Thank you, Mr. Chair and Mr. Stoffer.
I'll tackle a number of those and I may ask a couple of my colleagues.
With regard to the harbours in Nunavut, I understand the pressures and the interest of the Nunavut government, but it is the first time that we would be building one harbour or one wharf in the north. The costs and techniques around that are quite significant, so our goal is to get one done and to get it done as quickly as we can.
It's important because around Pangnirtung there is commercial fishing activity, not that there wouldn't be as a result of the others once they were built, but this one is a pretty important one, and we want to get it right and get it done as quickly as possible. As you know, construction season and airlifting the equipment and all of that takes a fair amount of time and organization. It's not that we couldn't handle all seven, but we'll start with the one. It doesn't mean that the others won't get done, but we'll focus on this one to begin with.
With regard to the question of habitat and the schedules for the MMERs, as we call them, and the tailings ponds, it's always a balancing act of having development and, at the same time, what is the best way in which to deal with tailings effluents and results. A number of techniques are used in different parts of the world, but every time we come up with the assessment of the cost-benefit and the security around enclosing tailings, the most effective way is to do it in an existing water body. We don't make those decisions and recommendations lightly. We always have extensive discussions with the companies involved in order to be able to make sure there is a significant compensation plan around them.
There are a number of these. At this point, there are seven. We have a fairly significant number of other developments that are not using tailings ponds as a means of addressing the issue as a result of mining waste disposal. But every time we do an assessment of some of the most significant impacts of tailings and we look at what is the most effective way of containing them, putting the tailings in a water body is, in fact, one of the most effective and secure ways of making sure the tailings do not seep. For example, if we put some on land in containment, we've often found that they seep into the water tables, which is a worse case scenario than putting them in a natural water body that is self-contained.