Proceedings of the Special Senate Committee on the Arctic
Issue 3 - Evidence - February 26, 2018
OTTAWA, Monday, February 26, 2018
The Special Senate Committee on the Arctic met this day at 6:30 p.m. to consider the significant and rapid changes to the Arctic, and impacts on original inhabitants.
Senator Dennis Glen Patterson (Deputy Chair) in the chair.
[English]
[Editor’s Note: Some evidence was presented through an Inuktitut interpreter.]
The Deputy Chair: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this meeting of the Special Senate Committee on the Arctic. My name is Dennis Patterson. I’m senator for Nunavut, and I’m privileged to be the deputy chair of this committee. I wish to welcome everyone with us in the room and viewers across the country who may be watching on television or online. As a reminder to those watching, these committee hearings, are open to the public and also available online on the Senate website at sencanada.ca.
I would like to welcome Senator Coyle as a new member of this committee and ask the senators around the table to introduce themselves, beginning with Senator Coyle.
Senator Coyle: Hello, I’m Senator Mary Coyle from Nova Scotia.
Senator Oh: Senator Oh from Ontario.
Senator Neufeld: Senator Richard Neufeld, British Columbia.
Senator Bovey: Senator Pat Bovey from Manitoba.
Senator Galvez: Senator Rosa Galvez from Quebec.
The Deputy Chair: Colleagues, in September, the Senate appointed this Special Senate Committee on the Arctic, with the mandate to consider the significant and rapid changes to the Arctic and impact on the original inhabitants. This is our second of a few meetings organized to give us some background on important Arctic issues.
Tonight, I am pleased to welcome, by video conference from Yellowknife, the Honourable Bob McLeod, Premier of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you for joining us, Premier McLeod. Please proceed with your opening statement, after which we will go to a question and answer session. We would ask you to please have in mind the French interpretation that will be going on simultaneously
Premier McLeod.
Hon. Bob McLeod, Premier of the Northwest Territories, Government of the Northwest Territories: Thank you, Senator Patterson. I’m very pleased to appear in front of the Arctic Committee, and I’m also pleased to see a few colleagues and friends from my previous and current work. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today. I’m pleased to be able to share the Northwest Territories perspective on the Arctic and some of the priorities of our government. Our government wants to create a good, sustainable future for the people of the Northwest Territories. In our view, that has to be built on a foundation of a strong, diversified economy that provides residents with the jobs and economic opportunities they must have to support themselves and their families. It will also be built on the recognition that northerners need to be the ones making decisions about the future of the North. It’s our hope that the Government of Canada understands and shares the priorities of northerners and will be a partner with us in the transformative social and economic development of the North. For decades, the source of the Northwest Territories wealth and opportunities for its residents has been the responsible development of its natural resources. We expect it will continue to be a major part of our economy, but we know that growing and diversifying our economy is essential to our long-term future and to providing our residents, particularly in our communities and regions outside of Yellowknife, with good middle class jobs and incomes. This is a priority for our government, but one that cannot be met without some changes and support from Canada.
Canada’s policies and the decisions it makes based on them, particularly around resource development and environmental protection, can have significant ramifications for the North and Northern economies. The same is true of Canada’s spending decisions, including infrastructure investment and investment in other priority areas, like housing and health care. Decisions that will affect the North must be made by northerners, according to our own priorities and needs.
We hope the federal government is looking closely at how its decisions will affect Northwest Territories’ residents and is taking Northern views and priorities into account. Part of this means making federal intentions toward the North clear. We need Canada to demonstrate it shares northerners’ interest in a strong and diversified economy as the foundation for a sustainable North with a clear plan and financial commitments moving forward.
In the Northwest Territories, we are committed to upholding Indigenous and treaty rights and have been involved in the negotiations and settling of multiple land, resources and self-government agreements over the past 30 years. This commitment makes our territory a national leader and example of how real partnerships of regional and community Indigenous governments, based on mutual respect and recognition, can lead to increased political self-determination and economic participation for the North’s Indigenous peoples. We have taken great strides toward political self-determination in the past four decades, with a number of land, resources and self-government agreements having been settled and more in active negotiations.
Currently, the majority of the members of our legislative assembly, including five of seven cabinet ministers, are Indigenous, as am I. The fact is Indigenous leaders are the decision makers in the Northwest Territories, both in the public government of the Northwest Territories and in regional and community Indigenous governments. We are setting public policies and creating programs and services that are informed by our own experiences and priorities as Indigenous people. We are not on the outside looking in, and we think Canada needs to keep that in mind as they look at their policies and decisions for the North.
There is a lot of talk in Canada about reconciliation with Indigenous people right now, about how Canada has to do better for Indigenous people. I welcome that, as do the people of our territory, and I am encouraged by the Prime Minister’s recent announcement to create an Indigenous rights recognition framework that will help create certainty for all of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. I do hope, though, that this framework accounts for and respects the diversity of Indigenous experience across this country. It must, for instance, recognize that the Northwest Territories is not Southern Canada, that we do not experience the same reserve structure they do and that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people live and work together in the same communities, receiving programs and services from the same public government.
Canada’s new framework must also respect the fact that the Northwest Territories has been working on the issue of reconciliation and Indigenous governance for decades. We have been negotiating land claims in this territory since the 1980s and have settled several of these modern treaties.
Over the years, these negotiated agreements have led to the establishment of several governance and administrative structures that ensure Indigenous people have an opportunity to exercise their inherent rights and participate in decision-making on matters they have identified as important.
I have said elsewhere that political self-determination requires economic self-determination, and that is one of the reasons why I feel it is so important to keep economic development in the North on the national agenda. A strong, thriving economy in the Northwest Territories is a crucial part of a successful model for Indigenous reconciliation that could serve as a guide for the rest of the country.
The Northwest Territories deserves an equitable opportunity to be valued participants in the Canadian economy, and our people deserve the opportunity to achieve economic self-determination.
In the North, resource development has been the heart of our economy for decades. It has created jobs and economic opportunities that benefit Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents, governments and businesses. When our government negotiated the devolution of public lands and resources from Canada, we made a point of including all Indigenous governments that wanted to be signatories as parties to that agreement. We also made a commitment to share up to 25 per cent of our share of resource royalty revenues with those Indigenous governments, without strings, to make sure they and their people were receiving the benefits of development in our territory.
Since devolution took effect in 2014, we have shared over $20 million with our Indigenous-government partners. We want to keep our economy strong so we can continue to generate and share that kind of prosperity. In the Northwest Territories, we have all the ingredients for strong economic growth, including abundant natural resources and significant participation and support for economic development from Indigenous-owned businesses and governments. We expect resource development will continue to be a major part of the Northern economy, but we also know we can’t take it for granted and that we need to grow and diversify the territorial economy.
All three Northern territories face similar issues, including our reliance on responsible resource development to maintain our economies. We are united in finding a way to ensure a healthy economy for future generations. We are in strong agreement that decisions about the North and its future should be made by northerners. Last August, we issued a Pan-Territorial Vision for Sustainable Development, which I have shared with your clerk for distribution.
This vision must form the basis for decision-making about the North, and we are united in hoping that Canada will incorporate it into its own thinking and policies. Specifically, it needs to be a key element in the emerging Arctic Policy Framework currently under development.
We will need more than policies to transform the North. Policies are about principles and intentions; they are not about actions. Transforming the North into a thriving, sustainable part of Confederation will take concrete action and investment.
With limited infrastructure, long distances, harsh climates and climate change, economic development in the North can be significantly more difficult than in other parts of the country. Other countries recognize the challenges of developing the Arctic and have clear plans for steps they will take and money they will invest. Canada needs a similar plan, with similar ambitions and clear commitments.
Effective planning takes time, and so it is imperative that developing a plan for our territory be a priority for Canada.
I’d like to thank you again for inviting me to speak to you this afternoon. I’m optimistic that opportunities like this will help to guide the Northwest Territories as we work to achieve our vision for a strong, sustainable North that all Canadians can be proud of. Thank you.
The Deputy Chair: Thank you, Mr. Premier. Now questions from senators, beginning with Senator Neufeld.
Senator Neufeld: Premier McLeod, good to see you again, even though it’s by video conference. Always good to listen to how you are constantly talking about what is the best for the part of Canada you live in, the Northwest Territories. I respect you very much for that.
First off, you had devolution. I’m sure people in the Northwest Territories thought they would have some input in decisions that are made around resource development, if not the full decisions, at least be part of the discussion. I wonder if you could tell us what kind of oil and gas is anticipated to be there in the Northwest Territories that could be accessed, and how many jobs that would create or benefits for the Northwest Territories.
And tell us a little about the consultation that took place between Prime Minister Trudeau and you when he decided to join with the U.S. and put a drilling ban on in the Northwest Territories. We have heard differing stories, but I’d like to hear it from you. You were the premier. You would have been the one, I would hope, that he talked to, but it would be interesting to find out what kind of discussions he had. Did they have consultation? Did they look at the science? Did they do all the things they promised to do in the Arctic strategy?
Mr. McLeod: Thank you, Senator Neufeld. Very good to see you again, although it’s by video conference, as you say.
I’ll start with oil and gas. You’re very familiar with our part of the country. The Northwest Territories has always been seen as an oil-exporting territory. We have been exporting oil since before the Second World War; 1936, I believe, is when oil was discovered. There was a pipeline built to Whitehorse, and so we have been producing oil and gas since. But, as of December 21, 2017, we have gone for a year — now it’s over a year — where we haven’t produced one molecule of oil and gas in the Northwest Territories. That’s very concerning because we saw it as a very important part of our future, that we were going to be the last frontier.
With regard to the moratorium on oil and gas in the Beaufort, I received a call two hours before the announcement was made that there would be an indefinite moratorium on oil and gas in the North, specifically in the Beaufort Sea. I said, “Well, if we’re going to leave trillions of dollars of oil and gas underground, leave it in the ground — like several trillion dollars — we’d need something very big to replace it.” There was no economic strategy. When they had the moratorium on fisheries in Newfoundland, the federal government was there with a $9 billion package. So the Prime Minister said we would have a clean growth job strategy. We had tourism, and we had fisheries. So that was very concerning. Only now we’re working on the Arctic Policy Framework.
The Northwest Territories has three operating diamond mines. We export over $2 billion worth of diamonds every year. We expected oil and gas would exceed that tenfold. The Prime Minister has said the moratorium would be reviewed in five-year cycles, but then federal officials have been going around to all of the oil and gas companies that have leases and licences in the North. They are asking them, “What would it take for you to give up your leases and licences?” So we’re very concerned about that.
We are looking at diversifying. We have to transform our economy, so that’s what we’re looking at.
Senator Neufeld: Thank you for that.
So you had a two-hour consultation. Well, it wouldn’t be a two-hour consultation, probably a 15-minute phone call, two hours before he made the decision, and, on top of that, he has said that every five years there would be a review.
If, in the meantime, federal bureaucrats are going around to the oil companies that have leases asking them to give them up, I guess that tells you what the five-year thing is. It’s really nothing about oil and gas drilling. Would you agree with me?
Also, there has been some discussion about drilling in the Beaufort. It has already taken place, I believe, and maybe you could enlighten the group as to what drilling has taken place in the Beaufort over time.
Mr. McLeod: There has been some significant drilling over the years. The Beaufort is all part of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that goes from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan all the way through Northwest Territories and right up into the Beaufort. In the 1970s, when the federal government was providing 10-cent dollars, there was a significant amount of exploration. There were significant numbers of wells drilled in the Beaufort and several significant discovery licences were issued, and now there was $2.6 billion that had been bid on for the deeper part of the Beaufort. We’re not sure what is going to happen to that either.
Senator Neufeld: Thank you.
The Deputy Chair: Senator Neufeld, you mentioned the devolution agreement, and Premier McLeod, you deserve to be congratulated for that achievement. But devolution of federal responsibilities for natural resources in the NWT just related to the land. Was there a discussion of the offshore in the devolution agreement that was made in 2014? How has that been going?
Mr. McLeod: Well, there was a trigger in the devolution agreement that six months after implementation of devolution, which occurred April 1, 2014, we would start negotiations with the federal government, also including the Inuvialuit, who have a constitutionally protected land claim in the area.
So, we have been following up with the federal government on a regular basis but there have been no negotiations and we’re expecting some indication with regard to whether they will proceed. Also, as part of the devolution agreement, there is a dispute resolution mechanism we are looking at to see whether that’s something that we would have to take into consideration.
Senator Oh: Thank you, premier. It’s always nice to see you in Ottawa on the screen.
I have a question for you. It could be a concern about sustainable economic growth in your region. I understand that your government has invested in a fibre-optic line to Inuvik, which I understand is one of two places in the entire world that is in the best position geographically for a satellite ground station. I have read that your government is hoping this will provide a new source of sustainable economic growth in the region.
I was concerned to read an article from February 22 that reported the potential users of the ground station were ready to pull their investment out of Canada due to a problem receiving their licence from Global Affairs Canada. Could you please tell us more about this and whether you feel the Northwest Territories’ reputation as a place open for business to the high-tech sector can be salvaged?
Mr. McLeod: Thank you very much, Senator Oh. It’s very good to see you.
This has tremendous potential for the Northwest Territories. We built a micro-fibre optic link. We spent $110 million to connect all of our communities up and down the Mackenzie Valley, and Inuvik has about five or six of these satellite tracking facilities placed there. We expect, probably, over the next few years to have 30 to 35 of those satellite tracking facilities.
We have taken a couple of trade missions to Europe to look at how they deal with satellites, and what they are telling us is that the more time you can communicate with rockets that launch satellites, the more successful it is. When we were in Kiruna, they told us when they launch a satellite, they can talk to it nine minutes an hour. If they are joined up with Inuvik, they can talk to the satellite for 30 minutes an hour, so it more than triples the chances of success.
We understand, from a recent report, there will be up to 4,000 satellites being launched into space in the next few years, so we think there is tremendous opportunity.
In the specific case you’re referring to, one of the proponents installed several antennas and applied for a licence, and it took close to two years. I think that one was recently approved, so we’re hoping the proponent who was threatening to pull out will stay.
We were planning to approach the federal government. The federal government recognizes this is a new area for them. Their legislation is old and we’re hoping to be able to work together to modernize it, so you can help facilitate development on a faster basis in the future.
Senator Galvez: Nice meeting you, Premier McLeod. I’ve been in Yellowknife many times. It’s a very modern city. It’s unbelievable all the different languages, including Japanese and Chinese and accents in English, that you can hear when you walk in Yellowknife.
I have done work with your office in lands trying to make mining more sustainable, so I’m very happy to hear your vision. I couldn’t agree more with your sober reflection on the development of the North in diversifying the economy and making northerners participants in the decisions of the future of the North and creating good, clean middle-class jobs and incomes.
You mentioned you want to develop according to priorities, and you want to develop a diversified economy. I would like you to expand on what, for you, a diversified economy means. What are the priorities?
I would also like you to comment on the timeframe, because climate change is happening and there is a lot of eagerness from the people in the South to go develop the North. If you want your priorities to be heard and respected, how far are you in your reflection on the development of the North?
Mr. McLeod: Thank you very much. We do have 11 official languages in our legislative assembly. We also have a very multicultural population, so I’m very pleased you had the opportunity to visit us.
Our economy has been referred to as boom or bust, and what we want to do is to have a strong foundation so we can have a very sustainable economy. Right now, mining is the largest part of our economy. It’s about 25 per cent of our GDP. The second largest, or the fastest-growing, has been government.
When you look at the environment, it operates at very high cost. People tell us we don’t have the necessary infrastructure to attract investment. It’s very important for us to not only diversify our economy, but we need investment in our infrastructure.
Tourism has been the fastest growing part of our economy. The aurora borealis viewing has been very successful. We’re moving more into eco and adventure tourism. The more consumptive parts of tourism that used to be hunting and fishing have been struggling. Climate change is affecting our environment significantly. It’s had a very significant effect on our wildlife, and it is also affecting our modes of transportation. A lot of communities you can only have access by air, or by water in the summertime, and with climate change, we use a lot of ice roads, and the window of opportunity to use them is decreasing.
We have to look at a knowledge economy. We think moving in that area will require a significant investment in manufacturing or even universities. We look at agriculture with the climate, more land that is arable or could be used for agricultural. We are looking at every possibility we can think of.
Senator Galvez: In your document on the pan-territorial vision, one of the keywords is “self-sufficiency.” I believe you plan to create jobs for northerners. Are you thinking of giving a big place to education and training and how it will take place?
Mr. McLeod: Education is one of our biggest priorities for our government. We spend a significant portion of our budget on education.
What we’re finding is we have very small communities. We have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, and it is a struggle for the small communities. We have moved away from residential schools. That was a system used in the North significantly. I think, in a large part, is to look at trying to find economies of scale. We’re challenged with providing quality education in the smaller communities because we feel you shouldn’t be disadvantaged because of where you live. We have probably the best student financial assistance program in Canada. We have a community college system which is undergoing a foundational review. Other than that, we don’t have a post-secondary system or facilities. Our children have to go South if they want to advance their education past a certain level.
A lot of our employees still come from the South because we don’t have the skills. We have jobs, but we can’t seem to match jobs with the people who are unemployed. We have a lot of fly-in/fly-out workers. Those are the challenges we are faced with.
Senator Bovey: Thank you very much, premier, for your insights and comments. They are very interesting and present all sorts of challenges not just for you. As you say, Canada has to have a similar plan with similar ambitions and clear commitments.
With tomorrow being federal budget day, and given the switch in the context of living in healthy, vibrant and prosperous communities, and since the switch to a per capita formula for the Canada Social Transfer as well as the health care transfer, what effect has that had on the Northwest Territories? What are your expectations of the federal budget tomorrow? What are you hoping for in support of moving your priorities forward?
Mr. McLeod: When we decided to proceed with devolution, a lot of people were very concerned about the fact that we are a very small jurisdiction and we’re taking on tremendous responsibilities. And only because of the assurances we had from the Government of Canada that they weren’t going to abandon us, that they would continue to keep working with us to develop the North and also to invest in infrastructure, especially because of the fact that we’re in a very large territory, 1.5 million square kilometres, and we’re only 44,000 people. We can’t be expected to pay for large nation-building projects. We felt we had that assurance. It was very important.
The three Northern territories have formula financing arrangements as opposed to the equalization arrangements of the provinces. A large part is tied to population and to the spending patterns in the rest of Canada.
Formula financing is up for renegotiation in 2019. Obviously, we would like to see more money because a lot of our programs and services are oversubscribed and we need more investments, like housing. We are probably short close to 3,000 houses.
With regard to the budget tomorrow, we’re hoping the North will be mentioned. We’re hoping there will be positive announcements on some infrastructure. We’ll need significant investments in climate change to move us away from fossil fuels and toward renewable and alternative forms of energy. We think helping us to have people in the communities convert would be very helpful.
I guess the biggest area that we’re expecting federal announcements in the budget is in direct funding to Aboriginal governments for programs and services. We’re hoping funding levels and core funding will also increase. Certainly we think that significant investment needs to happen in Aboriginal housing.
Senator Bovey: We talked about training and the community being a fly-in and fly-out. You mentioned there is a community college system. Should there be a university of the Arctic? Would that be of benefit?
Mr. McLeod: That’s certainly something I believe we should have.
I travel around. I’ve been to some of the communities in the provinces. I’ve been to Senator Neufeld’s province. I’ve been to Prince George and Kamloops. I see the significant contributions the University of Northern B.C. has had in Prince George, where the community went from 20,000 people to about 100,000 almost overnight. The same with Kamloops, where they have a large regional hospital. The same thing happened there.
So I certainly believe we should have a university. I’m sure the other territories will say the same thing. We’ve reached out to a number of universities, and we’re trying to make it happen so that we can have a university closer to home for our children and also that we see this transition going forward.
The Deputy Chair: Premier McLeod, you mentioned infrastructure. There’s a big infrastructure program the federal government has announced, well over $100 billion over the next 12 years, I believe. Can you briefly outline what some of the infrastructure priorities are of the N.W.T.?
Also, we hear about various funds, the infrastructure bank and alternatives to diesel and a Low Carbon Economy Fund. Is the N.W.T. feeling they can access those infrastructure pots? How is that going?
Mr. McLeod: Well, I think that, with the whole array of infrastructure funds, we are very pleased with the response we’ve been getting. Over 10 years, just from the existing infrastructure funds, we feel we’re getting a very good share of it.
The struggle for us is that we have a cap on our borrowing limit, so in order to maximize the infrastructure investment, we would probably have to make some representation to do something similar to when we built Inuvik Tuk Highway.We made representation to increase our borrowing limit, and we’ll probably have to do that.
We’ve also identified highways as a significant priority to open up the North. We feel the Inuvik Tuk Highway opening will provide for some significant benefits.
We are hoping to access funding for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and also we want to extend the all-weather road from Yellowknife, the Ingraham Trail, farther North because we’re very concerned about ice roads to the diamond mines being open less often. By pushing it farther North, we expect the life of the mines will be extended.
Of course, to help to deal with climate change, we have the Taltson Hydro facility that we would like to expand in phases. Phase 1 would be to increase the capacity by 56 megawatts and, at some point in the future, add another dam on the river.
We would like to export hydro power, be part of the solution in Western Canada, but we need investment and transmission lines to hook us up to the grid in Western Canada.
So that’s where we think the infrastructure bank would be perfect for us to get investments into the Taltson dam expansion. We’re waiting for information on how the infrastructure bank will function so we can begin to put in our proposals.
Senator Coyle: It’s a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to meeting you face-to-face on another occasion. I don’t have a lot of experience in the Northwest Territories, although I have visited Yellowknife, and I know that’s just a small part of your beautiful territory.
In your statement, you referred to other countries recognizing the challenges of developing the Arctic and that they have clear plans, not just policies, but clear plans for steps they will take and money they will invest.
I’m curious to learn from you what you have seen in terms of plans in other places that have impressed you, that you think you yourself, in the Northwest Territories, can learn from and that our federal government can learn from in our relationship with the territory. Could you speak to that?
Mr. McLeod: Certainly. I’ve been to a lot of the countries in Europe. Also, I’ve been in China five times, and I’m going to be going there again this fall. China has significant interest in the North.
My most recent experience was in Iceland, where we had 2,500 people at an Arctic Circle conference. When you hear these countries talking about what they’re doing in the Arctic, some of the significant investments that they’re doing, some of the infrastructure they have in place and how the Arctic is the largest part of their revenues, it certainly makes a person sit up and take notice.
Icelandic organizers, along with some of the other countries, are saying we should do more East/West, rather than North/South, where we have allegiances. We’ve always had very close allegiances with Alaska, but with Greenland, with Iceland, the Faroe Islands. When you see what they’re doing in Sweden and Finland, it seems like there’s more natural allegiance because a lot of the issues they have are very similar to what we have in the Arctic. Certainly, this is an area we want to explore further.
I think, in the past, we always looked North/South. I used to go to the United States quite a bit. Now, there seems to be a more natural alliance looking in those areas towards the Arctic countries in Europe.
The Deputy Chair: Premier, the Northwest Territories signed the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change — I believe it was a year ago in December — and signed on to a plan to introduce carbon pricing. I wonder if you could give us an update on how that’s going and whether you think carbon pricing will be an effective way of encouraging your citizens to use less fossil fuels.
Mr. McLeod: Well, this is something that we had a lot of concerns about. Initially, we felt that in the Northwest Territories — I guess I’ll let the other Northern territories speak for themselves. We live in a very high-cost environment. It’s very expensive to live here, and we were concerned that if you add another layer, another tax on top of it, where there’s no sustainable solutions to move us off of fossil fuels, that wouldn’t be very helpful to anybody.
We wanted to look at it and we said that if we’re going to get into it, we wanted to go in with our eyes open so that we would know the implications.
We also had concerns about food security and the fact that we felt our economy wasn’t fully developed. We’ve seen our government provide hundreds of millions of dollars to developing countries that don’t have their economies fully developed — something in the neighbourhood of $250 million — so we felt maybe they should do the same thing for us.
We’ve done a lot of modelling. We work very closely with the federal government. The federal government has said they recognize our issues. We have done two rounds of consultations, and we’re ready to put forward our climate change strategy to the Government of Canada. We’re hoping it will be acceptable to them. We think we will find a way forward that will allow us to continue to get off fossil fuels and to adapt to climate change.
I can tell you stories about how we’re affected by climate change every day and how it’s affecting our wildlife. It’s affecting our roads. It’s affecting our buildings. But I think that we can come forward with a plan that is workable, and we’re hoping that the Government of Canada will accept it and allow us to implement it.
The Deputy Chair: Are you saying that carbon pricing will have to be treated differently in the Northwest Territories than maybe in other parts of Canada?
Mr. McLeod: We’re saying that we have to recognize the North is unique, and you have to take different factors into consideration. We are also going to do our part to deal with climate change, reduce our emissions and move away from fossil fuels.
Senator Bovey: You mentioned tourism. I know there’s a great fascination for the North and the Northwest Territories. I’ve been following some friends and family who have done some of the canoe trips and all, which has been amazing.
What about cruise ships? That’s a new phenomenon in the Arctic. I’d like you to talk about what you feel are some of the benefits and concerns that cruise ships through the Northwest Passage present.
Mr. McLeod: I went to a tourism conference quite a few years back and somebody asked me the same question. I was kind of stuck on it because I didn’t really have an answer. I think I have an answer now.
I think cruise ships are the way of the future. There have been cruise ships going through the Northwest Passage for some time now. I think the most they’ve had go through is 75. I think a large part of it is mostly on the Nunavut side.
As somebody said, for the small communities where cruise ships have stopped, they see it as a very good way to market their crafts. It brings a market to them. You have a cruise ship with 3,000 people that stops at a small community of 300 people, and they can overtake the community very quickly. I think the cruise ship operators recognize that, so they bring them in manageable portions, maybe 100 or so at a time.
But we need to recognize that it’s happening. It’s going to happen. There will probably be a lot more of it, and we need to prepare for it. We don’t have any facilities in the Beaufort Sea for example. We don’t even have a port and we don’t have any search and rescue. They have to fly in from Trenton or Comox, which is two hours away. So if you have to rescue people, they have to go a long way.
The Northwest Passage is uncharted waters, so I think we should make it charted and make sure these ships don’t put themselves at risk. It’s already happened once where they got hung up and the people had to be rescued.
I think we need a plan for it and we need to make sure it’s done as safely as possible.
For the Crystal Serenity, I guess it’s the largest one that has been going through. They spent two years getting ready and they did it properly. They had icebreakers travelling with them. They had helicopters and they consulted with all the communities along the way. So they are doing it the right way.
But I don’t think every other operator will follow. We have a lot of thrill seekers going through the Northwest Passage that are probably not as well prepared as they should be. We have to take that into consideration as well.
Senator Bovey: I’m glad to hear there are some standards with some. I’ve been intrigued to learn about the icebreaker cruise ships that are being built in Europe right now that are getting ready to come up the Alaska coast and around the North.
The Deputy Chair: Premier McLeod, I’d like to thank you very much for making yourself available in helping this committee look at an Arctic Policy Framework for Canada.
I’ve had the pleasure of associating with you in various capacities for many years. It’s always a pleasure to see you eloquently representing the people of the great Northwest Territories. Thank you very much.
For the second segment of our meeting, I am pleased to welcome the Honourable Paul Aarulaaq Quassa, Premier of Nunavut, accompanied by Virginia Mearns, Associate Deputy Minister, Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Thank you very much for joining us, premier. Before I invite you to proceed with your opening statement, I would like to mention to my colleagues and members of the public that we have interpretation in Inuktitut available for this portion of the meeting. It will be on channel 1 as usual. These provisions were put in place by the Senate. I think it was an initiative of Senator Watt’s, and so there will be English interpretation on channel 1.
Premier, the floor is yours.
[Interpretation]
Hon. Paul Aarulaaq Quassa, Premier of Nunavut, Government of Nunavut: Thank you. Good evening. I am Premier Paul Quassa from Nunavut.
Before we begin, I want to recognize that we are on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation. I am grateful to be able to discuss issues of importance to Nunavummiut on their traditional territory today.
Thank you for the invitation to appear before this Senate committee. With me today is Virginia Mearns, Associate Deputy Minister, Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of Nunavut, who will be here to assist me with responding to your questions following my remarks.
I am encouraged by what seems to be a growing focus on Arctic issues across our territory and that the Senate of Canada is also participating in this very important dialogue.
In your invitation to us, you indicated that the central focus of your hearing today is to discuss significant and rapid changes which have impacted the Arctic and its original inhabitants, the Inuit. The Inuit have traditionally occupied the land that comprises Canada’s Arctic. I would argue that no other population in our nation has experienced more significant and rapid change than the Inuit.
Not all that long ago, in living memory, Inuit led traditional lives. We hunted and fished for our food. We lived on the land in camps that moved with the wildlife and with the seasons. In fact, I myself was born in an igloo outside of what is now known as Igloolik.
[English]
However, the lives of the Inuit were forever changed by the policies and programs that took Inuit from their homes, denying them their language and culture, placing them in unfamiliar lands and communities, and separating them from a way of life they had always known. Many of us lost our language, our culture, our traditions, which is, of course, our identity.
Many struggled with trying to reconcile the ways of the past and their present. Many turned to alcohol and drugs, to violence or to suicide or have been profoundly impacted by these actions, and many today are still struggling in these ways.
Reclaiming our Inuit language, culture and agency is necessary to right these historical wrongs. We made an important move toward this goal 25 years ago through the signing of the Nunavut agreement.
[Interpretation]
To add to this, your chairperson today was a signatory in this land claim agreement.
[English]
The land claim gave Inuit rights over lands, waters, wildlife, and resources and asserted the right to self-determination by creating a public government with the goal of a workforce that is representative of the majority Inuit population.
[Interpretation]
The vision driving the land claim agreement was to have a territory where Inuit had a voice in the overall governance and decision-making process over social, economic, environmental and political developments. The roadmap to this vision is through the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
We’re now at the 25-year checkpoint along this journey, having signed the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. We must now look back to see how far we have come, to note the obstacles and celebrate the landmarks we have reached along the way, and to look ahead to where we are going next.
[English]
I’ve had the distinct honour of being in the driver’s seat for these two moments in time, previously as a signatory to the Nunavut agreement, as president of the Inuit organization now known as Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and now as Premier of the Government of Nunavut.
I am excited about what we’ve accomplished so far and am eager for the road ahead. In the coming weeks, we will be releasing our new mandate to outline where our territorial government wants to go and how we want to get there.
It’s fitting that the title of our new mandate is “Turaaqtavut,” roughly meaning where we are aiming to go.
Although I can’t yet discuss the details of our mandate, I can say that we will continue to provide Nunavummiut with the programs and services they need, and also remain committed to fulfilling our obligations under the Nunavut agreement.
The federal government has expressed its desire to articulate their long-term priorities in Nunavut through the Arctic Policy Framework.
The Government of Nunavut has been actively participating in round-table discussions and we will continue to contribute to this process to ensure that our distinct needs are reflected in the federal government’s plans and activities. We anticipate that many of our priorities will align. We hope this will be another opportunity to work together on areas of shared interest and importance to both our governments.
Ultimately, the devolution of all powers is the next step in Nunavut’s political development. And while we are still working toward that goal, we have made important progress in the areas of natural resources and land-use management.
Our joint planning commissions and review boards are examples of cooperation amongst territorial, federal and Inuit organizations. Inuit traditional knowledge is now considered alongside scientific data in the assessment of wildlife management, land use and environmental protections.
[Interpretation]
However, many do not realize we are the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not have control over its resources, despite the settlement of the Nunavut agreement. In our case, it is the federal minister in Ottawa who still has the final say over the land, seas and ice in Nunavut.
We are hopeful the devolution of ownership and authority over our lands and waters will be forthcoming, beginning with an agreement in principle between the Nunavut government and the Government of Canada, eventually leading to a full transfer of powers over land and waters to the Nunavut government. Eventually, this hopefully will lead to a full transfer of powers over land and waters to the Nunavut government.
Nunavut still faces significant infrastructure, health and social development challenges that first require the intervention, involvement and investment by the federal government to help properly address Nunavut’s needs. Outdated infrastructure and lack of essential infrastructure are major barriers in Nunavut, especially in housing.
Our 25 communities each use diesel-powered generators that have already reached or are soon reaching the end of their useful life — antiquated equipment. And you know there are no roads in or out of the Nunavut territory, which limits opportunities for shipping and travel by air or sea only.
[English]
Our information superhighway, the Internet, is also hampered by our sole reliance on satellite for Internet and its associated high cost and slow speeds. This contributes to a sense of disconnect between Northern and Southern Canada and further isolates Nunavut from its national neighbours.
Connecting Nunavut with the rest of Canada through roads, fibre optics, telecommunication lines and electricity corridors would positively impact our territory in many ways: reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and impact on the environment; reducing the cost of food, goods and services through increased shipping methods; and increasing our participation in the digital economy and reducing the digital divide.
We believe there is an opportunity for a modern-day, nation-building exercise through investments in these major projects.
Partnerships between governments, Inuit organizations and with the private sector are necessary to address our critical infrastructure needs. These partnerships need to recognize Nunavut’s unique needs and distinct challenges.
I was in Qikiqtarjuaq two weeks ago to visit the mobile tuberculosis clinic set up to screen and treat the high number of people who are affected by TB in that community. The clinic itself is a medical marvel in the ability to mobilize specialized equipment, staff and resources in such a short order. It is possibly the best TB treatment clinic in the world and is a shining example of many levels of government working together on a common cause.
But the very need for this clinic begs the larger question: Why, in a developed country like Canada, are we still struggling with a curable disease like tuberculosis?
The answer lies in improving the social determinants of health that continue to challenge us. Housing shortages and overcrowding, food insecurity, mental health and addictions, and poverty. These are issues we must address, but we cannot do it alone. They require significant resources and investments that a single government or entity could not support on its own.
To address these pressing social needs, we must work with the federal government, our Inuit organizations and stakeholders to combine our efforts and leverage our strengths.
We were pleased with the Senate’s interest in housing challenges in Northern and Indigenous communities. We welcomed the opportunity to present Nunavut’s case at your hearings in Iqaluit and appreciated the recommendations you have put forward. We eagerly await tomorrow’s federal budget announcements to learn more about what investments will be made in Nunavut.
We are equally hopeful that support is growing within the federal government for developing a mental health and addictions treatment centre located in Nunavut.
We all heard the calls for culturally relevant, land-based, Inuit-specific treatment options in the territory during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and, again, during the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls hearings in Rankin Inlet last week. We hope that through collaboration, cooperation, understanding and mutual commitment we will be able to realize this project for the well-being of Nunavummiut.
[Interpretation]
I would like to thank the Senate committee for the opportunity to outline some of the challenges and impacts we are dealing with in Nunavut. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about my comments or issues of importance to you. I look forward to your report on these proceedings. It will be useful to us. Thank you.
[English]
Senator Bovey: Mr. Premier, I want to welcome you and thank you. That was a very moving and meaningful presentation and certainly heartfelt.
I also want to congratulate you and all the citizens of Nunavut for your many accomplishments in these past 25 years. There have been many, but I want to congratulate you on something before those 25 years. I want to say that I think it’s the artists of Nunavut who, in many ways, have led Canadian art, and the cooperatives that they set up in Cape Dorset gave inspiration. Your people, your artists, have given inspiration to artists in the South. So please take the challenge of that leadership because it’s well recognized globally. I congratulate you on that.
That said, obviously, the concerns of health and living conditions and access to education are issues that concern me and many of us greatly. I’d like your thoughts on what the results have been of the switch to the per capita formula in the Canada Social Transfer and the health care transfer. What effect has that had in Nunavut?
[Interpretation]
Mr. Quassa: It’s a very good question. I will attempt to respond to you.
When we look at per capita basis and look at our population, we are small in number. We are few, as I have said, but we have changed the map of Canada. We are too few in numbers, with a huge land mass. Per capita does not work for us because we are few in numbers.
[English]
Again, the per capita does not work very well in our territory. As I said, our population is very small. I believe our population can fill a sports arena down South, the whole population of Nunavut.
As you know, the cost of living is very high. I think this is something that doesn’t really fit into the way we live up there because the cost of living is so high. We rely on air for transportation. As I said earlier in my statement, there are no roads connecting to Nunavut whatsoever. Certainly this plays a very major role for us. For a good many years since Nunavut was created, we have indicated to the federal government that a per capita basis doesn’t work for us.
Senator Bovey: Thank you for answering that.
I want to move to another area that you didn’t mention — tourism. I know how greatly intrigued people of many nations are by the North. I wonder if you can talk about the benefit of tourism or the dreams of tourism that you might have, but also the concerns you have with growing tourism and particularly the cruise ships now coming into the North. I’d welcome your perceptions on the good and the difficult.
Mr. Quassa: Well, tourism is something we’re constantly pushing for because, again, it benefits our communities. It benefits the smaller communities, especially around the Northwest Passage area.
We were in Pond Inlet earlier last week, and we did hear from the people about cruise ships coming in. They had about 18 or 19 or even more cruise ships passing through Pond Inlet. One of the concerns they raised, of course, was the cruise ships going into fjords where their hunting grounds are, and this has affected some of their hunting grounds.
But, overall, tourism is something we push for, especially now. I guess everybody around the world is hearing the Northwest Passage is becoming accessible to cruise ships, but I believe we need to have much more say in where the cruise ships go, which areas they should be passing and at what time of the year. Inuit are still very much reliant on marine mammals. I believe that’s so very important to take into consideration.
There are no real policies or regulations regulating that area because it’s a very — what’s the word? I don’t know.
[Interpretation]
To repeat, our water is very precious to us. We do not want to see damage because of the wildlife we rely on.
The route is also very important. Within the last week, the Inuit public institutions of government, under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, created the Nunavut Marine Council. It will be tasked to look at regulations.
The Nunavut Marine Council will go about setting regulations and policies regarding our marine life. The smaller communities have many concerns about where the traffic is. I’ll leave it at that.
[English]
Senator Neufeld: Thank you very much, premier, for your presentation. It’s very interesting.
I want to ask for an example. If a highway was to connect Iqaluit, where would that highway come from? Do you have an idea of how far that is? What actual benefit would that bring to the community of Iqaluit?
Maybe just lay that out a little more for me so I understand. If you had a highway, where would it come from? How far would it be? And what benefit would that be to the community of Iqaluit or the people in that community and near to it?
Mr. Quassa: Well, Iqaluit being on Baffin Island, I don’t think it would necessarily connect to the southern jurisdictions of Canada. It would only mainly connect to outlying communities within the Baffin region.
As I said, it’s on Baffin Island. I believe it is the fifth-largest island in the world. We can also not connect to the mainland unless we build bridges similar to the one from P.E.I. to the mainland. That would be the only way we could connect from Baffin Island to the mainland.
If we had a highway even just within Baffin Island, it would connect the outlying communities. There are 11 other communities within the Baffin region or Baffin Island, and those would be able to connect if we had highways. That in itself would probably help out in terms of trading country foods specifically. That would probably be the only benefit, I believe, if we had a highway from Iqaluit connecting to the other smaller communities, the outlying communities on Baffin Island.
Senator Neufeld: So it would be of a benefit to those communities to be connected to Iqaluit year round?
Mr. Quassa: Yes.
Senator Neufeld: Second, you mentioned fibre optics. That’s cable. Where would it come from to connect to communities on Baffin Island? How do you connect to fibre optics up there?
Mr. Quassa: There have been quite a few talks about where it could come from. There have been talks about coming in, let’s say, from northern Quebec to Baffin Island, probably to Iqaluit and to the outlying communities.
There has been talk of connecting from the west through communities that are outside of Baffin Island. That’s another route.
Another is the thought of coming in from Greenland over to Baffin Island.
I think any of those options are viable, but of course the cost is quite large. We are still hopeful that fibre optics — as I said earlier, we rely only on satellite, and it’s not dependable compared to fibre optics. Certainly this is something we would want to see.
Senator Neufeld: With regard to cruise ships, I think one of your answers was they go places that actually have affected your food source.
Who manages that? I guess nobody manages it now. Can cruise ships just go in there wherever they want? Is that what I understand?
You also said a group has been formed that will bring some recommendations about regulations and policies, which is great. I think that’s super, especially with the knowledge that you people have. I guess there will also be a recommendation of how that will be enforced. It’s fine to have regulations and policies, but if there’s nothing to enforce it, the cruise ships can still just go wherever they feel like. Would that be true? We’d need a lot more Coast Guard vessels, something like that, or the military to make sure they stay on track. Would that be something you would think about?
Mr. Quassa: Yes. As I was saying just last week, the public government institutions such as the Nunavut Planning Commission, the Nunavut Impact Review Board, Nunavut Water Board, are going forward, and there is now the Nunavut Marine Council. I certainly hope the Nunavut Marine Council will play a bigger role regarding the seas that we occupy.
The Coast Guard is something that we are looking forward to. As I understand, new ships are being built to specifically go into our area. I hope that would be the case.
As I said earlier, Inuit are very much marine people. They harvest marine mammals anywhere around that area and cruise ships are also travelling throughout that area. Certainly we have seen some effects. And it’s not just cruise ships; mining companies are getting their ships in and out, especially in the Baffin region with the iron ore that’s being shipped at least three, four months of the year. Again, where they go impacts marine life.
We look forward to the Coast Guard having more impact on those cruise ships.
The Deputy Chair: Premier, with reference to highways and following up on Senator Neufeld’s question, there is a proposal you spoke about at the Northern Lights Conferencein Ottawa within the last couple of weeks to build a road which would go to the Arctic coast in the Kitikmeot region and might eventually connect with the present ice road to the diamond mines from the Northwest Territories that Premier McLeod mentioned. Could you talk about that road project and what it can do for Nunavut’s economy?
[Interpretation]
Mr. Quassa: To this day, we have a mandate and a vision. We are working on those, and I can tell you that when it comes to Nunavut, any progress that is going to make our lives easier is welcome. We look at the positive effects on the Nunavut people, the highway, for instance. If there’s a road from Southern Canada going up to Nunavut, which we have not seen yet, it would be the most beneficial cost-wise for us to have a highway from the South to the North because of the markets and the goods.
[English]
Senator Galvez: Thank you very much for your very touching presentation.
I was sitting here reflecting on my emotions and feelings with respect to the development of the North. On one side, I feel there is this need to bring education and health and a better quality of life. On the other hand, from your speech I felt very sad when you talked about losing your identity and losing your language and losing part of your culture.
I want you to help me reflect on how much development is good for the North in order for you to keep your culture alive and healthy. Who should be putting limits on growth and the quality of this growth that southerners are ready to bring to the North?
Mr. Quassa: We recently had various meetings with mining companies and so forth. I always say we’re open for business. I believe sustainable development is so vitally important. We do support development as long as it’s sustainable.
We’re very fortunate under the Nunavut agreement that we have these important institutions of public government. They are there to oversee how development is going to take place in our territory. We fully rely on their good decisions.
As a government, we support those institutions because they are there to ensure that developments are taking place in the appropriate way, as it should, respecting the culture, the people, the wildlife that we hunt and rely on. I believe those institutions can do a very good job.
Right now, as you know, we’re still negotiating devolution and trying to get more powers to ensure that as a government we can play a stronger role in how developments take place within our territory. If we look at the whole territory of Nunavut, 20 per cent of the land is owned by Inuit. These are called Inuit-owned lands. Most of the developments are now taking place on those lands. The other 80 per cent of the territory is still controlled by the federal government because we don’t have the devolution. We still don’t have devolution — a devolution which will give us an opportunity to have control over 80 per cent of the land.
I think it’s very important for the devolution process to come in because, again, we know what is needed, and we know the importance of ensuring that we have sustainable development. In this government, we now have a minister responsible for both economic development and environment in one ministry. That tells it all. We believe in sustainable development.
Senator Galvez: Thank you very much.
Senator Coyle: Thank you so much for being with us today, premier and minister. It’s lovely to have you.
I won’t pretend I know very much about Nunavut, although I have visited several times, not the Baffin Island area but the Baker Lake area, the home of Super Shamou and others. I’m sure you know him. Some very remarkable leaders have come out of the communities in Nunavut.
I want to congratulate you. It was wonderful to hear your own background as being a signatory to the Nunavut agreement. Now, as you say, 25 years later, you are at the table as the leader in the design of the new mandate. Of course, we all look forward to seeing what it is you’re aiming for. That will be very much of interest to us, and it’s you doing the aiming. That’s wonderful.
Like Senator Bovey, I’m also a big fan of arts and culture from your area and see those — just as your people are, because they are expressions of your people — as tremendous assets of our Arctic region. In the fall, I hosted some throat singers from Nunavut, Kathleen from Rankin Inlet, and Charlotte, who is now living here in Ottawa. They billeted at my house while they were in our town in Nova Scotia. I see great potential in these young performers from your area. I see all kinds of opportunities. They are now becoming world famous and I think that’s a wonderful thing.
My question has two parts and it relates to education. The reason I was in Baker Lake is my son-in-law worked for you and he was responsible in the energy company, Kivalliq Energy. He was working on this very important project of your government to bring Inuit people — and you spoke of it yourself — into those positions of employment in the government, first and foremost, in the private sector also. That’s a really important mandate. I know it’s a long-term generational thing.
I would like to hear what you think the progress has been with that effort to bring Inuit people in. I’m sure you’re not going to want to replace all of the southerners, but we know that so many of these line positions in government and other sectors are filled by southerners.
How is that going, from your perspective? What further needs to be done there?
The second question that has come up here at our table is about a university. I know people from Agnico Eagle, and they’ve been talking with you about a university of the Arctic. I’m sure you have your own ideas around that. I’m curious about what’s happening with that as well.
Mr. Quassa: It’s a very good question. There is a very successful program down here in Ottawa, in fact, called Nunavut Sivuniksavut, which means “Nunavut, our future.” We have seen a lot of these youth participants from Nunavut Sivuniksavut coming back to Nunavut. In fact, we do have a minister, who is now a minister of education, who took the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program. We have deputy ministers now that took the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program. The success of that program is so relevant. We see it every day.
As I said earlier, as a government we now have obligations under the Nunavut agreement. In our government, there has to be a representative level of the majority of the population, which is Inuit. This is something we’re working towards.
We have Inuit employment plans. If you don’t mind, I would like to get our associate deputy minister to elaborate on this very important task of ensuring we can get more Inuit within the workforce.
Virginia Mearns, Associate Deputy Minister, Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of Nunavut: Thank you.
A big part of my responsibility within the Government of Nunavut is overseeing the implementation of article 23 of the Nunavut agreement. A lot of that work includes the measures in which we set out our Inuit employment planning, from both a government-wide perspective but also by individual departments and agencies of the Government of Nunavut.
This is an ongoing task and will be required as long as the territory is around, essentially, to ensure that we do have a representative level within our administration to better serve our public.
With the majority of our population being Inuit, the concern right now is that they are not currently reflected within our public administration. So we’re instituting measures within our administration to ensure that education and training opportunities are made available to Inuit employees to build up their educational attainment while working, or build up their work experience to take on more responsibilities.
In addition, we work with the Government of Canada, as well as Nunavut Tunngavik, to determine the best way in which we can set out what we deem to be pre-employment training plans. We look at our labour supply and what they currently have and meet them where they’re at. At the same time, we want to ensure we have effective recruitment measures that will attract those from the labour supply into the administration so they become indeterminate employees.
A lot of that does require more education. A lot of those who are ready to come into the work force we would deem to be mature students, not in the traditional context that you would identify someone as a mature student in southern Canada. They would be a mature student in attaining their high school diploma. It is the first step. From there, we would continue the educational pathway for those individuals.
So this is a lot of work that is very important to the Government of Nunavut and is crucial. Continual investment by both the territorial government as well as the Government of Canada is going to be necessary not just for the short term but for long-term investments.
Mr. Quassa: About the university, I just want to say that we now have a joint team from our Department of Education, Nunavut Arctic College and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. They are working together to lay the groundwork for a joint venture partnership option we have chosen. At the beginning of the new year, a selection committee comprised of representatives from Arctic College, our Nunavut Department of Education and NTI conducted interviews in Iqaluit with a short list of universities. I can say that we have a short list of universities: the University of Regina, the First Nations University, McGill University, Memorial University, Dalhousie University, the University of P.E.I. and Carleton University.
So we’re looking at various options and how we can partner with existing southern universities. This is where we are right now. I’m looking forward to it.
Senator Oh: Premier, it’s very nice to see you here to tell us more about the North.
I’m sure you’re working hard to attract economic growth, and tourism is probably the fastest and the quickest result. Besides domestic investment from Canada, how do you promote international investors coming to Inuvik? What countries around the world are most interested in investing in your area?
[Interpretation]
Mr. Quassa: We welcome newcomers, especially when they come to smaller towns, because it’s a new initiative. The tourists who travel on cruise ships were never planned by us. We need to plan on how they ought to be managed and monitored, and which route they ought to travel so as not to harm the wildlife, our livelihood or historical sites.
Cruise ships are pretty well on their own, wherever they come from. They travel the Northwest Passage. It’s a new initiative that we’ve had for a few years now, a few summers. But the Nunavut Marine Council, I am sure, will have its workload. They will look at the matter of cruise ships travelling the Northwest Passage and our waters.
[English]
Senator Oh: Besides the cruise ships, I know the world is interested and they all want to know what’s up there. You have the beautiful Northern Lights. This is probably a big thing for land visitors, not just cruise ships coming in.
Mr. Quassa: You are certainly right that we do have beautiful Northern Lights, maybe even more beautiful than in Yellowknife. I don’t know.
We’re very much open to any type of tourism. I believe ecotourism is another good type of tourism we could certainly see more of. As I said, we do have a lot of wildlife and marine mammals. In fact, we’re getting more orcas coming up to our territory. Maybe they are from British Columbia; I don’t know. But we’re seeing a lot more of that. I believe ecotourism would be a very good area to explore.
Certainly, we’re very open to any type of tourism, because you’re right that our territory is beautiful. It is a unique territory.
Senator Oh: When I came to Baffin Island the first time, I collected a piece of art called Polar Bears at Baffin Island by Robert Bateman.
Thank you.
The Deputy Chair: Premier, I would like to ask you about the Inuktitut language and your reference to the loss of language and identity. You referred to the social problems that are too painful to discuss sometimes in Nunavut.
The federal government has promised initiatives to support Aboriginal languages in Canada. Can you tell us what strengthening the Inuktitut language would do for individuals in Nunavut?
Mr. Quassa: Within the government, we have eight guiding principles to ensure that Inuk society values and language are very much part of our territory. It’s like the guiding principles of how we operate our government. That’s where it starts.
The other guiding principle, of course, is something that we constantly say: It has to start at home. It’s vitally important the parents have it start at home.
It starts certainly through our education process. As you know, our education system is bilingual education, Inuktitut and English. This is something that we’re constantly trying to improve.
One of the areas in our territory, Inuit Nunangat, that ITC is looking at standardizing is our writing system. This will improve the strength of our language.
I see so many young people now, especially in our western territory, who are regaining their language. I see how proud they are. When one regains their original language, there is pride. It makes one proud to be an Inuk.
Positiveness really helps too. I almost lost my Inuktitut language when I went to a residential school. Gaining it back made me much stronger in wanting to ensure that we regain it.
As you know, our government is a bilingual government, and we have the Inuktitut Language Protection Act. It is enshrined in our territory. Inuktitut is our official language, and all that will really help in ensuring our language is alive and well.
The Deputy Chair: Premier, I thank you for coming here. Having worked with you on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, I look forward to working with you through this committee on the challenges you have discussed so eloquently with relation to Nunavut and the Arctic.
[Interpretation]
We now have a better understanding of Nunavut. Thank you.
(The committee adjourned)