I am talking about this one, where we are talking about the impact of the mining industry, of mining companies, on the economy.
As I mentioned, that is 1.4% of the companies, but it represents 12% of the exports.
On the next page, we show the economic impact of mining companies on local and regional economies. More than a third of the purchases of goods and services are made regionally. In Quebec alone, that comes to $1 billion in investments at local and regional levels. The impact, therefore, is huge.
I am now going to speak to the section entitled “Performance du secteur minier”, specifically about social performance. The mining industry has incorporated sustainable development principles into its operations. In Quebec, according to the Quebec ministry of economic development, innovation and export trade, we are at the top of the class in incorporating sustainable development into our operations.
I will now move to the section entitled “Performance en santé et sécurité”. The frequency of accidents, expressed as the number of accidents per 100 people, has dropped by more than 75% in 20 years. The rate is now about 4.8. This improvement is mainly because of the cooperative work of the companies, the workers and the unions.
In environmental matters, the mining sector is subject to more than 140 acts and sets of regulations that govern the industry at federal and provincial level. More than 60 pieces of legislation deal with the environment alone. The industry's compliance in matters of mining effluents has risen from 86% to over 99% since 1995, despite a 33% reduction in the consumption of fresh water. This means that we are using much less water, despite having increased our production capacity by 48%.
In our relationship with Aboriginal peoples, the mining sector is ahead of all other industries, because we work in outlying areas. We have agreements with Aboriginal people, such as the Impact and Benefit agreements. In Quebec, three new agreements have just been signed, one with Goldcorp Inc., another with Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and another with New Millennium. Of all these agreements, one stands out as an example: the agreement with the regional authorities and Inuit of Makivik, in Nunavik, where 18% of the workforce is Aboriginal. Xstrata's Raglan project has made over $100 million available to local authorities.
The mining industry continues to be known for its rigorous governance. Just recently, we signed an agreement with the Bureau de normalisation du Québec to measure our progress in incorporating sustainable development principles into the daily operations of our companies. More than 26 sites are participating in this activity.
On this other slide, the bubbles show the growth and potential growth of various sectors. Here you see the provincial growth. The vertical axis shows world growth. When you look at the growth of various industrial sectors, you can see that the mining sector is the one with the most potential for economic growth.
This one just shows the increase in the number of mines currently operating in Quebec.
The table on the next page has “Plan Nord” in the title. This plan deals with mining projects north of the 49 th parallel. The value of the projects committed or in operation approaches $8 billion. Other projects are being evaluated; their total value could be around $26 billion. This shows the potential of the north. We are talking about the north of Quebec, but we can talk about the north of Canada too.
The sixth heading is “Enjeux”. The table that follows sums up the business risks facing the mining industry according to the Ernst & Young study. As you can see, they have listed the ten most important in descending order. You can also see how the significance of those issues has changed in 12 months. For example, resource nationalism was issue number four last year and it is number one today.
The skills shortage is the second most important issue; then comes infrastructure access, then the social licence to operate. The first four issues require government involvement. So we will provide more details about those. As for the remaining six, you can see that they are either business-related, or they relate to neither the business nor the government. Examples are the price of metals and the exchange rate. Neither yourselves nor the industry have any influence on those. So if I may, I will focus on the first four.
Under resource nationalism, you can see two effects. The first is entitled “Volonté populaire d'exiger de faire la 2e et 3e transformation dans leur juridiction”. Everyone wants the secondary and tertiary processing of all resources to be done at home. They don't want it done elsewhere.
