane Smith. You can just stick to the English name. I know my Inuvia

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start, I guess, since the light is still on. For the whole territory, I would think, there is no gas or oil development anymore. The price has dropped so much and the cost of conducting exploration or development within the north is so high.... Again, this territory is sitt

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I guess I'm the only region that it affected for this part of the—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct. We received notice about two hours beforehand that it was going to be announced, and that was the extent of the consultation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I also stated that we don't want to be used as the excuse for the federal government to meet its international obligations on an artificial quota, in my view, either on land-based or marine-based protection. Again, we'd rather work together on identifying potential sites and seei

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Under the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, we have processes established for overlapping issues. As well, within the final agreement, we have an agreement with the Gwich'in of Old Crow. Under our land claim, the Porcupine caribou management process was created. We worked together to i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The national parks themselves have all been created, in collaboration with us, for various reasons: for their unique beauty, their significance, and/or the preservation and sustainability of the ecosystem within that area. We have worked closely in that regard, and we continue to

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's another area where there's a lack of consistency and strategic planning, as you're suggesting, should be put in place. That's what we'd like to work with them on. Their budget in our region has not increased in 14 years so they're dealing with dollars from way back then. H

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would say it's provided us with some security, but as they touched on earlier, the statistics are not moving up or improving to the degree that they could and should be.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I were starting at the gate, my whole region would be mine. The compromise that we gave up.... Some people may not believe it, but we are an unceded region, as you've heard from other areas within Canada. It's not for me to say whether what we negotiate is right or wrong. It's

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have three large national parks within my region. It's the first modern treaty to establish a national park with the federal government, as well. All of those combined are roughly 50,000 square kilometres. We have five bird sanctuaries in my region. We have a national historic

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Throughout my very brief statement I touched on quite a few areas where there needs to be improvement, Michael. Where do I start? We're expecting the same types of services that all Canadians take for granted in southern Canada. You look at the health and education, at the outc

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you all for the opportunity to present before you. My name is Duane Smith. I'm the chair and CEO of Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. With me today is my general counsel, Kate Darling. We will, as others have, just make it briefer than what we had plann