Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships Canada-Australia Infrastructure Symposium

Prepared by Amberlight Productions July 17, 2015

                                                                                               

Mark Romoff Interview Schedule  Monday, July 6 Outlet: CBC Vancouver – Early Edition

Interviewer: Rick Cluff Format: Radio, Online

Outlet: 1130 News Interviewer: Richard Dettman Format: Radio

Outlet: Co-Op Radio – When Spirit Whispers Interviewer: Gunargi Format: Radio, Online

   Jamie Briggs Interview Schedule  Monday, July 6 Outlet: Public Sector Digest

Interviewer: Brittany Renken Format: Print, Online

Outlet: Vancouver Sun Interviewer: Don Cayo Format: Print, Online

   Duncan Gay Interview Schedule  Monday, July 6 Outlet: Public Sector Digest

Interviewer: Brittany Renken Format: Print, Online

       

                                                                                               

                                                                            Please find this interview online below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ta8c0vo2v0kgzpo/Mark%20Romoff%20CBC%20The%20Early%20Edition.m4a?dl=0

                                                                                         Please find these tweets online below: http://live.cbc.ca/Event/CBC_BC?Page=1212

               Aired Saturday, July 11 2015                                                                    Please find this interview online below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cs7t1vgezepz6db/News1130%20Mark%20Romoff%20Interview.mp3?dl=0

           

WHEN SPIRIT WHISPERS Monday Jul 6 14:00 2015

Art is t : When Spirit Whispers T i t le: When Spirit Whispers Genre: Arts Year: 2015 Length: 61:58 minutes (56.74 MB) Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)                Please find this interview online below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/irb8h1geboj5mw5/Mark%20Romoff%20Coop%20Radio.m4a?dl=0

                                                                         VANCOUVER —Canada and Australia have much in common when it comes to meeting citizens’ needs. Both are parliamentary democracies beset by budget challenges despite immense troves of natural and human resources. Both have plenty of geography and not so many people.

Both economies are driven from a sprinkling of modern cities and towns separated by big gaps, but linked — pretty efficiently given the inherent challenges — by roads, rails, pipelines, power lines, airplanes and all the communication paraphernalia of the modern world. Both have too many communities still lagging behind, especially aboriginal communities, some of which would look at home in scantly developed parts of the Third World. So on this level, Canada-Australia cooperation on infrastructure issues is an obvious theme for the symposium sponsored by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships in Vancouver this week. But what about selling our stuff and our expertise abroad — tapping into the insatiable demand, especially in South and East Asia, for the concrete and steel and fibre-optic underpinnings of prosperity? In this market, our commonalities make us natural competitors. We both have plenty of resources and of expertise to sell, and money to invest. So holding a symposium to share insights and techniques for making money in this part of the world seemed to me a bit like McDonald’s and Burger King getting together to swap recipes. But many people who know more than me about these things don’t agree. It boils down to a couple of salient points. One is that the world — and industrializing Asia’s market, in particular — is very big. The other is that we — Canada, Australia, or both combined — are not so big. This leaves room for both. Not to mention room to collaborate — to combine expertise and/or capital to face off against major international companies who operate from powerful bases in much larger and richer U.S. or European marketplaces. Canada has the edge over Australia in size (we’re about 30 per cent bigger) and population (we have 34 per cent more people).

Until early in the last decade we also led in wealth, with our per capita GDP hovering 10-plus per cent above theirs. Since the early 2000s, however, Australia’s economic growth has outstripped Canada’s by a big margin. It’s per capita GDP topped $67,000 US by 2013, while ours was yet to reach $52,000. To see why, you might look at LNG. While Canada and B.C. talk — and talk and talk — about getting one export plant in operation by 2020 or so, Australia has been building. By 2014 it had three such plants in operation, enough to make it the third-largest LNG exporter to Asia and the fourth-largest in the world. And the Aussies have seven more plants under construction that are expected to make them the world’s largest LNG exporter by 2018 — when B.C. may or may not have some shovels in the ground. But LNG doesn’t explain it all. Australians are energetic exporters of many resources that compete with Canada’s — for example, the value of their shipments of iron ore, coal, gold and crude oil all exceed LNG. Their superior grasp of Asian political realities may be a factor, too. They pay more attention. This is illustrated by — among other things — the three significant free trade agreements signed in recent months with China, Japan and South Korea. Australia’s assistant minister for infrastructure and regional development, Jamie Briggs, discussed these with me during a break in the symposium. The Japanese deal alone, he said, has already led to a 60 per cent increase in wine sales to the new trade partner.

Don Campbell, senior strategy adviser to the law firm DLA Piper and a former Canadian ambassador to Japan, noted Canada is sitting on the sidelines while China forges ahead — with international partners, including Australia, that are gaining favour for their efforts — with its new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The Chinese see this as a high-prestige project that rivals the World Bank and other international institutions. But, Campbell mused, Canada will likely continue dilly-dallying, finally hopping on board “at a time when we’ll get no credit for joining.” He also said when it comes to the long-established Asian Development Bank, which does Canada support, we are one of the least-efficient countries in leveraging our participation into procurement contracts. Briggs didn’t disagree when I wondered if all this suggests Canada has more to learn from Australia than vice versa. But he did point out one area where we lead. Our sophisticated pensions funds, he said, are ahead in the game of sussing out solid Asian investments. So we’re not being skunked nor are we doing well enough.         Please find this article online below: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Cayo+Canada+Australia+allies+competitors+both/11195419/story.html    Please find this article reposted online below:      http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Cayo+Canada+Australia+allies+competitors+both/11195419/story.html

                                                                         Vancouver- Jul 6, 2015: Atleo's speech condensed: After 15 years in elected politics, I can now freely share these ideas not as conceptual abstractions but of my current and active work in business and academics. Today’s challenges require a full understanding the current context. A context that is truly global in scope.

It’s not difficult to spot or even to quantify infrastructure challenges. Canadian municipalities are regularly citing major infrastructure problems – from crumbling overpasses in Quebec to ageing power plants in Ontario to weaknesses in transit and resultant congestion in cities like Vancouver, there are infrastructure problems all around. Yet none of these can really compare to some of the challenges on reserves across the country. There are deep gaps that resonate and are intertwined with broader socioeconomic and health challenges. From water to housing to roads to energy to connectivity – First Nation infrastructure problems run the gamut. As Regional Chief of this province for six years and then National Chief for five – I saw these challenges first hand. Today, Canadians in both the public and private sector must be equipped and supported to understand Indigenous worldview and perspectives on economy. This is also true beyond these borders. There are important parallels and shared experiences and lessons across north and south America and certainly between Canada and Australia. In both Canada and Australia, the Indigenous population is the fastest growing and at the same time – suffers some of the worst socio-economic outcomes in education, employment and income. Furthermore, in both countries, the Indigenous population is located in regions of the country that are critical to economic activity in the resource sector.

Recent court decisions and a body of Constitutional law domestically and internationally affirming Indigenous rights to free, prior and informed consent and ownership of lands and resources, place Indigenous rights and interests at the center of critical social policy reflection and analysis. Relationships are at the very heart of the work we must engage in now together. Now as we look forward, our vision is necessarily and thankfully enriched by Indigenous perspectives and worldview; Core values that I term: relational, reciprocal and regenerative emerge as key considerations. First Nations have won over forty key Supreme Court cases establishing the breadth and scope of Aboriginal rights and title. The most recent - the Tsilhqot’in decision just one year ago established the first full recognition of the reality and consequences of Aboriginal title. . . . capacity building through training, improved health and education as well as new innovative financial arrangements. In addition, this will require ensuring broad and bold strategies to address infrastructure gaps and other barriers facing Indigenous nations. We need concurrent activity, real projects demonstrating new partnerships, and in parallel, longer term planning. First Nations are ready now. As we move forward, we need trusted partnerships and real participation. We need to recognize the importance of both transactional notions of the economy to the relational. This will require clear protocol leading to new systems for regulation, permitting and overall economic and resource planning and management.

We can look to building of new institutions like the BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, and previous suggestions for a National Virtual Centre in Energy and Mining as well as multi-jurisdictional models such as the Arctic Council as examples where this is possible and productive. Along with the legal impetus for change, there’s an economic and moral imperative. Studies show that if First Nations education and employment levels rise to the Canadian average, we’ll add $400 billion to the Canadian economy over the coming years and reduce social costs by $115 billion. I believe that business leadership can push I believe that business leadership can push farther at this moment. We will not leave governing to governments. This is a time for leadership and for re-imagining our future. We must set the course for innovative new processes and raise our expectations of what is possible when we come together to build awareness and understanding of one another – culturally, socially, spiritually and, just as importantly, in economic terms. This is our unfinished business as one of our Canadian elder’s, a friend and a mentor, William A. Macdonald so aptly brings forward in a series of essays published recently in the Globe and Mail. He sees the magic in Canada, as it is the same creativity that has allowed us to overcome limits. He notes however that Canada has not gotten it all right, especially with First Nations. Our successes will be greatest when we come to respectful, mutually beneficial, partnerships. Economic power is political power. Economic independence is political independence.

We have a powerful opportunity and potential for all of us and for the home we share through economic and political inter-dependence. It is our time, to take our place as leaders, in a world thirsting for a new way forward based on the ability to keep learning, to keep striving and to keep imagining.                                                 Please find this article online below: http://www.mccollmagazine.ca/index.php/30-tier-1/505-shawn-a-in-chut-atleo-infrastructure-symposium

Pending Coverage

! Public Sector Digest

! First Nations Drum

! Turtle Island News