Natural Resources committee  Yes, yes, no, no, maybe.

Natural Resources committee  Essentially, I'll answer your question about geoscience and our data banks and so on. The geoscience information is public, and so it is very much in the public domain—and we, in fact, do it so that companies can use it. It's one of the unique features of this country that we act

Natural Resources committee  Generally, no. Especially in the north, you generally wouldn't see the kind of infrastructure required to put up a plant or the kind of energy required to operate a plant of that nature. Many companies have smelting and refining facilities in other parts of Canada, and it's a bus

Natural Resources committee  Your question is whether there are maps with the areas delineated as such south of 60. The answer is yes, those maps are available. And to your second question of how one balances these with the resource potential of an area, my department and sector participate in a process--a

Natural Resources committee  I am just mindful of.... Which department would we refer that to, Patrick?

Natural Resources committee  Of course, that is a reality. But there are also some strict standards concerning waste, air quality, and so on. Because of these standards and the fact that in some cases, there is no real alternative, several projects will not go forward. We are not going to lower our standards

Natural Resources committee  That governance system did not exist even a few years ago. The point is to see how we can develop the capacity to foster competencies within a system, so as to balance existing tensions. So we are talking about capacity, about a governance system and of course the necessary reso

Natural Resources committee  The 8,000 jobs are everywhere and each project is unique. It will depend on where the minerals are found and where workers are available, because there aren't enough communities everywhere. As you said also, the level of competence varies. Some companies took the initiative of t

Natural Resources committee  In fact, you are making a favourable assessment of the state of negotiations and agreements that are the responsibility of our colleagues from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. As we were saying a bit earlier, the level of maturity is differe

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. As was mentioned earlier, there are some things that are clearly in the provincial domain, and there are some things that are shared. So from a policy perspective, we're always looking at how we achieve one project, one review. How do you still balance the needs of th

Natural Resources committee  Certainly. Rare earths are a bit of an oxymoron; rare earths in fact are not that rare. There are two types of rare earths, light rare earths and heavy rare earths. The light rare earths are actually geologically present in many parts of the world, and they occur with other dep

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for that question. Indeed, we do think about it, and the minute we stop thinking about it, because we have such a good network with industry and with our stakeholders and so on, they certainly remind us that we ought to be thinking some more. So rarely does a day go b

Natural Resources committee  With the known set of projects there, we're looking at about 8,000 or so immediate jobs created in the north. When you look at the population in the north, that's a fairly significant number of additional jobs, not to mention the downstream jobs in the rest of Canada that will be

Natural Resources committee  Right. It's something we struggle with all the time: what is the ultimate potential of the north? As the geoscience becomes available, we'll know more. And as industry starts to explore more, we'll even find increased potential. But from what we know today in terms of the pipeli

Natural Resources committee  We work with our provincial and territorial colleagues and those at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada to make sure that development programs are in place for these trained individuals, certified individuals in some cases in the trades. We work with them on a whol