Natural Resources committee  I would just add that the daily compounding is actually a disincentive to correcting errors when they're found. I mean, if a company detects an error, let's say several months after issuing the report, if they go and correct it then they've given evidence to support that they're offside and there's an offence there.

Natural Resources committee  The equivalency provision is absolutely critical. As I had started to articulate earlier to Ms. Duncan's question, this data is most useful when it is reported consistently. We have many companies that report in multiple jurisdictions. We have companies that are listed in the U.S. that would ultimately be required to report under the Dodd-Frank requirements, and we have companies that are listed in Europe.

Natural Resources committee  We've been advised that it does.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. We believe our recommendations are needed.

Natural Resources committee  It's Canadian provinces, Canadian and international jurisdictions where equivalent laws are in place.

Natural Resources committee  No. I don't think so. The equivalency provision in here speaks to other jurisdictions as long as they have mechanisms that are equivalent to this.

Natural Resources committee  Equivalency is absolutely critical here because essentially this data becomes most relevant, and to Claire's point, most usable when it's reported consistently. If you're dealing with multiple jurisdictions internationally or domestically that have slightly different rules you could end up with different numbers.

Natural Resources committee  If you are reporting to say the requirement has been established under the European directives and in the U.K., then absolutely.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. Increasingly, as we look around the world at the challenges that our sector faces in terms of getting projects built and online, a lot of it has to do with social licence. One of the elements of that is that communities don't necessarily believe the benefits that our colleagues at CAPP talked about, when we tell them how much they're going to benefit from the presence of a mine.

Natural Resources committee  This legislation covers all types of payments typical to government, whether they be royalty payments, tax payments, or whatnot. We track those payments; our companies track them; we know what we pay. We often, increasingly, are very transparent on our own to communities about what we pay, but the governments that are receiving them are not always transparent.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak before you on an issue that has been very important to the Mining Association. For the last two years, we've spent an enormous amount of effort and resources in working with our partners here, Publish What You Pay, to design what we feel is an appropriate approach to implementing mandatory disclosure for payments to governments from extractive companies in Canada.

Environment committee  Yes, it is. We're certainly seeing a growth in the kinds of corporate commitments around not only no net loss but net positive gain. In fact, I was just in Calgary yesterday at a workshop that was hosted by Shell. Shell is one of our members because of their oil sands operations.

Environment committee  I think how you re-form that box is that you look at, what towards sustainable mining would call, the high end of performance; that is, you work with the local communities to identify where the real values are. What are the significant aspects of the local habitat that are important to protect?

Environment committee  I think the best way we can answer it is to build on what Kate just said. There are only seven action plans, which is the method that SARA has mandated to implement recovery strategies. This is a very small number. You can contrast it with the number of examples that each of the associations here gave.

Environment committee  I think when we're talking about conservation objectives we often default to land protection and taking habitat out of use in some way, shape, or form. In some cases that's the right course of action. However, there are also instances where habitat is not necessarily the critical factor and there are other actions that could be included, such as population enhancement or predator control, activities that are often oriented to be maybe a little more creative than just solely taking habitat out of functional land use for development.