Canada's North Needs Better Infrastructure: Report
Canada’s North needs better infrastructure and training, according to a report by the Commons committee on aboriginal affairs and northern development.
The 153-page report makes 35 recommendations for major federal investments in housing, broadband internet and roads across the northern territories and calls for more industry skills training for northerners and a resolution to outstanding land claims.
Western Arctic NDP MP Dennis Bevington said the report represents a rare case of everyone on a Commons committee — with members from three political parties — agreeing on what needs to be done.
“This is a document that speaks to consensus about … the major issues of the North right now [and] how we should move ahead with them in order to deal with northern development,” Bevington told reporters Monday in Yellowknife.
But another committee member, Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, conceded the report will likely be a tough sell in Ottawa, with the federal government dealing with record deficits.
“This is going to be quite a battle when the upcoming budget comes down,” Bagnell told reporters in Whitehorse.
The federal government has 45 days to respond to the committee’s report.
Prosperity in North
Much of the North has enjoyed economic prosperity lately, thanks to mining and other industrial developments.
In Yukon, where the mining sector is booming, the unemployment rate is just over four per cent. Still, Bagnell said, many in the territory are struggling with problems related to infrastructure and training.
“I’m certainly hoping those [issues] will be reduced if the government implements … what northerners have told us to implement. What northerners told us they need is in this report.”
Bagnell could not say what the price tag would be if the committee’s recommendations are accepted, but he said the costs would not add to the federal deficit.
“Maybe in the immediate future, but in the long run you’d be coming out of the red because of these investments,” he said.
Invest in promising projects
In the Northwest Territories, where mining and oil and gas development are major industries, Bevington said he would like more investments in infrastructure that promises returns.
“When I talk about infrastructure in the North, I look at things that actually I feel can return, like building a road into Norman Wells because that’s probably the one area of the country where we have the most opportunity for oil and gas development,” he said.
Building a road to Norman Wells, N.W.T., would make exploration projects cheaper and therefore attract more business, Bevington said.
But Darrell Beaulieu, president and chief executive officer of Denendeh Investments Inc. in Yellowknife, said he believes the Commons report is simply an elaborate wish list of things that have yet to materialize.
“I think everybody would be just totally amazed if even one of them got through and paved the way for a better economy here in the Northwest Territories,” he told CBC News on Monday.
Beaulieu said he agrees with most of the recommendations in the report, adding that resolving outstanding land claims should be a top priority.
