Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Oct. 27th, 2009

[Chris Forbes]

In the case of a transfer of a program, if one level of government is doing it and the other level is no longer doing it, then that would be the subject of a funding agreement, I think, between the first nation and the government of the Yukon, would it not?

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Well, the problem is that if you take one school of 50 kids out of the educational system, it doesn't really reduce the cost for the Yukon government that much. There's a lot more cost to the first nation. So the federal government would have to fulfill its responsibility and then make up that gap.

[Chris Forbes]

First of all, the agreement would have to be between the Yukon government and the first nation as to what service is getting devolved. So I think from there you would have to look at what the financing implications are. It's hard to make blanket statements about those—

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

It's in the signed agreement, so it's a constitutionally protected commitment by the federal government.

I have a question on the northern tax credit. We appreciate that it went up 10%. It went for a lot of years without changing at all, and I think it would be more helpful if it were indexed, so you don't have to periodically, every decade, make this increase. Is that something that is being looked at?

[Sean Keenan, Senior Chief, Personal Income Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance]

The northern resident selection has not been indexed, but it was increased by 10% in budget 2008. I couldn't speculate on--

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

I have one last quick question, because I only have a few seconds. It's an easy question. Could the territories become provinces and keep their existing funding formula?

[Chris Forbes]

We have a funding formula in place for the territories that recognizes, as I said in my notes, the unique circumstances of the north.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Those wouldn't change if they became provinces.

[Chris Forbes]

Those wouldn't change. Again, I couldn't commit to something, but obviously we have a situation where we do recognize their unique characteristics now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bagnell.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Lévesque, who will have seven minutes.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

At the last meeting, we met with a representative from CanNor. It was fairly difficult to find out the issues that CanNor was going to work on and the places where it was going to operate. We learned that the head office would be in Iqaluit. But, as for which department CanNor would be doing business with and what its responsibilities would be, the answers were again fairly vague.

You said that some of your offices will be located in the same place as CanNor's. Mr. Forbes, you said that $2.5 billion in assistance was provided to the territories. Will that money be allocated to local governments in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon? Will local governments administer the funding, or will a portion of it be earmarked for CanNor?

[Chris Forbes]

The $2.5 billion I mentioned is a transfer from the federal government to the territory. It has nothing to do with CanNor. The funding is sent to the territorial government; it is a block transfer. The territory decides how it will be spent.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

The local government reports to each community on spending and does not have to report to the central government.

[Chris Forbes]

In terms of territorial formula financing, that is correct.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

We know that a lot of money was spent on education. Mr. Thompson or Mr. Forbes mentioned it, I am not sure which. Is the government alone in investing in education? Do businesses involved in developing the territory have any training obligations?

[Paul Thompson]

I will try to answer that. Of course, it is the responsibility of the territorial government. However, there is an important relationship with training programs such as the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership Program. Through that program, many employers invest in essential skills training for workers, in order to meet the needs of each employer in the region. So there are partnerships, but education as such is the responsibility of the territories.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Forbes, I think you have concerns that affect me because my riding includes Nunavik. We see that money is invested solely in Nunavut. We also know how close people are and how easy it is to go from one place to another. Are there any reciprocal agreements with Quebec to help people from Nunavik fill jobs in Nunavut? We all know that Quebec is the one that administers education in Nunavik.

As far as your training program is concerned, are there any reciprocal agreements with Nunavik?

[Chris Forbes]

If I understand correctly, that would be a matter for the governments of Nunavut and Quebec to debate. Are there any reciprocal agreements between the two? Our human resources development programs are in all the provinces. We give money to all the provinces and territories to fund all of the programs Mr. Thompson described. So they are available to all Canadians.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Money has been set aside for labour force training in Nunavut. Will the same amount of funding go to the Inuit nation? Will Inuit have the opportunity to receive training equivalent to what people in Nunavut will receive, so they can travel between territories and take advantage of work opportunities there?

[Paul Thompson]

I can say two things with respect to Nunavik. First, we have a special agreement with that region in terms of the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy, in recognition of the fact that the region has special status. It involves more autonomy with respect to service delivery and a more comprehensive range of services than other service delivery agreements. So there is a special relationship with that region.

Second, we have other projects. I will again mention the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership program. We have just invested $1.8 million in a mining project, Raglan Mine, to train 400 area Inuit. So they have access to these programs, in addition to the regular ones.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

I look forward to the day when you will also allow....

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

You do not have enough time for another question.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Too bad.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Now we go to Mr. Bevington for seven minutes, followed by Mr. Rickford.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thank you, and thanks to the witnesses for being here today.

Mr. Forbes, in regard to the northern residents tax deduction, it did go up by 10% but that's not in line with the inflation over 20 years that degraded that. Why did you decide to put it up by only 10%?