Toronto Board of Trade: February 9, 2012

Udlakut. Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you for that kind introduction Jackie, and thank you Paul for your words of welcome and opening remarks.

I’d like to congratulate Roberta Jamieson for her Queen’s Jubilee Medal, which she received on Monday. And I’d like to acknowledge Clint Davis for his work as President of CCAB and hosting a beautiful supper Tuesday night. Clint is helping Aboriginal businesses connect with corporate Canada and drive our economy.

I am delighted to be back in the heart of Toronto to speak about the extraordinary developments that are unfolding in Canada’s Arctic.

I want to thank the Toronto Board of Trade for inviting me to the RBC Diversity Dialogue series.

Twenty years ago, if I had been speaking to the Toronto Board of Trade, I think it would have been likely that only one or two people in the room would have been familiar with the Arctic. 

This is no longer the case.

Those of you here today who regularly attend the Prospectors and Developers Annual Convention - which will be held next month here in Toronto - know that the ‘inaccessible North’ is now the ‘accessible Arctic’. Joint ventures between Bay Street and Inuit now commonplace throughout PDAC (pee –dack).

Put simply …the changes in the investment climate in Canada’s Arctic in recent years have been extraordinary… and unlike anywhere else in Canada.

In the next 20 minutes or so, I will talk about why there has been a transformation in the Arctic… what this means to prospective investors… and why economic growth in the Arctic has to be transformative for our next generation.

Before doing this however… I am going to step back and explain a little about who I am… and about Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami – what we refer to as ‘ITK’ - the national voice of the Inuit of Canada.

First... a little of my own history.

I am an Inuk... born in the small village of Kangiqsualujjuaq on the western shore of Ungava Bay in Arctic Quebec. My mother was Inuk and my father... originally from southern Canada... managed the local Hudson Bay company post.

As a young person I lived …what was then… a fairly typical lifestyle. We lived in camps... on the land... we made our own clothes... often from caribou and seal skins...and we hunted and gathered our food.

During the 1940’s Government policies and incentives were introduced to move Inuit off the land to centralized communities where health and social support programs could be delivered.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s… while most of Canada was experiencing the post-war economic boom period… Inuit were experiencing something quite different.

Many families were forcibly resettled from camps to communities... converted to Christianity... suffered terribly from contagious diseases... had our children removed to residential schools… and family members sent to TB sanatoriums… some of whom never returned.

By the early 1970s, the political context began to change for Aboriginal people in Canada.

I soon found myself among a small group of Inuit and Cree negotiating with governments and powerful corporate interests on the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement - the first comprehensive Aboriginal land claims agreement in Canada…and this began a 40 year career in government and politics.

I am currently in my second term as President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami - ITK.

ITK is the national policy and advocacy organization for the 55,000 Inuit who live in 53 communities across the Canadian Arctic – from the Beaufort Sea in the west to the Labrador coast in the east… spread across two provinces and two territories. Inuit do not live on reserves, and we pay all taxes.

Some of our country’s biggest policy challenges -  sovereignty... energy supply... resource development and climate change... are all issues that directly impact Inuit ...and Inuit communities.

My job as President of ITK has thrust me into the forefront of these major policy issues, including the sustainable development of the Arctic.

Forty years ago, when ITK was just emerging on the political front… and when land claims were still a foreign concept to most Canadians… the ‘business community’ in a typical Arctic community consisted of a Hudson’s Bay store, and perhaps a very small hotel.

Today, you’ll find businesses of all kinds and sizes in our 53 communities… many of them Inuit-owned.

That transformation did not come easily. The remarkable economic growth we have witnessed in the Arctic is related … in part … to an investment environment that is a product of many years of negotiations and struggle.

Allow me to explain.

There was a time not long ago that our resources and economies were largely controlled from interests outside the Arctic.

Those days are now over.

In fact, it is standard practice now… that if you are investing in Canada’s Arctic you can expect that Inuit will want… and expect… to be partners.

And, you will find that Inuit are experienced business partners. We now have a long track record of constructive and collaborative deal-making, and joint ventures. You only have to look at the list of companies owned or partly owned by our Regional Inuit Corporations to see this record of partnership.

And who we partner with has also evolved. Inuit want partners that are respectful of the economic and social goals within our communities, and who take an interest in our values and culture.

Partners that take note of, and subscribe to the recent Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Resource Development Principles in Inuit Nunaat. This document sets out the broad principles and represents the expectations of Inuit across the Circumpolar Arctic, in this emerging boom period of resource exploration and development.

It calls for nothing less than the best environmental and social review practices available. The need for the most up-to-date technology is also needed in the Arctic. We can’t have a “Gulf oil-spill” because the ocean is our breadbasket, or grocery store.

An important point to add here is that the onus should not just be on Inuit to provide these review processes, but rather on government and industry.

The other unique aspect of the investment environment in Canada’s Arctic is this: we have finalized all our land claims negotiations. There are five of them.

We now have a broad legal framework for our role and rights in Canada, and the tools to become investors in our own communities.

Collectively, Inuit now own large parcels of land… some with full subsurface rights. We now share in the management and to some extent, the benefits from natural resource development.

Inuit now wholly or partly own a wide range of airline and marine transportation companies. The latest announcement is less than a week old with the partnership of Air Labrador and the Nunatsiavut Government.

So when I speak at events across Canada, particularly to business audiences …I always say…with pride… that Inuit have been very pragmatic about their economic goals over the past 40 years.

All these factors have contributed to a robust investment climate in the Arctic. 

Just last week I attended the Northern Lights Forum in Ottawa hosted by the Nunavut and Labrador Chambers of Commerce – and there were 1200 participants to this event!

The trade show was a terrific representation of the diversity of businesses now operating in Canada’s Arctic… as well as the enormous north-south purchasing power unleashed by the growth in the public and private sectors in the North.

As an example, investing in the Arctic pays off in Southern Canada. Fully 80 percent of the money invested in Nunavut – the largest Arctic region – is an investment outside the territory. It goes to suppliers of everything from industrial equipment to foodstuffs, based in all ten of the southern provinces.

It makes its way to dock workers in southern ports handling ships on their way North. It flows into the pocketbooks of southern construction workers who are helping to build the territory.

The Arctic is in fact a generator of wealth for all Canadians.

Here’s another example: The Mackenzie Valley Natural Gas Pipeline. This all-Canadian project has full regulatory approval. It would create 140,000 jobs across Canada. It would guarantee $1-Billion in work for Aboriginal companies along the corridor.

Aboriginal people are one-third owners in this project (Inuvialuit, Sahtu, Gwitch’in). They have formed the “Aboriginal Pipeline Group”. The other partners are Imperial Oil, Conoco-Phillips, Shell, and Exxon-Mobil. Once this project gets the green light, it will be a model of resource development in the North with Aboriginal Support, and ownership.

Now, many of you are aware that the Arctic also faces many challenges.

In fact, it is within the dynamic investment environment that I have just described…that we encounter the great paradox of Inuit Nunangat – our Inuit homeland. 

How is it that in Nunavut …as an example ... where the GDP rose by an astonishing 15% last year … there is a shortage of labour – and unemployment can be as high as 70% in some of communities?

The Arctic has critical shortages of qualified home grown workers – workers with skilled trades and professional qualifications.

So while all the signals are pointing to an economic boom unfolding in the Arctic over the next decade or two… the stark reality is that many of our people will be unable to participate in this economic growth.

This is not a matter of insufficient training or not having the right kind of diploma or degree. It is much more fundamental than that.

Quite simply, most of our children are not completing high school. This has landed Inuit with the dubious distinction of having the lowest education outcomes in Canada.

If the last 40 years can be summarized as setting the stage for a positive investment environment in Canada’s Arctic, then the next 40 years must focus on creating the workforce of tomorrow, by doing whatever it takes to keep our children in school.

Simply put …we have to educate our way to prosperity… and healthier communities.

In the past couple of weeks, we have seen Aboriginal education catapulted into the national consciousness, mainly due to the Crown First Nations Gathering … and because of the alarming conditions on some reserves.

It’s about time that Aboriginal education became part of a national discussion!

In our Inuit communities we have what I call an education deficit. As Canadians I believe we have a moral and ethical responsibility to pay down this debt by investing in education.

Why do I refer to the situation as an education deficit?

Because Inuit experienced years of failed education policies that resulted in the lowest educational achievement rates in Canada. And now we need to close the gaps in our education systems to turn things around.

For the past two years, I have chaired a national initiative to examine what was working in Inuit education and where the gaps remain. The result was a blueprint for the Inuit education system called First Canadians, Canadians First– The National Strategy on Inuit Education.

I believe that the need to address our education deficit is so great, that it cannot be government’s alone to solve.

Government has delivered education for so long that we have forgotten that it takes a community to educate a child.

In fact the model for a new era in Inuit education must be based on partnerships - between governments, and non-government agencies, businesses, corporations, philanthropists and above all, parents.     

When we took a hard look at the needs in our education system, there was clear agreement across the 4 Inuit regions that improving graduation rates…. begins with parents.

We need to get our kids to school every day, rested and well fed.

We know, of course, that some families are struggling to make this happen – and this is where the business community can make a difference … by supporting breakfast programs and after-school programs that provide that extra bit of support to our children.

There is a critical link between schools and the labour force that can be bridged by companies who sponsor apprenticeships…work placements… and continuing education for employees.

We have also seen in North America an increasing number of companies making major program investments and providing scholarships to close labour gaps. This is a model that I think is well suited for our northern investment climate.

Since the release of the Strategy I have been approached by a number of Canadian companies… in information technology… in banking, and resource development. They are saying “we recognize we have a corporate social responsibility’ and we would like to play a role in the implementation of your National Strategy”.

Inuit corporations have a role to play as well. Our major resource development benefit agreements should include an ‘education dividend’ or ‘set-aside' for community based education projects aimed at keeping our kids in school.

Canada’s Arctic is on the threshold of a resource development boom. We have a vibrant and experienced business community positioned to take a stake in this boom.

We have unprecedented interest, nationally and internationally to invest in this resource rich area of our country.

But I said at the outset of my remarks …this period of unprecedented economic growth needs to be transformative for the next generation.

I am so very hopeful… and so very determined… that years from now, we will be able to say that it was at this time - the threshold to the resource boom in the Arctic - when governments, NGO’s, corporations, businesses and parents began working for a collective purpose. And it was this catalyst that changed the experience of our children’s education forever.

Thank you again for inviting me to the Toronto Board of Trade.

Nakurmiik, Thank you.