Natural Resources committee  Thank you. My name is Kirk McKinnon. I'm the president and CEO of MacDonald Mines. I just was reading The Globe and Mail. The article talked about Ontario's challenges being unprecedented, but I have to disagree with Mr. Drummond when he says economic growth will not save Ontari

Natural Resources committee  Are you asking me?

Natural Resources committee  The answer is no. Mr. McGuinty, I think we're putting the cart before the horse here. We're carving up pies that we don't have. I humbly submit that this James Bay activity is not moving forward unless Cliffs gets in the game—that's number one—and, in my subjective opinion, unti

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  Well—

Natural Resources committee  I understand that.

Natural Resources committee  Okay, here's the issue. Chief Moonias certainly has his issues, and our problem is that he said that the area where the discoveries are falls within Marten Falls; he said it's not Webequie, etc. If you talk to the people at Webequie, they say they're in the mix. Attawapiskat says

Natural Resources committee  —from the government, because we.... I told you that the best form or the best agreement comes.... You can go and look at it in the province of Quebec. They have a blueprint.

Natural Resources committee  I know you've heard it many times—

Natural Resources committee  —but on a singular basis, we cannot adjudicate for all the different communities. I respect that Chief Moonias has his issues, as the other ones do, but I humbly submit that we have a very tough environment in which to raise money and drive these businesses forward. To be deflect

Natural Resources committee  That's no problem. You tell us—

Natural Resources committee  —what our obligations are. I am the president of a company that has shareholders and trades on the stock exchange, so I have an obligation to follow the rules as outlined there. For me to just give away part of the asset to the community because that's going to facilitate somethi

Natural Resources committee  I'll be very quick. We have working agreements with Kasabonika, Webequie, and Summer Beaver. We don't have any working agreements with Marten Falls because I'm not sure whether they think we fall into their territory. Maybe we do and maybe we don't. The issue is very simple: ju

Natural Resources committee  It's whoever is responsible for sitting down with the natives and saying to them, “Okay, this is how it's going to be.” If that means that there is an equity position in our companies and those are the rules.... I have other companies that operate in Madagascar. At some point, w

Natural Resources committee  There are rules.