Statement made on 17 March 2010 by Senator Charlie Watt
Hon. Charlie Watt:
[Editor's Note: Senator Watt spoke in Inuktitut.]
Honourable senators, it is my privilege to speak to you today about Bill S-212, my private member's legislation proposing necessary tax relief for the region of Nunavik, an area in sub-Arctic Quebec that is known as the homeland of the Inuit. This region encompasses about 507,000 square kilometres of tundra, boreal forest, mountains, rivers and lakes. Today, approximately 11,600 people, 90 per cent of whom are Inuit, live and work in its 14 coastal villages.
Bill S-212 addresses the matter of purchasing power. It proposes a zero per cent tax rate on the supplies of goods and services in Nunavik, as well as exemptions for petroleum products and fuels from certain excise and consumption or sales taxes.
This is the fourth time I have introduced this bill before Parliament since 2007. I have persisted with this matter because this tax relief is desperately needed to provide quality of life for the Inuit who live there.
Lack of purchasing power is a very serious issue in Nunavik. Currently, purchasing power in Kuujjuaq represents about 29 cents per dollar. This varies throughout the region. For example, one of the furthest communities in Nunavik has a purchasing power down to 15 cents per dollar. It is likely worse than that now.
When she appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance last September, Rita Novalinga, General Manager of La Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, told senators a simple item like 454 grams of butter, which costs $3.49 in the South, will cost about $8.49 in Nunavik. While an item like peanut butter is $3.99 in Montreal, it can cost $6.49 or more in Nunavik. Meanwhile, necessities like 24 rolls of toilet paper purchased in the South at $5.99 will cost $12.99. According to Rita Novalinga, a grocery basket up North is 116 per cent more than what is paid in Montreal and the surrounding area.
Honourable senators, this high cost of living is the result of the geographic isolation of this region. There are no roads connecting Nunavik to southern Quebec. All merchandise is transported by boat during a short sealift season or by airlift year round.
While there is no question that other communities in the North experience a high cost of living and hardship, Bill S-212 only deals with Nunavik. This area is different from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in that in addition to the federal and municipal taxes, residents in Nunavik also pay high provincial taxes. This taxation situation is different from the territories.
It comes as a surprise to many Canadians that the Inuit population in Canada does not benefit from a general tax exemption comparable to the reserve-based exemption provided to First Nations under the Indian Act. The Inuit taxation in Canada had been designed by southern Canadian leaders for southern Canadian wage earners, who have access to readily available goods and services. In the North, the people are in transition and these southern rules are killing us. They place a strain on our communities and put individuals in great debt.
It is a grave situation. About 40 per cent of the Nunavik population lives below the poverty line. Dr. Gérard Duhaime, a University of Laval sociologist who has studied this region for the last 30 years, tells us that 44 per cent of private households in Nunavik live with less than a minimum comfort budget.
We do not accept a situation like this internationally in other countries, so it is upsetting that is accepted in the Canadian North, where we have elders supporting multiple generations of families on whatever is provided from Old Age Security benefits. They are the ones hardest hit by poverty in Nunavik.
People have no choice. They must hunt and fish to survive; yet affording the very equipment and tools for this subsistence harvest is proving to be almost impossible. The community freezers must be filled or people will starve or die.
Dr. Duhaime tells us that most of the Inuit workers in this region are the working poor. There is a great difference in the income that the Inuit in Nunavik earn through their work. A few can earn good wages in the public service or in organizations that can afford to pay good wages. However, there are also many who earn very little; they are close to the minimum wage as they work for organizations that can only afford to pay them at that level.
The rationale for Bill S-212 is clearly and concisely stated in its preamble. This legislation is necessary because the cost of living in this region is excessive compared to that of Canadians living south of the 55th parallel.
This bill is necessary because the cost of transportation is transferred to the price of food and other necessities. At the cash register, consumers will pay tax on this inflated price, which seriously limits their purchasing power. On a per capita basis, the Inuit are the most heavily taxed people in Canada. People simply cannot afford to purchase those necessities.
This legislation will provide uniquely needed economic assistance and promote social well-being. It will remove economic injustices endured by the people of Nunavik.
Honourable senators, there is a slight difference in the legislation I am introducing this time around. You will notice that amendments to the Income Tax Act dealing with the Northern resident's tax deduction have been removed. This has been done to simplify this legislation in an effort to expedite its passage through Parliament. I wish to inform you that I have not given up on this particular taxation issue, but I have decided it is a matter too cumbersome to be placed in this particular bill.
There is wide support for the use of tax policy and variant tax treatment in Canada. On this note, I would like to leave you with some thoughts from national Inuit leader Mary Simon. She says:
. . . questions such as these must be answered with a kind of radical practicality. "Practicality" because we need concrete measures that bring about improvements in the day-to-day lives and hopes of communities, households and individuals; "radical" insofar as the accumulation of unmet economic and social problems demands boldness and imagination from all of us in a healthy impatience with the status quo.
This legislation can only be looked at as a step toward an anti-poverty strategy for this region.
In his May 2009 report, entitled Poverty in Nunavik: State of Knowledge, Dr. Duhaime outlines many proposals from academics like Marcelle Chabot. These academics recognize the role and importance of traditional activities, increasing assistance to the harvesters and adjusting wages to the cost of living. These are all ways to combat poverty in this region of Canada.
Honourable senators, Mary Simon has told the Senate that special tax treatment afforded to Arctic regions should make a difference, a tangible and rapid difference.
This is what Bill S-212 does. Within the confines of Senate Private Member's legislation, it is aimed at making a tangible rapid difference, and I would like your support. For many in my region, it will make the difference between life and death. Quite simply, if a person is not occupied by the struggle of obtaining the basic necessities of life, then they will have the energy to contemplate things that many take for granted: an education and a healthy family and community. I am asking for my people to have those opportunities, also.
Thank you. Nakurmiik.