DIAND not doing its job

My name is Larry. I am not a productive, useful Canadian, though I would like to be.

I live in northern Canada — the largest part of Canada and its least-populated. We should be able to produce the most wealth for Canada; instead, we are main-lining federal funding.

Better than 80% of the Yukon’s $500-million-plus budget comes from federal transfer payments. A similar situation exists in the Northwest Territories, and it is even worse in Nunavut, where federal funding makes up about 90% of that territory’s nearly $1-billion budget.

Northern Canadians desperately need a viable mining industry, but mining doesn’t need Canada, as is evident from the mineral exploration investment fleeing the country. Figures from the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada show that, in 1992, Canadian exploration companies spent $85 million in other countries and $120 million in Canada, and that, in 1999, they spent $75 million in Canada and $330 million in other countries. Until the Department of Indian and Northern Development (DIAND) starts living up to its responsibility of “facilitating resource development through the creation of a competitive, efficient and predictable investment climate” and “attracting private-sector development for northern resources,” we will need to continue to main-line federal funding. DIAND has an annual budget of approximately $4 billion. For this, northerners owe the southern taxpayers a large debt of gratitude.

Larry Carlyle

Geologist

Yukon