Indigenous and Northern Affairs

The committee continued its study of affordability challenges in northern Canada, hearing from five witnesses: Mikey McBryan of Buffalo Airways, Julia Christensen of Queen's University, Shannon Joseph of Energy For A Secure Future, Lorne Browne of the Northwest Territories government's fuel services division, and Lynne Couves of the Pembina Institute.

Mikey McBryan, general manager of the Yellowknife-based, Indigenous-owned Buffalo Airways, argued that northern affordability is less about prices than about who controls the northern dollar and where it goes. Fuel is his largest expense, and taxes, fees and regulation raise costs that flow into freight, groceries and construction in communities with no transportation alternatives; he questioned rebate-based approaches because money that leaves northern pockets is spent by someone else. He asked the committee to "follow the dollar" in fuel costs, government procurement and resource development, so that northern businesses, infrastructure and careers are left behind, and he cited paving the Cambridge Bay runway as an immediate cost-saving measure.

Julia Christensen, associate professor at Queen's University and project director of the At Home in the North research partnership, testified that the northern housing crisis is decades old, produced by mid-century settlement policy and chronic underfunding, and worsened by climate disruptions such as wildfires, highway closures and barge cancellations. She criticized the market-based CMHC housing continuum that treats home ownership as the goal, noting that in non-market northern communities ownership is often unaffordable or undesirable and mortgage default rates are high. She called for a northern housing economy: new builds and repairs, locally accessible materials, northern-designed technology, northern labour trained in construction and maintenance, and governance led by Indigenous and community-based housing providers.

Shannon Joseph, chair of Energy For A Secure Future, presented research with the First Nations Power Authority finding that many First Nations and rural communities heat with expensive, higher-emitting fuels for lack of natural gas access, driving energy poverty that is more than double the national rate on reserve. She identified two barriers: provincial regulators requiring utilities to recover extension costs from connected customers, and federal programs that exclude natural gas distribution projects, leaving communities in a gap between federal resources and provincial regulation. She recommended making natural gas extensions eligible under existing federal programs or creating a dedicated program, funding community energy resilience such as appliance upgrades and audits, and building rural and Indigenous energy access into the major projects agenda, while stressing that the choice must remain with communities.

Lorne Browne, director of the Northwest Territories' fuel services division, described a government operation that purchases, transports, stores and sells fuel at no profit in 16 remote communities where the private sector does not operate, plus diesel for electricity in 20 communities. Fuel prices in serviced communities have risen by as much as 50% since 2020, with further increases expected, and climate disruptions such as wildfires, low water and sea ice force costly alternatives—barge or truck delivery runs 50 to 70 cents a litre, while air tanker delivery can exceed five dollars a litre. He said fuel costs affect nearly every aspect of northern living, from electricity and heating to food and traditional harvesting, and that northerners have little influence over a globally traded commodity.

Lynne Couves, director of renewables in remote communities at the Pembina Institute, said more than 210 remote communities generate electricity independently and rely heavily on imported fossil fuels, with energy costs six to ten times higher than in southern Canada even after subsidies. She warned that fragile supply chains can turn affordability problems into energy security crises, and that federal programs supporting progress—CERRC, northern REACHE and the Indigenous off-diesel initiative—have ended or are at risk of ending. She urged sustained federal partnership for early-stage project development, local capacity and major infrastructure, noting that clean energy projects have displaced over 142 million litres of diesel since 2016.

Witnesses disagreed on energy direction: Joseph pressed for natural gas access as the cheapest heating option, while Couves and Browne emphasized local renewables, integrated systems and in-situ resource use; Browne cited an Inuvialuit project converting local gas to synthetic diesel as an alternative where piping gas is prohibitively expensive. McBryan and Christensen both criticized boom-bust resource cycles, with McBryan embracing them as a reality to learn from and Christensen arguing housing has no boom-bust cycle and must anchor northern economies. Members' questions drew out further detail on medical travel and medevac contracts, airport and runway infrastructure, apprenticeship and aircraft maintenance labour shortages, core housing need metrics, zoning and land transfer delays in Yellowknife, and Nunavut's overcrowding and public housing reliance.

The meeting included no motions or votes; procedural moments were limited to the chair's timekeeping and a brief exchange about speaking order, and the committee adjourned after the final round of questions.