Evidence of meeting #86 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was goldcorp.
A video is available from Parliament.
2 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
With the consent of the committee, you could ask another question.
Do we have consent?
2 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
2 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Jacob NDP Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Great.
In your opinion, who benefits most from the development in Honduras?
2 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Jacob NDP Brome—Missisquoi, QC
in Honduras, or anywhere else.
In your opinion, who benefits most from the development that your company, Goldcorp Inc., provides?
2 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Goldcorp Inc.
I can give you a very concrete example in Canada, and more specifically in Quebec.
We are presently working in northern Quebec, where we have come to an agreement with the Cree. We are actually including them in our activities to the extent that they also benefit from the company’s profits. A number of people from the Cree community have also been hired at the mine; as of now, they represent about 53% of the workforce there. We think that is a very meaningful percentage. Normally, the percentage of Cree workers hired during the establishment and construction of a mine is much lower.
We always make sure to work with the community to look at all the products and services that they can provide us with so that those services can come directly to the mine. By conducting our activities in that way, we certainly provide positive and direct benefits to the community.
We work that way because, above all, we want to make sure that we have a positive effect on the community. Sometimes, we go above and beyond, as we do with royalties. For example, in Guatemala, we pay royalties to the federal government. But then the amount of money that goes directly to the community is sometimes much lower than the amount of royalties paid to the country. That is why we have begun to look at ways to pay voluntary royalties directly to the communities and to work with it to develop its economic development plan. In that way, we will not only be paying taxes federally, we will be investing directly in the community.
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Mr. Bergeron, if you don't have the information with you, could you then just supply it. If the second part of my question has some competitive sensitivity, we'll understand that as well. But it would be good to know how many Hondurans were employed at the San Martin site from 2006 and what the nature is of the investments that Goldcorp has made for the reclamation.
2:05 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Goldcorp Inc.
In terms of the numbers that I have, the direct number of employees at the mine operation was approximately 334. Those were direct employees of the mine. In terms of direct and indirect employees, it was approximately 1,500 at the time. As for the overall investment that we've made in terms of reclamation, we continue to make investments right now, but I can supply some numbers on that also.
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
That's it. Thank you very much, Mr. Sweet.
Thank you, Mr. Bergeron, for coming today.
I appreciate your patience. We should have had the audiovisual for you. We did however manage to distribute paper copies—
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
—so as you were talking, people were able to consult the illustrations, and they are available in the records of the committee.
I also wanted to mention before I dismiss the committee that we have two other people whose presence should be recognized. The Honourable Don Boudria, a great parliamentarian, a former cabinet minister, is here today, and so is Gurmant Grewal, who is well-known to all of us—one of us in particular—and a former caucus colleague of mine. It's good to see both of you here today.
Thanks everybody.
We are adjourned.