Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on April 2nd, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you.

Madam Keenainak.

[Rosemary Keenainak]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I haven't really mentioned Nunavut, but we do have one land claim for the whole territory, and I think that's quite unique. We have our own regulatory system as well. I think it's working. We have a process for reviewing it to make improvements on it, but I think it's working in Nunavut.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Very good. Thank you.

Now we move to Mr. Bevington. Then Mr. Payne, followed by Mr. Bélanger.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Further on the topic of devolution, I'd like to make a comment. I think the Yukon is pretty well established in moving in this direction, but in terms of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, can you characterize the movement in the last three years on devolution issues with the federal government? Has there been any movement? Have you seen any increased effort to provide responsibility to the people of the north?

[Peter Vician]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

That's a very sensitive topic. While the dialogue seems to appear to be continuing, progress has not been made. Across the table, I don't believe the parties are moving at any rate that northerners expect. It's been through a number of governments in this legislature, and in fact in our own legislature, that we've seen this discussion go on for over 20 years. Are we any closer? I'd have to say no today. I'd have to defer, obviously, to the premier's response to that, but that's really where we're at here today.

Thank you.

[Rosemary Keenainak]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think we're in the same boat. We're even further behind than the NWT in this process. The federal government finally announced an individual to work on the file, but it has been very slow.

No, there hasn't been a lot of progress.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

The federal government has announced a number of initiatives in the last while. One of them is, of course, the proposed northern economic development agency. There's some sense that maybe the major projects management office is part of this. The new northern development agency suggested it could include a northern project management office.

Do you see that this type of move will actually lead to more responsible control in the Northwest Territories and in Nunavut over resources, over land, or do you see that this may actually impede the development of responsible government?

[Peter Vician]

I've been in contact with the federal government over the last few years on the MPMO. It's our view that better federal coordination is necessary in the north. That's evident. Departments need a vehicle so they can work better together and deal with major project development.

We're not convinced at this point that an extension of the MPMO is necessarily the right thing to do. The MPMO has a large challenge in Canada overall. It's already trying to coordinate many large projects across Canada. We believe you need to use the existing systems and have federal departments coordinate effectively to work with those systems. If the MPMO is the only way to do that, we'll accept that, but we're not convinced at this point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Go ahead.

[Rosemary Keenainak]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

At this point there hasn't been a lot of discussion with the federal government on how that is going to be working for the north, so it's kind of unknown at this point. I agree with Peter, let's use the existing systems, and maybe the regional development agency will help in terms of better coordination. I don't know if it's going to work to just set up another office, another level of government. I guess it's a concern for us as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Did you want to give a brief response, Mr. Brooks?

[Harvey Brooks]

Yes. Just echoing the necessity for coordinating the efforts, we would like to see all of these initiatives that come forward coordinated through YESAA. If the federal government can help in that, we would appreciate that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

You still have a minute, Mr. Bevington.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

I'll just go to the Mackenzie gas project for a minute.

You've described the project as having the potential for more than 100 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Mackenzie Valley. That's an area that is significantly smaller than the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, which you've characterized as extremely sensitive. Has there been a sense that there's an industrial strategy taking sustainability of the resource into account, taking the environment into account, taking the needed infrastructure to develop the whole Mackenzie gas resource into account, rather than simply the development of a pipeline that will allow the extraction of that resource?

[Peter Vician]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If I had to turn to one document, no, there's no one document that says that, but there is a series of efforts and strategies that culminate in the way the north sees the development happening. The GNWT has played a role in that and the federal government has played a role in that. There needs to be more work done. The cumulative impact side of the coin still needs to be done.

We're all anxiously waiting for the results of the review panel that is looking at the Mackenzie gas project. We respect the review panel's mandate in terms of what its job is. It's a very challenging job. We anticipate this will be a cornerstone of their response, that they'll be asking those tough questions about how you look at the overall strategy. So our view on this is that yes, there are elements of that, more needs to be done, and northerners need to play a large role in that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Now we'll go to Mr. Payne for five minutes.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'd like to welcome the witnesses. I appreciate their distance in travel here today to give their comments and ideas to our committee.

In terms of the northern economic development, I think I basically heard everyone seeing this as quite a positive move in terms of the territories. Since that announcement has taken place, I'm wondering if the three territories have gotten together at all to discuss the new agency and how they could see that they could work together on this.

Rosemary.

[Rosemary Keenainak]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, the three premiers did do an initial response to Minister Strahl—I think it was in December— in terms of some of the guiding principles that Harvey has spoken about. I know at a working group level we have been having discussions, and we will be having further discussions in the coming days. INAC had sent out a questionnaire to stakeholders, and we are preparing a response to that.

The one thing that I think the three territories are in agreement on is that we've indicated to INAC that we're not just stakeholders. We need to be partners as the regional development agency is being developed.

Peter or Harvey, do you want to add?

[Peter Vician]

I'll be very brief, because I can't add anything better to what Rosemary and Harvey have said already. We totally subscribe to a pan-northern approach to the solution, and everything you've heard us say today is consistent across the three territories.

[Harvey Brooks]

No comment. It's very good.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

In terms of the regulations, I know each of the territories apparently have their own, and as I understand it, there are numerous individual regulations based on the various treaties that might be out there. I understand that the Yukon certainly has developed quite a set of regulations. I'm wondering, have the other territories looked at the Yukon, or is there a way to have the regulations become one best practice?

[Peter Vician]

Perhaps I'll start.

Mr. Chair, in the Northwest Territories it is different, as I've said, with the nature of our comprehensive claim process and the multitude of claims that respect the peoples of the territory and the different peoples of the territory.

The Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is the governing legislation that deals with the overall development agenda. That is a piece of federal legislation. If we had to do one thing that Yukon has done, we'd like to see that legislation being owned by the Legislature of the Northwest Territories rather than by the House of Commons. We believe the people of the territories should decide on the statutes necessary to govern the development and control the review of the project.

So that is the one that we would want to see, quickly, with what YESAA does today.

Thank you.

[Rosemary Keenainak]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As I indicated earlier, in Nunavut we do have one comprehensive land claim, only one. We do have institutes of public government that do help in terms of reviewing major projects. Again, as Peter said, one of the things is that a lot of the legislation and regulations are at the federal level. Hopefully, with devolution those will then become the responsibility of Nunavut as well.

I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Brooks, do you have anything to add?

Okay. We still have a minute.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Going back to the development agency, do you feel that this development agency is the right direction to go? Do we have it right, or is there something else we need to do with that?

All three of you, please.