Finance committee  It is a concern, infrastructure-wise. Depending on where you are in the north, across the three territories there are issues of permafrost thawing and not providing stability for buildings. This causes concern here in Nunavut, because, depending on which community you're situated in, you may or may not have good foundations for your buildings.

Finance committee  Social upheaval is mostly to do with culture. We have very much a traditional hunter-gatherer society up here. Most Inuit are unemployed. They're wholly dependent on going out and gathering their food to sustain their families. Recently we had a tragic accident in which a young couple went through the ice with their ski-doo because they didn't know that the ice was not frozen properly.

Finance committee  No. Devolution needs to happen with the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs as the lead minister. He had a special consultant create a report with recommendations regarding devolution for Nunavut. The name was Paul Mayer. He is a lawyer.

Finance committee  Yes. What we recommended is that there be a trust fund set up with a board of trustees managing the revenues and that these revenues be shaved off from the territorial government's stream of revenues once resource royalty revenues are negotiated and devolution has occurred.

Finance committee  No. They've only ever been collected by the federal government. The federal government puts them back into the general fund to be used across Canada. The major mines we had in Nunavut.... That was when we were still part of the NWT. There's the Nanisivik mine and Little Cornwallis Island with--

Finance committee  No, there have been no benefits streaming back to the territories.

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  Yes, I am.

Finance committee  Thank you, and thank you for permitting us to speak with you today. The focus of our written submission to the committee is that successive federal governments have failed to live up to the spirit and the intent of their statutory responsibilities under sections 4 and 5 of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Act since it became law some 40 years ago.

Finance committee  There's the Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation. They received Industry Canada funds, and high-speed Internet is up and running across Nunavut, and has been now for a year.

Finance committee  We have a resource person with us, Russell Banta, who has been working with us on this file. I'd like it if he could approach.

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  I guess the one single most important thing your committee could focus on for Nunavut would be to follow the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing report, which was presented to the Minister of Finance. It's an excellent overview of all the challenges facing Nunavummiut today, and it does speak to the need to review the question of resource royalty sharing and how that should be managed in devolution talks.